Watch this video for more details on how Google Offers works with Google Maps for Android and find out how your hotel can get started for free:

Besides all that’s happening in the social and local offers space, there were a couple more articles that caught our interest this week. Check out this week’s wrap-up below:

• What do mobile business travellers want?
• 5 Ways to Benefit From Customer Testimonial Videos
• Distribution Strategy: Shifting Share in a Competitive Market
• Hotel photos: Quality or quantity?
• Consumers now pay more attention to online reviews than word-of-mouth

What links would you add to our list? We’re looking for input on what articles you’d like to see more of. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what we’ve missed this week.

However, apart from the social giant’s (seemingly) endless updates, we still managed to keep our eyes on a few other interesting topics this week as well.

Here’s our weekly round-up of hospitality and digital marketing articles of interest:

• Google repositions Hotel Finder atop organic search results
• Email Marketers Better Prepare for Mobile Opens, New Study Finds
• US Hotel Profit Recovery is Widespread
• How Does Social Media Affect Website Search Rankings? [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Booking.com Adds Urgency to Purchases with Real-Time Shopping Data

What other articles did you see this week that were particularly noteworthy? Leave us a comment to let us know which topics you found most interesting.

Cabo Villas Beach Resort & Spa, an exclusive, internationally renowned hotel in beautiful Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, recently selected VIZERGY as its hotel Internet marketing partner.  The goal of the resort’s management is to create a new custom website design that lives up to the luxurious property, replaces their current site, integrates marketing across various online channels, and increases visibility, traffic and revenue.

Cabo will utilize VIZERGY’s award-winning internal design team to develop a custom website that adheres to the latest industry design standards, including components such as larger imagery, layered content, effective use of scrolling, bold calls to action and more.  A mobile website will allow travel shoppers to research the property and book rooms while on-the-go, while search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and other marketing services will help the company have a consistent, integrated marketing presence across the channels travel shoppers prefer.

“We’re excited to work with VIZERGY, and confident they will take our online marketing to the next level,” says Julieta Amezcua, Cabo’s Sales Manager.  “It’s important that we have a website that better showcases our beautiful property and engages travel shoppers.  Having more effective marketing with website SEO and PPC, a mobile website and more will help us better reach our target markets.”

“Cabo Villas is one of the premiere properties in Baja California, an area where we’re excited to have a presence,” says Philip Faircloth, VIZERGY’s Director of Operations.  “The hotel and setting have everything leisure travel shoppers could imagine.  Now we need to portray the property online like the true destination luxury resort that it is.”

About Cabo Villas Beach Resort & Spa

Cabo Villas Beach Resort & Spa – “the heart of Cabo” – is run by President & CEO Chris Erickson.  The property was founded on the basic principles of providing five star quality accommodations and amenities, combined with the best personalized customer service possible at every level, and from every member of our staff.  The 142 suite resort and spa is located on Medano Beach in Cabo San Lucas, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortes.  The property, which includes amenities such as a beach club, three pools and a business center, is in close proximity to many of Cabo’s best restaurants, bars, shopping, fishing guides, outdoor activities and more.

Visit cabovillasbeachresort.com and the property’s Facebook page for additional information.  The property is offering summer special rates starting May 15.

About VIZERGY

VIZERGY is an award-winning website development and Internet marketing company specializing in providing innovative digital solutions for the hospitality industry.  VIZERGY offers complete web presence management, including website design, mobile design, search marketing, email marketing, reservation services and social media strategies that help hoteliers turn their website into their most-effective distribution channel.  Helping drive online revenue since 1998, the company has propelled thousands of branded and independent hotels, resorts and property management groups to success.

For more information on VIZERGY and its services, please visit vizergy.com, call William Bellis at 904.389.1130 Ext. 171 or email william.b@vizergy.com.  Join us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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And, as always, we continue to watch as each new week never fails to bring exciting news to those of us dealing with digital marketing in the hospitality industry. Not only were we able to see Twitter break the standing TPS (tweets-per-second) record with a new all-time high, but we also witnessed yet another big change for marketers everywhere: Google’s new anti-spam algorithm.

Here’s our weekly dose of the best articles relating to hospitality and the challenges, changes, and news surrounding digital marketing initiatives:

• Video Is a Rising Star Among Content Marketers
• Has Timeline Increased Engagement on Facebook?
• Bookings on the hoof: the last-minute traveler in a mobile world
• High-tech hotels a hit with geeky guests
• Who do travelers trust most for trip information?

What did you find most interesting this week? Leave a comment to let us know which articles we may have overlooked.

With your website, mobile website, SEO, PPC, social pages, local profiles and much more to integrate into your property’s digital marketing, it’s easy to forget what sometimes seems like an archaic form of marketing – email.  But just because email has been around since the advent of the Internet doesn’t mean it’s ineffective.  Quite the contrary actually, as Reuters reports that 85% of global online users communicate via email, trumping 62% that communicate via social media.  Furthermore, according to eMarketer, 47% of U.S Internet users have a positive attitude toward email, more than any other form of online advertising.

As proven by reputable statistics, there’s no doubt that email marketing is a channel consumers prefer, and 67% of organizations plan to increase email budgets in 2012 (Marketing Sherpa).  With proper utilization, email can benefit your property in many ways.  It’s cost-effective, versatile, engaging, builds loyalty, directs traffic to your website and social pages, and drives revenue.

Let’s review some best practices your property can implement for effective email marketing.

Proper Setup

Whether your property has a staff member that is dedicated to email marketing and in communication with your provider, or you outsource to a hotel Internet marketing company, you entire email program starts with a setup.  Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Consistent Branding: Both HTML templates and custom designs should match your property’s brand, website and entire look and feel.  Consistent reinforcement helps past guests and travel shoppers keep your hotel front of mind.
2. Mobile Friendly: In today’s mobile world (according to comScore over 50% of travelers research on smartphones, while roughly 20% book hotel rooms), it’s vital that emails are mobile friendly.  This means designs that fit mobile screens, reduced subject lines and content, larger calls-to-action (for touch functionality), alt tags to help preview images and text only versions.
3. Plan of Action: Even if you stray from the path a bit, form an organized plan for email marketing.  You can build and send emails as you go, or even build and schedule automated sends in advance.  This will help ensure you consistently send messages without overdoing it and keep email marketing on the forefront, where it belongs.

Taking Advantage of Various Types of Emails

Emails come in pre and post stay form, along with promotional emails, which all have their own unique benefits.

1. Pre Stay Emails: After a guest makes a booking, an automatic email can be sent that serves as a thank you and convenient reminder.  You can also attempt to upsell the guests with various offerings and packages.
2. Post Stay Emails: Start building loyalty by sending another thank you email, perhaps offer them a discount on a future stay, and even ask them to take a quick survey to generate valuable guest feedback.
3. Promotional Emails: Drive incremental revenue by offering discounted room rates, packages and specials to past guests and travel shoppers that have opted in to receive emails via website email harvesters.

Targeted Lists for Targeted Sends

Don’t think of your property’s contact database as only one large group of names, email addresses and other attributes (usually demographic stats you collect with harvesters and reservations).  Sure, some promotional emails are designed to be blasted to your entire database in one send, while the aforementioned thank you emails go to recent bookers or exiting guests.  But there are countless other ways to segment your list, including based on purchase history, for targeted email blasts with unique messages.  A couple of examples:

• Vacationing Families: Is your hotel near a major attraction like a beach or theme park?  Sending a custom email blast in the spring (before school is out) to contacts with children would provide solid ROI.  You can center the email around your proximity to said attraction, while offering family friendly packages and deals on appropriate suites.

• Business Travelers: If your property is situated in a major city or near a dense corporate area, you can target the business travelers on your list.  Maybe an email offering exclusive discounts to business travelers, along with free Wi-Fi and meeting room space.

Testing

Two different forms of testing when discussing email marketing…

• Test Group: Forming a test group (should generally include at least two people, preferably more) that receives an email blast before it’s actually sent to your group is the best way to make sure it’s error free.  This is your last review before you send the email blast. There’s nothing worse than sending an email with a broken link or misspelled words.

• A/B Testing: Split a group down the middle, send one variation of the email to one half and a second variation of the email to the other half, and track which variation of the email works best.  For example, maybe you altered the subject line, personalized the email, changed the offer or altered the landing page.  You can now have tangible evidence if these tweaks work.

Analytics

Reviewing analytics after each blast (especially when A/B testing) equips you with the intelligence you need to make better future email decisions.  You can pinpoint which types of promotional emails perform best, whether the pre or post stay emails drive more traffic to your site, and much more.  Top level stats like number sent, deliverability rate, open rate, click-throughs and even bookings should be the focus.

Email marketing can benefit various types of properties in various ways.  It’s still a preferred means of consumer communication and works at different stages of the purchase process, as it can reinforce your hotel, engage readers, entice bookings and help create loyalty.  With so many cost-effective options, a proper setup and implementation can be absorbed by most online marketing budgets.  If you’re not currently practicing email marketing, you’re missing out on a consistently strong channel, and if you are, work to iron out any issues to maximize its return.  Email should never be overlooked as part of a strong, complete digital marketing plan.

Find out more about Facebook Timeline features and functionalities and uncover helpful tips and inventive ideas to help reach, connect, and interact with more of your target market.

Download our latest white paper here

The paper is based on the latest industry research, studies, and proven practices and reviews ten top strategies in great detail. Some of the topics covered in the white paper include:

• Optimizing websites for local search results
• Using social media to reach out to localized travel shoppers
• Developing effective mobile websites
• Deploying mobile search engine marketing

Download the white paper for free here

With more great projects in the work, we took some time to root out some of the latest and greatest news articles in the hospitality and digital marketing sectors.

Take a look through our list of interesting articles from this week:

• Video Boosts Brand Engagement, Site Visits
• Email continues to drive buying decisions
• 6 Ways to Integrate Print with Your Social Media Marketing
• Nielsen: Consumer Trust in Traditional Media Ads Fall, While Confidence in Mobile, Social and Online Rise
• Checking In? Hidden Ways Hotels Court Guests Faster

What articles did you find most interesting this week? Let us know in the comments below.

To help hoteliers adapt to and benefit from Facebook Timeline, VIZERGY, a hospitality digital marketing leader, has several new Timeline products.  Each product is centered on imagery, as Timeline pages emphasize larger photos as main content.  With the often short attention span of travel shoppers and countless sites visited during research, large custom created images serve to form a longer lasting impression of hotels, benefitting both parties.

VIZERGY’s new Timeline offerings, all created to help hotels seamlessly adapt to Timeline, enhance engagement and make impressions that send consumers down the path of making direct online bookings, are:

• Cover Image Set – The first thing visitors see, properties can best show off their property with custom, integrated cover image, tagline and profile picture sets.

• Property Showcase Images – Custom built images placed on Timeline to highlight only properties’ best photos.

• Promotional Images – Allow properties to better promote special offers and drive bookings via Facebook.

• Cover Photos – Designed specifically so that Facebook fans can download and share on their own Timelines, creating more social real-estate for hotels.

“Since Facebook has become such a key communication and marketing channel for almost all hotels, it’s imperative that we offer new products that let hoteliers take advantage of Facebook’s Timeline evolution,” says Lisa Klueppel, VIZERGY’s Director of Online Acquisition Marketing.  “Our experienced social team is excited about the development of these products, and is already witnessing their effectiveness on several of our clients’ Timelines.”

About VIZERGY

VIZERGY is an award-winning website development and Internet marketing company specializing in providing innovative digital solutions for the hospitality industry.  VIZERGY offers complete web presence management, including website design, mobile design, search marketing, email marketing, reservation services and social media strategies that help hoteliers turn their website into their most-effective distribution channel.  Helping drive online revenue since 1998, the company has propelled thousands of branded and independent hotels, resorts and property management groups to success.

For more information on VIZERGY and its services, please visit vizergy.com, call William Bellis at 904.389.1130 Ext. 171 or email william.b@vizergy.com.  Join us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

VIZERGY, a leading hospitality digital marketing company, continues to provide valuable educational resources for hoteliers with the new whitepaper     “10 Local and Mobile Marketing Strategies to Put Your hotel on the Map.”  The paper discusses strategies hotels and resorts can implement to drive direct online bookings from local and mobile efforts, key components in today’s complex world of online marketing.

The paper (free download here), which is based on the latest industry research and studies and proven practices, reviews the 10 strategies in great detail.  A sampling includes:

• Optimizing websites for local search results
• Using social media to reach out to localized travel shoppers
• Developing effective mobile websites
• Deploying mobile search engine marketing

“Local and mobile are examples of how quickly online marketing evolves in the hotel industry,” says Philip Faircloth, VIZERGY’s Director of Client Marketing Services.  “Travel shoppers often prefer local and mobile channels for research and booking, so it is imperative all property types embrace these channels, integrating them into a holistic online marketing plan.  Our paper provides takeaways to help with that integration.”

This paper follows several successful VIZERGY produced whitepapers that cover topics such as Facebook, website analytics and integrated marketing.

About VIZERGY

VIZERGY is an award-winning website development and Internet marketing company specializing in providing innovative digital solutions for the hospitality industry.  VIZERGY offers complete web presence management, including website design, mobile design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, reservation services and social media strategies that help hoteliers turn their website into their most-effective distribution channel.  Helping drive online revenue since 1998, the company has propelled thousands of branded and independent hotels, resorts and property management groups to success.

For more information on VIZERGY and its services, please visit vizergy.com, call William Bellis at 904.389.1130 Ext. 171 or email william.b@vizergy.com.  Join us on Facebook and Twitter.