Internet Basics for Business

Internet Basics for Business

Agenda Destination NSW overview The impact of technology and digital marketing on travel Initial assessment of my website Seven tips for your website Search Engines Converting a prospect to a guest Managing Your Online Reputation Get Connected (ATDW) Exercises and resources

Destination NSW Overview

DNSW Consumer Digital Assets 3 consumer websites, 29 social media channels and 12,500 tourism products in the Get Connected database. Sydney.com and VisitNSW.com recorded more than 20 million visits and delivered over 4.9 million leads to the NSW tourism industry Number five on the list of Top Destination and Accommodation websites in Australia Digital media now comprises over 50% of all media expenditure for DNSW s marketing campaigns. Source: Web channels: DNSW Monthly Report as at June 30, 2014 Source: Hitwise Website Traffic Market Share report as at June 30, 2014

DNSW Consumer Digital Assets Channel Visits & Leads Channel Downloads / Products 9.4 million visits 2.3 million leads 8.8 million 2.4 million leads 1.8 million visits 239K leads 96,000+ downloads 15,400+ tourism & event products 200,000+ subscribers Channel URL Fans/followers / subscribers Facebook.com/seesydney 1.3 million Facebook.com/visitnsw 313,620 Channel URL Fans/followers / subscribers* Plus.google.com/+sydney 1.304 million Plus.google.com/+visitnsw 31,737 Twitter.com/sydney_sider 113,419 Twitter.com/nswtips 9,465 Instagram.com/sydney 26,990 Instagram.com/visitnsw 14,113 Youtube.com/seesydney 1.3 million Pinterest.com/seesydney 2,166 Youtube.com/visitnsw 998,074 Pinterest.com/nswtips 465 Source: Web channels: DNSW Monthly Report as at June 30, 2014 Source: Social channels: Insights as at June 30, 2014

DNSW Digital Results 2011-2014 TRAFFIC SOURCES FY 2010/2011 FY 2011/2012 FY 2012/2013 FY 2013/2014 FY 2014/2015 To date Organic Search 33% 21.5% 40% 55% 61.6% Paid Search 27% 49.0% 26% 19% 16.5% Referral 14% 15% 9% 4% 2.9% Direct 10% 7% 11% 10% 8.6% Digital Media 15% 8% 14% 12% 7.2% DEVICE TYPES FY 2010/2011 FY 2011/2012 FY 2012/2013 FY 2013/2014 FY 2014/2015 To date Desktop 87% 73% 62% 52% 48% Tablet 2% 10% 15% 18% 19% Mobile 11% 17% 23% 30% 33% KEY POINTS: - Paid & Organic Search are major contributors to DNSW website visitation delivering over 78% of total traffic. - Visits from mobile devices have increased exponentially from 13% to reach the majority of the traffic at 52% in only 3 years.

Digital Media Leadership VisitNSW.com and Sydney.com ranked Number One amongst State Tourism Organisation and Tourism Australia websites with over 54% share of website traffic* 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13 Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14 Jun-14 Visit New South Wales Visit Victoria Tourism Australia South Australian Discover Tasmania Queensland Holidays NewZealand.com Western Australia Visit Melbourne Northern Territory Official Travel Site Source: Hitwise GTO Monthly Website Traffic Report as at June 2014

DNSW Digital Media Leadership 18.00% 16.00% 14.00% 12.00% 10.00% 8.00% 6.00% 4.00% 2.00% 0.00% DNSW s consumer websites now rank as Australia s 5 th largest destination and accommodation websites DNSW s consumer websites currently deliver 2.4% of website traffic in the Travel & Accommodation category average 1.8 million monthly visits By comparison, news.com.au delivers 2.76M unique visits per month smh.com.au delivers 2.75M unique visits per month A significant market opportunity exists for DNSW to continue to grow its website traffic YOY. Source: Hitwise Top 10 Destination & Accommodation Websites in Australia Monthly Report June 2014

The impact of technology and digital marketing on travel

The Modern Traveller: Online Planning and Search Focus The web is as essential for inspiring new travel as it is for planning travel 68% of travellers begin research online 42% use their mobile devices on trips. Search remains key for travellers as they seek a variety of content and information online 58% of travellers start their travel planning and booking process with search. Source: Google Travel Study May June 2013.

The Modern Traveller: Digital Content It is a multi-screen world and a cross-screen effort Travellers move between devices for specific travel tasks usually with search as the unifying factor. Online video: An accelerating channel Travel video consumption has increased as consumers continue to rely on videos to make decisions and learn about brands. Travellers are also creating online video content 51% of leisure travellers watch online travel videos. Source: Google Services The New Multi-Screen World: Understanding Cross-platform Consumer Behaviour Mar 2013

How to assess my website

Initial assessment of my website Ask yourself: 1. Can I find my business on the Internet? Do a Google search 2. Visual design Professional, photos, video, newsletters 3. Functional and accessible Clear navigation, loads quickly, mobile friendly 4. What is my technology like? CMS, check email, book online, tracking and hosting 5. Online bookability Book Now with credit card clear, distribution integrated 6. Customer engagement - social media outlets Trip Advisor and Google + Business, social media pages, contact details on every page

Having just a website is not enough Be present on third party sites and online distributors Monitor your web presence and what people are saying about your business Ensure that your website caters to the needs of your customers Respond to your reviews

Seven tips for your website

Seven critical elements for a successful website 1. Site speed optimisation Have you ever left a website because couldn t spend time waiting for it to load? The speed of your website affects how you rank in search engines and heavily impacts the user experience 2. Link building Link building is valuable for improving the credibility and ranking of your website. Seek out relevant, quality links to support your website, and audit the current links and flag spam or low quality links to your website. 3. Robots The robots.txt file is a file within your website that gives instructions to other websites and search engines. Ensure this is configured correctly to only allow crawling of the most important pages on your site, and not the pages you don t want indexed, e.g. the administrator login page Source: tnooz.com Seven critical elements for a successful hotel website

Seven critical elements for a successful website 4. Sitemap creation and maintenance A sitemap on a website is like the contents page of a book. It is essential that you have one on your website and that it is kept up to date to help visitors easily find what they are looking for. 5. Site backup If your site crashes or goes down, you risk lowing potential bookings, so it is imperative that you back up your website on a regular basis. Source: tnooz.com Seven critical elements for a successful hotel website

Seven critical elements for a successful website 6. Broken links Search engines and visitors to your site will encounter a broken link when one of your pages doesn t work or no longer exists. This can also affect your search engine rankings. Ensure you regularly check that all links on your website work, as well as on other websites pointing to your own. 7. Mobile and tablet optimisation With mobile and tablet use now more common than desktop, it is imperative that your website is functional and easy to use across all devices. Source: tnooz.com Seven critical elements for a successful hotel website

Quality Content is Key Your website is like your shopfront, and first impressions count. Ensure it is easy to use for your customers. Frustrated customers will go somewhere else Keep your welcome blurb clear and simple Ensure that you have clear navigation around the your site Booking should be easy Ensure every page has a search box Always highlight the current location within the site structure Provide current and inspirational imagery with people in them State clear benefits in your text and provide a clear point of differentiation Be interesting and lively

Making your website mobile ready

Mobile health check Pick up your smartphone and visit your website and ask yourself these questions: Does it load in less than three seconds? Does it draw your eye to your key selling points or message? Is the content easy to read? Is it easy to navigate? Is it easy to book or make contact? Is it a website you would spend time on if it was not your own? If you mostly answered "no", then it's time to optimise your website so you don t miss out on sales.

Why you need to be mobile ready 1. Mobile users are different Users browsing on their mobiles often want information in quick, digestible bites. Making your website easy and intuitive to use on a mobile device aids in a better path to purchase. 2. Mobile gets traffic More people now access the internet on a mobile device than a desktop. If your website is not mobile friendly you will lose visits to your competitors. 3. Lower bounce rates Visitors to your website won t stay long if they have to zoom in and pinch to navigate your website. If your website is mobile optimised more people will stay, resulting in a lower bounce rate.

Mobile ready design is best practice A mobile ready or responsive website is built using design and development that responds to the user s behaviour and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation As the user switches from their laptop to ipad, the website should automatically switch to accommodate for resolution, image size and scripting abilities This eliminates the need to build a separate website for each device/screen size, as this uses one base of content and resizes appropriately to suit the user s device

Search Engines

Search Engines Why use Search Engines? Search engine market share in Australia: Google 95.5% Bing 3% Yahoo 0.5% Others 1% You Tube is the second largest search engine in the world and is owned by Google

Search Engines How Do Search Engines Work Search Engines use robots to crawl your website to: Understand what your website and business are about Index all your web pages in their database List your website s pages on the first page of results when a potential visitor enters keywords that describe your product Increase targeted visitation to your website and eventually grow your bottom line

Search Engine Optimisation What Do I Need to Know? Search Engine Optimisation takes time. Search Engine Optimisation and Web Design are two different professions. Questions for SEO professionals: Are you small business specialists? Can you provide case studies and detailed outcomes? Ask for a clear list of services. Ask them how you will measure effectiveness. Be cautious if the company says they will guarantee number 1 rankings or that they will submit your site to numerous search engines. Neither of these are guaranteed.

Converting a potential visitor to a guest

Converting a prospect to a guest 1. Ensure you have a functional and modern design 2. Content 3. Place a call to action button in as many places as possible 4. Easy to check out and online booking system 5. Ensure contact details are on every page

Managing your online reputation

Online Reputation Management Your online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you - whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag or a reply to a public status update, - Google

Online Reputation Management Common websites that allow reviews for travel: Tripadvisor Google + Truelocal Yelp Cruise Critic Facebook and other social media outlets allowing experience sharing

Online Reputation Management Monitoring what is being said Google Alerts You can monitor what people are saying about you on the internet. Includes: Press coverage Reviews Your own site Trip Advisor

Online Reputation Management Replying to reviews 1. Respond to both positive and negative reviews Silence is consent Shows you are serious about your business and customer service You can often turn into a positive customer service experience. 2. Assess your goals for negative comments Change their view Rebutt Learn about how to improve your business. 3. Criticism Legitimate or Fake? Be transparent and honest If true, don t ignore or hide and issue a statement addressing what has been done If false, respond professionally and politely ask for the comment to be removed.

Get Connected Program helping you distribute your product online

Get Connected Destination NSW s website membership program open to all tourism operators within New South Wales Get Connected members gain access to the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) - a central content and distribution platform for the Australian tourism industry By listing a product once in the ATDW database, operators benefit from being listed on Destination NSW s consumer websites and through ATDW's extensive distribution network. BENEFITS Cost effective online marketing Have control of your content Easy one off listing for multiple distribution Update anytime Listed on visitnsw.com and sydney.com Listed on the australia.com and over 70 different websites Access to Tourism e-kit and business intelligence module

One listing lots of exposure

Your product listing Descriptions Images and Videos Geo-coded, Map ready Location and Contact details Social Media Links Quality Assurance Memberships

Business intelligence Get Connected members have access to a business intelligence report via their login screen. This report provides valuable information such as page views, top distributors and top keyword searches performed on Google by customers

NSW Connect Once you have joined Get Connected add NSW Connect - our online booking platform and part of the Tourism Exchange Australia (TXA) program Provide your inventory via your online booking system to our booking platform All Australian States and Territories are now using the same platform to support their official websites To participate, operators must be members of the Get Connected program. BENEFITS Potential visitors will be able to research and book their holiday in one place Automatically link with Destination NSW s consumer websites as well as any of your preferred distribution sites such as Wotif, Lastminute etc. No need to manually provide separate inventory to many third party distributors Participants in NSW Connect will receive an enhanced listing which includes a Book button, booking calendar and pricing information.

Empowering the tourism industry Free online marketing guide Over 50 tutorials including 11 new social media tutorials Online Print Video Relevant content Simple and easy to follow To access the e-kit: http://tourismekit.atdw.com.au

Exercises & Resources

Exercises Test how your website looks on a mobile device. Is it mobile optimised? Write down 5 words that you think your customers use to search for your business, then look at your website, at each page and see if these words are present anywhere. How would you manage a negative review about your property or product? Review and update your listing on the ATDW

USEFUL LINKS RESOURCES Use this tool to explore the keywords most relevant to your product https://adwords.google.com/o/keywordtool For information on the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse and current distributors http://atdw.com.au/ Get Connected/ATDW registration page http://getconnectedregister.dnsw.com.au/getconnected.asp Tourism e-kit free digital educational tutorials for the tourism industry in Australia http://www.atdw.com.au/tourismekit.aspx Access a range of information including the latest tourism statistics and visitor expenditure by region http://www.destinationnsw.com.au/

Tourism E-Kit tutorials Initial Website Assessment Tutorial 2 Internet & Web 2.0 Tutorial 11 Mobile Websites Tutorial 13 & 14 Website, Mobile Site or Mobile Application Tutorial 17B Search Engines 101 Tutorial 19 Converting a Prospect Tutorial 24A ATDW Tutorial - Tutorial 31