Web Monitoring: The Importance of Listening to Brand Conversations Online
Listening to what people are saying online about your business is important.
Monitoring what people are saying about your business online is one of the most important things you can do as a company. The good news is that there are multiple tools online, most of them free, that can help you carefully follow Web conversations about your company. In the following post, I’ll go over how to use some of these simple tools to help you keep tabs on these conversations.
What to Look For
When I develop my web monitoring strategies, I like to break down my efforts into categories. Three main categories that all business should consider are: 1. Conversions about their business and their products and services, 2. Conversations about their competition, 3. Conversations about trends in the industry.
Could Adding a Google +1 Button Help Your SEO Efforts?
Rumor has it, adding a Google +1 button to your website could help your SEO efforts.
Earlier this year, Google introduced its own social network, Google+ – believed by many to be the company’s answer to Facebook. While Google+ is not yet available for businesses (it’s coming soon, they say), businesses can still take advantage of Google+ right now by utilizing Google’s answer to the Facebook “Like” button.
You may have noticed that little “+1” button next to the results in your Google searches. Clicking that button is roughly the equivalent of liking that page (or result) and recommending it to the people you’re connected with through your Google account. As you +1 pages, your recommendations will be shared with the people you’re connected with via your Google account. The video below explains the concept more fully.
According to rumors in the SEO community, increasing the amount of +1s your website has will help improve your search engine rankings on Google. Therefore, as you seek to grow your vacation rental business, you’ll want to put a +1 button in all the places you would normally put a Facebook like button: on your website, on your blog, etc.
A Look at Conversion with LiveRez-Powered Websites
The heat map in this picture shows where visitor clicks are concentrated. Look at how most of the clicks are focused on the search box.
Getting travelers to your website is just half the battle. Getting their business once they arrive is just as important. At LiveRez, we pay special attention to how well our websites perform when it comes to conversion.
Wikpedia defines conversion rate as: “The ratio of visitors who convert casual content views or website visits into desired actions based on subtle or direct requests from marketers, advertisers and content creators.”
In terms of a vacation rental management company’s website, the end goal (most desirable requested action) is for a visitor to book a property. With LiveRez-powered websites, this process takes only three clicks, with the first click being especially important because it launches the potential guest into the booking channel.
The image to the right demonstrates just how good LiveRez-powered websites are at invoking website visitors to enter the booking channel. As you can see by this heat map (typical of LiveRez-powered websites), visitor clicks are highly concentrated on the search box on the front page. Combine this with excellent average bounce rates, which greatly outperform industry standards, and you have the makings of a high-conversion website.
The Difference Between a Partner and a Customer
At LiveRez.com, we take a partnership approach with the vacation rental managers using our system.
At LiveRez.com, the vacation rental managers using our software are not our customers; they’re our partners. Some of our competitors may argue that our partner approach is a ploy – just a bunch of marketing smoke and mirrors to sell software – and is not fundamentally different than the relationship they have with their “customers.”
They’re dead wrong.
Let us explain what it means to be a partner. With a customer approach, there is a give-and-take relationship. The software provider gives the customer a piece of software (and maybe some services), and the partner pays them a set fee – no matter how well that software performs for the manager. In fact, the software company’s major incentive for improving the software is to gain new customers and to merely retain their current customers. That’s the way it’s been done for a long time.
But, at LiveRez, we know vacation rental managers wanted more. With our partnership approach, there is a “sharing” relationship. At LiveRez, our partners do not pay us a set fee – rather, we share in the success we’re helping them create. Because of our pay-for-performance pricing structure, our economic interests are aligned with our partners. As they succeed, we succeed. And, as they grow, so do we.
Who Won the iPad 2? LiveRez.com Announces the Winner of its 2011 VRMA GiveAway
And the winner is….
LiveRez.com Founder and CEO Tracy Lotz congratulates Margy Roe of Ocean Properties and Vacation Rentals, Inc. on winning LiveRez.com's iPad 2 giveaway.
Margy Roe of Ocean Properties and Vacation Rentals in New Smyrna Beach, Florida is the winner of LiveRez.com's iPad 2 Giveaway at the 2011 National VRMA Conference. The announcement took Roe completely by surprise.
"I was very excited. I had no idea. I kind of forgot I even put my card in there," she said. "So, this is nice. Thank you!"
Trends in Vacation Rentals: Y Partnership Shares Some Interesting Stats During the 2011 VRMA Conference.
Chris Davidson of Y Partnership shared some interesting statistics about the vacation rental industry during his speech Tuesday at the 2011 VRMA Conference.
Chris Davidson, Chief Client Officer of Y Partnership, offered some great statistics and spoke to some emerging trends in the vacation rental industry Tuesday during the morning session of the 2011 VRMA Conference.
Some of the larger trends he spoke to were price sensitivity of travelers during tougher economic times, the emergence of technology and social media, the influence of children on vacation choice, and the increasing importance of flash sales.
Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the more popular statistics he shared:
What are the major obstacles to traveling?
- 55 percent of travelers interested in vacation rentals cited household budget as a major obstacle.
- 41 percent cited airfare prices.
- 44 percent cited gas prices.
Many people were going on vacation to celebrate special life events. The three most popular were:
- Milestone birthdays
- Milestone Anniversaries
- Weddings
Children are having a big influence on the choice of where and how to vacation:
- 50 percent of people interested in vacation rentals said children had a significant effect on their decision of vacation destination.
How much lead time do people need in advance of a vacation? Many people are making last-minute travel plans.
- 38 percent said they have taken last-minute vacations (made arrangement six days or less prior to stay) in the last year.
Video and Slides: 5 Fundamentals of Closing Bookings over the Phone
Did you miss our own Tyler Hurst's workshop at this year's 2011 VRMA National Conference? Hurst, along with vacation rental managers Betsy LaBarge and Colleen Almoney, presented on the "5 Fundamentals of Closing Bookings over the Phone." If you missed the presentation, you can view the slides online or check out the video highlights below.
Making Connections at the 2011 VRMA Conference
LiveRez.com had a whole host of SWAG available at its booth during the 2011 VRMA Conference in Orlando, FL.
The national VRMA Conference offers an unmatched opportunity to meet with vacation rental managers from all over the United States and beyond. This year, LiveRez.com is doing a number of things to connect with professional VRMs. But these communication efforts can be used by just about any business to share its solution and connect with the people it can help.
Here are some of things we’re doing this year:
Stand Out: At LiveRez, we’re proud of our partners, and they have come out in force at this conference. To showcase our partners, we are giving them LiveRez lanyards and ribbons that say “LiveRez Partners.” In a conference setting, it’s always nice to let others know what groups you’re a part of; it really helps facilitate the networking process. One thing that can help LiveRez partners network outside of the conference is the LiveRez Network group on LinkedIn.
VRMA Gold Sponsorship: We think the VRMA is very important for vacation rental managers across the company, and our primary goal is to serve professional vacation rental managers. Many of our partners are VRMA members, as well. So, it only makes sense for us to give our support to the VRMA.
Pyramid Peak Properties: How This Vacation Rental Manager Grew 10 Fold in One Year
LiveRez.com has helped Pyramid Peak Properties grow from six properties to 57 properties in just one year.
Pyramid Peak Properties
Website: PyramidPeakProperties.com
Location: South Lake Tahoe, CA
Quick Stat: In just the past year, Pyramid Peak Properties has experienced a nearly 10 fold increase in the number of properties it manages. The business grew from six properties in September 2010 to a current roster of 57 properties.
Just one year ago, Joan Pilar was managing six properties. Now her vacation rental management company, Pyramid Peak Properties, is up to 57 and growing every day.
A 10-fold growth in just one year? That might sound like something straight out of a Sunday-afternoon infomercial. The only difference is that Pilar’s results are real – so real that her competition is starting to take notice.
You see, Pyramid Peak Properties is located in Lake Tahoe, one of the western United States' most popular vacation destinations. There’s no shortage of things to do there, and there’s also no shortage of businesses offering lodging to out-of-towners.
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