Facebook won't do your work for you...

At Plan B We're involved in a number of music related projects just now with WinterStorm (our rock festival), South Beach Sessions (a series of acoustic and blues rock gigs) and a new Punk/Indie weekender in the planning for August 2017.

As a result of this we have been involved increasingly with gigs, musicians and artistes over the past year.

We have also found ourselves being much more proactive on Facebook with the promotion of these events to the targeted niche audiences that our events are aimed at. What has become increasingly obvious however is that despite the fact that most businesses are on Facebook they ignore some of the very tools that can work best for them.

Events is the example that I am talking about in this context.

As part of a wider "One Ayrshire" destination marketing project we have been setting up the background info for a One Ayrshire events page on Facebook and the new website in turn and it has opened our eyes to the number of businesses simply neglecting their own and the local events on in the area.

Promoting Events on Your Facebook Page

Sharing events on your own Facebook page should be a given. It is not only simple to do but can drive traffic back to your own web page and booking link as well. It will not fill your venue on its own but if you have a Facebook page use the bloody assets on it!

As an events listing it covers everything from header image, venue, dates. times, description, prices and links to web page and ticket links too.

Not only that you can then invite your friends to attend and you can "Share Events" with appropriate partners and collaborators locally.

Maximise Distribution

Once you've created your event you need to get it out there. You cannot assume that anyone is looking for it so you have to take it to them. That's how Facebook works, you need to get down and dirty and start looking for Businesses, Groups and conversations that will be interested in your offering - and this doesn't just apply to events.

For WinterStorm (a classic rock weekend) we started sharing events and posts with heavy metal, rock and blues Groups that we joined. We shared with Motorcycle Groups and other genre relate pages, we shared the events with local businesses involved in tourism and on every band page performing. We were to use that awful phrase, "fishing where the fishes were" - we were engaging in conversations with people who we already knew had an interest in the subject and we took our message to them rather than waiting for them to stumble upon us. The results were quite incredible with an incredibly launch period and the very quick creation of "brand awareness" and a 30 second teaser video that was viewed more than 12,000 times.

If you have a series of music events then let the local accommodation providers know and share with community groups and business associations - those hospitality businesses should be taking your events and adding them to their own pages as part of their own marketing strategies.let them know what you've got on and encourage them to talk about it.

"If you're coming to Scotland in November what about booking with our hotel in Troon. For rock fans we have a two day event taking place just up the road in the Concert Hall featuring world class bands. Click on the Event below for ticket information and book direct online at our website"

It makes sense doesn't it? You have a hotel with rooms to sell in late November so why would you not add EVERY local events that's taking place onto your own business page. Easy to do as well - click on the Events page, open the event and click on the three dots top right - the drop down will say "Add to Page" - simply select your own page and it will magically be on your events listing.

All hoteliers, all accommodation providers, all hospitality businesses should understand that it is this simple power to share and collaborate that is the real strength of social media. It engages the visitor and gives them additional reasons to come to your area. If every destination could get everyone collaborating at even the simplest of levels such as this there is little doubt that real benefits would accrue.

It's not just Ayrshire for sure but that happens to be what I'm working on just now and it's pretty unbelievable how totally neglected the events listing actually is.

The Gaiety, Ayr Racecourse, South Ayrshire Events, The Palace Theatre, smaller venues, larger venues... All have lists of previous events and not one of them has a list of what's forthcoming.

I am not a flag bearer for Facebook as a wonderful business tool - far from it - but it is a truism that you will only get out what you put in. And if you put in nothing you cannot expect to be found. Facebook, like your website requires content; content requires commitment, and then and only then will that content convert.

If you have twenty events in place for the next year get them into your Facebook page. If you don't know how to do it then make a member of your staff an author on your business page and get them to do it for you.

As I still have a tendency to say, "There's now way but the hard way so get used to it".

For help with Developing your Relationships drop us an email or call us on 01294 233713.

Early season bookings can give you the start you need.

Some days you may struggle to choose a subject to write about but today wasn't one of them.

It opened with an article in my inbox indicating that Expedia had quietly retired Venere from the OTA shelves. Venere was Expedia's equivalent of Priceline's Booking.com and apparently slid away in December.

This was then followed by two calls from clients looking for advice on their booking engine and how they could improve their direct sales. We've just restarted blogging on Tourism Matters again but if you look back to 2008 when we first started the theme was all about improving direct revenues and being wary, VERY wary, of the enticements of the third party online travel agents!

Some things haven't changed.

We ran a search for "Book Direct" in the Tourism Matters blog and found a screed of articles and advice on building direct business  many of which remain highly relevant.

The Importance of January and February for online sales

The first ten to twelve weeks of the year can be the most lucrative of the year and the smart hotels are ensuring that they are stocking up on low cost DIRECT bookings from both new and established clients. As much as 40% of your online business can be generated in these early months and for the advanced bookings the good news is that the majority are not looking for cheap deals.

Loch Lomondside Half Price Offer

Clients such as The Oak Tree Inn at Balmaha have been pushing their January to March rooms with their annual online room sale offering Sunday through Thursday special rates for their direct online bookings. They are filling empty spaces and keeping costs down by not selling through the high costs OTAs.

Half Price Rooms

Five Star Weekend Breaks in Ayrshire

One of our five star clients in Ayrshire started using their own private "Flash Sales" to their closed mailing lists for the first time generating substantial business from a single mail shot via a limited time offer only open for six hours.

The offer price was only visible to their mailing list and didn't undermine the public rate visible on the site. So delighted with the results that they are planning a series of exclusives for quieter dates over the coming quarter.

With your booking engine you can easily create exclusive, added value offers that are not available through the third party sites.

The above two clients are both using Bookassist for their booking engine on their site but even if your engine doesn't have these functions it is essential that you ensure that your rates and availability are set to encourage direct bookings. There are so  many easy ways to convert more direct business that it is almost criminal to just sit back and accept that you can't do anything about it. YOU may not close them down overnight but that's not the objective. You simply want to reduce your cost of sale by taking back more of YOUR direct custom.

So just in case you haven't given it any thought here's what we recommend you look at today!

• Maximum Availability on your own site - don't close out rooms unnecessarily
• Best Available Rate throughout the whole year - always, never cheaper elsewhere and ensure your site says Best Rate Guarantee or similar.
• Plan your seasonal rates and promotions - Valentines, Easter, Mothers Day, Autumn Offers and yes even Festive Packages. Create your packages now and get them up and bookable online as soon as you can.
• Plan exclusive offers to your mailing list and start filling those spaces with low cost direct offers.

If you're looking for a little more inspiration, we wrote a whole series of Best Book Direct articles more than four years ago for Advent! We are going to redo them but if you want assured that we have been consistent in our approach you could do worse than have a look. Still some great advice in here

Best Book Direct

First Claymore Sites of 2017 Go Live!

It was a very busy Festive period for us in the Irvine office with a number of sites scheduled to go live both sides of the Festivities with our Claymore Sites brand.

We were particularly delighted with the first two Claymore powered sites of the new year, due in no small part to their diversity in both geography and content.

Both sites are what we specialise in - small independent operators with great operating standards matched only by their passion - but they are rather different in products and markets.

At one end is The Harbour Bar in Troon with its seaside location and it is fair to assume an altitude of no more than ten metres above high tide! And at the other we have Chalet Chedaliere perched at 1300 metres in the French Alps.

Diverse indeed but similar too.

Both sites have been developed using our own content management solution Claymore allowing both operators to update their information whenever required creating a much more dynamic vehicle for promotions, offers and news.

Both designs are image rich and mobile friendly with a number of nice touches in there for the users - everything we do has the aim of reducing friction for the site visitor so The Harbour Bar can easily update their live sports and music programmes with the user having easy access on mobile to view dates and times of big matches or the live band for next Saturday.

The Harbour Bar in Troon

The site which is built using a "Mobile First" theme highlights the nautical theme of the pub with easy navigation and user interface. It disproves the notion that any business is too small to have a mobile ready presence on line.

• PDF menus for download
• Full Live Sports Listings
• Multiple image galleries
• Google Map with Routing

View Harbour Bar Site

Chalet Chedaliere in Courchevel 1300

Chalet Chedaliere may have more desktop users but the ski site has been designed to integrate highly interactive mobile friendly ski maps as well as the usual descriptions of the destination, events and chalet facilities.

• Full content management
• PDF Ski Maps
• Destination Information
• Google Maps and Routing
• 3D Piste App Integration

View Chalet Chedaliere Website

The main positive about both of these sites is that the proprietors are taking greater ownership of their digital presence and not leaving it solely to social media channels for distribution.

Visitors to Troon are now much more likely to find information about The Harbour Bar menus and events than they would have with Facebook alone and, similarly, in France, the chalet will be able to build a more effective presence with the creation of new pages during the season and the sharing of guests' experiences.

Websites remain the core distribution channel for hospitality businesses and it is essential that this is adopted as part of a holistic digital strategy for the business. If a promotion or offer or event is available to the customer it MUST be on the website first. Facebook, Twitter and Email marketing can then be used to distribute the message but do not bypass the website or underrate its importance.

If you want to find out more about our digital and web strategy visit Claymore Sites or call us on 01294 233713 for a digital audit.

2017 and Tourism Still Matters!

We first launched Tourism Matters as a blog way back at the beginning on 2008 on the tails of our belief that Content was King. We thought that the world was ready for sharp insight and biting comment on the delivery of tourism marketing.

We were right - the world was ready for insight and comment but we just were good enough to deliver it!

Well after a bit of a rest and some comments at recent hospitality events we are once again going to give Tourism Matters a go! Same format as before as nothing much has changed since 2008 after all has it?!

Tourism Matters will feature a bit of news, comment, guidance and on occasion some deep insight! It is the blog of Plan B and we will therefore highlight work we're doing with our customers, information on our products including Claymore Sites, our music events and festivals and our soon to be launched mobile App, Concierge Plus.

We will also start publishing updates to our popular Tourism Matters Briefings - in over a decade we have remained true to our beliefs about digital marketing in the hospitality and tourism sector; we all need to maximise our direct bookings and take greater control of our own distribution.

To that end we will as ever be pushing that ethos...

Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter or sign up for our newsletters.

We look forward to writing again.

Maximise your Conversion with the right Booking Engine

Our three cogs approach has long been a part of our thinking and it does seems to help when trying to change operators' thinking towards on-line marketing.

Build your site; Develop your relationships, Maximise your conversion.

It sounds simple and in actual fact much of it is simple. You can't rely on any one area of your digital presence to do everything for you but create a focussed and achievable plan and you can build more of that all important low cost DIRECT business.

Plan B have been Scottish partners to Bookassist Booking engine for more than a decade now and in that time the message has always remained wholly consistent with simple rules of on-line engagement - ALWAYS

• have your Best Rate DIRECT
• have all your off line offers and availability bookable online and DIRECT 
• Reduce Friction for the site visitor

Implement these three basic rules and there is little doubt that you can start moving the customer away from those pesky, expensive OTAs back to booking more rooms DIRECT.

Best rate and maximising availability are maybe more easily understood but what does Reduce Friction mean and how do you do it?

Well, basically it means taking the customer from where they are to where they want to be as simply and quickly as possible. If we use an example of an event package within your property "reducing friction" would include the following.

Product: 

• You are selling a new series of music based packages with dinner, bed and breakfast to fill shoulder rooms.

Promotion

It is all about content and in this context that is both booking engine content and webpage content. You must have both - a dedicated Music event page is needed for search and focus whilst without online availability it will never convert.

• Ensure the priced package is live in your booking engine with best rate and maximum availability
• Create a rich content web page with details and images of the offer 
• Create a direct booking "deep link" from the web page to the actual package on sale on your site
• Promote the "deep link" from your email marketing campaign taking the visitor from the email straight to the booking page
• Promote the same link via your Facebook, Twitter, Google +  and other channels and see the click throughs increase
• If you have local partners or PR sites that you use engage with their site and social media to promote the link to the page and a Book Now link

Tick the above and you will have reduced friction quite dramatically and if the product and pricing is right you will see increased uptake and conversion.

However as we all know, not all booking engines are equal. Yes it may integrate directly with your PMS or even be good for managing channels but in all honesty is it easy for the customer to book or for you to create packages like the one above? 

Use your Booking Engine Effectively

With Bookassist the above scenario couldn't be easier with the use of Price Groups that allow you to link directly to:

• Specific packages and offers
• Room types - standard, suites. single, executive.
• Specific dates
• Groups of packages sucj as a Special Offers page
• Room packages - B&B, Room Only or DBB

Your Bookassist online manager will provide you with a list of your "price groups" and web links connecting to each offer directly for you to drop into your online marketing campaigns. 

Simple and effective and at every stage reduces friction and increases the chance of conversion dramatically. 

Have a look at exactly this with one of our favourite hotels in Scotland, the five star luxury Lochgreen House Hotel overlooking Open Championship venue Royal Troon. 

Click on the Feature to the right and maybe you'll even Book a night out in Ayrshire!

If you recognise that you need to take your own bookings back, and to paraphrase a rather large hotel group stop your customers clicking about, then give us a call on 01294 233713 or email us directly to find out how Bookassist can improve your conversion rates.

Five Star Linlithgow B&B chooses Open Rooms

Arden Country House Bed and Breakfast boast its five star rating from both the AA and Scottish Tourist Board and now they have a five star online presence with the launch of their new Open Rooms website earlier this week

The luxury Bed and Breakfast is located in Linlithgow, near Edinburgh, nestled deep in the heart of West Lothian, Scotland. Belsyde Estate, Linlithgow is an idyllic country retreat,set in 105 acres of stunning wooded sheep farming land and offers panoramic vistas as far as the eye can see.

The new site was trigerred by the work Plan B had already done for Arden and others in putting the Scotland's Best Bed and Breakfast website live at the end of 2015. The site impressed so many of the members that many have already redesigned their sites with the affordable Open Rooms packages and using the bespoke "Claymore" Content Management System designed specifically for hospitality operators,

The new site is based on one of the Open Rooms themes and as well as having full control over content the site also integrates the Bed and Breakfast's blog and social media, integrates their Freetobook booking engine to drive DIRECT bookings and allows easy page and image management with the easy to use content management solution.

View the Arden Country House website here or find out more about Open Rooms

A Little Music for the Soul at South Beach Sessions

Two years ago I, foolishly, decided to start putting live music on at The South Beach Hotel in Troon - we call it South Beach Sessions.

Since then we've lost far too much money but had a ball doing so in the company of Grammy winners such as Albert Lee and John Jorgenson, herpes of my youth such as Whitesnake legend Bernie Marsden and some wonderful bands including The Chaplins, JJ Gilmour, and Bernie Torme!

The latest wonderful experience was last Sunday night with "The Goddess of Soul" Dona Oxford. With her talented young band she treated the audience to an evening of soul, blues, gospel and an astounding chunk of Boogie Woogie. It had to be shared.

But here's the plea, music promoters all over the UK are struggling for any number of reasons but the next time you see someone putting on live music in your location please think about supporting it. You can be assured that they are doing it for love of the music and not for the money and supporting local business is not just about buying some beef olives and steak pie at the butchers - Live music needs an audience and small venues can offer the most amazing experiences too.

Click if you need proof and enjoy!

Alba Golf in Fife launch dedicated golf website

Alba Golf in Fife have launched a brand new website focussing solely on their personalised golf tour business.

Owner Christine Seaton has been involved in the golf sector for more years than she cares to admit too and is a well known face at Scotland's top hotels, resorts and golf courses. Christine has been out on her own operating Alba Tours for a number of years specialising in independent groups and packages for the Edinburgh tattoo. Golf has always remained a part of the overall mix but for 2016 it was felt that the golf section needed a presence of its own hence the launch of Alba Golf.

The site is a simple site reflecting the quality ethos of the business. Christine offers a bespoke highly personalised service for limited number of golf groups every year with her personality central to every communication, itinerary and recommendation.

We have helped not only with the sourcing of imagery but assisted in content writing and giving the site a personal feel that may distinguish it from other larger more corporate offerings.

The site is powered by our own Claymore Content Management Solution and allows full control over content, full page images, headers, features and event the creation of an image gallery on every page. The site allows for the addition of new golf and hotel partenrs as required and the integration of blog features and even the creation of itineraries and programmes.

Ian McCaig explained the new functions,

Using our own Content Management Solution allows us to develop useful tools which can then be used by other clients. The new itinerary planner function was built as part of the project for Hebridean Cruises but was developed to be a fully operational tool for other tour operators and travel professionals. It means that with a simple click and add travel websites can add their own personalised itineraries and tour programmes.

View the new Alba Golf site here

View Hebridean Princess website

Luxury Fife B&B launches new website

Following on from the highly acclaimed launch of the Scotland's Best Bed and Breakfasts website earlier this year we have been helping some of the association's members improve their own web presence and are delighted to have been involved in building a brand new site for Dunfermline four star Bunree Bed and Breakfast.

Owners Hamish and Una Donaldson, contacted us after the SBBBS launch and decided to go with our Open Rooms Standard package based around one of our Themed designs. The couple had an old website which they couldn't update and didn't have any control of imagery or content.

The new site allows the couple to manage not only their page content but add image galleries, change headers and add their own promotional features all year round.

Open Rooms website packages are all fully responsive as standard, working equally well on mobile, tablets and desktop - something that is now no longer desirable but critical.

The B&B use Freetobook for their booking engine and the link to the  booking page was embedded prominently into the site to encourage more direct bookings.

The Open Rooms Standard site is the most popular package that we offer to guest house and bed and breakfasts and ensures that as well as offering a content managements solution that has been designed for the hospitality business owner it provides support in helping market more effectively on and off line.

Projects manager Claire, explained further,

It is not just about building a site then walking away. As well as providing the "how to" we also try to teach the "why" as well. We explain the benefits of good content, strong destination imagery and make things like search tags easy to understand. We emphasise the need to keep building relationships through newsletters, social media and other distribution channels and of course reducing the cost of bookings by converting more DIRECT bookings is very relevant to all accommodation businesses regardless of size.

Visit Bunree B&B Website 

Find out more about Open Rooms website design for Bed and Breakfasts

Taking B&B Web Design to New Heights?

Following the launch of the very well received Scotland's Best Bed and Breakfast website late last year we were delighted when several of the members of that group got in touch to have their own website redesigned.

The beauty of working with a membership organisation who have quality control built in as standard, is the assurance that you will be working with businesses and business owners committed to going the extra mile. When building a website it makes it so much easier when you know have an accommodation product that can be positively reflected in the design.

Westerton Bed and Breakfast in Callander is undoubtedly a perfect case study. Opting for our Open Rooms Standard which allows for up to a dozen content managed pages, the site perfectly showcases not only the accommodation but the magnificence of its location.

The site includes standard Open Room features such as:

• Content managed full screen images
• Drag and drop site structure
• In page image galleries on every page
• Updateable promo boxes with quick links
• Booking Button (to FreetoBook on this occasion)
• Google Maps
• Contact Form

The site uses one of our Open Rooms themes which are then tailored to fit each business as required. When designed properly "templates" should not constrain your online presence but instead can enhance it by allowing you to express yourself where it matters with unique, imagery, content and direct pricing.

Our low cost set up fees make quality design and improved distribution accessible to all businesses and the "no lock in" monthly payment option ensures you never need feel tied to a web design company again - although we are sure you'll stay anyway!

Mike and Lesley from Westerton B&B sent us this,

Thanks again for your help, we are really excited about seeing our new website going live. For the first time since we started the B&B 14 years ago, we feel we have a website which does our business justice.

Your service has been amazing and it’s great to deal with a company which cares about its customers and goes the extra mile to meet the client’s requirements.

View Westerton B&B Site

Find out more about Open Rooms solutions for accommodation providers

If you want to find out more about how Plan B can help your business with a digital solution drop us an email or call 01294233713

Google My Business and Destinations on Google

There really is never a fanfare for these things and if you are not watching for them or listening to a good account manager you will probably have missed the launch of Destinations on Google.

According to Google;

It's designed to help you discover and plan your perfect vacation on the go by doing the heavy lifting for you. Simply search with Google on your mobile for a state, country, or continent you'd like to travel to and add the word "vacation" or "destination" to get the stuff you need at your fingertips.

The service is accessed through a standard Google search on a mobile phone’s browser or on the Google Mobile app.

A search such as the one we have done for Destination Scotland will bring up a choice of popular locations; you can then click the more button to view the less often searched locations.

We mined downwards for Ayrshire and that in itself shows both the pluses and minuses for the process as it stands but what it does highlight is the need for tourism operators to have control of their Google My Business area - the destinations information is powered by a number of Google applications and Maps is certainly one of them. 

We are still surprised at how many businesses have not claimed their business entry on Google (it's the map and details on the the right of every page) and every time we start a website or review a digital strategy it is the very first thing that we resolve. 

How do you know if it's yours? Simply search for your business name along with your town and you will see the map, images and details appear on the right hand side of the page. If it says  "Claim this Business" just get it done as soon as possible.

We have a attached a briefing document for you to download to allow you to do it quite easily for yourself or contact us and we'll do it for you.

When setting up Google My Business for our clients we will go through the process to ensure the business makes best use of all of the free Google tools including Maps, Google +, update and upload your images, profiles, content descriptions and even set up your YouTube channel too.

It is quite simple for most businesses to manage on their own and their is strong Google support too however we have came up against plenty of instances where Verification Codes go awry or support from Google proves less than helpful!

Regardless of how you set it up, project releases such as Destinations on Google ensure that you must have your information up to date. It is a free route to your website and cannot be ignored.

Download "Google My Business" Plan B Briefing

or email Plan B directly

Facebook add Call Now button to Business Pages

You may have noticed that Facebook have added a Call Now button onto your business page. It doesn't seem to be universally rolled out amongst all of our clients so if you don't have it already it's sure to be on its way.

Just keeping logging in and make sure it sits beside your Book Now call to action that is already in place.

(Might as well test that link too and make sure that your Book Now button takes you straight to your booking page not just your homepage!)

Nothing much to the call now, but you need to ensure that your details are correct and that the phone is being directed to where it should be and not to some unfortunate in the accounts office getting a thousand calls on your three night spring offer!

You can Edit the Call Now and make it something more personal if you wish but you'll need to play around with the

It's probably more relevant and certainly prevalent on mobile as that's where it's most likely to be used. The call now sits prominent under the main graphic so may actually generate some direct calls - probably worth highlighting in your social media and links.

Take five minutes to update now.

Liberal Lord a Leaping - VisitScotland announce new Chairman

Malcolm Roughead has communicated this morning that VisitScotland have appointed a new Chairman to follow Mike Cantlay. And he's titled! Not being in the slightest churlish but it does seem to be that losing a LIberal Democratic seat shouldn't be seen as a barrier to future position! 

Anyway we wish him luck with his endeavours and here's hoping that his liberal leaning will move the organisation away from centralisation and control to increased collaboration and genuine moves towards sharing materials and solutions more widely.

Here's the press release,

"I am delighted to inform you that Fergus Ewing MSP, the Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism, has this morning announced the appointment of Lord Thurso as the new Chair of the Board of VisitScotland.

Boasting significant industry experience, John became Europe’s youngest 5 star hotel manager when appointed Managing Director of the Savoy Group’s Lancaster Hotel in Paris at 27.

Following five successful years in Paris, he then led a number of hospitality businesses to success including Blakeney Hotels of Cliveden, which became the UK’s highest rated hotel under his leadership, East Sussex National Golf Course and Fitness & Leisure Holdings.

John has served as a non-executive on a number of public company boards including The Savoy PLC, Millenium and Copthorne PLC. He is also Chairman of his family company in Caithness and for many years owned The Ulbster Arms in Halkirk.

He sat in the House of Lords between 1995 and 1999 and from 2001 to 2015 was MP for Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross. He was awarded a “Catey” for services to Tourism 2003, was made an honourary DBA by Oxford Brookes in 2004, is a Master Innholder and a Fellow of The Institute of Hospitality and is President of the Tourism Society. In 2014 he was made a Privy Councillor by The Queen.

John will take the reins from Mike Cantlay OBE, who has led VisitScotland through significant tourism milestones since his appointment in 2010 including the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, the Ryder Cup, a momentous partnership with Disney•Pixar on the blockbuster animation Brave and six themed years including the second Homecoming Scotland in 2014.

Mike will step down as VisitScotland Chair on 31 March 2016, with John being appointed to the position for three years from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2019.

Plan B By The Sea - Three coastal hotel sites go live.

That was some week!

It's been an incredibly fast paced start to the New Year with website after website and project after project reaching fruition but the past week has been especially busy with no fewer than four sites going live and major upgrades to our server and content management system rolling out at the same time!

We thought we should share some of the background to them with you

Waterside Hotel, Ayrshire

I was at a Team North Ayrshire conference last Friday at this wonderful venue just south of Seamill and the investment put into it by the Simpsinns family business is impressive. The event hosted the Depute First Minister who really was fighting with the magnificent views across the Firth of Clyde towards Arran, The backdrop of blue skies and flat calm seas combined to make the economic presentations just a little easier to understand!

However it did emphasise that the work that we had done on the new hotel, restaurant and venue site really did benefit from the quality of the location and the professional photography taken of it. The new Waterside site was rolled out about six months ago but with some changes to photography and some work on the group branding we wanted to make some positive changes.

The new site still benefits from full screen imagery on the home page with multiple feature boxes highlighting key events and calls to action with image galleries across all pages. A new footer was added (which will be adopted in the sister sites at Gailes Resort and Old Loans Inn over the coming weeks) and the integration of a bespoke coded availability checker as well as some subtle changes to the navigation bar. In addition the site is now benefiting from major changes to the security and upload of our servers with Content Delivery Networks improving global delivery and a number of new functions improving the speed of the page load dramatically for desktop and mobile.

Everything is content managed from our proprietary Claymore system and changing images, titles, tags, content and promotions has never been easier.

The site is one of our new Open Rooms Suite packages with a single set up fee and then recurring monthly charges of £120 plus VAT per month - it's contract free and benefits include a redesign included at the end of year two.

Royal Golf Hotel, Dornoch

There is a coastal them to all of our new hotel sites this week with each one of them sitting on a different Scottish sea! The Royal Golf Hotel benefits from magnificent location close to the wonderful stretch of Dornoch Beach and views across the Dornoch Firth - as well as sitting right on the first tee of the famous Royal Dornoch golf course.

We have been working with the Royal Golf on delivering digital solutions for close on a decade and in that time have helped not only with their website but in providing their booking engine (Bookassist), content writing, email marketing and strong account management.

We have built up a very strong relationship with their management team, so when we got the go ahead to rebuild the site we went full steam ahead turning it around from get go to go live in less than ten days.

Using one of our "Themes" (or "Website Views depending on what day it is!) the site was again built using our Open Rooms Suite package and includes Bookasssit as the booking engine, integrates ConstantContact for the email marketing and data collection and features a new image gallery layout. We helped with content edits and search tags and uploading images - although all of these tasks are now being handled by the team at the hotel directly.

We think the new site not only markets the hotel more effectively across all devices but undoubtedly promotes the attractions of the destination too.

The Crusoe Hotel, Fife

The final coastal destination of our business week is another quite unique property and the one quite clearly closest to the water's edge!

The Crusoe Hotel is located right on the harbour and as can be seen above seems to sit in rather than next to the sea! Lower Largo is famous as the seventeenth century birthplace of Alexander Selkirk who provided the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and today you can locate the signpost pointing to Juan Fernández Islands 7,500 miles away where Selkirk lived for more than four years as a castaway!

Anyway, back to this unique family run hotel and the new website. Another Open Rooms Suite package built to convert direct room sales.

The hotel attracts many golfers due to its proximity not only to St Andrews but the coastal links of Lundin, Crail, Kingsbarns and others and indeed the hotel won small golf hotel of the year in the 2015 Golf Scotland Tourism awards,

The site is built using one of our themes but as ever is highly personalised with a really nice "olde worlde" cartography background and wood carving style for the maps. The site makes great use of our content managed features highlighting exclusive offers and linking directly into the Bookassist booking engine which is fully integrated into the site.

So that was part of our week this week. Three hotel sites live plus another one for Kilmarnock Barassie Golf Club and ongoing work on a few more. 

If your hospitality business is in need of a digital refresh drop us a note and we'll give you a call. Contact us on 01294 233713 or email us directly.

Understanding and managing your Search Tags

We believe strongly that quality and engaging content is the most important area of your online marketing strategy and that without it you have no differentiation from competitor businesses and destinations nor unique attractions for customers. However there is still a role for understanding the mechanics of traditional SEO.

Understanding Meta Titles

The title for your homepage can list the name of your website and/or business and could include other bits of important information like the physical location of the business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings.

The example below shows the Meta Title for the Pro at a golf course

The following best practice guide comes direct from Google.

Understanding Meta Description

A page's description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Whereas a page's title may be a few words or a phrase, a page's description meta tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph.

It is understood that Google may not use this for actual searches but it is recognised that browsers my use it to ratify their search.

Whilst not as important as the title tag, description meta tags remain relevant because Google might use them as snippets for your pages. Note that we say "might" because Google may choose to use a relevant section of your page's visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user's query.
Adding description meta tags to each of your pages is always a good practice in case Google cannot find a good selection of text to use in the snippet – perfect for pages with high visual low word content perhaps.

Again the best practice below is lifted from Google’s own SEO guide.

Download PDF Version

Mix your own business cocktail with the Spirit of Scotland ingredients

"VisitScotland has today launched a new global campaign which invites people from around the world to experience the Spirit of Scotland - and it wants you to get involved!" says the press release!

Having only had a few minutes to read over what is being launched there is a sense that the concept has the potential to bind not only tourism businesses across the country but be used alongside inward investment campaigns and overseas trade missions to emphasise not only the benefits of visiting Scotland but studying, living and investing here.

It certainly seems to be good use of a strong spirit from which any size of business can mix their own powerful marketing cocktail

It is however only a platform but it is a platform that appears to have many of the tools the industry needs to build more direct business. Videos and imagery, social media hooks and strong consistent messages that if used by tourism businesses and destination management organisations across the country with their own personalised and localised messages  could provide the coherence, the glue to promote the Spirit of Scotland more widely.

And it is undoubtedly that spirit that we all need to promote. Globally it's not about Ayrshire and the south west nor East Lothian and the Golf Coast. It is about Scotland and that unique essence that this campaign is trying to build upon.



In the short term businesses should start considering how they can piggy back the whole Spirit of Scotland message. Here's a knee jerk response

• Create your own Spirit of Scotland webpage or pages using the term in the title and content and focussing down to your area and Property. Page Title Tag example: Spirit of Scotland in Ayrshire | Celtic Links Hotel | Irvine
• Use the media provided. The quality video will seduce you. Embed it though - don't link out. Keep your user on your site 
• Use the words and strap lines that are being provided and used in the promo materials. You can be guaranteed they are going to go viral. Make sure you give your website a chacne of being found for them.
• Use the message and its tone in your writing too. The reason those words have been selected is that research indicates they engage.
• Drop the message into your social media headers, email signatures, web footers, and even your check out invoices and PDF brochures.
• Download the Guide to using the campaign linked below
• and even if I personally find the #scotspirit a little cheesy the benefits may outweigh the cliche so use the hashtag!

Download the ScotSpirit Guide
It is not a frequent occurrence that we will praise VS so fulsomely but this campaign has been a long time coming but for it to work needs buy in from the bottom up now; not just the top down.
The call to action from VS and the Scottish Government goes on;

"Being one of the nation’s most important tourism drivers, events have a massive part to play in the campaign and EventScotland is calling on the industry to take part in creating a new social movement, which will reverberate globally.

From today, we’re asking you to help us show the world what the Spirit of Scotland means to you.
We’re asking, simply, “Have you #ScotSpirit?” In return we want you to show us how your company or event identifies with one of seven distinct ‘Spirits’ which we think comprise the Spirit of Scotland. These are Determination, Humour, Spark, Soul, Guts, Fun and Warmth.

Whether sharing an image that relates to these, or describing the very moment that you feel #ScotSpirit, we would love for you to be a part of this new mass collaboration. All you have to do is post or tweet what #ScotSpirit means to you on social media, using the #ScotSpirit hashtag, and you will potentially be engaging with the many thousands of people we are confident will become exposed to the campaign.

As well as sharing the most imaginative content with our worldwide followers via our social media channels, we will also be highlighting the ‘Spirit of Scotland’ through TV, radio and print marketing activity in key markets around the world.

This, we are confident, will help to generate overwhelming interest in Scotland and promote the #ScotSpirit movement, encouraging more visits to Scotland, as well as our many wonderful events. By becoming involved, you can benefit from the support of this campaign and, potentially, bring your event to a wider audience than ever before."

Scotland. A Spirit of its own: Spirit Waves

Scotland. A Spirit of its own: Spirit Lights

Happy Valentine's Weekend to all

We hope that all of you are planning on a wee romantic weekend ahead. Some are clearly pushing it a little with a weekend in Cardiff with their partners and oh, yeah a ticket for the rugby!

However you spend it we hope it's a pleasant one. One of our longer term clients, Executive Golf and Leisure in Bridge of Allan have been messaging their clients this week through their ConstantContact newsletter with a slightly amended logo that Steven in the office ran up for them!

Like all lasting relationships you have to keep it personal!

Find out more about Executive Golf and Leisure

Discover how email marketing is still the best conversion tool around

Site - Keep the Landing Page Simple

Research indicates that most visitors know what they are looking for when they hit your website so the trick is ensuring that they can get to where they want to be quickly by removing frustration and preventing the visitor from leaving the site to another that’s easier to use.

Reduce Friction

It shouldn’t be complicated to design a structure that works and flows for the user. Identify the elements they are looking for and make it easy for those elements to be found and utilised.

The key is to make it easy for the guest to find what they are looking for and execute quickly. Easy to access booking buttons; promotional offers and news; easy navigation and of course strong introductory content and imagery that increases the volume of the call to action.

However can you put too much on your homepage?

Can we use Pop Ups, Lightboxes or Hovers?

One of the most requested functions when designing landing pages is the inclusion of what would commonly be called a “pop up” (although it may actually be a lightbox or Hover area.) There is no doubt that pop out or pop up boxes have a role to play and we use them frequently for functions such as newsletter sign ups or Booking engine requests.

In both of these examples however the pop up is triggered by a definite click by the user because that is what they are looking for.

The pop ups to be thought twice about are those that simply appear over the top of your homepage every time it loads. To many users they jump out like annoying adverts and for many they are annoying and in the way. We would normally advise against using them.

There may be no definitive evidence but the user is not overly fond of pop ups and there are plenty of other ways to engage the customer.

Use your header imagery

All of our sites now have fully updated header images with the ability to add Titles, sub titles and links. Use these to promote your forthcoming events rather than laying a pop up that simply obscures the original site

Use your feature Boxes

Again all of our sites come with the ability to add and update feature boxes (similar to newspaper puff boxes or “tiles”) directing the user to your featured content. You can update the graphics, title, sub title and link once again. These can provide the quick links and reduce friction for changeable content.

Link Boxes in page

We advocate calls to action at the foot of all content pages to ensure that your site visitor has somewhere to go should they be interested in what they have read – calls to cation could be Book Now, Contact Us, Download Brochure or any redirect to internal or external links.

All our sites are designed where graphic buttons are automatically created for these links giving more prominence to your calls for action.

Everything moving?

It is a personal opinion but we try to avoid too many moving parts on a homepage. Too many sites look like a Sky Sports page with main images being overlaid by two speed ticker tapes at the bottom, moving features on the right, sliders at the bottom and pop ups jumping up all over the place. The brain cannot process the overload.

Keep it clean and simple. 

Position your key calls to action where they can be seen and clicked and avoid cluttering. Just because you’ve seen something on another big name website does not mean it is always best practice. Apply your own logic and see everything from the customers’ point of view first.

How often to post on Social Media?

How often should you post on Social Media? It's something that keeps us up at night. Okay maybe it should keep us up at night but it doesn't. 

We leave the sleepless nights to the gurus of social media! However it is something that you need to consider. 

First of all we think you need to get right your content but once you have established what you should be posting you need to consider when and what frequency. You only have to Google "frequency of social media posts" to get some idea of the variation of recommendations which only reinforces the art not a science aspect of content sharing with your audience but it doesn't mean you shouldn't test it out. 

There is no definitive right nor wrong just what ends up working better for you. Have a read of this blog with neat infographic shared below. It's a simple but good read.

Why not use it as a starting point and tweak from there. http://blog.sumall.com/…/how-often-you-should-post-to-socia…

Your TripConnect Bidding Strategy

Bidding Strategies

TripConnect involves bidding for placement in price and availability search results. Your bid, relative to the bids of others, will determine where you appear. Below are some strategies to consider, both for properties who have relationships with online travel agents and those who don’t.

Bidding against others

If you work with online travel agent, there will already be links to these partners in your property’s pricing and availability search results.

In a group-bidding scenario, the top three bidders will receive prime placement for their links. Additional special distinction is given to the top bidder’s link. If you appear in Positions 1 through 3, your link will also include an “Official Site” icon, so travelers know this price is being offered by the property itself. The rest of the bidders that meet minimum bid amounts at the time of the search will appear in text links below the three main links.

Here are some simple strategies to consider:

• First position, automatically: During set up, TripConnect will automatically populate bids to put you into first place across all TripAdvisor markets. If desired, you can make adjustments from there. The tool will show you how your changes impact your positioning, projected clicks and cost.
• Returning to first position: You’re only in first position at the point in time when you set up your campaign. While your campaign is running, other partners may increase their bids so they can be in first position, which will push your link lower in the search results. To return your property to first position, click “Edit” next to your Average CPC bid on the TripConnect Campaign Management page. Then click the “Bid to 1st position in all markets” button.
• Keep an eye on things: When you’re running a campaign, you should regularly check your property page and see where your link appears. This can help you judge if you need to adjust your bids for a better placement. Keep in mind, you may be in first position when you set up your campaign, but that can change over time as other partners adjust their bids.
• What you’ll pay: If a traveller clicks your link, you’ll be charged your bid amount, no matter what position you’re in on the site.
• A global approach: You may be tempted to pull back on bids for domains outside your home market. Generally, it’s a good idea to start at first position in each domain, so you can see which ones drive the most traffic. This will need to be monitored daily. Over time, you can make adjustments.
• Reach travellers everywhere: It’s also a good idea to place desktop and mobile bids. This will help you reach travellers no matter where they’re researching your property. This will need to be monitored daily. Over time, you can make adjustments.

Solo bidding

If your property doesn’t have a relationship with an online travel agent, your link will be the only one listed in your property’s price and availability search results, and it will automatically appear at the top. Your link will also have the “Official Site” icon next to it. In this case, TripConnect will provide the minimum bid you need to place to display your link. This minimum bid is based on market prices.

Because you don’t have any direct competition, your minimum bids will vary based on market prices. You will see these changes when you configure a new campaign, but you won’t see fluctuation while you’re running one (unless you sign up with an online travel agent).

Here are some simple strategies for you to consider:

• Consistency is key: Because you don’t have an online travel agent, it’s important to keep your TripConnect campaigns running without interruption. This will help ensure that you always present pricing and availability information to travelers who are interested in booking.
• What you’ll pay: You’ll be charged your bid amount whenever a traveler clicks your link.
• Global approach: In your case, it’s even more important to place bids across each TripAdvisor market. The ability to show pricing and availability information right on your listing will maximize your opportunity to book travelers outside of your home market.

Tips for managing your campaigns

You can see the most up-to-date metrics for your TripConnect campaigns on the Campaign Management page. This page will show you the amount spent, revenue generated and room nights sold. You can also make adjustments to your current campaigns, and set up new ones, from this page.

Budgeting

There is no minimum spend to participate in TripConnect, but there are minimum bids to have your link appear. You will see these minimums when you set up your campaign. You can set an overall budget for your campaign, to ensure it aligns with the money you’ve allocated for it. You can also set daily spending limits to ensure you’re not using too much money in one day.

When you’re first getting started, try setting up a campaign with a specific budget. Closely watch the Campaign Management section of the tool to see how long your money lasts and how successful the campaign is for your business. As you become more comfortable with traffic patterns, move to monthly campaigns with no budget restrictions. This will help you maximize your opportunity for clicks. Using monthly campaigns will also help you judge the times over the year when your property sees more traffic. This is particularly relevant for accommodations with significant seasonal peaks and flows.

Click forecasts

As you configure your campaign, the TripConnect tool will provide a click forecast for the next 30 days. This forecast includes an estimate of the number of clicks you’ll receive based on your current settings and market position. The expected spend is based on the number of forecasted clicks multiplied by your average cost per click for each market, aggregated globally.

Billing and payments

All invoicing will be handled electronically through the TripConnect Campaign Management tool. You can also track your billing balance on this page. You will be charged your bid price for each click sent to your booking page. No refunds can be issued on traffic that was delivered to your site. Also, no discounts are offered to any partners who participate in bidding.

Your credit card will be charged every time you meet a preset spending threshold (this threshold varies by market) or every 30 days – whichever comes first. You will be billed in the same currency as your Business Listings subscription.

The information above is a summary of TripConnect’s Bidding Strategies and Tips for managing your campaigns

For full information please read the article here: http://www.tripadvisor.com/TripAdvisorInsights/n1992/maximizing-your-tripconnecttm-campaigns

Plan B recommends careful monitoring of your campaigns in TripConnect. Each campaign should be reviewed regularly (daily) in order to ensure investment and return are optimised. Plan N can provide
management of your TripConnect account if required.