Inspiring people to travel: How to become a big online brand

Transcription

1 Inspiring people to travel: How to become a big online brand Presenter: Jose Truchado Date: August, 2014 Location: Iran

2 Who am I? Currently leading the SEO team at Expedia Entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in developing internet projects Extensive experience in the Travel Industry Founder of Destinia.comone of the Top 10 Spanish Travel Brands I ve started around 10 internet projects/companies I ve worked with companies such as Expedia, Thomas Cook, Delta Airlines, Travers Smith, Eurostar, etc Still remember when the Search Engine battle had several major players But apart from that: I m an entrepreneur, Executive coach and Myers Briggs practitioner (MBTI) I ve spent most of my life creating Internet projects and mentoring people, which means that I have a great curiosity in understanding people s behavior off-line and on-line.

3 0 0 I created my first website in The same year the phrase "content marketing" was used by Rick Doyle who led a roundtable for journalists at the American Society for Newspaper Editors

4 How building a solid and cross-channel online strategy can ensure the success of a brand in the online space. What role inspirational content plays in influencing the user to remember your brand and how by understanding your user you can cater for their needs and ultimately be in their minds and hearts day I m going to talk about

5 Let s think of Iran as a travel brand How do we market it on-line? Tourists that come to Iran fall in love with the country, why not spreading that message.

6 When we ve got an What do we do with it?

7 Characteristics of successful online brands Online success is built upon a series of factors Good Value Specially in Travel the consumer s needs have to be catered by what the brand offers Good Online presence The brand has to be present when the user needs it or is searching for its products. Good Reviews In an era where Social Media has a major influence in the users decision a brand needs to keep its good reputation Success It s not just about having a good idea, it s about being found and trusted by the user, as well as making sure that idea caters for what the user is looking for

8 Be flexible: adapt to your audience needs The lean start-up approach Be more innovative Flexibility to build, measure and learn Speed in implementation Be reactive to the market s needs Successful ideas are hardly the same as when they were first envisioned, the evolve, adapt and change according to the user needs

9 The power of eing Inspirational When you inspire people you automatically become an authority in the area

10 How by being inspiring my company Flew to the top By selling trips to space Destinia.com became one of the top 5 online travel agencies in Spain outranking the likes of Expedia thanks to the media mentions, SEO improvements and word of mouth.

11 What Destinia.comtaught me It doesn t matter if you are small, Internet gives you all the opportunities to be big.

12 Branding Iran as an historical reference would help to erase its tarnished image created in the past few years.

13 The Legacy Routes an s HitoricalRoute

14 The Legacy Routes n s HandycraftsRoute

15 The Legacy Routes Iran s Cultural Route

16 The Legacy Routes ran s Nature Route and many more

17 Your Website Your website is the most important part of your strategy, it s your shop, your window, the showcase of your products and where your transactions will happen.

18 4 Characteristics Of successful websites user friendly constantly evolving Engaging & Inspirational Search engine friendly Be creative but think of the person that will use your website, many times we concentrate in ideas that would work for us but may not work for other users. Get to know your users, A/B test and make sure you offer something that your users can use Travel trends change constantly not only due to seasonality or location, but also because of the way people search for travel products and book them. Let your users voice their opinions and adapt to their needs Written content, photos and videos can inspire people to travel, use them wisely!! Do not neglect your SEO nor your marketing they will be you cheapest marketing channels. If you haven t built your website yet build it with an SEO strategy in mind, if you ve already built it, invest in SEO, in a few months it will pay for itself.

19 he teamhow to choose your team wisely

20 Study your team Choose your team or the people that you collaborate with according to the needs of your project. Make alliances with people/companies where you can complement each other for a greater project.

21 Know your team! By knowing your team members skills and preferences you will be able to distribute tasks more efficiently Rationals: Jose, David, Roberto, Felix Facts & Figures Idealists: Anna Ideas, Vision 4 Guardians: Oscar Project Management & Risk assessment Artisans: Ronan Design & Build

22 Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting. William Henry Gates III Content Is king Bill Gates wrote an essay in 1996 titled Content is King something that, albeit overused and hated by some, still seems as relevant today as it was back in 1996 If your content is not good, you will not achieve a long lasting success ns/1996essay/essay asp

23 People Create content for As Search Engines understands more the user s intent when searching, website owners are more in need of unique expert content that will attract people to their sites. Providing that kind of content ensures a long lasting presence in search results.

24 learned What you have so far My friend recommended me Iran It s not only about having a great idea You need to be flexible in order to be successful You need to surround yourself by a good team/business partners Your website needs to focus on the user and offer a good value Your grandmother needs to test your website Richard Rogers

25 Characteristics of successful online brands Online success is built upon a series of factors Good Value Specially in Travel the consumer s needs have to be catered by what the brand offers Good Online presence The brand has to be present when the user needs it or is searching for its products. Good Reviews In an era where Social Media has a major influence in the users decision a brand needs to keep its good reputation Success How do we ensure we are there when the user is searching for our products?

26 How to be there when people Are searching for you Search Engine Optimization (SEO) allows us to be there for the users when they need us

27 A few basics on SEO When devising your SEO strategy make sure to consider these points Keyword research Knowing what your clients are searching for is paramount for delivering the content they need. The results of this research will determine everything else you do to optimize your website for search engines Content Build content for people not for search engines, this is your chance to inspire people with your products,. Internal linking Search Engines crawl your website through the link between your pages, let Search Engines know what your website is about External Linking Among other things Search Engines understand the importance and authority of your website by the recommendations/links that other websites give yours. Build an external linking strategy as a traffic referral and not as a way of tricking search engines

28 Marketing channels And what they can do for your website PPC SEO Social Media PR A strategy based on a combination of these channels will strengthen the brands placement in the market

29 Marketing channels And what they can do for your website SEO Search Engine Optimization is the cheapest and most efficient marketing channel, it doesn t have an immediate ROI As soon as you build your website start collecting your users/clients s, a strong marketing campaign will help user engagement and loyalty to your brand PR A good PR campaign will put your brand in your market s landscape, help your SEO and the use Social Media Friend s and social influencers have a greater power of convincing than any other marketing initiative. PPC The most immediate way of advertising, PPC allows you to be found when your SEO is not in place.

30 Use Social Media One of the things that people share the most in Social Media is their travel plans & experiences Social Media channels, whichever they are, have a incredible power of boosting your brand exposure to the user, nothing inspires than the travel content that is shared through Social Media

31 Some Mobile Web Stats More than 30% of users access the web through a mobile device 34% of cell internet users go online mostly using their phones, and not using some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer. Source: statcounter.com Faster adoption 1.2 billion 1 in 3 22% of Traffic Mobile web adoption is 8 times faster than web did in the 1990s and early 2000s There are 1.2 billion people accessing the web through their mobile device Mobile searches have local intent vs. 1 in 5 in Desktop Mobile traffic already accounts for 22% of all traffic, where Tablets are 12%

32 Think about mobile Think about how YOU behave with a phone

33 Responsive Design This is what Google reecommends When and Why? This works great for when you want to deliver the same content regardless of the device the user is using. The crawl is efficient, users don t experience the slowdowns that redirects bring, and search engines have just one page to index and rank.

34 The power of envy: nothing is more inspiring than seeing other people doing what you would like to do How to inspire people

35 This is how I feel When I see a friend s holidays photos on Instagram of a place that I haven t been yet

36 But then I m inspired To travel to the same places as my friend

37 Expedia Pioneer

38 Expedia Pioneer

39 Think about what you can offer to the rest of the world

40 Thank you Find me in Twitter: TruchadoSEO LinkedIn: