Mobile Website Design Basics: What Every Hotel Needs to Know

Posted on September 7, 2010 in Hospitality & Travel, Mobile Marketing

I strongly encourage hotels to move towards establishing a mobile presence without delay. As with every new adventure in technology, there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things. Here are some points for hotels to consider when taking the mobile leap.

Avoid “Walled Gardens”

Hotels must stay away from “one size fits all” templated solutions. These solutions offered by third party sites are a short-term gimmick to get hotels to sign up and start paying monthly fees to “rent” their mobile websites. Why is this a bad idea?

For those of you old enough to remember the 1999-2000 era, templated websites were all the rage. It was simple: with a few clicks, you got a website and you paid monthly rent. What a scam that was! You didn’t own anything, and you didn’t build any rankings on search engines.

Fast forward to 2010, when everybody owns their website and domain, and nobody in their right mind should ever give up control of their website to someone else. Mobile website template sellers are selling the exact same thing their counterparts did in the past…it’s still a terrible idea! Always insist on developing a fully customized mobile website that you own and control – it’s worth the investment.

Simplicity Rules

Due to the ubiquity of generic hotel internet marketing agencies, hotel websites have largely become a menagerie of heavy flash and high-resolution graphics resulting from the mass produced templates these marketing agencies have forced upon their clients. There is also the super artsy GM, owner and occasional Director or Sales who wants to capture the “spirit” and “experience” of a hotel stay on the hotel’s website.

For successful mobile website design, hotels need to check their design divas at the door. Mobile screens are too small to capture your magnum opus, and speed will always be an issue. Think Google.com home page, not Yahoo.com, and you will be successful…unless you want your hotel to be the Yahoo of the mobile world.

Phone Number Is a Must

If you do not have a prominent phone number listed on your mobile website, you have failed. This is like buying a shiny new car without a steering wheel. It simply has to STOP. Always provide your mobile website visitor with a  “click to call” option. Often, mobile users are on the road looking for quick contact information; never frustrate your guests by withholding it.

Color It Simple

Not leaving white space on your mobile website is extremely frustrating to users. The small screen size makes the lack of white space a factor in turning off visitors. Navigation needs to be in clear and easy-to-see colors. Funky color schemes that look great on a laptop browser can just be confusing on a mobile phone screen. Good contrast is key in making your mobile content appetizing for consumption on a mobile device.

Targeted Content

The mobile website visitor is looking for content that can be consumed efficiently and without having to click too deeply into your website. Effective mobile websites prioritize the content mobile users need to find quickly, eg, Contact and Location, Rooms, Rates. They don’t try to tell epic stories – save the long version for your non-mobile site. Keep it to the point, and your mobile website will do great.

Videos & Images

As a rule of thumb, omit these items. Mobile broadband speeds in the US really do not permit anything fancy to play. Your prime focus should be on giving the visitor the immediate information they need.

Simple Navigation

Simple navigation is a must on a hotel mobile website. Clicking is hard on a mobile device, and burying information under multiple layers is bound to frustrate your visitors.

Mobile Friendly Booking Engine

Hotel booking engine technology is constantly playing catch-up to the real world. Mobile websites that do not let your guests book a room will deprive your hotel of direct mobile revenue. There are some creative ways to bypass this issue if you are stuck with a dinosaur hotel booking engine. A “Call Now to Book” or a simple “Request a Room” form can deliver mobile-direct revenue for your hotel.

Mobile web is rapidly converting your guests into avid surfers on their mobile devices. It’s time for you to get serious and invest in the right mobile website for your hotel. Follow the basics I have listed, and you’ll be off to a good start!

Developing an Effective Hotel Mobile Marketing Strategy for Your Hotel

Posted on August 2, 2010 in Mobile Marketing

Google travel predicts that mobile reservations in 2010 will reach over $160M. Hotels can finally stop wondering when to start their Mobile Marketing programs.

Mobile web adoption is 8 times faster than the regular web adoption of the early 90’s! This means that more people will be accessing the web using their mobile devices instead of their desktop/laptop computers.

Here are the top areas that hotels needs to start focusing on to develop their online marketing strategies:

  • Mobile Websites
  • Mobile Search Engine Optimization
  • Mobile Pay Per Click Advertising
  • SMS Marketing and CRM Development
  • Location-Based Travel Apps

Mobile Websites

Hotels suffer from the curse of large-scale generic marketing machines with hundreds of clients under their umbrella. This is going to make mobile web adoption a big challenge for the hospitality sector. The term “mobile-friendly” is being used very loosely by marketing types who do not know how to implement a fully functional mobile website for hotels. Hotels need websites that work on different devices and platforms, giving the users the best possible user experience.

All the bells and whistles of the traditional web do not apply in the mobile sphere. Hotel mobile websites have to be simple, clean and to the point. I’ll address specifics in a later post, for those of you who are ready to make a truly mobile site for you hotel.

Mobile Search Engine Optimization

Mobile SEO for hotels and the travel sector is a very exciting playing field, as Google has been serving up some very interesting web results. Why don’t you try searching for “hotels in San Francisco” on your laptop, and then any mobile-enabled phone. The search results are very different! This can translate into a lot of SEO traffic for mobile-optimized websites versus the so-called “mobile-friendly” websites.

The basic principles and best practices for mobile search engine optimization for hotels are very similar to traditional SEO practices. However, some differences do come into play. Search suggestions are heavily used on phones, and the searches are shorter (15 characters on average). In addition, the majority of searches are location-based; therefore, optimizing your local listing in search engines is a must. Finally, one third of calls generated from mobile web have a local intent, so a phone number on your mobile site is also a must.

Mobile Pay Per Click Advertising

Mobile pay per click advertising for hotels is evolving fast and can generate excellent ROI. Those already engaged in pay per click advertising for their hotels must select the option in AdWords to show their PPC ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers. Here are some pointers for setting up successful mobile PPC:

  • Set your campaign targeting by country, region or city, or use custom targeting.
  • It’s always a good idea to separate your desktop and mobile campaigns to better optimize keywords, ad copy, and landing pages for mobile.
  • Advanced options for advertisers gives you the option to target specific mobile devices and carriers, both in the US and Canada. Make sure you select all the devices you where you want your ads to show up.
  • Adding a phone number to your ad text increases CTR by 5-30%, so don’t be afraid to use a phone numbers in your mobile ads. Remember that mobile web calls are 31% more likely to result in a booking than calls from other sources.

SMS Marketing and CRM Development

SMS marketing is one of the fastest-growing segments in mobile marketing for hotels. SMS campaigns have the best “open rates” on the planet – unlike emails that sit in people’s inbox or junk folder, SMS messages get opened right away. The most important factor to consider for SMS marketing us that it MUST be permission-based. NO exceptions! Nothing is more annoying than to get a text message from someone you don’t know. SMS is much more private than emails, and there are much stricter laws in place to curtail spam.

The key to success for a hotel using SMS marketing is to develop Mobile Guest CRM. This means that cell phone numbers must be collected at the hotel at various points of sale: front desk at check-in, in hotel bars and restaurants, etc. SMS advertising for hotels is great for driving incremental revenue. This is an exciting platform that hotels can start using right away.

Location-Based Travel Apps

Hotel guests are already using their phones to virtually check themselves in at your hotel’s location. These location-based travel apps use GPS technology to locate your guests. The app gives them the option to select a location (such as your hotel) or create a new listing. These virtual “check-ins” allow their friends to know where they are. Guests can also leave location-based tips, participate in social competitions, and unlock digital badges (Explorer, Mayor, etc.).

As a hotel, you can distribute specials and promotions through these location-based apps. Hotel managers must familiarize themselves with Foursquare, Gowalla, and Whrrrl. Yelp and Facebook are now aggressively going after location-based technology as well, making it one of the most competitive areas of the app world.

After years of anticipation and speculation, 2010 is finally going to be remembered as the year of the mobile web. Hotel owners and managers who answer the call (pun intended) of mobile marketing technology will be the ones to be highly successful and profitable in the years to come.

Google Kicks Off 2010 With "Click to Call" PPC Ads

Posted on January 5, 2010 in Mobile Marketing, Search Engine News

iphone and blackberryGoogle announced today that they are offering “Click to Call”  ads to be displayed on mobile phones. We have always been very bullish on mobile phone marketing. It looks like things are finally setting up for the US market.

The Scoop

Your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click on your phone number just as easily as they click to visit your website.

Questions & Answers (From Google):

How will phone numbers appear in my ads?

Based on the customer’s geographic location, the closest phone number and business address will appear as a fifth line of ad text when the ad appears on mobile devices with full HTML browsers (eg, iPhone, Android, Palm WebOS).

Where will I be able to see the results?

You’ll be able to view calls from your ads in your AdWords account. From your Campaign Summary page, to to the “click type” segment option under the “Filter and Views” dropdown.

How will I be charged for phone calls I get from my ad?

The cost of a click to call your business will be the same as the cost of a click to visit your website.

What actions should I take?

If you’d like your ads to show location-specific phone numbers when displayed on mobile devices, make sure that your campaign is targeting iPhones and other mobile devices with full HTML browsers, and that you have included phone numbers with your business addresses in the locations under your Campaign settings. If you would prefer your ads not show phone numbers, simply remove the location extensions from your ad campaigns or un-check mobile devices under the Campaign Settings tab.

What’s Next?

Let the campaign testing begin. Yahoo might have flunked at everything search, but they do have a very good mobile marketing platform that they use in Japan. Google’s success factor depends on wireless and data connectivity of phones, willingness of advertisers/owners to test out the new platform, and the tracking and reporting of these ads.

Ask any search engine marketer, and he will tell you how hard it is to convince clients to spend on PPC, let alone test out a new service. A few early adopters will decide the future of this service. We are looking forward to testing this out on our clients. Stay tuned for results in the coming months…

The End of the SEO Rankings Era, aka The Rise of the Universal-Social-Mobile Search Trinity

Posted on July 23, 2009 in Mobile Marketing, Search Engine News, Search Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Universal Search

The SEO industry and their clients used to live and die by their rankings. But this ranking race is changing drastically as each day goes by. What is killing the ranking mania that has ruled search engine marketing for so long? Who is the rankings dragon slayer?

Answer: The Trinity of Universal Search, Social Media, and Web-Enabled Phones.

Universal Search

This is something amazing that has happened right in front of our eyes (for those of us awake and watching). From nowhere, the Google “Golden Triangle” got covered with Map Listings, You Tube Videos and Shopping RSS Feeds, completely pushing down the traditional SEO rankings way below the fold. Result? Even your #1 ranking for a competitive keyword is not going to help you get many clicks. Now users can choose from a smorgasbord of information that Google has laid out for them. Their Map Listings provide a website URL, phone number, directions, and reviews in one neat package.

Social Media

All of us have friends, and our friends are usually full of information on at least one topic that they are passionate about (no matter how dull they are). With the gargantuan increase in the use of social media, your friends and their friends are now connected and forming a pool of collective information. A great vacation, a crappy airline, a great deal on socks…everything is being discussed online between friends, acquaintances, and near strangers. Web searchers have more sources of information than ever, and many of these sources now are people they know and trust.

Example: You see a great review of a hotel/restaurant on tripadvisor.com or zagat.com. But then your close friend “tweets” about the terrible time he had at that establishment. Who are you more likely to trust? This is your big vacation, and the word of your buddy is always going to have more influence than “independent” review websites or even Google, who is just aggregating reviews from different websites into its SERPs (search engine results pages). Therefore, the great reviews about your business on review websites, even your top rankings and detailed map listings are no match for the guy who talks to his friends online about you.

Mobile Phones

For those of you following my writing on this topic, you know I have been very bullish about mobile phones. The growth in mobile phone internet usage has been tremendous. 2012 will usher in over 1.2 billion 3G phones on the planet…wow.

Mobile phone searches have one thing in common: a small screen. This translates into a very slim chance of getting clicks for #1 SEO rankings. Google is in the middle of a massive push to sell AdWords ads. That’s what brings them money, and they have a lot less real estate to sell on the tiny mobile screens.

Guess what else is on the phone? Your friends! They can answer questions through SMS, MMS, Email, Messenger Chat, and even a phone conversation. All this open communication further dilutes the ranking power that is still on the minds of so many owners and marketers.

And the winner is…

Conversions!

I have always considered conversions to be the true metric of online success. I have seen clients and SEO agencies lose their heads over every change in their Google rankings. This obsession with rankings is a waste of time and money, and becoming more so every day.

When it comes to the e-commerce and travel sectors, the conversion factor is huge. Their volumes are big, and even a minor tweak in conversions translates into increased revenue. Yet the search engine marketing industry is still very heavy on selling rankings: Castles in the air, without doors or windows. This is where I draw the line with our agency. The ranking-obsessed are given a cup of tea and shown the door.

Unfortunately, many SEOs have figured out that it is relatively easy to convince prospective clients to follow the simple formula “higher rankings = more traffic = more sales.” If making a sale is your goal, this is the easiest strategy to lay down. But it’s not a good one. Successful web marketing today demands a much more sophisticated approach.

Here is what I found in a fortune cookie once: “Beware what you wish for. Pick conversions over rankings and you will always be a winner!”