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digital marketing elements

Posted by simon ashwin On Wednesday 02 Apr 08

The Many Forms of Digital Marketing:

1) Corporate Domain

This has been a standard since the late 90s, nearly every company, mom and pop boutique now has a web presence. The primary purpose of this is to provide the public with information about your company, it’s products, and anything else they may need. Corporate websites often compose of several features that are listed below.

A) Corporate Site
Large to small companies have established a websites around their brand, the content is around marketing products, support, and corporate information. Despite the massive efforts to perfect the corporate website, much of the content is irrelevant as prospects shy away from marketing content and start to use social media.

B) Portal Strategy
Widely popular in the late 90s this strategy was intended to serve up all user information on one page, and keep users on one’s domain. A few well known portals now exist such as MyYahoo which is a form of a feedreader. Most modern marketers realize that content is now distributed.

C) Microsites for Segmentation
Typically deployed around new product launches or campaign focuses, or specific market segments, these often short term websites are used for calling specific attraction. They typically have a unique URL and are tied to an integrate campaign. See Microsoft’s Origami microsite. Caution: some companies overly deploy these microsites and end up with a distributed and unfocused web strategy.

D) Interactive Web Marketing
The web is more than a ‘read only’ medium, unlike other...

tourism and travel in the digital era

Posted by simon ashwin On Friday 28 Mar 08

Even more so than the publishing and automotive industry, it’s the travel and tourism sector that’s been most affected by the expediential growth of the internet.

In particular, its Web 2.0 trends such as user generated content, communities of travelers, interactive experiences and Facebook Applications that are changing the way in which consumers’ research, plan and transact their travel experiences.

While developing a digital strategy for a travel client, I stumbled upon a statistic – over a quarter of all US travel related sales will be made online. That’s led to a huge shift in every aspect of running an organisation within the travel and tourism industry.

At a recent seminar, Travel & Tourism in the Digital Age, (staged by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) at the KPMG Auditorium in Sydney), about eighty industry leaders and members attended to listen to four speakers, in what I believe was a good insight into the ways in which the web, technology and the travel industry are merging.

Some of the key challenges that are facing the sector are;

1.     User empowerment
2.     Users seem to be working it out faster than many businesses
3.     Lack of industry and overall business knowledge to help guide travel businesses: worst still, lots of hype.
4.     Retail discounters like wotif.com.au
5.     Unbranded discount travel

It’s obvious that key players in the travel and tourism industries are taking the lead with tackling these challenges - and those that don’t...

building a website marketing plan

Posted by simon ashwin On Tuesday 19 Feb 08

Once you’ve invested and built a website, do you have a plan to keep it fresh? To continue its development to the company’s goals?

A website marketing plan is your roadmap to long-term success. It’s a highly detailed, well-researched document that sets goals, provides directions, and defines the website’s strategy over time.

A Website Marketing Plan should dovetail into a company’s overall marketing plan. Online marketing is most effective when it operates in concert with offline marketing. Voice, look & feel,and message should be consistent across all media.
As part of the whole, the Website Marketing Plan has a narrower focus. It is concerned with developing strategies and tactics related to 3 major objectives:

1. Define and Meet Company Goals for the Website.
The website is a tool that can answer any number of needs. These need to be distinctly called out. For example, the website should provide current information on products and services to existing clients. It should provide the arena for sweepstakes or raffles in partnership with overall brand advertising campaigns. Perhaps it should also be a point of sale for certain items. Or it should generate sales leads, build demographic information on customers, etc.

2. Identify Website Marketing Strategies.
This breaks down into two ways. The first is in promotion of the site to the Internet at large. How will the website’s existence and advantages be communicated to customers? This should include details about Pay Per Click (PPC) and SEO strategies and other marketing avenues. What are...

booking online make travel cheaper

Posted by simon ashwin On Saturday 11 Aug 07

According to Chris Tolhurst’s recent article in the Australian Financial Review, there are apparently two kinds of on-line travel booking Website which are providing increasingly tough competition to existing popular on-line travel booking sites.

Traditional corporate travel agencies are launching new booking sites, and airlines and other providers are providing on-line booking mechanisms first hand. Mr. Tolhurst’s article indicates that the latter option can be very cheap for consumers because there are no middle-man agent’s fees, and travelers can more directly advantage the cheap late booking rates often made available by airlines.

The article goes on to quote one industry specialist as predicting that these factors, coupled with increased diversification of services on-line, will deliver the main market share to the travel providers (airlines etc.) Another analyst backs the independently established on-line booking services, citing the strength of offering a greater variety of services from different competing suppliers.

Also a factor in the competitive world of on-line travel booking is the ease of use and power of the on-line utilities offered by the various Websites.

Apparently, self-booking is becoming an increasing attractive option for both corporate and leisure booking clients, by virtue of overall cheaper rates thus achievable.

References and Further Reading
1. Tolhurst, Chris. "Travel in Cyberspace Can Be a Turbulent Business." The Australian Financial Review Tuesday 17 April 2007.

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