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Increase visitors to your Maine Travel and Tourism website by linking to VisitMaine.com

On June 11, 2010, in Destination Marketing, by Matt

VisitMaine.com, the Maine Office of Tourism’s online travel portal, will increase traffic to your business website, help increase your website’s search engine ranking position and advertise your travel and tourism offerings. Digital Marketing Infrastructure, or DMI, is the technology platform that runs VisitMaine.com. The online platform and Internet marketing tool is a powerful free marketing [...]

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VisitMaine.com, the Maine Office of Tourism’s online travel portal, will increase traffic to your business website, help increase your website’s search engine ranking position and advertise your travel and tourism offerings.

Digital Marketing Infrastructure, or DMI, is the technology platform that runs VisitMaine.com. The online platform and Internet marketing tool is a powerful free marketing program offered by the state of Maine.

The first benefit for your business is the website traffic that VisitMaine.com will provide. The traffic will come through “link-backs” on your business profile page, getaway listings, including packages and specials and events listings. A “link-back” is a one-way URL link that takes a Web user from one website to another.

There are other opportunities, but here I’ll focus on the link-back traffic opportunities generated through a business profile page, getaway listings and the events listing.

Let’s talk traffic. I recently researched the monthly statistics for VisitMaine.com at Quantcast.com, a company that measures Web traffic. On average, 78,000 people from the USA visit this website each month, with a further 14,000 people a month coming from foreign countries. The total traffic is around 90,000 a month. In the summer, the traffic statistics go into the hundreds of thousands.

VisitMaine.com has a Google page rank of five out of 10. Websites that have page ranks of five or higher are generally highly trafficked ones. VisitMaine.com’s Alexa rank is 155,764, which places it among the top 200,000 websites on the Internet. Alexa calculates rankings by a combination of the average daily visitors and page views on a website over a 30-day period.

To acquire traffic back to your website, you need to register and create a business profile. A business profile page will display your business contact information, description and be indexed in the VisitMaine.com search engine. There is a field to list your business website URL, and this is the important link-back you’ll receive.

The second benefit is that by adding your business profile, you will help increase your own website’s search engine ranking positions at Google as your business website will be linked to a larger, more authoritative travel-related website.

I believe the primary factor to getting your business website listed high in the search engine results is the number of websites that are linked to your site and the authority (high page rank) of the website linking to you.

VisitMaine.com is ranked very high, so linking to it will help your own business website become more relevant and rank higher in the search engine results.

The third benefit is an advertising opportunity to advertise your business’s packages, specials and events. Package getaways must bundle a two-night stay with two or more travel-related add-ons — including breakfasts, dinners, vouchers, gift certificates, tours, activities, workshops or programs, performances or cultural events — that are normally booked separately.

Special getaways can be any tourism-related product such as lodging, meals or activities that promote a single travel product or service. Special getaways are an opportunity for your business to generate sales during off-peak periods through pricing incentives. Specials also can be used to liquidate inventory at the last minute.

Events are special events or occasions that occur in a town or region, or at an individual business such as a fair, festival, lecture, sporting event, etc.

When you add a package, special or event at VisitMaine.com, an individual Web page for that offering is created and is indexed in the website.

The individual Web page includes the getaway offering, a link to your business profile and a link to your business website. Every time you create a new offering you create another opportunity to gain traffic back to your website. This is a win-win opportunity as you not only can promote and advertise your travel offerings but you also can gain visitors.

VisitMaine.com is one of the most-trafficked websites in Maine. The Maine Office of Tourism has created a great service in making this online marketing platform available. You should not underestimate its power. Set up your profile, and get going.

This column was first published in the Bangor Daily News.

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How to convert tourist center visitors into paying clients.

On April 30, 2010, in Tourism Marketing, by Matt

In my previous column on converting tourist center visitors into clients, I covered the cost involved to have your brochures distributed at the state visitor information centers. You can read that column online at the Bangor Daily News Web site. I would also like to mention that in addition to the seven Maine Tourism Association [...]

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In my previous column on converting tourist center visitors into clients, I covered the cost involved to have your brochures distributed at the state visitor information centers. You can read that column online at the Bangor Daily News Web site. I would also like to mention that in addition to the seven Maine Tourism Association visitor centers, there is a privately owned visitor center: the Maine Coast Welcome Center in Belfast.

There are basically three subseasons within the Maine tourist season. The shoulder seasons are generally referred to as May-June and September-October. Prime time is July and August. An argument can be made about seasons, but for this example I break it down into three. Your business may be different, so apply my strategy based on your business seasons.

Here’s a marketing strategy: Run a multiseasonal, brochure-rack card campaign using discount coupons and tear-off offer specials. Run three different campaigns, so you’ll have three different printings throughout the year. Print in April for the first shoulder season, May and June; print again in June for the prime time July-August season; and print a third time in August for the September-October season.

I realize that some businesses will be unable financially to run three campaigns. This is fine. Just run one campaign and one printing as you traditionally have. The discount coupon and tear-off offer strategy will work with only one campaign and one print run.

By creating multiple print runs, you can test your rack card offering and see which specials, coupons and pricing work and which do not. You can adjust your rates based on your current reservations, availability and sales. The idea is to avoid being static, to be constantly moving and adapting your pricing and offerings based on what the marketplace is telling you as you move through the season.

If you are in a pinch for cash, try these online printing companies. I am a proponent of buying local and buying Maine-made products, so try your local printing company first. If you don’t have any luck, you can try these: www.psprint.com, www.uprinting.com, www.overnightprints.com, www.48hourprint.com, or www.vistaprint.com.

These online companies print inexpensive rack cards, and you can choose the number of rack cards you want printed. You can generate print runs in the hundreds to the thousands, and the online printers ship within 24 to 72 hours. I suggest you use a rack card size 4-by-9 inches. Please check with the Maine Tourism Association regarding the shelf sizes at the centers because you should make sure the top of your rack card is visible to the perusing visitor.

Each visitor center accepts 100 to 150 rack cards-brochures per business. If you are distributing to three centers, you can print 500-800 rack cards for each of your three campaigns during the season. Knowing how many to print is a tough decision. I recommend that you call the Maine Tourism Association or the centers directly and ask them to provide guidance on print runs.

There is most likely a trend in July and August of brochures flying off the shelves, so adjust accordingly.

Once a center goes through close to all 100-150 rack cards, the Maine Tourism Association will either call you requesting more or send you a postcard. It’s best to have at least 100-300 available and ready to ship. You can ship these to the Maine Tourism Association, and it will store your rack cards, then send them on directly to the centers when your brochures run out.

My next column will talk about creating the perforated or tear-off coupon as the sales offering or marketing message on your rack card. The coupon will offer a special or discount to the traveler.

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Maine Tourism to increase in 2010 by Matt Zito.

On April 20, 2010, in Travel Marketing, by Matt

In early January 2009, I e-mailed my travel and tourism colleagues and warned, “Be prepared that your gross sales will be down by a minimum of 7 to 12 percent in 2009.” I wanted to give my friends and colleagues a third-party, nonbiased view of what was possible so they could start preparing and not [...]

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In early January 2009, I e-mailed my travel and tourism colleagues and warned, “Be prepared that your gross sales will be down by a minimum of 7 to 12 percent in 2009.” I wanted to give my friends and colleagues a third-party, nonbiased view of what was possible so they could start preparing and not be in a state of shock six months down the road.

I pretty much nailed it on the head, judging from the final 2009 figures as they come in from travel industry research companies and Maine’s official state numbers. The Maine Revenue Services declared 2009 the worst tourism season on record.

Yes, 2009 was a bad year. We all know that. But guess what? The 2010 summer tourist season is coming right around the corner.

What is going to happen?

Will the tourists show up or will they continue to slow their pace in visiting the great Vacationland?

What can you do now to stop the bleeding?

How can you stabilize your revenue so it won’t keep going down?

How can you counter the pundits and actually grow your business in 2010?

My name is Matt Zito and I am a veteran travel business entrepreneur and a small-business consultant in the travel and tourism industry. I have built and sold two travel and tourism businesses. CollegeSkiTrips.com was one of the largest online youth ski and snowboard travel agencies in North America and is now owned by the largest ski tour operator in the country, Ski.com. The Yellow Breeches House B&B and Fly Fishing Lodge was a nationally renowned lodging property in Boiling Springs, Pa. In my early 20s I was an Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing guide. I am also a published author with the top business publisher in the country, John Wiley & Sons of New York.

My goal for this column is simple: to provide you with a combination of new, 21st century sales and marketing strategies and old school, tried-and-true marketing techniques you can implement in 2010 to help you grow and build your business. I will cover marketing, advertising and sales strategies, online marketing, online advertising, e-mail marketing, business development strategy, new product development, social media, search engine and Web 2.0 strategy, and online technology tools for your travel- and tourism-based business. I will pull from more than 15 years of knowledge and experience in the travel and tourism business combined with my active consulting and entrepreneurial travel business endeavors.

I will spend a large portion of the columns discussing Internet and Web site strategies, as travel is now the No. 1 product purchased on the Internet. I have experience online not only as a marketer and advertiser of travel but as a Web site developer of travel as well. I have built a handful of Web sites and understand the underlying technology that is being used today. Web site technology and how you can use Web-based technology tools to improve sales and efficiency in your business will be discussed.

The format of this column will include one strategy, followed by three question and answers at the end of the column. My goal is to publish one article two times a month or every 14 days. It is my intent to answer reader questions about the business of travel and tourism and create interaction between readers and this column. I believe a Q&A section will be a valuable component for you.

If your business derives any portion of its income from the travel and tourism industry in Maine, this column will give you strategies and ideas you can use to help start and-or scale up your business in 2010. Small businesses that will benefit from this column include, hotels, motels, B&Bs, lodging properties, resorts, tour guides, guides, tour operators, travel agencies, restaurants and retail shops in destination and tourist areas, marketing directors of travel and tourism businesses and companies that sell products and services to companies in the travel and tourism business in Maine.

Travel and tourism is the No. 1 industry in Maine. There are thousands of businesses involved directly or indirectly with the travel and tourism industry. It is my intent to help these small businesses in this industry to grow and prosper by reading my column. I look forward to writing this column and getting to know many of you.

This article was first printed in the Bangor Daily News.

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© 2011 Travel Business Profits, Matt Zito