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Web Tours 101
by Marc Saxe
We've been generating guests from Internet promotions into resorts for a few years now,
and there are a few basics and tips necessary to make these programs work. I'll cover a few this week, and a few
more as we go forward.
There are a number of purposes for a project or resort company to have a web site, or multiple web sites. Knowing
your purpose, or purposes should make it possible to generate highly literate, upscale, mid to high-income prospects
to your project, in a relatively cost effective way. Without trying to sound condescending, NOT knowing your purpose,
or purposes when developing your site or sites, can doom your web programs to dismal results.
If you look at the possible purposes you can have for your web presence, you can easily get an idea of how "mixed"
your message can be. Here are a few of the basic purposes for having a web site:
1) Company Credibility
2) Product Credibility
3) Investor Relations
4) Product Information
5) Member/owner Information
6) Member/owner Service
7) Referral Generation
8) New Prospect Generation
9) Contact Management
10) Direct Product Sales
11) Local and Regional Promotion
There are more. Most early work to generate prospects and sales from the web has resulted in costly development
of "Single Site" Company or Resort sites. These sites are designed to accommodate as many of the above
purposes as is functionally and economically possible. In doing so, companies have limited their ability to gather
leads targeted to promotional tours and talking face to face with the sales team. It may make the investors and
executives happy to see such fine art and design out in the WWW world, but it's done little to get the tour through
the door.
Let's talk about what does.
When you are using the web to generate prospects to your door, you need to have one and only one primary purpose
for your web presence - that is TO GENERATE QUALIFIED GUESTS. Period. No more, no less.
As such, your "Tour Promotion" sites need to be viewed as doing the same functions and steps that all
your other "Tour Generation" activities perform. They sell the tour… not the product. You can ask any
OPC Representative, OPC Manager, Telemarketing Representative, or Telemarketing Manager how to get the tour. They
will all say, "Sell the Tour, Not the Deal". It is no different on the web.
Your "Tour Promotion" web site or sites must do the same things that your OPC program, direct mail, telemarketing
operations do. And, if you want tours from them - Nothing More. The old adage about K.I.S.S. is ultra important
in getting tours from the web.
If your "Tour Generation" web site is anything more than an OPC booth or direct mail package in virtual
space, then you're going to miss the mark. If it is phrased in anything other than compelling, direct response
copy, accompanied with exciting, involving photos and graphics, go back and re-read this article from the beginning.
"Tour Producing" web sites are nothing more than glorified direct mail campaigns, or exhibit/OPC programs.
The only difference is the location… in virtual space.
The old advertising and sales acronym, AIDA spells out what needs to be done:
- 1) Get the prospect's Attention
2) Gain the prospect's Interest
3) Increase the prospect's Desire
4) Lead the prospect to Action
Human nature did not disappear with the development of the Internet. The majority of Timeshare and Vacation
Ownership marketing appeals to the Greed factor in all of us, and hopefully in our clients. A good offer, with
a great hook gets Attention. The venue is different. People aren't. It still takes an offer to perk up their attention.
Don't skimp.
Do you place the Offer where Interested Prospects are congregating? If not, the Offer itself won't cut it. Virtual
space is virtually unlimited. There are so many place to be that your guest isn't looking, it's easy to make mistakes
and miss them by a terrabyte or two..
Your Offer must be on the Beaten Path that your prospects are walking. An example that can be easily illustrated
is: Would you send a direct mail package for a resort in Vail to people in Vermont? Obviously not often. You must
be on the path. If you're an Orlando resort, you want your Offer where people are interested in Orlando. KISS.
You can create desire and enthusiasm for participation with active and involving copy, graphics and photographs.
Look at your best direct mail package. Look at your film or video. Involve your prospects. Get them excited about
the location, the activities, the getaway, the relaxation, the fun, the food, the excitement and the romance. Sell
the getaway experience. Don't just let it sit there like a fish in the ocean. Sell it. Look at your direct mail
copy. Sell the getaway experience and that great offer - not the project. You'll have plenty of time to sell the
project, after they arrive to look at it.
Get the prospect to take action by using active voice copy. Direct their attention to your offer, and reservation
forms. Put nothing in their way. Don't let them off the hook with some click through about how great your company
is, or all the fantastic other properties you have. Sell the Tour. Move them to the close and point them to your
reservation request form, at every possible point in the process. Once they open the letter, i.e. your micro tour
site - make it compelling. Move them along. Get them to take action. Do it with your words. Keep it light. Keep
it easy. Keep them in it. Keep it moving.
We have found that very simple, small, "kiosk-like" sites work best. We use a proprietary network of
links, ads, targeted opt-in lists and more along the "Beaten Path", coupled with compelling offers to
get the prospect to "open the mail" and preview your offer. The offer has the same level of detail of
a good direct mail campaign, OPC presentation or Telemarketing presentation. No more. No less. We get their attention,
capture the interest, create the desire and direct the action.
As a reminder, all of the caveats of any cross-state marketing campaign are in order and need to be rigorously
obeyed. State registration regulations do apply. Have your legal council involved in review of all copy prior to
posting it. But if you do your work right, the Beaten Path will be frequented primarily by prospects from registered
states. "Terms and Conditions", "Legal Disclosures", and "Eligibility Qualifications"
can be used to sort out the qualified, registered-state prospect from all the others. It's up to your reservation
staff to handle the details. Adequate training and constant supervision are necessary to make sure that everyone
is on board. Depending on your "reveal" strategy, you have the opportunity to disclose all relevant information
about the tour somewhere in the web promotion. When you do this, you can virtually eliminate any possible misunderstanding
about the promotion on the web, prior to contact with your reservations staff. The guest understands the offer,
and the requirements. As in print marketing programs, the question of how much to reveal about the offer before
the guest responds, and when to reveal it is a matter of art, science, strategy, opinion and ethics.
Please understand that this information applies to sites designed, and implemented specifically to generate tours.
These types of "micro-sites" are not there to accomplish much toward the other purposes that a web site
can achieve. They should not contradict your other purposes, but they don't have to achieve them. Much like an
OPC booth is there to generate tours but not necessarily to provide information to your investors, your "tour
generation micro-site" is there to generate tours and to not necessarily provide information to your investors,
too. Understand your objective. Keep it simple and do what you already know works to generate tours in an OPC or
direct mail format. You'll add some relatively low cost tours to your mix.
A little word about the Guest and how we get them: This Guest is a bit different than the one that responds to
other types of promotions. Our proprietary network of links is designed so that you are not generating people looking
specifically for timeshare places to get a good vacation package - a.k.a. "professional guests". We don't
want to give a really hungry guest a list of all the places they can dine for free, so to speak. If your link campaign
is improperly placed, that's who you'll be talking to. We do go after people looking for specific areas to travel.
The Beaten Path. That way, they are more interested in the area. When we make them an offer… it gets their attention.
Where they see the link works exactly like OPC. Once they click in, it's exactly like direct mail. You know this
business.
You can find statistics on the cross section of web surfers in a lot of places. The profile is upscale, information
resource savvy, knowledgeable, better educated, relatively more intelligent, higher than average income, etc..
A lot goes along with this picture. They are typically more analytical, and require a representative who can work
with them patiently, answer questions, and create a strong value proposition during the tour. They are not the
guests who are going to get pushed into a deal in 45 minutes, based solely on first day incentives, and a property
tour. Staff and train accordingly and the sell through will be tremendous.
In a nutshell, there are three keys to make web based micro tour generation sites work:
- 1) Be On Purpose - No More, No Less
2) Keep it Simple - Attention, Interest, Desire and Action
3) Staff and Train Accordingly
You can check out a sample of our work at http://www.resortopportunities.com/angelfire/index.html.
Call us at (760)773-2170 if you have any questions about micro tour generation sites, and our proprietary network
to drive business.
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