This tutorial will show you how to import your contact or guest database into iLaunch to utilise for email marketing campaigns or newsletters for your property. You can even create specific groups if you wish to segment your contacts.

Importing CSV Files
You need to firstly ensure that your guest database is an excel file, exported from Hirum, Ezy Rez etc. This then needs to be saved as a CSV file. You can choose this option when you go to save any Excel Spreadsheet:

• Tick the ‘Ignore duplicate emails’ box
• Tick preview only, to see if there are any addresses that need fixing eg. ash@//mail.com
• Leave ‘Create Groups in the file that already exist’ ticked
• Only tick ‘Replace with blank group with:’ if you are importing contacts to a certain group
  eg. October 2013 Guests. (Instructions on how to add a ‘group’ are below)
• Click ‘Import contact list’

Related pages and blog posts:
– How To Use Newsletter Campaigns in iLaunch
– Achieving Greater Email Marketing
– iLaunch Content Management System

Because the product’s initial feed of data was collected from sites like Yelp.com, online travel agencies and GDS representation companies, it’s highly likely that your property is already listed in Google Hotel Finder. If it isn’t, here’s want you need to do to get listed: 

Get listed on Google Hotel Finder 

The first step is to create a Google+ Local page for your hotel. This page will integrate guest reviews and local search into one platform – just think of it as your property’s main brand page for all things Google. 

Simply search "Google+ Local" on Google Australia to get started. 

Once you have registered, your Google+ Local page will hold all your hotel’s basic data – including name, description, photographs, and website URL – ready for Hotel Finder to pick up. 

In order to get Google Hotel Finder to hold dynamic information like rates and availability, you’ll need to either get your property listed with one of the online travel agencies that display ads on Google, or use one of the GDS service providers that already supply the Hotel Finder product with data. See here for a list of GDS and OTAs currently connected to Google Hotel Finder. 

Once these steps are completed, Google Hotel Finder will pick up your hotel description from your Google+Local page, retrieve your rate and availability info from an online travel agency or GDS service provider, and your property will be listed on Google Hotel Finder!   

Editing your listing

It’s important to note that although Hotel Finder collected your hotel’s info from several different sources, if you’d like to edit any of your basic static data, you’ll need to do it through your Google+Local page.

So, if you’d like to change up your property images, add something new to your description or correct a phone number or email address, simply login to your Google+Local page and tweak the listing until you’re pleased with how it will appear on Google Hotel Finder. 

If your hotel is not already taking advantage of Google+ Local as a valuable marketing tool, the launch of Google Hotel finder means now’s the time to get onboard. Take the time to make your Google+ Local page stand out as much as possible with detailed information, photos, customer reviews and videos to ensure your property gets noticed in Google Hotel Finder, and get a head start on your competition!  

For eTourism Boost Direct clients we're planning to manage these pages on your behalf. Here you will find more information about the Boost Direct Marketing Strategy. 

What are campaign tags?  

Campaigns tags are extra data that is added to links. Each time the link is clicked; information is transferred to Google Analytics, where you can analyze the success of individual links included in your emails.  

Why you need tags

Say you launched an email marketing campaign in March and April without campaign tags. The Referring Sites Report in Google Analytics will only show you visitor stats from web-based email clients such as Yahoo! and Gmail. 

But did these visitors end up on your website because of the March or April email campaign? Which was more effective? Without campaign tags, there’s no way of knowing. All of the visitors who arrived on your site after clicking a link in your email will be filed under Direct Traffic and therefore lumped in with visitors who typed your site’s URL into their browser or used their bookmarks.  

How to generate Campaign Tags

You can use the Google Analytics URL Builder to generate tagged links for your email marketing campaigns quickly and easily. Simply type in the name of your campaign (eg Email Promo May 2012), the Campaign Source (your resort’s name) and the Campaign Medium (email) and Google will create the links for you.  

It’s important that you’re consistent with the names you give your tags. For example, if you enter the Campaign Source as Resort Name, Resort+Name and resort-name for three different emails, the site will assume you are using three separate sources. Don’t forget to generate new tagged links for each email campaign you create so you can track and compare the success of campaigns over time.  

That’s it! Have you tried using Campaign Tags to track your email marketing campaigns?

Other Related Posts

• Here you can learn how to use Newsletter Campaigns in the iLaunh Content Management System
• Why List Segmentation Is Crucial To Your Resorts Email Marketing Campaign
• Six Steps For Successful Email Subject Lines
• Learn How to Personalise your Email Marketing Campaign

“Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines’ "natural," or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic"), search results. “- from Wikipedia 

In plain English, SEO is generally a number of techniques or processes used to optimise a website and give it the best chance to be seen in search engines like Google or Bing. 

Many times, there are some fundamental elements missing which can structure a website for search engines to understand and follow what the website is about. 

Here are the SEO basics we find important to address and maintain on all websites:

1. Page Title 

The Page Title is used to define the name of the page and should be included on every page. 

The contents of this tag are usually shown as the title in search engine results and the visitor’s browser. It is generally good practice to keep this information simple and consisting of only relevant words to name the page – often this can match the main heading on the page. A good way to select an appropriate Page Title is to anticipate the primary search terms that a visitor would use to get to the page. 

Page Title Tips  

• Ensure every page has a Page Title
• Each Page Title within the website should be unique
• Avoid over-stuffing the Page Title with keywords – keep it brief and relevant
• Depending on anticipated search queries, the business name or location may be used in conjunction with other primary keywords
• Use punctuation such as the hyphen (-) or comma (,) to visually break up wording to improve user readability / visual appeal in search results
• Keep the Page Title under 70 characters (including spaces) 

2. Meta Description 

The Meta Description should be used in conjunction with the Page Title to further explain the information being delivered to visitors. The contents of this tag should be a brief summary of your page’s content, consisting of any relevant keywords. 

There are some cases that search engines will automatically use content from within the page if there is no Meta Description defined, or if the search engine believes that it can generate a better description of your page. This highlights the importance of ensuring the tag is completed correctly. 

Meta Description Tips

• Ensure every page has a Meta Description
• Each Meta Description within the website should be unique
• Avoid overstuffing the Meta Description with keywords – keep it relevant
• Keep main keywords near the start of the Meta Description – Some search engines will clip the text if it exceeds a certain number characters
• Use punctuation such as the hyphen (-) or comma (,) to visually break up wording to improve user readability / visual appeal in search results
• Keep the Meta Description under 150 characters (including spaces)

3. Content Header Tags 

Content Heading Tags (example, H1, H2, H3… etc) should be used appropriately to section content. H1 tags are the most valuable to the page and are generally similar to the Page Title to reinforce the keywords or main purpose of the page. Header tags make the page easier to read visually, but also can influence search engines in the way they are served content. 

Header Tag Tips

• Only use one H1 tag on each page
• Don’t skip tags (example, only using H1 and H4)
• Don’t overuse header tags – only use them as needed in relation to the content on the page

4. Image Alt Tags 

Image Alt Tags should be used to describe the image, not the website, in a text version to help search engines understand and read what the image is. These tags are also used for visitors unable to view the image, or visitors using a screen-reader if they are visually impaired. 

Image Alt Tags

• Keep the Image Alt Tag short, simple and descriptive
• Don’t include an Image Alt Tag if it is used for layout or design purposes (include an empty alt tag attribute instead)
• If the image contains text, use this in the Image Alt Tag

5. Content 

Content is King on the Internet and in relation to SEO it should be original, well-written and most importantly, relevant. It is important to write Content for the website visitor first, then make appropriate modifications which may assist with the SEO aspect of the website. 

Content Tips

• Include but do not overuse keywords within the page Content (keywords should be naturally occurring throughout the text)
• Ensure a spell and grammar check has been completed on all Content
• Link to local pages or external websites that may be relevant to the textKeep content up-to-date
• Keep content fresh with regular news or blog posts

Building Your Contact Database

Before you send out your campaign, you need some people to send it to.  This is where the contacts section comes into play.

Your contact database can be populated in a number of ways:

• People who subscribe through your website
• Add contacts manually in the admin panel
• Import a list of subscribers from a CSV file

You can also export your contacts out of the system for example to import into excel.

Contacts can have a number of fields associated with them.   At the very least every contact needs an email address, but you can also provide additional information such as where they are located, and other demographic details such as gender and age. The purpose of this information is that you can use it to filter your contact list prior to sending a campaign, and also for viewing how your campaign performed across a demographic.

Your first campaign

OK, so you’ve built up this impressive list of contacts, and now it’s time to email them an update about your wonderful resort.  Proceed to the iLaunch Admin panel to get started:

Click on Newsletters > Add Campaign in the side menu.  You will be prompted to enter some information about your campaign:

Adding a campaign

1. Campaign Name – This is your internal name for the campaign.  Enter a few words which describes the campaign (eg. Spring special 2012).

2. Subject – This is what the client will see when your campaign arrives in their inbox.  Keep it relevant, appealing, and avoid too much punctuation. For more tips on subjects, view this article

3. Template – The template defines the look and feel of your campaign.  All iLaunch websites come with a standard  template, but if you ask us to, we can build you a special template (eg. Easter theme, Romantic theme).  If in doubt, just choose the Standard Template.

4. Content – This is where you let it rain. Good content is brief, and enticing.  If your campaign has any point at all then it is probably to get the recipient to perform some kind of action (such as make a booking).  So keep this in mind as you prepare your content.

Click on Add to Contacts to proceed to the next section (your campaign wont be sent until the last step).

Add Contacts to Your Campaign

OK our campaign is created and we just need to decide who gets it. The Contacts section of your campaign prompts you to add one or more of your existing contacts to the domain.

You may have an enormous database of contacts… or depending on how things are going – just your mum, dad and a close cousin. Regardless, selecting and finding contacts if very easy.

There are a range of filters that you can use to find the contacts you want to add.  Use the filters to sort contacts based on groups, email address, by name, or by demographic and click the Filter Results button to return only those contacts.

Then you can simply click the Add All Results button, or you can tick only the individual results you would like to add and click Add Selected Results button.

You can repeat this multiple times.  For example, you might want to add your 30-40 year olds but you may also want to add contacts in a special group you’ve created called “Business Professionals”.  In this instance, first filter your list by entering 30 and 40 in the Age Range filter, and click Filter Results.  Then you can simply click Add all Results.  Next, you can change the Group filter to “Business Professionals” and repeat.

Don’t worry, it’s smart enough that the same contact won’t be added twice even if you have business professionals in the 30-40 age range.

As you add contacts they will appear in the Selected Contacts tab:

Once you’ve added all the selected contacts you would like to, we need to send a test email to make sure our campaign looks ok.  

Testing, testing, testing

You can’t send out your campaign to your contact list until you have tested it, because once you’ve sent it there is no undo button.

To send a test click on the Testing tab at the top of the campaign:

In this area you will be prompted to enter one or more comma separated email addresses which will receive the test email.  Put in your email here, an optional name for the test, and click Send Test

Check your emails in a few minutes and the test should have arrived. Check over everything and  if it’s fine you can move on to the next step. Otherwise go back to the Campaign Overview and fix up your content.

Send it out!

Now that you’ve created your campaign, added contacts, and performed a test send, you’ll notice that a new tab appears called “Send or Schedule”.

In this area, you can send the campaign immediately, or enter a later date and time for your campaign to be sent.

If you’re the impatient type, click Send Campaign Now.

The snappy snapshot

So you’re campaign is “out there” (somewhere) amongst your contacts but whose reading it? The snapshot tab of the campaigns area shows an overview of all the contact activity on your campaign.  You can see how many of your subscribers have read it at the current time as well as bounces, unique views, and click throughs.

The timeline shows you over the current length of your campaign when activity occurred.  Two additional tabs called Link Statistics provide a more detailed list of the links and bounces generated by your campaign.

You can also look back through the contact tab which will be updated periodically to show fine-grained detail of which users viewed your campaign and some details about the activity such as their email client and basic location details.

Other Related Posts

• Why List Segmentation Is Crucial To Your Resorts Email Marketing Campaign
• Learn How To Track your Email Marketing Campaigns in Google Analytics
• Six Steps For Successful Email Subject Lines
• Learn How to Personalise your Email Marketing Campaign

In the eTourism Content Management System, iLaunch, we include a blogging module which enables you to publish articles to your website, and allow your customers to comment and interact with you.  The problem with a blog article is that when you publish, you need a way to tell your audience about it so they know to come and read your masterpiece. 

There are a number ways to let your audience know:

• Newsletters
• RSS Feeds
• Social Media 

Newsletters

One problem with sending out a fancy newsletter, is that you would be ideally publishing blogs as frequently as you have useful information and updates – and your customers are likely to become disinterested (or even frustrated) if they receive too many emails from you. 

RSS Feeds

It is estimated that 11-20% of users now use RSS feeds (even if they aren’t aware of this).  This means they use an application, device, or website (such as Google Reader) to automatically pull content from their favourite sources.  The iLaunch blog module has RSS built-in, so we’ve got that covered.  When you write a new article, any of your RSS subscribers will automatically receive the updated content.

Social Media

Another great way (and the focus of this article), is to use social media. Once you’ve setup your Facebook page, and Twitter account, you can “connect” them to your iLaunch system, and easily notify your followers and fans whenever you write something.

Luckily for you, connecting up your accounts with iLaunch involves clicking a couple of buttons in the administration panel.

Connecting to Twitter and Facebook

Once logged into your administration panel, proceed to the Settings area (click on the menu option on the left), and a little further down the page, you will find the options to connect your facebook and twitter account under the Social Media section:

To enable your Twitter account: 

Navigate down to the Social Media section on your Settings page, and Click on the Connect To Twitter button, and a new window will appear asking you to authorise iLaunch to communicate with your Twitter account. Click the [Sign In] button.

If you aren’t already signed in, then Twitter will ask you for your username and password.  And you’re done! Twitter is now connected to your account, set the “Broadcast to Twitter” option to Yes and Twitter can be used as a broadcast medium. 

To enable your Facebook account: 

In the same section of your settings, click on the Connect to Facebook button.  A popup window will be displayed asking you to verify to Connect to Facebook. Click on the button.If you are not logged in you will be prompted to login and allow iLaunch to publish to your account.

If you are an administrator of multiple facebook pages, you will be prompted to select the page you would like to broadcast do. Again, you’re done, Facebook is now connected. Set the “Broadcast to Facebook” option to Yes 

Now what …

That was exhausting wasn’t it? Have a coke.

Now that you’re connected and caffeinated, you won’t have to do that again (unless you want to connect it to a different account) – iLaunch will stay connected until you tell it not to.

To broadcast your blogs, all you have to do is Tick the publish option when adding a new blog, and aside from being published to your website, it will also be broadcast to any of your connected accounts. 

You can also click the Broadcast button when modifying an existing blog if you want to send out another notification.

Sign Up 

As it stands, Pinterest is “invite only.” To sign up, you need to either click on the red “Request an invite” button on the Pinterest website and enter an email address, or ask a friend who’s already on board to send you an invitation. Your invitation will arrive with a link; click on it and you’ll be asked to use either your Twitter or Facebook account to sign in. The profile image from your resort’s Twitter or Facebook profile will become your Pinterest account image, but you will need to create a separate account name, password and link an associated email address.  

Pick Your Topics of Interest 

When you sign in for the first time, you’ll be asked to choose a few topics of interest so Pinterest can suggest the kind of users you might like to follow. Choose some topics from the 28 categories, then hit the blue “Follow People” button to start following people and businesses related to your topic selection.   

Create Boards 

You’ll then be presented with a choice of standard pinboards to pick from, including “Products I Love”, “Books Worth Reading” and many more. To create your own, click the “Add” button and type in a custom name of your choosing. These will be the Boards that you ‘pin’ pictures to. 

You can add as many Boards as you like. It’s also possible to edit the Board titles or delete them completely. Next, allow other Pinterest members to interact with your content by clicking “Edit” at the bottom of your Board. Select the “Who can pin?” option and switch from “Just Me” to “Me + Contributors.” You need to follow a minimum of one Board by another Pinterest member before you can add him or her to your list of contributors.  

Start Pinning

After you’ve created a few Boards, you’ll be asked to install the “Pin It” bookmarklet in your browser’s bookmarks bar. Whenever you find an image on a website you would like to add to one of your Boards, click the Pin It button and Pinterest will load a grid of thumbnails displaying all the images on the website that are available to pin. 

Hover over your selected image and hit the “Pin This” button to pin to your Board. You’ll then be asked to select the Board you want to pin the image to from a menu of all the Boards connected to your Pinterest account. Choose the appropriate Board, type in an image description and click the red “Pin It” button.  A pop up will appear to confirm your pin and give you the option to share it via Twitter or Facebook.  

Social Sharing

Next, it’s time to get involved with the all important “social-sharing” aspect of the site that has marketers so excited. Use the search bar in the top left corner to search on keywords of interest – you can filter your results by choosing “Pins” “Boards” or “People.” You can choose to follow individual Boards, or all the Boards created by a Pinterest member you’re particularly interested in. 

You can show your appreciation for an individual image using either the Facebook Like button at the side of the page or Pinterest’s own Like button and you can tweet the image to your followers or even “Repin” the image to one of your own boards. 

Those of you that already have a Facebook, Twitter or Google + account for your resort should get into the swing of Pinterest very quickly. 

Pinterest’s clever mix of social sharing and visual blogging has won it approximately 13 million users worldwide and its membership base is growing daily. Sign up today and see what this much hyped visual platform has to offer your resort.   

Last Wednesday, Facebook launched a bunch of new features around Timeline for Pages, giving Page administrators the ability to upgrade to the Timeline redesign now or wait until forced in 30 days. There are a number of changes that will affect your hotel’s brand so let’s explore how the changes can be used to benefit your resort.

Activate Timeline – 30 Day Preview

Facebook has provided a 30 day curation period for Adminstrators to review the new design, everyone else, including your fans, will see the old design. You can however, skip the 30 day curation period and force the changeover by selecting the “Publish Now” button. 

To preview the new timeline visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/status/ and select the appropriate pages for preview. 

The new Cover – the biggest design change

Cover is the biggest aesthetic change to your Page. The Timeline now includes a large 851 x 315 pixel banner across the top of your Page.   Here’s what Facebook’s Product Director of Ads Gokul Rajaram had to say to Josh Constine of TechCrunch “goal is to symbolize what an organization is all about. For a restaurant it could be a popular menu item, a band could display album cover art, and a business could show a picture of their customers using their product.” 

There are some restrictions on what Covers can’t include – calls to actions like “like this page”, “like this page to enter competition”, pricing information, specials, discounts etc. Covers are also restricted form including contact information including your website address. Rajaram says “brands have been very positive because they don’t want to be seen as overly promotional – it’s a turnoff.” Our suggestion is to select a good high quality image that represents your resort or destination. It’s possible to design a Cover to match the branding of your website and reduce the gap between the look and feel of your resorts Facebook page and website.  

About your Resort

Your Page’s standard profile picture is now displayed under the Cover. This area will also include your total Likes and the number of “people talking about this”. To the left of this shows a description for brands or an address and contact information for local businesses. If you are a brand be sure to check that the About description is copied across correctly from the old design. When testing this functionality there seem to be a problem re-using the existing About information.  

Page Apps

Now this is a change we are disappointed about. Using the old design we could force new visitors to an app which displayed a custom designed pages like Gold Coast Accommodation. Using this feature we would direct new fans to a page with certain call to actions. With the new Timeline we are no longer able to direct users to an App. This means custom Apps for your contests, promotions, games, media, coupons, and signup widgets may receive much less engagement from users who find their way to your Page. 

In the old design App’s were listed on the left navigation sidebar but have now been moved to the right within the About section under the Cover. There is now only 4 main positions under the Cover above the fold and two are used by Photo’s and the Page’s Like stats. Be sure to prioritise your apps accordingly. You can order the position of the apps by selecting the edit option when hovering over the appropriate App.

Messages 

The new Timeline design includes new Facebook Messaging functionality for your Fans to contact your Page privately. Hopefully this will provide an avenue for guests to communicate complaints with you privately instead of using the public wall. This will potentially be a good tool for customer service. 

Highlights Feed 

When your guests visit your Resorts Page, they will see stories published by your Page, by their friends, and stories from other users that have received a lot of Likes, comments, and shares. This is much different than the dedicated Page-only and other users-only feeds from the old design. A Timeline navigation bar on the left lets users jump to different years in a brand’s history. 

Since random user posts that aren’t necessarily positive could appear on your resorts Timeline, the Highlights feed presents branding risks. There is an option to restrict posts being published directly to your Page that can be set by editing the page in Admin. If you do see a negative post that you would like to remove hover over the post and select hide or delete.  

Pinned Posts 

With the new Timeline you can now pin one of your resorts best posts. This will ensure new fans of your Page are seeing your posts before other posts added to your wall.      

Composer 

In addition to traditional status, photo, video, and question updates, you can now select to publish special Milestone stories. These milestones might include a completion date of developer or when your resort was launched – founded, started or opened. Once you set the previous milestone you will be able to set customised milestones which might include records such as the number of bookings or the number of guests that have stayed, renovations, new features, securing the exclusive accommodation rights for an event, awards etc. When setting a milestone you are able to include Photo’s which is a good branding exercise.  

Admin Panel 

The administration area will now drop down appearing as an overlay over the the Timeline. To enter the administration area select the button “Admin panel” on the top right above the Cover. It displays notifications of recent activity such as posts to your Timeline by fans, a list of your most recent Page Message conversations, new Likes, and a snapshot of your Insights data including 

Google+  is reported to have 40 + million members, this is a considerable amount for a network only a few months old. As this network is relatively new it is unknown what weight Google Search will place on these Google+ pages, we recommend getting in now before your Hotels competitors do.

To follow are 5 easy steps to creating a Google+ Page for your Resort or Hotel. 

1. Select or Create a Gmail Account

You will need a Google Account to create a Google+ Page. Having recently gone through this process it is obvious Google+ is missing some significant administrative tools. If you plan on having multiple contributors or  administrators we recommend creating a shared Google Account, not using your personal Google Account, to be attached to this page. Currently only the Google Account attached to the Google+ Page can administer the Page. There is also currently no way to manage multiple pages from within one account. 

2. Create your Google+ Page

First, visit https://plus.google.com/pages/create. You should select the most appropriate category for your Resort – Local Business or Place. 

You will then need to enter;

• Country
• Phone Number
• Address
• Category – lodging
• Page Visibility – Any Google+ User
• Agree to terms and conditions

3. Update your Google+ Public Profile

Next step is to create your Resorts Google+ public profile. 

Tag-line – 10 words that describe your Resort. This might include the type of accommodation, location, star rating and type of guests you are looking for. E.g. Gold Coast 4 Star Family Accommodation located on the Beach. 

Then upload a upload your Resorts logo. 

Example taken from eTourism Google+ Page. 

4. Promote Your Resorts Page

You page has now been created. Spend sometime over the next few days posting updates, sharing information. Once you have some information available you can then look at promoting your page. Remember, no one wants to see a blank page. 

5. Whats next?

Congratulations! You have just created your Resorts Google+ Page. Follow the on page steps with adding more information and then promoting your page. Treat Google+ as you would any other social media page by sharing content, interacting with your fans and being open and honest. 

Whether you use it in addition to a page or as an alternative to one, Facebook’s subscribe feature can help you amass a sizeable audience for your public status updates.

The more subscribers your profile gets, the more you emerge as a thought leader, and the greater your ability to drive traffic gets. So here’s how to create a subscribe badge.

Get the full story at allfacebook