Exciting News! I am a Guest Lecturer at Purdue University!

Posted on November 10, 2009 in Speaking Engagements

purdueI wanted to take a few moments to share with our loyal readers that I have been invited by Purdue University to speak to students in their Entrepreneurship Program. This is truly an honor and a great opportunity for me to share with students the importance of understanding and implementing strong internet marketing techniques.

Here is a brief agenda of what I will be covering in the classes I’m teaching next week:

How Internet & Search Engines Work:

  • Internet History & Infrastructure
  • Search Engine Spiders & Indexing
  • Understanding Search Results
  • Search Engine Optimization & Pay Per Click Marketing

The Important Choices:

  • Company Name
  • Choosing a Domain
  • Choosing a Host
  • Choosing Keywords

Web Strategy 101:

  • Research
  • Competition Analysis
  • Reputation Management

If you are in Indianapolis, let me know and I would be glad to meet up.

Recap: Demystifying Google Analytics Tour 2009

Posted on October 5, 2009 in Analytics, Speaking Engagements

img032I am now back from my whirlwind tour of four California cities: San Diego, Santa Barbara, Torrance and San Jose. It was great to be in my ex -home state and deliver some very well received sessions on one of my favorite topics – Google Analytics.

Here are some of the questions that came up at the sessions:

Q: What’s the difference between using Omniture and Google Analytics for hotels?

I provided a detailed comparison of Google Analytics vs. Omniture in a previous post. Hotels usually do not have complex ecommerce metrics and dimensions in place, so Omniture might be overkill for the first-time hotel user. Omniture excels at tracking all the online events, metrics and comparisons for high-level operations, such as a hotel brand with hundreds of properties, or an ecommerce site with thousands of prouducts. Cost is also a big factor: GA is free, while Omniture costs between $30K and $100K.

Q: My hotel booking engine is not GA-integrated. Any possible way to track website conversions?

Stop using non-GA integrated booking engines! Some hotel booking engines help hotels track conversions from pay per click and other online sources by providing their own version of the Google URL Builder tool. This has been a great help for marketers as well as owners, because it helps them get a better sense of their ROI from online ad buys. Sadly, if you are not tracking the actual visitor clicks and behavior on your website, you are not improving your content, layout, etc, based on real-time data. This is preventing you from increasing your website’s conversion rate and limiting your ROI. The hotel industry can only get out of this vicious cycle by exclusively using and endorsing booking engines that are tracking through GA integration. Now, if your current booking engine does not have GA integration OR unique URL-based tracking, fire them.

Q: My marketing company has access to the Google algorithm and they are saying that we need to make every employee choose our website as the home page for their personal browser. Does that help?

OK. It’s 2009 and web marketing companies need to stop selling snake oil! Sadly, many hotels are still getting taken for a ride on these magic ranking carpets. Anyone claiming access to the Google ranking algorithm should be ashamed. As for having employees redirect to your hotel website from their browser, the only thing it’s contributing to is your website bounce rate.

Thanks for all the great questions, and also for the wonderful feedback. I enjoyed meeting so many hotel industry friends and a few fans during the last week. I’d like to end with a comment that was sent in by one of the attendees… this is why I do these sessions:

“Vikram Singh is an extremely effective communicator. He clearly feels passionate about the subject and helping businesses use reality-based information for marketing decisions. I’m not a techno-oriented person, but I could follow every point of the presentation and now know how to explore Google Analytics on my own and use it to benefit my inn.”

I’m glad to be the one bringing GA and demystifying it for everyone . I stuck with the title of this event and that is always satisfying to a speaker. So everyone, please start using analytics in your daily lives and start making data driven marketing decisions.

Join Our 4-Day Google Analytics Tour in California

Posted on September 22, 2009 in Analytics, Speaking Engagements

If you’re planning to be in California next week, it’s the perfect time to brush up on your Google Analytics skills. Vikram will be presenting four seminars entitled, “Demystifying Google Analytics,” sponsored by the California Hotel & Lodging Association.

“Demystifying Google Analytics” covers basic to advanced information. It’s useful for hotel managers who are brand new to website analytics reviews, as well as those who are more experienced and want to receive some expert tips.  Vikram always provides attendees with skills they can start using immediately to conduct website analytics reviews and improve their website and marketing programs.

Google Analytics Seminar Topics

Why Google Analytics?

  • Comparison with other analytics programs
  • Benefits of Google Analytics
  • Getting started

Google Analytics 101

  • Using the dashboard
  • Understanding visitor stats
  • Analyzing traffic sources
  • Rating website content
  • Tracking goals

Bounce Rate Analysis

  • Definition
  • Why it’s important

Advanced Analytics Metrics

  • Ad tracking
  • Booking engine tracking
  • Advanced segmentation
  • Website optimizer
  • Custom reports

Tips for Advanced Users

  • Making the most of Google Analytics

Seminar Schedule and Registration

September 28, 2009
San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter
660 K Street, San Diego, California
Online Registration – San Diego

September 29, 2009
Holiday Inn Torrance Hotel
19800 South Vermont, Torrance, California
Online Registration – Torrance

September 30, 2009
Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort
633 East Cabrillo Boulevard, Santa Barbara, California
Online Registration – Santa Barbara

Northern California Hotel & Lodging Conference
October 1, 2009
Doubletree Hotel San Jose
2050 Gateway Place, San Jose, California
Online Registration – San Jose

We’ll hope to see you at one of these venues on our Google Analytics tour!

Social Media for Non-Profits – International Red Cross Day

Posted on May 8, 2009 in Social Media Marketing, Speaking Engagements

May 8th is International Red Cross Day

Today is World Red Cross Red Crescent Day. This day marks the birthday of Henry Dunant, the founder of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Henry Dunant started the Red Cross after witnessing atrocities during the Battle of Solerfino in Italy 150 years ago. The Red Cross has been using social media in the form of YouTube Channels, a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, and last month, they started their own social networking portal called “Our World, Your Move“. The site lets users share their experiences, upload videos and photos, and write blog posts.

Any non-profit group’s effective use of all of the Web 2.0 tools that are available can lay the ground work for reaching an enormous amount of potential donors and volunteers. This is particularly true among younger, more web-savvy supporters that may not have the big dollar amounts to contribute, but can participate in other ways (joining fan pages, etc.). Additionally, free programs such as Youtube for Non-Profits, which incorporates the Google Checkout System, make online donations easier (Google waives fees for non-profits).

Non-profits can also incorporate viral marketing into their mix. In honor of this day, here’s a Red Cross viral video that was released last year by country music band Rascal Flatts:

Earth Day 2009: Companies Going Green

Posted on April 22, 2009 in Assorted Thoughts/Humor, Speaking Engagements, Tech News

Every year, the Environmental Defense Fund produces a report highlighting businesses that have implemented new, environmentally innovative technologies, policies and practices.

The environmental issues reviewed by the EDF include those related to e-waste, data centers, chemicals & green chemistry, green building, packaging, renewable energy, supply chain management and water.

Nearly 200 candidates were assessed against the following four criteria:

Environmental Benefits: To what extent does the innovation generate one or more of the following environmental benefits?

  • Greenhouse gas emissions reduced (e.g., carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide)
  • Energy use reduced or efficiency increased
  • Hazardous pollutant releases to air, water or land reduced
  • Environmental health risks reduced
  • Solid waste reductions, materials use reduced or efficiency increased
  • Supplier behavior influenced, resulting in environmental benefits
  • Natural resources (land, water or wildlife) protected or restored
  • Employee or consumer behavior influenced, resulting in environmental benefits

Business Benefits: To what extent does the innovation present a solid business case and generate one or more of the following business benefits?

  • Cost savings
  • Increased revenues or earnings
  • Reduced liability or risk
  • Return on investment/payback period
  • Market creation
  • Investment attractiveness
  • Employee retention or recruitment
  • Benefits for customers
  • Brand/reputation enhancement

Replicability: Is the innovation ripe for wider replication? Factors include:

  • Applicability to more than one business sector or in wide-reaching business areas, like retail, manufacturing or office environments
  • Commercial availability
  • Stage of development (at least tested at the pilot stage and ready to be taken to scale)

Innovativeness:

  • Is the innovation original or does it provide a new twist on an existing practice?
  • Is it not yet in widespread use?
  • Has it yet to be widely discussed and documented?

One of the businesses in the report this year is Google, recognized for implementing technologies to make their data centers consume a lot less energy. Details on the greening of Google’s data centers can be found here: Google Efficient Computing.

Big, bulky PC’s and laptops are being replaced with lower-cost, lower energy, thin models. These lean machines require fewer materials, and offer a longer life. Wyse, a Thin Technology leader, was featured in the report.

Also showcased in the IT category is power management software created by 1E. Power management software allows company’s to reduce operating costs and lower their carbon footprint by closing open documents and powering down computers at night (to whatever state desired).

The company has posted an online calculator that determines how much money can be saved annually by powering down computers: 1E’s Online Energy Savings Calculator. Here is a pretty startling fact from their studies:

“If all the world’s 1 billion PC’s were powered down for just one night – it would save enough energy to light up New York City’s Empire State Building – inside and out – for more than 30 years.”

In the hotel industry, the Marriott and the Westin were recognized for installing key-card enabled energy management systems for their guest rooms. More commonly found in Europe and Asia, hotel rooms powered by key-cards save energy by ensuring that guest rooms are not lit, cooled or heated when unoccupied.

The full copy of the EDF report can be read online: EDF Innovations Review 2009.

Of course, going green is not just for businesses. Doing something as simple as eating vegetarian one day a week can lower the greenhouse gas emissions that arise each year from meat production. Some really good tips for families can be found here: Family Guide to Going Green 2009.

Although the concept of going green was introduced in 1987 (with the Bruntland Commission Report), and Earth Day originated way back in 1970, it’s just in recent years that the ideas of sustainability are becoming mainstream. Companies that have taken the time and made the effort and financial investment to go green benefit tremendously from reduced operating costs and an improved public image. Plus, they have gained a competitive edge over companies who have not made any innovations. So, Green companies win, the Earth wins, we all win.