Archive for August, 2010

Test Tubes

Do you test?

0
1 year ago
by Eric Hoffman in

Test TubesBy asking “Do you test?” I mean, do you do A/B or multivariate testing online – whether it’s on your website, email, online ads or social networks? I know that we’re all busy with various projects, writing content, updating backends and the like, but testing is a sure fire way to show that you’re doing your job as an online marketer by demonstrating that what might seem like simple changes can really make a difference to a stated goal.

A wonderful website to see the impact of online teting is a website called Anne Holland’s Which Test Won? One of my favorite tests from the site is one in which Delta tested a form vs a grid, this one was a bit obvious to me (particularly as a fairly frequent user of the Delta website), but there are tons more, along a new test to guess at each week.

As I’ve mentioned before, I look at this blog as a way to test various ideas for myself. An example of this is my posting schedule which I upped to once every other day earlier this summer. I’ve noticed that this has provided more views as well as more RSS views, but it’s still been limited to Monday through Friday with minimal traffic on the weekends. This isn’t unexpected as the topics I cover are ones that I think are more relevant to the work week. So, I’ve recently changed to posting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see if this schedule makes for more consistent traffic. Guess what this is – A TEST! :) We’ll see how it does in another month or so…I’m predicting the three posts per week schedule will have more consistent readership than once every other day – what do you think?!

Photo credit: Flickr user Horia Varlan
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The PhoCusWright Conference

The Resort Marketing Blog is Going on the Road

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1 year ago
by Eric Hoffman in

There’s going to be a lot of cutting edge travel news and information coming to this blog in mid-November. That’s because I’ll be blogging from The PhoCusWright ConferenceThe PhoCusWright Conference in Phoenix on November 16-18. The best part is that I’ve been chosen to take part in their New Media Summit in which PhoCusWright offers accredited travel industry bloggers special access to all parts of the conference. I’m excited and humbled to see my name on a list of travel and tourism bloggers that I have been reading and learning from for years, including Tim Hughes, Jessica Spiegel, Stephen Joyce and many many more.

I haven’t attended a PhoCusWright event yet, but I’ve heard and read many wonderful things about them, and I see that they’re promoting a chance to get $500 off the conference registration fee simply by leaving a comment on their Chaos Calls video page. If you’re still not convinced, take a peak at the full conference schedule and then tell me that this doesn’t look like a kick butt event – I hope to see you in Phoenix in November!

Travel2dot0 Social Cheat Sheet

Travel2dot0 Social Cheat Sheet for Tourism Marketers

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1 year ago
by Eric Hoffman in

Travel2dot0 Social Cheat SheetI’ve been a loyal reader of the Travel2dot0 blog for about the past two years – definitely subscribe to it if you haven’t already. Recently, I’ve been interested to see that Troy Thompson, one of the two main contributors, has recently started his own consultancy business. While I’ve never had the opportunity to meet Troy in person, we have corresponded numerous times and I have certainly been impressed with his breadth and depth of knowledge and interest in marketing for travel and tourism entities.

With Travel2dot0′s move into consulting, Troy has written up a helpful PDF, called “The Social Cheat Sheet for the Tourism Marketer“, on which he lists a large number of social networks that tourism marketers should be aware of . I think that all major social networks relevant to tourism marketers are on this list, although a few second tier networks that could be included on an updated list could be:

Of course, the biggest thing to remember in terms of social, is that social media is only another tool to accomplish your goals, if you don’t clearly define your goals and strategy then using one of these new and shiny tools won’t amount to anywhere near as much as it otherwise could. Aside from this, which everyone needs to decide for on their own, this “Cheat Sheet” does a wonderful job of defining the uses of each SocNet for tourism marketers – well done Troy!

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