SOSTAC

SOSTAC is a planning model, originally developed in the 1990s to help with marketing planning by PR Smith, who is my co-author on E-marketing Excellence.

SOSTAC stands for:

• Situation – where are we now?
• Objectives – where do we want to be?
• Strategy – how do we get there?
• Tactics – how exactly do we get there?
• Action – what is our plan?
• Control – did we get there?

 

 Below is the SOSTAC model explained in details:

• Situation analysis, asks what the current state of the business is.
• Objectives, helps list an overview of goals for the business.
• Strategy helps provide a “big picture” plan to achieve the goals
• Tactics breaks down the “big picture” strategy into smaller details
• Action helps assign responsibility and deadlines for certain tasks
• Control offers an easy way to track the progress of the plan

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay Per Click (PPC) is a online advertising model in which payment is based on qualifying click-throughs.With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system. PPC "display" advertisements are shown on web sites or search engine results with related content that have agreed to show ads.

Pay-per-click (PPC) search marketing has revolutionized the way hospitality companies promote their websites. PPC campaigns are an extremely effective tool for garnering traffic for your website and increasing bookings. Paid search marketing is a targeted, cost-effective way to drive high-value customers to directly your site.With the cost-per-click option, you're only charged if people click your ads. This means every dollar of every budget goes toward bringing new prospects to you.

 

E-Mail Marketing

Email Marketing is the use of email in marketing communications. In its broadest sense, the term covers every email you ever send to a customer, potential customer or public venue. In general, though, it's used to refer to:

• Sending direct promotional emails to try and acquire new customers or persuade existing customers to buy again
• Sending emails designed to encourage customer loyalty and enhance the customer relationship
• Placing your marketing messages or advertisements in emails sent by other people

These three main forms of email marketing as the electronic equivalent of: direct mail,sending people a print newsletter and placing advertisements in subscription magazines and newspapers.

 

Why is email marketing so popular?

Email marketing is so popular because:

• sending email is much cheaper than most other forms of communication
• email lets you deliver your message to the people (unlike a website, where the people have to come to your message)
• email marketing has proven very successful for those who do it right

 

Why does email marketing make sense for hoteliers?

•      Low cost: Email is relatively inexpensive, pennies per email compared to $1 to $3 or more per direct mail.
•        Reach: Almost instant outreach to an expansive client base, one email blast can be equivalent to thousands of sales calls. 
•         Protects brand integrity: Enables promotion of the latest specials on a one-to-one basis to a pre-selected audience without announcing to the world the latest discounts.
•        Personalization: The recipient thinks this is a personalized invitation at a preferred customer rate.
•         Instant gratification: People are at their computers most of the day and can receive, respond, forward, and print email almost immediately.
•          Rich Media: Email marketing comes in various styles: text, e-Newsletters, HTML messages like a postcard or survey. The hotel gets its message across with sound, color, animation, video, whatever is most appropriate.
•        Results: Outcomes based, from knowing who opened the message, clicked on which links, how much time spent viewing each page, completed a transaction, or forwarded the email.

BLOGGING

Blog is a personal journal published at WWW. Blogs and social media has an important impact on businesses.

Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries, yet still others function more as online brand advertising  of a particular individual or company. 

 It is very important for a company to create a blog... Do you know why? 

 

 

 Here are some facts about blogging...

I would like to show you a good example of blog in Hospitality, Four Seasons Hotel.Have Family Will Travel is a blog, rich with the tales of writers who have seen the world with family in hand. A collection of experiences from families who have visited Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and family travel experiences of Four Seasons employees. Though their travels scatter across the globe, you will find all their stories and adventures gathered here in one place.

 

Blog Characteristics are:

• RSS Feeds
• Trapbacks
• Pingbacks
• Social Bookmarks

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Next,interesting topic is SEO the way to get your website to work best with different search engine.  It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have such results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users.
 Here is the short video about SEO.

I have found interesting article on best-seo-tips.net why SEO is important.


So Why it is Important?

"If you have just started your online business then it is very necessary that you get it search engine optimized. The big reality is that the internet has become a very cut-throat market place. There are almost thousands of web sites that are trying to get the attention of different visitors. Most of the sites are yet found from search engines according to many specialists and the issue is only nearly ten sites come in the first page if you enter a relevant keyword.
If your site is in the second page and not in the first page for that particular keyword then it does not get the traffic that it requires for becoming successful. Hence you must opt for SEO which is an efficient service, which helps your site accomplish top ranking at different search engines such as Google and Yahoo.
Hence SEO has huge importance in getting success in online business. It is only search engine optimization that makes your site visible in online business. It also explains why your site needs SEO. It is an ultimate need.
Other reasons behind why is SEO important are many. Almost 91% of internet users make use of search engines for navigating the web. Nearly 85% of search engine users neglect past the first forty results. 8 out of 10 searches are done by many people from the topmost search engines. 8 out of 10 searches are done from search engines such as Bing, Google and Yahoo. Nearly 77% of people who use internet make use of search engines very often as compared to other online media as a leading tool to find out different web links, e-mail links and surpassing banner ads."

 

 Great SEO tips for your site:

• You need to do a keywords research. It is one of the crucial steps in SEO campaign before you start. You need to completely research all of the keywords you wish to make use of. It makes a great difference in your stragety.
• Do not commit the mistake of using the similar Meta tags for each page. Meta tags must be perfect for every page. Even, ensure to make use of the keywords and write an effective title.
• The current trend favors ethical SEO; hence you need to create quality and unique content for different web pages so that users can easily navigate through them.
• You should avoid having low quality links. Rather than obtaining links from link farms, you should research status of those sites before getting links from them. You can use Alexa ranks to know the status of the website. It is the best way to check the popularity of the site and even the page rank of the site.
• Never overdo reciprocal links as reciprocal linking is valuable only if done in small number and if the links are related to your site. Even, ensure to have a diverse set of links including articles, blogs, forums and social bookmarking. Never use the links with the similar anchor text. There are many search engines that do not like links, which make use of the similar anchor text.
• You need to make website updates on regular basis. If you do not update your website regularly then it is of no use. You need to update latest news, current information and fresh content to your site on regular basis. Updating your site regularly is one of the best ways of catching the eye of search engine robots.
• You should look for your competitors. It is always best to know what other website owners doing on their site and what they are doing to get good quality links.
• You should design your site SEO friendly. You do not need to follow a set SEO strategy while designing a website. You should avoid heavy flash, plenty of graphics, as search engine robots crawl text but do not crawl images. The keys of getting success in online business is to make good meta tags for web pages and insert fresh and helpful content. If you are not designing your site and hiring somebody else to do that work then you need to search for an expert SEO and website designer.
• Make use of text links rather than images. Text links have great importance while making use of JavaScript as spiders do not follow JavaScript.
• You need to keep localization in your mind. Many advantages are there of reaching out to the local audience. Apart from getting local customers, including region-based keyword phrases will surely help you as you need to face less competition for that particular keyword.

 This tips are very interesting and helpful when you building the webpage. I hope you enjoyed the article!!!