<p>In this week&#8217;s episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, we dig into the gaps that exist between marketers and revenue managers courtesy of Marco Benvenuti from Duetto</p>
<p>If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.</p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>SHOW NOTES</p>
<p>This episode was less scripted than our normal, partially-scripted, episodes. Below is the synopsis of our discussion with Marco.</p>
<ul>
<li>Intro to  Marco Benvenuti, co-founder and Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer for Duetto (5 mins)</li>
<li>Newsies (10 mins)</li>
<li>Revenue management top tips from Marco (10 mins)</li>
<li>The gap between revenue management and marketing (15 mins)</li>
<li>Duetto Whitepaper: The Blueprint for Taking Business Back from OTAs &#8211; <a href="http://go.duettocloud.com/hotels-reclaim-business-ota" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://go.duettocloud.com/hotels-reclaim-business-ota</a> (10 mins)</li>
<li>Chit chat and outro (10 mins)</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Learn more about Duetto at <a href="http://duettocloud.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://duettocloud.com/</a></b></p>
<p>========================<br />
In The Newsies</p>
<p>Wait, did TripAdvisor really influence 10% of global tourism spending in 2017?<br />
<a href="https://www.tnooz.com/article/tripadvisor-travel-influence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.tnooz.com/article/tripadvisor-travel-influence/</a></p>
<p>How organic search is becoming ineffective for hotels on Google<br />
<a href="https://www.phocuswire.com/Google-SERP-online-travel-agencies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.phocuswire.com/Google-SERP-online-travel-agencies</a></p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Follow Us on Twitter:</p>
<p>@_travelboom<br />
@stuartbutler<br />
@makavanagh<br />
@pdimaio<br />
@pforiska</p>
<hr />
<div></div>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.</p>


Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  88 – Revenue Strategy Secrets Revealed Courtesy Of Duetto

<p>Increasingly, travelers are turning to voice search on their smartphone or voice assistant for the answers to their queries. In this week’s episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, we break down these changes, what it means for your hotel, and give you some proactive tips to ensure that you’re prepared for the SEO-volution.</p>
<p>With all of the changes that Google has made over the past 5 years, SEO has been dead more times than Kenny from South Park but it’s still driving significant traffic and revenue to our hotels. With that said, the latest calls for the demise of SEO may have a little more credence because this time, it’s not about SERP changes, it’s about a definite shift in consumer behavior.</p>
<p>If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.</p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:</p>
<blockquote><p><b>“The destiny of Google&#8217;s search engine is to become that Star Trek computer, and that&#8217;s what we are building.” &#8211; Amit Singhal, the head of Google’s search rankings team</b></p></blockquote>
<h2>Fun Facts About Voice Search:</h2>
<ul>
<li>Nearly<a href="https://searchengineland.com/report-nearly-60-percent-searches-now-mobile-devices-255025" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> 60 percent of searches are now performed on a mobile device</a>., according to Hitwize.</li>
<li>82% of mobile users regularly perform a search for local business</li>
<li>18% of local searches result in a purchase within 24 hours</li>
<li><a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/792598/worldwide-smart-speaker-unit-shipment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">In 2017, 20 million smart assistants were shipped</a>. Amazon and Google made up the majority.</li>
<li>Voice labs found that there were a total of<a href="http://voicelabs.co/2017/01/15/the-2017-voice-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> 33 million voice-first devices</a> in circulation.</li>
<li>Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that<a href="http://searchengineland.com/google-reveals-20-percent-queries-voice-queries-249917" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> one-fifth of the queries on Google are voice searches</a>.</li>
<li>Chinese search engine Baidu’s Andrew Ng speculates that by 2020, approximately 50% of all searches are going to be made via voice recognition technology</li>
<li>Voice search is more conversational and natural as opposed to the keywords guest may type into a search engine. This often makes the queries longer than text queries.</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>What Is The Semantic Web?</b></h2>
<p>Google launched a major algorithmic update in 2013 called Hummingbird. It was a major enhancement in Google’s ability to consider the user intent and contextual meaning of queries. This was great for good marketers, because it favored folks who focus on providing outstanding content and penalized keyword-stuffers. Voice technology takes this to a whole other level with the innovations in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to attempt to infer information about the true meaning of what the searcher is looking for,</p>
<h2><b>Ranking Factors For Voice Search</b></h2>
<p>BackLinko <a href="https://backlinko.com/voice-search-seo-study">analyzed 10,000 Google Home search results</a> to correlate 11 factors with the voice search rankings.  Here are the key takeaways:</p>
<ol>
<li>PageSpeed appears to play a major role in voice search SEO. <b>The average voice search result page loads in 4.6 seconds</b> (52% faster than the average page).</li>
<li>HTTPS websites dominate Google’s voice search results. In fact, <b>70.4% of Google Home result pages are secured with HTTPS.</b></li>
<li>Google prefers short, concise answers to voice search queries. The typical voice search result is <b>only 29 words in length.</b></li>
<li><b> Schema may not play a key role in voice search rankings.</b> 36.4% of voice search results come from pages that use Schema (which is only slightly higher than the worldwide average of 31.3%).</li>
<li>Authoritative domains <b>tend to produce voice search results significantly more than non-authoritative domains.</b> In fact, the mean Ahrefs Domain Rating of a Google Home result is 76.8.</li>
<li>Content with high levels of social engagement tends to perform well in voice search. In fact, <b>the average voice search result has 1,199 Facebook shares and 44 Tweets. </b></li>
<li>Simple, easy-to-read content may help with voice search SEO. <b>The average Google voice search result is written at a 9th grade level.</b></li>
<li>We found that very few voice search results had the exact query in their title tag. Therefore, <b>creating individual pages for each voice search query doesn’t appear to be an effective voice search SEO strategy.</b></li>
<li><b>The average word count of a voice search result page is 2,312 words.</b> Therefore, Google tends to source voice search answers from long form content.</li>
<li>Content that ranks highly in desktop search is also very likely to appear as a voice search answer. In fact, <b>approximately 75% of voice search results rank in the top 3 for that query.</b></li>
<li><b> Appearing in a Featured Snippet may help you rank in voice search. </b>40.7% of all voice search answers came from a Featured Snippet.</li>
</ol>
<h2>How To Optimize Your Hotel For Voice Search</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<h3><b>Claim your Google My Business listing</b></h3>
<p>Many voice search are local in nature, which means that the results page will often feature the Google local listings. It’s essential that your Google My Business page is claimed and optimized.</li>
<li>
<h3><b>Make your website mobile-friendly<br />
</b></h3>
<p>The majority of relevant voice searches for hotels will be performed on a mobile phone as opposed to a voice assistant. The logical next step for the traveler is to visit your website. Make sure it doesn’t suck.</li>
<li>
<h3><b>Be sure that all the relevant NAP information is visible<br />
</b></h3>
<p>We know that most voice searches are looking for local information such as directions, opening hours, etc. Be sue that your name, address, and phone are highly visible, as well as check-in, check-out times, opening hours at the spa, etc.</p>
<p>Bonus Tip: Utilize AdWords’ Location Extensions or Google Maps Local Search Ads to target “near me” type queries.</li>
<li>
<h3><b>Use Conversational Keywords</b><b><br />
</b></h3>
<p>Start writing down the questions that people actually ask your reservationists and front desk staff and be sure to use the same language and nomenclature in your content strategy.</li>
<li>
<h3><b>Build Kickass FAQ pages</b><b><br />
</b></h3>
<p>Use the questions from #2 as a starting point to build out comprehensive information that covers all of the potential questions. Be sure to group these answers in relevant categories. <b><br />
</b><b><br />
</b><b>Bonus-tip: </b>Also, be sure to add these FAQs on relevant pages throughout your site. This will help improve your conversion rate.</li>
<li>
<h3><b>Use Structured Data</b><b><br />
</b></h3>
<p>Use structured data markup from schema.org in order to make it it easier for search engines to accurately understand your content.</li>
<li>
<h3><b>Build out 10x content for the most frequent questions</b><b><br />
</b></h3>
<p>When a question cannot be answered within a paragraph, take the time to build out robust and useful content that earns the right to rank top of the search engine results page by being 10 x better than everything else that’s currently available.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Content Recommendations</h2>
<ol>
<li>Natural questions will be more effective than traditional keywords. Example: a text search may be “Hotels near me” as opposed to a voice search, which may be “What are the hotels near my current location?”</li>
<li>Write in short sentences and small words to make it easy for quick visual scanning on a mobile device.</li>
<li>Use descriptive headlines that are succinct and meaningful</li>
<li>Use white space and organize the content to make it easy to digest at a rapid pace.</li>
<li>Avoid using fluffy/filler content. Get to the point.</li>
<li>Look at how people are finding your site within Google Search Console to see how they describe your product</li>
</ol>
<p>========================<br />
In The Newsies</p>
<p><b>Google’s Duplex AI Making Real Word Calls<br />
</b><a href="https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html</a></p>
<p><b>PII Identifier for GA:</b> <a href="https://online-metrics.com/pii-google-analytics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://online-metrics.com/pii-google-analytics/<br />
</a>Hint &#8211; look for page URLs with email addresses or other identifiable attributes passed as variables</p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Follow Us on Twitter:</p>
<p>@_travelboom<br />
@stuartbutler<br />
@makavanagh<br />
@pdimaio<br />
@pforiska</p>
<hr />
<div></div>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]</p>


Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  87 – Is Voice Search Finally Killing SEO?

<p>These are in no particular order of importance, but they are some of the most important things you should be doing to optimize your AdWords account. We take over a lot of PPC accounts that clearly aren’t following these best practices. Here are 10 things you should be doing to run a successful <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/services/paid-media/">hotel PPC</a> account.</p>
<p>If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.</p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Constantly Monitor Your Search Terms report</strong>
<ol>
<li>Don’t waste money on keywords that are not relevant to your hotel
<ol>
<li>If your hotel has multiple locations</li>
<li>Other businesses with similar names</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Don’t waste money on keywords that never convert
<ol>
<li>Could be something like bed bugs or reviews</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Add Negative Keywords</strong>
<ol>
<li>When you create a campaign, use Google’s keyword planner to identify keywords that could trigger your ads unintentionally</li>
<li>Open an incognito window and search some of your keywords to see what ads are being triggered</li>
<li>Use search terms report to see where your ads are being triggered but shouldn’t be</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Use &amp; Test Your Extensions</strong>
<ol>
<li>We’ve taken over many campaigns that aren’t even using extensions</li>
<li>Use every extension you can
<ol>
<li>Call Outs &#8211; highlight awards, differentiators</li>
<li>Structured Snippet
<ol>
<li>Use the amenities structured snippet to list amenities</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Sitelinks
<ol>
<li>Clickable links. Take people to desired page on your site</li>
<li>Use “Book Now” to take those ready to book as deep as possible into the booking process. Probably a rooms page.
<ol>
<li>If your booking engine is on your domain you can send those ready to book right into the process</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>In the “New Adwords” interface they offer a Promotion Extension
<ol>
<li>Can do things like 30% Off and send the user right to your specials page or, if you have it, a page dedicated to that particular offer</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Call Extensions
<ol>
<li>Best with proper phone tracking</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Test Your </strong>Adcopy
<ol>
<li>Regularly test new adcopy</li>
<li>Test Countdown Ads</li>
<li>Test new paths &#8211;
<ol>
<li>try keywords related to the search term</li>
<li>Try things like Official-Site or Lowest-Rate</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Test Your Landing Pages</strong>
<ol>
<li>The majority of hotels will send PPC visitors right to the home page. This can still be effective but there’s probably more you could be doing.</li>
<li>Try sending user to a specials to see if this increases conversions</li>
<li>Try creating landing pages for certain events (if you’re running an event specific campaign)</li>
<li>Using relevant copy on your landing page should improve quality score</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Monitor Performance by Device</strong>
<ol>
<li>Under settings you can view performance by device</li>
<li>See if certain campaigns (like in market campaigns) are getting most of the mobile conversions and set a bid adjustment to increase for those</li>
<li>If you see you are spending a lot on mobile but aren’t getting conversions you should set negative bid adjustments so your ads don’t show on mobile. (look at this on an adgroup level)</li>
<li>Then you should look into why you aren’t getting mobile conversions and consider a new booking engine</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Monitor your keyword bids</strong>
<ol>
<li>You aren’t the only one running on your particular keyword set so make sure you are keeping competitive bids for your top converting keywords</li>
<li>You don’t want to be pushed out of the top 4 ads because your competitors out bid you and you didn’t notice.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Use Remarketing Lists</strong>
<ol>
<li>Email list remarketing
<ol>
<li>You worked for it. Use it.</li>
<li>Tailor your keywords, ads, extensions and even landing pages to that audience. Try testing welcome back messaging</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>You can use it to create look-a-like audiences. Leverage the massive amount of data Google has on all of us and set these up
<ol>
<li>You can do this with</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Understand Geographic Targeting</strong>
<ol>
<li>Use GA/Adwords to see where your traffic is coming from to choose the right locations</li>
<li>Use in-market audiences for last minute bookings</li>
<li>Don’t be afraid to run your brand in a broad area but closely monitor your search terms. Use the Geographic info in the dimensions tab to see</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Look at your opportunities</strong>
<ol>
<li>Both Google and Bing offer “Opportunities”</li>
<li>They can offer some great insight but you shouldn’t blindly accept all of them.</li>
<li>They can show where it might be helpful to break up some of your adgroups based on relevance</li>
<li>They can also suggest keywords that aren’t relevant and would have you wasting a lot of money</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<p>========================<br />
In The Newsies</p>
<p><b>Headline News Now Infographic of mierda de un toro:<br />
</b><a href="http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/286145/How-guests-want-loyalty-to-interact-with-technology" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/286145/How-guests-want-loyalty-to-interact-with-technology</a></p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Follow Us on Twitter:</p>
<p>@_travelboom<br />
@stuartbutler<br />
@makavanagh<br />
@pdimaio<br />
@pforiska</p>
<hr />
<div></div>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]</p>


Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  86 – 10 Things You Need For A Successful Hotel PPC Strategy

<p>Is your hotel website accessible by everyone? If not, it should be and we’re going to tell you why and precisely what you need to do in this week’s Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast.</p>
<p>If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.</p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:</p>
<h3><b>What is ADA Compliance?</b></h3>
<p>The Americans with Disabilities Act is a civil rights law that was enacted in order to prevent discrimination of individuals with disabilities.</p>
<p>The ADA was originally designed to provide specific requirements for things like disabled parking, service counter accessibility, and wheelchair ramp mandates in building codes.</p>
<p>Title III of the ADA mandates that all “places of public accommodation” (all business open to the public) are legally required to remove any “access barriers” that would hinder a disabled person’s access to that business’s goods or services.</p>
<p>Originally, “access barriers” was understood to mean literal barriers such as  stairs that would prevent a wheelchair from accessing a business.</p>
<p>Although not its original intent with ADA, the US Department of Justice indicated that they intended to amend Title III of the ADA to ensure it would cover website accessibility in 2010.</p>
<h3><b>Why do I need to be ADA compliant?</b></h3>
<ol>
<li>To prevent exposure from discrimination lawsuits</li>
<li>To increase your audience reach</li>
<li>To demonstrate your hotel’s dedication to social responsibility as you create a website that is truly about providing an equal opportunity to all users.</li>
<li>To improve user-experience. Many of the requirements are good practices for all website users as they encourage clean design, clear messaging and intuitive interfaces.</li>
<li>To rank higher in search engines. Improved web accessibility also applies to search engine crawlers. I.e better accessibility equals better SEO.</li>
</ol>
<h3>What do I need to do to be ADA Compliant?</h3>
<p>Most courts are turning to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C)<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag"> Web Content Accessibility Guidelines</a> (WCAG 2.0 AA).as the standard for ADA compliance. There are A and AAA versions, but the courts seem to be looking at AA as the standard.</p>
<h3><b>What does WCAG 2.0 AA cover?</b></h3>
<p>WCAG 2.0 is the technical standard featuring 12 guidelines under four categories:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Principle 1: Perceivable &#8211; </b>Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive..
<ul>
<li>1.1 Text Alternatives: Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.</li>
<li>1.2 Time-based Media: Provide alt ernatives for time-based media.</li>
<li>1.3 Adaptable: Create content that can be presented in different ways (for example simpler layout) without losing information or structure.</li>
<li>1.4 Distinguishable: Make it easier for users to see and hear content including separating foreground from background.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>Principle 2: Operable &#8211; </b>User interface components and navigation must be operable.
<ul>
<li>2.1 Keyboard Accessible: Make all functionality available from a keyboard.</li>
<li>2.2 Enough Time: Provide users enough time to read and use content.</li>
<li>2.3 Seizures: Do not design content in a way that is known to cause seizures.</li>
<li>2.4 Navigable: Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>Principle 3: Understandable &#8211; </b>Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>3.1 Readable: Make text content readable and understandable.</li>
<li>3.2 Predictable: Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.</li>
<li>3.3 Input Assistance: Help users avoid and correct mistakes.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>Principle 4: Robust &#8211; </b>Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
<ul>
<li>4.1 Compatible: Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Here’s a link to the WCAG guidelines.</a></p>
<h3><b>What website changes do I need to make?</b></h3>
<ol>
<li>
<h4>Perceivable Category</h4>
</li>
</ol>
<p>This category ensures that all content is accessible by everyone.</p>
<ul>
<li>Add descriptions, or transcripts for pre-recorded video and audio content</li>
<li>Add descriptive ALT  text for meaningful images so that they can be read by screen readers</li>
<li>Label non-meaningful images to be ignored by screen readers</li>
<li>Allow the user to change font size without messing up the page structure</li>
<li>Allow the content to make sense and appear in the correct order when style sheets are disabled</li>
<li>Ensure enough contrast between text and its background color</li>
</ul>
<ol start="2">
<li>
<h4>Operable Category</h4>
</li>
</ol>
<p>This category gives guidelines to ensure the functionality of your website does not create problems for users.</p>
<ul>
<li>Add meaningful page titles that accurately portray the content.</li>
<li>Ensure that link anchor text is intuitive</li>
<li>Allow block of repetitive content to be skipped by screen readers.</li>
<li>Give the ability to pause time-based movement such as the hero images or delayed transitions.</li>
<li>Implement clear page hierarchy and content labeling so users can decipher where they are on the website.</li>
<li>Do not rely solely on color to relay information</li>
<li>Remove all content that could cause seizures.</li>
</ul>
<ol start="3">
<li>
<h4>Understandable Category</h4>
</li>
</ol>
<p>This category is designed to ensure that web pages feature logical functionality and language.</p>
<ul>
<li>Define the language being used in your META tags.</li>
<li>Ensure that navigation is consistent across the website.INCLUDING THE BOOKING ENGINE.</li>
<li>Ensure that the focus or selection of elements within the page doesn’t change the content or the functionality of the page.</li>
<li>Ensure that repetitive content blocks throughout the site are labelled consistently.</li>
<li>Ensure that forms contain labels and appropriate instructions, including:
<ul>
<li>Logical field names</li>
<li>Clear and understandable error messages</li>
<li>Clearly defined required fields</li>
<li>Tool tips.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ol start="4">
<li>
<h4>Robust Category</h4>
</li>
</ol>
<p>This section gives guidelines to ensure that a website’s code is “robust” enough to help assistive readers understand the code.</p>
<ul>
<li>Ensure that your HTML code validation according to W3C standards</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Other things to consider regarding ADA compliance.</b></h3>
<ol>
<li>If a single page is not compliant, then your whole site is not compliant</li>
<li>All website stakeholders should be trained on ADA compliance and the impact they can have when adding content or updating code.</li>
<li>ADA compliance should be constantly checked as your status can change when new content is added.</li>
<li>You can check your ADA compliance using tools such as:<a href="https://wave.webaim.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://wave.webaim.org/</a></li>
</ol>
<p><b>Listener Question:</b></p>
<p>I am top of B&amp;B ranking in TA but my direct competition is local hotels and of course I don’t appear in hotel lists. Am I one of those rare cases that should go for sponsored listing? I don’t have business listing at the moment. &#8211; Julia (South Lodge Boutique B&amp;B)</p>
<p>Good news Julia, You can participate in sponsored listings even if you don&#8217;t have a business listing.  However, that may not be the best marketing strategy just yet. Our concern is South Lodge Boutique, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England does not have a way for guests to book via TripAdvisor after they get to your profile.  Meaning, you’ll be paying for the sponsored position only to drive the guest (who you just paid for) to book via an OTA… and thus have to pay for the booking again.</p>
<p>Plus, when Sponsored positions offers almost no tracking or accountability, you won’t be able to tell if the additional exposure is valuable at all. This becomes balancing act between the cost of the sponsored position (£140+/month, $200+/month) and the cost of an OTA booking compared to the cost of getting that booking via other means.</p>
<p>Before investing in a Sponsored Position we would look at how you can maximize your other marketing efforts, such as vacation rental and bed and breakfast listings, social, owned email, etc.</p>
<ul>
<li>Maximize your facebook exposure</li>
<li>Consider a business listing in TripAdvisor (if you are adamant to use Sponsored Positions)</li>
<li>Make better use of AirBnB and VRBO</li>
<li>BedAndBreakfast.com could be a big opportunity for you (no listing and almost zero competition)</li>
</ul>
<p>========================<br />
In The Newsies</p>
<p>Amazon now allows Echo users to create custom skills. Hotels can benefit and hilarity ensues<br />
<a href="https://blueprints.amazon.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://blueprints.amazon.com/</a></p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Follow Us on Twitter:</p>
<p>@_travelboom<br />
@stuartbutler<br />
@makavanagh<br />
@pdimaio<br />
@pforiska</p>
<hr />
<div></div>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]</p>


Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  85 – ADA and WCAG 2.0 For Hotel Websites: What You Need To Know

<p>Welcome to the TripAdvisor conspiracy theory episode where we’re going to cover all the strange and unusual things we are seeing from the world’s largest review and hotel shopping platform.</p>
<p>Since the beginning of 2018, we have been noticing some very odd behavior from the TripAdvisor results, customer service response time, sales rep strategies, and overall communication.  What is most odd is that we have found communication from TripAdvisor to us, our clients, and industry partners has seriously degraded. This leads us to start asking some pretty conspiratorial questions like, “Is TripAdvisor being bought out?”</p>
<p>If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.</p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:</p>
<p>ORIGINAL BLOG POST:<br />
<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/tripadvisor-what-is-happening/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><b>https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/tripadvisor-what-is-happening/</b></a></p>
<ol>
<li>
<h3><b> What’s TripAdvisor Thinking By Requiring Sponsored Positions If a Hotel Wants To Keep Their 2018 Business Listing Rates?</b></h3>
</li>
</ol>
<p>TripAdvisor has been approaching properties with hearty increases in their business listing costs.  We have seen the performance of business listings steadily decrease over the years as TripAdvisor has driven more customer clicks through their successful TripConnect CPC and InstantBook programs, so this business listing decline in performance comes as no surprise.  Given this decline in performance, it’s interesting, then, that TripAdvisor is trying to force hefy price hikes. However what is more interesting is that TripAdvisor reps are offering to allow businesses to keep their 2017 rates if they are willing to participate in Sponsored Positions.</p>
<ol start="2">
<li>
<h3><b> Why Has Traditional Hotel Rankings Dropped So Significantly?</b></h3>
</li>
</ol>
<p>We have seen a disturbing trend for TripAdvisor rankings over the past 30 days, corresponding closely to the integration of vacation rentals into the main search results.  Specifically we have been monitoring properties in the Myrtle Beach, SC market and found that many properties have fallen nearly 30 positions. What is most interesting is the top results in the market now contain several properties that are not even open.</p>
<p>Is this a result of TripAdvisor trying to reshuffle the deck now that there are many, many, more results (read Vacation Rentals) for any given destination?  Will this, like times in the past, be addressed with an algorithm update and rankings go back to normal?</p>
<ol start="3">
<li>
<h3><b>Why Are We Seeing So Much Reporting and System Management Issues?</b></h3>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Our final question for TripAdvisor is why have they been having so many reporting problems this year?  Granted every company with complex products will run into reporting issues, however these issues seem to go a bit deeper.  We have been facing three primary reporting issues among various clients:</p>
<ol>
<li>Instant Book under-reporting impression share</li>
<li>No reporting whatsoever for Sponsored Positions</li>
<li>TripConnect CPC mysteriously not working at the beginning of 2018</li>
</ol>
<p><b>Listener Question:<br />
</b>Meisha Bochicchio @MarketingMeisha<br />
Question (or potential episode) for the @FuelTravel podcast &#8211; would love to hear you guys (and gal) discuss predictions for the Facebook fallout. Will people leave and therefore shrink audiences? Will changes to TOS impact advertising opportunities? Is Facebook dead? #RIPFacebook</p>
<p><b>Wishes from the hotel world</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Holly Zoba
<ul>
<li>I wish for closer alignment between marketing and sales – I would love to see marketing programs that were created out of the needs of salespeople. For example, marketing and sales working more closely together to create buyer personas for their target audiences, and marketing creating content that salespeople can use to share to attract more qualified leads.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<div>
</div>
<p>========================<br />
In The Newsies</p>
<p><b>Being Informal Is the Future of Luxury Guest Relations<br />
</b><a href="https://skift.com/2018/03/27/being-informal-is-the-future-of-luxury-guest-relations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://skift.com/2018/03/27/being-informal-is-the-future-of-luxury-guest-relations/</a></p>
<p><b>Google Rolls Out Granular Data Retention Tools In Preparation for the GDPR<br />
</b><a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7667196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7667196</a></p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Follow Us on Twitter:</p>
<p>@_travelboom<br />
@stuartbutler<br />
@makavanagh<br />
@pdimaio<br />
@pforiska</p>
<hr />
<div></div>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]</p>


Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  84 – Why Won’t TripAdvisor Answer These  3 Questions?

<p>On today’s episode, find out all of the mistakes that are holding your <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/services/email-crm/">hotel email marketing</a> campaign back as we run through Marketo’s list of the most common email marketing mishaps.</p>
<p>If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.</p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>SHOW NOTES:</p>
<p>Before you listen to this episode:<br />
<a href="https://www.marketo.com/ebooks/the-8-biggest-mistakes-email-marketers-make-and-how-to-avoid-them/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BE SURE TO DOWNLOAD MARKETO&#8217;S ORIGINAL EBOOK HERE</a></p>
<div>
<h3><b>Mistake #1 &#8211; Sending Emails with Unclear Subject Lines</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Keep your subject lines straightforward and to the point. Don’t lean on clever/witty subject lines for click-throughs and other important metrics.</li>
<li>A 2011 case study conducted by AWeber Communications discovered that “clear subject lines received 541% more clicks than clever subject lines.”</li>
<li>You should be creating subject lines that:
<ul>
<li>Tell the client what they’ll receive by opening the email</li>
<li>Focus on all metrics like click-throughs</li>
<li>Front-load with the most important words or numbers, like Tricks and Top</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Mistake #2 &#8211; Poor Email List Hygiene</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>You should keep your sender reputation as pristine as possible so your emails are valued and not spammed.</li>
<li>Subscriber engagement, positive and negative engagement signals, hard bounces, blacklist placement, and spam complaints are the most common factors that can affect your reputation and are all reasons why your emails are not ending in the “primary” inbox.</li>
<li>Marketo’s 3 steps to a healthier campaign:
<ul>
<li>Run soft bounce management campaigns to clean up your sender list</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Remove role accounts &#8211; such as email accounts that are not attributed to a person, like support@ and info@.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Run re-engagement campaigns &#8211; because an unsubscribe hurts much less than being marked as spam.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Mistake #3 &#8211; Failure to Measure Email Inboxing</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Your emails may be sent and delivered, but how do you know they landed in the “primary” inbox, and not the spam/junk folder?</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Don’t just stick with the typical campaign metrics (like deliverability rate, sent, delivered, and so on): make sure you’re measuring email <i>inboxing</i> too.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>Inboxing</b>: is the percentage of delivered emails that land in the primary inbox.</li>
<li>Use a tool that will break down deliverability at a detailed level.</li>
<li>To improve your inboxing, focus on:
<ul>
<li>Introducing a bounce management campaign</li>
<li>Reduce issues by measuring inboxing across specific ISPs</li>
<li>Proof your emails for spam triggers like copy and images</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Mistake #4 &#8211; No Engagement Segmentation</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>You want your emails to receive a high level of engagement like opening, scrolling through, and clicking on your emails on a regular basis.</li>
<li>Maintaining a high level of email engagement gives ISPs a better reason to place your emails in the primary inbox, thus resulting in higher inboxing.</li>
<li>Keep your engagement up by:
<ul>
<li>Using your engagement levels to separate your email campaigns.</li>
<li>Staggering your email campaigns by engagement to increase email inboxing. Send emails to your most engaged subscribers, then wait to send to unengaged subscribers, to boost your inboxing and sender reputation.</li>
<li>Reducing risk by attributing IP addresses for your campaigns like subscriber importance and engagement</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Mistake #5 &#8211; Poor Or No Re-Engagement Strategy</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Build a re-engagement campaign(s) to target your inactive subscribers.</li>
<li>This gives you the perfect opportunity to not only re-engage and capitalize with subscribers that still want to hear from you, but also clean up your email lists so you’re not wasting valuable time and money on subscribers that are no longer interested in your product.</li>
<li>You can build out a series of reactivation emails &#8211; this is a proactive way of determining whether your inactive subscribers still want to hear from you instead of getting spammed.</li>
<li>This way, you can discover any shared commonalities between your inactive subscribers.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Mistake #6 &#8211; Using Image-Based CTA Buttons</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Images may not always render, and relying on good alt text may not be enough to positively affect important metrics.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Remedy your image-based CTA buttons with HTML buttons that look and feel just like a JPEG image.</li>
<li>This ensures that your CTA is always displayed once the email hits the inbox and results in an improved user experience.</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Mistake #7 &#8211; Your Emails Are Not Optimized for Mobile</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Being mobile-responsive is a must.</li>
<li>According to Google, 65% of buyers start on a smartphone when on a path to purchase. (25% PC/Laptop; 11% tablet)</li>
<li>“Ensure your templates accommodate every screen size as emails transition from desktop to tablet to mobile.”</li>
<li>Be sure your emails:
<ul>
<li>Use media queries so your email is optimized correctly for mobile (for display purposes)</li>
<li>Use a large font/text size for mobile devices</li>
<li>Your CTA should be near the top of the email to minimize scrolling</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Mistake #8 &#8211; Making Bad Testing Decisions</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Common testing mistakes, like too small of a sample size, can lead to poor statistical results that have no benefit to your future goals.</li>
<li>Don’t:
<ul>
<li>Test your emails at random or different times during A/B testing. This could dramatically impact results. You want to keep your testing times uniform.</li>
<li>Test too small of a sample size. You want a large enough sample that can display significant results.</li>
<li>Test too many variables at one time. It could be difficult to associate improvements or declines to one variable when testing more than one at a time.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Listener Question:</p>
<p>GVM @grettavonmar</p>
<p>@FuelTravel Just finished my 1st cast: #69. FRIENDS over Sien! Q: do you think this promo too much for customers to digest 10% SAVINGS on all Singles &amp; dbls 15% SAVINGS on all Triples . 20% SAVINGS on all Quads ? Tx!! gonna binge listen to the rest.</p>
</div>
<p>========================<br />
In The Newsies</p>
<p><b>Google’s New Look for Mobile Hotel Ads<br />
</b><a href="https://www.koddi.com/googles-new-look-for-mobile-hotel-ads/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.koddi.com/googles-new-look-for-mobile-hotel-ads/</a></p>
<p>========================</p>
<p>Follow Us on Twitter:</p>
<p>@_travelboom<br />
@stuartbutler<br />
@makavanagh<br />
@pdimaio<br />
@pforiska</p>
<hr />
<div></div>
<p>Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]</p>


Hotel Marketing Podcast

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 88 – Revenue Strategy Secrets Revealed Courtesy Of Duetto

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 88 – Revenue Strategy Secrets Revealed Courtesy Of Duetto

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 87 – Is Voice Search Finally Killing SEO?

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 87 – Is Voice Search Finally Killing SEO?

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 86 – 10 Things You Need For A Successful Hotel PPC Strategy

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 86 – 10 Things You Need For A Successful Hotel PPC Strategy

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 85 – ADA and WCAG 2.0 For Hotel Websites: What You Need To Know

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 85 – ADA and WCAG 2.0 For Hotel Websites: What You Need To Know

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 84 – Why Won’t TripAdvisor Answer These 3 Questions?

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 84 – Why Won’t TripAdvisor Answer These 3 Questions?

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 83 – 8 Email Marketing Mistakes Hotels Should Avoid (from Marketo)

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 83 – 8 Email Marketing Mistakes Hotels Should Avoid (from Marketo)

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