By Guy Besley. Latitude Travel Services,
Yes, this little piece is for the accommodation providers and tourism operators.
As I have been assisting a close friend from Mount Buller with some setup (Facebook and the like) I thought I would rehash an old paper I wrote a few years ago. It is as relevant today (if not more) as its ever been, so timely really. So read on.
The original article was dates 20th October 2011.
More bookings for less work and less cost…
By, Guy Besley
Director
Latitude Travel Services
Take advantage of Affiliate Marketers.
What is affiliate marketing and how can you generate more bookings with someone else doing all the work?
In order to be able to explain how affiliate marketing can help your business I will need to explain briefly what affiliate marketing is.
Firstly, affiliate marketing is the single fastest growth industry on the Internet.
Affiliate marketing is selling products on a commission basis. An affiliate owns and operates a business that advertises and sells products for other companies, in many different niches and sectors.
The things that a successful affiliate marketer will have include:
1. A solid, respectable website full of great content, blogs and other information for the consumer.
2. Great products to sell! A good affiliate marketer will have total faith and belief in their range of product. They need to have faith in their products, because these products are the bread and butter and the base of their business.
3. A strong understanding of effective advertising to the desired demographic for the affiliate’s particular product range.
4. A good analytical background is of great assistance to an affiliate marketer. They will need to be able to track their sales funnels, leads, and key words to help determine profit, and the success of campaigns. Most affiliate marketers are literally working from one campaign to the next.
5. Time to work on the computer. This may seem obvious, but affiliate marketing is not a set and forget business, unlike many people believe the website and Facebook to be.
So how is this relevant to the tourism industry and specifically holiday accommodation?
Now to you.
Ok, let’s imagine that you have a website, as I’m sure you do. You advertise in many different target demographics using numerous forms of media to deliver your message. You are desperately trying to lure in the easy sale via your website.
We all love opening our emails to see an online booking that has taken up no time whatsoever to get, and we all wonder how we can get more of them. We also hear all the experts telling us that online booking is growing – this we can see, and it is evident by the enormous growth of third party websites, last minute sites and of course, affiliates.
So, back to website marketing.
It is astounding to think that in this day and age; where tourism related information literally leads the way with a strong online presence that the tourism industry (especially small operators) still doesn’t understand the concept of affiliate marketing and how it can easily grow brand presence, product distribution and those easy sales. Not to mention that it is not expensive.
We all love to grizzle about wholesalers taking high commissions and still charging us to advertise in their brochures. When a wholesaler gives you a booking they get paid, if they don’t generate income for you they don’t generate income for themselves. The tourism industry seems to understand this (begrudgingly) yet doesn’t understand the benefits of paying an affiliate commission of around 10% for someone to constantly market, promote, blog, talk and encourage awareness in your product (i.e. the affiliate marketer).
The affiliate marketer, as explained earlier has a website, usually a blog site these days, along with a strong internet presence. It is the affiliate marketer’s job and livelihood to be found on Google with the correct search strings in order to generate sales. The affiliate marketer literally spends day and night working different online tactics via many forms of digital media and presence. There is absolutely no way that an accommodation provider would possibly spend a tenth of the time that the affiliate marketer will spend on website promotion.
Affiliate marketers constantly blog about the niche market that they operate in.
Take Latitude Resorts for instance, I do a daily blog, with a lot of other material that I write or collate that is syndicated to over 12 different social media sites, all targeted for a specific purpose. I operate 5 different blog sites, again, all with a different purpose, but all for the sole purpose of giving the consumer something for free – content and information. In return they will come to us when they are ready to look for a holiday. Why? Because they trust us, after all, we have been giving them free content for months and asking nothing in return.
So as an accommodation provider or a tour operator how does this work for you? Easy, blogs must have content and the content is based on your own products. I can just about guarantee a page 1 or 2 listing on Google on one of my blog sites for a given relevant article within one day. How exactly? Well, we don’t know that because Google won’t tell us. What I do know though, it is possible for affiliate marketers, like me, to get these kinds of results because we spend the best part of 20 hours a day on the computer promoting brands, products and in my instance holiday destinations.
Now that I have explained all about affiliate marketing, doesn’t it make sense to have affiliate marketers working for you? Affiliate marketers do all the internet work on your behalf, come up with all the marketing and advertising initiatives and all you need to do is wait for that email to come though to you with a booking, all for the cost of only 10%* – and it comes as part of your existing adverting and marketing levies. Sounds like the cheapest wholesaler of any product doesn’t it? And it is.
So how does a property manager get involved in affiliate marketing?
It couldn’t be easier, just go to Roamfree and set up an account, you do not need to use them as your booking engine, just set up an account. You then need to set your channel manager to automatically send allotments to your roamfree account. It is literally that easy! Then you can just wait for the bookings to increase. This is not a joke, or a trick.
Roamfree got involved in affiliate marketing approximately 5 years ago, and to be honest, I didn’t understand it then either. Roamfree didn’t sell this aspect of their product effectively at the time. Roamfree didn’t promote the fact that an accommodation manager’s job is to be good with the guests and customers, not to be IT experts, or, for that matter, affiliate marketers.
As you might know, Agoda also have an affiliate product, and most properties, although mostly unaware, will already be participating in their program. However the Agoda product in by no means good for the affiliate marketer because it doesn’t white label seamlessly to make the page look appealing or easy to navigate and is very confusing for the customer, or potential guest.
The Roamfree product on the other hand has a perfect interface with the affiliate’s site, is white labeled effectively and looks to be an extension of the affiliate’s site. This is perfect for assisting in the promotion of your accommodation.
If you are a tour operator you can also utilise affiliate marketing; tourstogo.com is one such product, there are others within the tour spectrum, but tourstogo.com, like Roamfree have a great white labeled product that gives confidence to the consumer than the other options available.
So, what is the downside of having a Roamfree account and allowing affiliate marketers the chance to promote your product? Surely nothing!
As we all know, many online customers will spend a lot of time researching and scouring the net for the best deals etc. The more they see your property on different sites, the more exposure your property is gaining and your property is being reinforced to them from many different sources that it is a desirable product.
If they find your accommodation property on an affiliate’s site they may well go and Google your product directly, which will become a direct booking for you. If the guest doesn’t book directly on your own site, they will most likely book on one of your affiliate marketer’s sites so you still get a booking! Easy; and only for the cost of a small commission.
So what is stopping you from getting onboard with the burgeoning affiliate marketing sector?
Get onto it now and increase your easy online sales. I guarantee using affiliate marketers will give you amazing results and increase bookings beyond what you would have normally received.
Remember, the affiliate marketer wants your product on his or her site so he or she can promote you, blog about you and ultimately get you bookings! So give it a go, there is nothing to lose.
If you have any further questions about affiliate marketing in tourism feel free to send me an email, guy@thedigitalmediastrategist.com I will be happy to answer any of your questions and help you get more online business.
About the Author: Guy Besley has nearly 10 years experience in the tourism industry owning and operating 10 management rights complexes. Since 2009 Guy has been focusing full time on Digital Marketing, with a strong emphasis on Social Media, while promoting accommodation and tour operators via Affiliate Marketing and other means. Guys business, Latitude Resorts, will be launching its first wholesale brochure in early November.
Please note that Guy has no affiliation with Roamfree, Agoda or Tourstogo.com.
You may also like to visit our Marketing site www.TheDigitalMediaStrategist.com
Want more bookings?
By Guy Besley. Latitude Travel Services,
Yes, this little piece is for the accommodation providers and tourism operators.
As I have been assisting a close friend from Mount Buller with some setup (Facebook and the like) I thought I would rehash an old paper I wrote a few years ago. It is as relevant today (if not more) as its ever been, so timely really. So read on.
The original article was dates 20th October 2011.
More bookings for less work and less cost…
By, Guy Besley
Director
Latitude Travel Services
Take advantage of Affiliate Marketers.
What is affiliate marketing and how can you generate more bookings with someone else doing all the work?
In order to be able to explain how affiliate marketing can help your business I will need to explain briefly what affiliate marketing is.
Firstly, affiliate marketing is the single fastest growth industry on the Internet.
Affiliate marketing is selling products on a commission basis. An affiliate owns and operates a business that advertises and sells products for other companies, in many different niches and sectors.
The things that a successful affiliate marketer will have include:
1. A solid, respectable website full of great content, blogs and other information for the consumer.
2. Great products to sell! A good affiliate marketer will have total faith and belief in their range of product. They need to have faith in their products, because these products are the bread and butter and the base of their business.
3. A strong understanding of effective advertising to the desired demographic for the affiliate’s particular product range.
4. A good analytical background is of great assistance to an affiliate marketer. They will need to be able to track their sales funnels, leads, and key words to help determine profit, and the success of campaigns. Most affiliate marketers are literally working from one campaign to the next.
5. Time to work on the computer. This may seem obvious, but affiliate marketing is not a set and forget business, unlike many people believe the website and Facebook to be.
So how is this relevant to the tourism industry and specifically holiday accommodation?
Now to you.
Ok, let’s imagine that you have a website, as I’m sure you do. You advertise in many different target demographics using numerous forms of media to deliver your message. You are desperately trying to lure in the easy sale via your website.
We all love opening our emails to see an online booking that has taken up no time whatsoever to get, and we all wonder how we can get more of them. We also hear all the experts telling us that online booking is growing – this we can see, and it is evident by the enormous growth of third party websites, last minute sites and of course, affiliates.
So, back to website marketing.
It is astounding to think that in this day and age; where tourism related information literally leads the way with a strong online presence that the tourism industry (especially small operators) still doesn’t understand the concept of affiliate marketing and how it can easily grow brand presence, product distribution and those easy sales. Not to mention that it is not expensive.
We all love to grizzle about wholesalers taking high commissions and still charging us to advertise in their brochures. When a wholesaler gives you a booking they get paid, if they don’t generate income for you they don’t generate income for themselves. The tourism industry seems to understand this (begrudgingly) yet doesn’t understand the benefits of paying an affiliate commission of around 10% for someone to constantly market, promote, blog, talk and encourage awareness in your product (i.e. the affiliate marketer).
The affiliate marketer, as explained earlier has a website, usually a blog site these days, along with a strong internet presence. It is the affiliate marketer’s job and livelihood to be found on Google with the correct search strings in order to generate sales. The affiliate marketer literally spends day and night working different online tactics via many forms of digital media and presence. There is absolutely no way that an accommodation provider would possibly spend a tenth of the time that the affiliate marketer will spend on website promotion.
Affiliate marketers constantly blog about the niche market that they operate in.
Take Latitude Resorts for instance, I do a daily blog, with a lot of other material that I write or collate that is syndicated to over 12 different social media sites, all targeted for a specific purpose. I operate 5 different blog sites, again, all with a different purpose, but all for the sole purpose of giving the consumer something for free – content and information. In return they will come to us when they are ready to look for a holiday. Why? Because they trust us, after all, we have been giving them free content for months and asking nothing in return.
So as an accommodation provider or a tour operator how does this work for you? Easy, blogs must have content and the content is based on your own products. I can just about guarantee a page 1 or 2 listing on Google on one of my blog sites for a given relevant article within one day. How exactly? Well, we don’t know that because Google won’t tell us. What I do know though, it is possible for affiliate marketers, like me, to get these kinds of results because we spend the best part of 20 hours a day on the computer promoting brands, products and in my instance holiday destinations.
Now that I have explained all about affiliate marketing, doesn’t it make sense to have affiliate marketers working for you? Affiliate marketers do all the internet work on your behalf, come up with all the marketing and advertising initiatives and all you need to do is wait for that email to come though to you with a booking, all for the cost of only 10%* – and it comes as part of your existing adverting and marketing levies. Sounds like the cheapest wholesaler of any product doesn’t it? And it is.
So how does a property manager get involved in affiliate marketing?
It couldn’t be easier, just go to Roamfree and set up an account, you do not need to use them as your booking engine, just set up an account. You then need to set your channel manager to automatically send allotments to your roamfree account. It is literally that easy! Then you can just wait for the bookings to increase. This is not a joke, or a trick.
Roamfree got involved in affiliate marketing approximately 5 years ago, and to be honest, I didn’t understand it then either. Roamfree didn’t sell this aspect of their product effectively at the time. Roamfree didn’t promote the fact that an accommodation manager’s job is to be good with the guests and customers, not to be IT experts, or, for that matter, affiliate marketers.
As you might know, Agoda also have an affiliate product, and most properties, although mostly unaware, will already be participating in their program. However the Agoda product in by no means good for the affiliate marketer because it doesn’t white label seamlessly to make the page look appealing or easy to navigate and is very confusing for the customer, or potential guest.
The Roamfree product on the other hand has a perfect interface with the affiliate’s site, is white labeled effectively and looks to be an extension of the affiliate’s site. This is perfect for assisting in the promotion of your accommodation.
If you are a tour operator you can also utilise affiliate marketing; tourstogo.com is one such product, there are others within the tour spectrum, but tourstogo.com, like Roamfree have a great white labeled product that gives confidence to the consumer than the other options available.
So, what is the downside of having a Roamfree account and allowing affiliate marketers the chance to promote your product? Surely nothing!
As we all know, many online customers will spend a lot of time researching and scouring the net for the best deals etc. The more they see your property on different sites, the more exposure your property is gaining and your property is being reinforced to them from many different sources that it is a desirable product.
If they find your accommodation property on an affiliate’s site they may well go and Google your product directly, which will become a direct booking for you. If the guest doesn’t book directly on your own site, they will most likely book on one of your affiliate marketer’s sites so you still get a booking! Easy; and only for the cost of a small commission.
So what is stopping you from getting onboard with the burgeoning affiliate marketing sector?
Get onto it now and increase your easy online sales. I guarantee using affiliate marketers will give you amazing results and increase bookings beyond what you would have normally received.
Remember, the affiliate marketer wants your product on his or her site so he or she can promote you, blog about you and ultimately get you bookings! So give it a go, there is nothing to lose.
If you have any further questions about affiliate marketing in tourism feel free to send me an email, guy@thedigitalmediastrategist.com I will be happy to answer any of your questions and help you get more online business.
About the Author: Guy Besley has nearly 10 years experience in the tourism industry owning and operating 10 management rights complexes. Since 2009 Guy has been focusing full time on Digital Marketing, with a strong emphasis on Social Media, while promoting accommodation and tour operators via Affiliate Marketing and other means. Guys business, Latitude Resorts, will be launching its first wholesale brochure in early November.
Please note that Guy has no affiliation with Roamfree, Agoda or Tourstogo.com.
You may also like to visit our Marketing site www.TheDigitalMediaStrategist.com
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