Following our recent posts on Google Analytics, How to Evaluate Your Paid Listings in Five Minutes or Less, and How to Take Charge of Your Online Marketing Statistics, we presented two sessions on Google Analytics at the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) annual conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, in January, 2012.

The slide deck below is from the first session, Google Analytics – Beyond the Basics. Our other presentation, Measuring the Success of Your Online Marketing, was posted yesterday.

Below is the slide deck from the presentation. Below the deck is the link to the downloadable custom report (make sure you are logged in to your Google Analytics account, using the new GA, then click on the link and you should get the custom report in your list of Custom Reports. As mentioned at the presentation, the report assumes that your GA goal for Booking is Goal 1 (in Goalset 1) and your goal for Engagement is Goal 6 (the first goal in Goalset 2). You should modify the report to use your actual goals, if they are different.

If you only wanted the link to the custom report, called the Source Efficiency Analysis report, you will find it at http://goo.gl/Cx0VG.

As a follow-up to our recent posts on Evaluating Your Paid Listings and Taking Charge of Your Online Marketing, we presented two sessions on Google Analytics at the recent Innkeeping Conference for the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) at its annual conference in Little Rock, Arkansas.

At the conference, time made it necessary to hurry through some of the slides, near the end of the presentations, in particular. As a result, we are posting the slide decks here, so you can revisit them and copy down any necessary information, links, etc.

The first of these is the session called “Measuring the Success of Your Online Marketing”, and the slides are below.

Sometimes looking at your analytics data, you can get the information you need from just the referring source of the visitor to your website, or by using Advanced Segments to compare results from groups of referring sources. Sometimes you need more specific information than that will provide. Using Google Analytics, you can easily tag links to your website, so you can get different information about different sources, campaigns, etc., and learn more about what is working (and what is not!).

How can you get more specific information than the referral source?

The answer is to use the UTM variables available in Google Analtyics. Now, I can see your eyes glazing over, but don’t give up yet! We’ll see that it really can be quite a simple thing to do!

What are UTM variables?

UTM variables are put at the end of a URL, to give additional information to Google Analytics. For example, if we want to have a link from About the Inn to our Freeport Maine Bed & Breakfast, that identifies it as coming from this post, we could use the variable utm_source=AboutTheInnMarketingStats. The utm_source is the variable, telling Google Analytics to track the value we have created, “AboutTheInnMarketingStats” as a campaign (to GA, pretty much everything is a campaign).

If you use an email marketing service, like Constant Contact, MailChimp, or others, the links in your emails may be automatically tagged with information about that email (as a campaign). To find out, in GA, go to Traffic Sources -> Sources -> Campaigns. If you click on the Source/Medium link at the top of the list, you’ll see the sources and may find the email “campaigns” in that list.

There are several UTM variables available for us to use. The most common are utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign. You do not need to use all of them. You can use any of them you feel are helpful to identify how a visitor got to your website.

For example, suppose you send out two different emails in one month. One email goes to all prior guests, while the other goes only to guests who have stayed within the past year. You might use utm_medium=email for both mailings (to differentiate those visitors from others who come through other means), but use utm_source=allguests for the mailing to all guests, and utm_source=recentguests to identify the guests who have visited in the past year. If we mail to each of these groups every month, then we might also add to each of them utm_campaign=2012_January so we know they responded to the January 2012 email.

For another example, your analytics may show a number of visitors from Twitter (or Facebook, Pinterest, Foursquare, etc.). However, you ordinarily have no idea if the visitors came to you via the link in your profile, or from a link to your website in something you posted. To differentiate the link in your profile from other links from Twitter (or others), you can add utm_source=profile to the link in your profile.

OK, so how do we use these UTM variables?

You can type in the values yourself, which is not difficult at all, but Google has made it even easier, with a tool called URL Builder, which will set it up for you automatically.

We’ll show you first the manual way to use these variables, so you’ll be able to see what the URL should look like (and thereby be able to check for errors, typos, etc.). There are two versions – one where your link goes to a specific page, and one where you just link to a site (such as www.abouttheinn.com).

If you’re linking to a page, you add a question mark after the page address, then add your variables, with an ampersand (&) between each variable, like this:

http://www.brewsterhouse.com/facebook.html?utm_source=AboutTheInn&utm_medium=BlogPost&utm_campaign=MarketingStats

To link just to a site, you must end the domain name (the .com, .net, .org, etc.) with a forward slash (/) and then add the question mark, followed by the variables you want to use:

http://www.brewsterhouse.com/?utm_source=AboutTheInn&utm_medium=BlogPost&utm_campaign=MarketingStats

To build the same thing using Google’s URL Builder, we simply enter the page or site we want to link to, then add “AboutTheInn” in the Source field, add “BlogPost” to the Medium field, and “MarketingStats” to the Campaign Name field, and it generates the full URL for us, as the accompanying graphic shows.

When these links are inserted as links in a page, social media profile, or whatever, Google Analytics will track not only the referral source, but will identify the campaign, medium, or other variable that you include. The full list of UTM variables is provided in the Google Analytics help section on variables.

After setting up your links to use these variables, it may take a day or more, depending on how much traffic you receive from the sites you put the links on, to see results in your analytics. When they appear, you can view your Sources, Mediums, and Campaigns in most of the standard analytics reports, as well as in the Campaigns section, to identify how each campaign has performed, including how well they convert (using Goals and/or Ecommerce tracking).

When should you use UTM variables?

There is little value in using UTM variables to replace something you’re already getting. Consequently, replacing a referring source with utm_source=theSameSource will not provide new information.

Instead, use UTM variables to provide additional information – information you aren’t already getting. Two examples were given above (separating links from marketing emails by audience and date, and separating links from social media profiles from links in social media posts). If a B&B directory offers multiple links (perhaps an “Inn of the Month” link or a “Featured Inn” link) that can be different from the link in your general listing, a UTM variable (perhaps utm_medium) may be helpful to differentiate visits from that link.

Another use of UTM variables is to include them in the link built into a QR code. If you just use your home page as the URL in the QR code, you can not determine how many visitors came via the QR code. If you put utm_source=QRcode (or perhaps get even more detailed), you will have the ability to identify the source of those visitors.

Stopwatch by Casey Marshall

Segment Everything

Google Analytics ninja Avinash Kaushik points out the value of Advanced Segments, saying, “Segment everything.” This is great advice, and it is the approach we will use to clarify the results we see from our directories or paid listings. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Log in to your Google Analytics account, and click the Advanced Segments button near the top left.

2. To the bottom right of the new section which appears is a button reading “New Custom Segment” – click it.

3. Give the new segment a name that will help you identify it by filling in the Name field at the top.

4. Add the Source fields you want to include. This will be the domain names of the directories or paid listings you want to include. First set the green section to Source, then add the domain name to the directory to be included. Google Analytics will suggest domains from your existing Sources as you type.

5. Continue by adding “OR” statements, set the “dimension” (the green part) to Source for each additional Source directory you want to track.

6. If you want, you can test your segment by clicking the “Test Segment” button to see how many matches each of your conditions (sources, in this case) it matches.

7. Save the segment by clicking the Save button, and you’ll see your usual search results are now limited to only the sources listed in your new advanced segment. To turn it on or off, go to the Advanced Segments button and check (or un-check) the box next to the segment you want on or off.

If you want to create another segment for other paid listings, just create a new “Paid Listings” segment, and repeat the steps above.

Once you have the segments set, if you activate one or more, all your Standard reports will show the segmented information, so you’ll be able to see referrals from the paid listings and compare them to each other directly. You can also compare goal conversions and ecommerce data from one paid listing to another. Great information!

For more information, Google’s Help Center can provide more details on Advanced Segments and other topics of interest.

This is the fourth article in a series examining how B&B guests proceed through the decision process for booking a stay. Based largely on research from WIHP Hotel Marketing, the first article describes the four-step process for booking, the second describes how a guest discovers your property, and the third examines how to provide information to get the guest to your website. This article discusses how to get the conversion – to capture the booking – once the guest has come to your site.

What is the purpose of your website? Have you ever given that some thought? Is it to (a) show off your beautiful property, (b) get people to call you for more information, (c) get people to call to book, (d) get people to book online, or (e) other? For most lodging properties, we would venture to say that the primary purpose is to get people to book online, and, secondarily, to call to book. Is it doing those things well?

The Guest Arrives at Your Website

Our guest has decided where they want to go for their getaway, they have discovered your property (and, probably, up to 10 others), they have done some initial research and learned a little about your property, and have now arrived at your website. WIHP calls this the First Moment of Truth.

What happens in the next few seconds will determine whether you get the booking or not.

What is the Guest Looking For?

Again, WIHP’s research indicates that the prospective guest is looking for three things:

• Value
• Location
• Comfort

They also found two other things that are very important: Quality websites sell better, and better booking engine design results in more bookings.

How should your website be designed?

A search on “web design mistakes” will yield many articles on poor choices in website design. Some even contradict each other. As mentioned in our previous post, Acorn Internet Services has prepared a series of checklists, accompanying their Smarter Innkeeper Series, to assist with selecting a web design company and/or SEO firm. The first article in that series includes a checklist to ask your prospective web developer, and makes a good list of things you should be planning to address with your website.

There are lots of examples across the internet of websites that are attractive and effective. For some examples, view the portfolios of design firms in our industry, such as Acorn Internet Services, Whitestone Marketing, or Insideout Solutions. While you probably don’t want your site to look just like another site, you’ll notice some similar elements on each site designed by these professionals. Large, high quality photos of the property, the rooms (comfort) and of the food (and other amenities, if appropriate). Clear, straightforward, navigation. Clear statements of rates and what you are getting for them (value). Clear descriptions of location and nearby attractions or points of interest.

If your website looks less “polished” than the competition (who may not be your neighbor, but in another location, entirely), you are not encouraging your visitor to book. If you aren’t showing them the things they are looking for (value, location and comfort), you are making it harder for them to find the information they are seeking.

Finally, if your booking engine makes it difficult to see what they want, and to easily and conveniently proceed through the booking process, you are making it less likely that they will complete the booking process (you can validate this using Google Analytics and checking to see where the visitor leaves the booking system, but that is a topic for another post).

What should your website do?

The guest has chosen about 10 properties to consider, and will visit the websites of all of them. Each will have 3-7 seconds to answer their questions. The questions will primarily be (1) is this property a good value? (2) is this property well-located for my planned activities? and (3) is this going to provide a desirable level of comfort?

There may be other questions in the mind of an individual guest, but virtually all prospective guests will be asking these three questions. Consequently, your website must answer them, and answer them quickly.

1. Your design must look professional and current (the portfolios of the industry web design firms listed above will show you what is both professional and current).
2. Your site must load very quickly (this is a priority for Google, and the slower it loads, the less time a guest will wait to see if you answer their questions).
3. Your photos must be professional, beautiful, and must show the comfort and the value the guest will find at your property.
4. Your rates must be prominently displayed, so the guest can easily see the value you are providing.
5. Your location – especially your proximity to the most commonly visited attractions and points of interest – must be easy to find.

If your site answers these questions for the guest, and does it quickly, and if your booking engine makes the booking process clean, simple and easy (including on mobile devices!), you will be capturing the booking you are seeking.

A few of you may have noticed that we seem to have taken a bit of a hiatus over the past several weeks. In fact, our Freeport Maine Bed & Breakfast had a very busy summer, and there wasn’t much time for About the Inn writing. Now that our busy summer and fall foliage seasons are behind us, it appears things will be back on a more even keel, and we hope to be able to publish more regularly.

How do you attract B&B guests? In the past several years, most smaller lodging properties have become aware of the importance of attracting guests through an online presence (oddly, though, some still seem to question the need – or maybe they question the long-term viability – of an internet presence). Gone, or nearly gone, are the days of buying print or television ads in huge volume, in hopes that a few visitors will be enticed to become guests.

For the smaller properties, in particular, this is a good thing, as few can afford the high prices charged for print advertising, let alone the several additional orders of magnitude for television campaigns – all for ads for which there is little hope of tracking their success, and for which industry analysts say the return on investment (ROI) is very small indeed.

So, then, all a small business needs to do is find a way to slap up a small website, and all the marketing is done, right? Unfortunately, many small properties seem to have adopted exactly that strategy, and are beginning to pay the price in reduced occupancy.

Print media (with the exception, to some degree, of direct mail), and for that matter television, tries to sell by sending an uninvited message to a large, but generally arbitrary, audience. The primary reason online marketing is more effective, is because the prospective guest is looking for you. They are, by definition, part of your target market. They are seeking exactly what you are offering: some type of lodging for a temporary purpose.

How do you reach the prospective guest?

It seems like an over simplification, but in order to get the prospective guest, seeking lodging like yours, to connect with your property and make a booking, you need to be found where they are looking. Which means that you need to know where they are looking, and be found there.

Where are they looking?

We usually begin by assuming that the guest has decided to come to your area, and needs to find lodging. This is because there are many, many different ways the prospective guest may decide to come to a region. However, you can play a role in this, by getting information about the area in front of the guest – either by more traditional means such as print or television, or by having that type of information on your web site.

Once the decision is made to come to an area, the question of lodging must arise.

According to WIHP, a hotel marketing firm, there are four distinct steps in the process of deciding on a lodging property: discovery or stimulus (where the guest learns of a hotel and gets interested), zero moment of truth (the guest begins to research the hotel), first moment of truth (guest finds the hotel website and begins to determine if this is what they want), and second moment of truth (guest arrives at the property and is either happy or disappointed). There is little doubt that these steps apply more or less exactly for smaller properties, as well.

Let’s look a bit more closely at these four steps:

1. Discovery or Stimulus

How does the prospective guest find out about a lodging property they may want to consider? WIHP’s data indicates that the most likely source of information is friends or family, followed by online travel agents (known as OTAs, including Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Booking.com, and the like), then TripAdvisor, and then, to a much lesser degree, other sources like Facebook, Travel Agents, Magazines, etc.

Because we’re interested in the smaller lodging properties, we would suggest that bed and breakfast directories could be included with the OTAs, at least for the guest who is interested in considering bed and breakfast lodging.

2. Zero Moment of Truth

How does the guest research the lodging property he/she is interested in? The data from WIHP indicates that nearly 73% will use search engines to find the hotel. Did you pick up on that? Most of our search engine optimization is around industry-specific keywords, but most of our prospective guests are searching by the name of the hotel!

Of the remaining 27% or so, guests will search map pages (9.6%), review sites (7.3%), travel guides (3.0%) and social media sites (0.8%) to find the lodging property.

3. First Moment of Truth

Once the guest arrives on the property’s website, you have between 3 and 7 seconds to help them decide to stay at the property. The average visitor will have looked at 10 other property websites, read reviews, checked rates, and verified the location on a map.

WIHP says the guest wants to know:

• will this save me money?
• will this save me time?
• will this make my life better?

For the property, this translates to:

• Is this the best value I can get?
• Is this located near the points I am interested in?
• Is the comfort going to live up to my standards?

How your website stacks up in answering these questions for the guest determines whether or not they will book.

4. Second Moment of Truth

When the guest arrives they will either be pleased with their selection of your property, or they will be disappointed. In either case, the results are likely to be posted on social media and review sites, and shared with friends and family. In exceptional cases, they may even appear in blog posts.

When you consider the likelihood of these results, whether positive or negative, being shared with friends and family, as well as the review sites and social media connections, you can see that these results will also become part of the Discovery or Stimulus phase of someone else’s search for lodging property. That makes it imperative that the experience be a positive one.

WIHP has provided a video infographic to illustrate these points clearly and concisely. The YouTube version is below.

In upcoming articles we’ll be looking at the ways we can reach the prospective guest in each of the decision-making phases of the booking process.

From conversations with innkeepers at some recent conferences, we know that innkeepers understand that web analytics are important, and they are searching for ways to use and understand them, but are not finding that to be an easy task.

We were looking at tools that provided some additional capabilities for Google Analytics, and came across GA Evolution, and think it may help some innkeepers get useful results, without overwhelming amounts of raw data. GA Evolution is not intended to provide all the information in Google Analytics. For example, it provides no information on where your visitors came from, time on site, etc. However, it does a really nice job of slicing and dicing the information about visits, page views, bounce rate, etc., while remaining easy to use.

Getting Started

GA Evolution Metrics

In order to get started with Evolution, you’ll need to have a Google Analytics account, and it must already be collecting data on your website (that is, it must have been installed for a month or more, or Evolution won’t have much to do). If you haven’t yet set up Google Analytics, you’ll find an overview of the steps needed to set up Google Analytics in our article providing an overview of analytics. Once it is active, you can set up Evolution, and then all you need is a month or more of statistics-gathering by Google.

If you have a GA account, log in to the account and authorize Evolution to access your GA data. If you have multiple sites and/or profiles in GA, you can select the one to use, then choose the data to graph and away you go with nice, simple graphs of only the information you want to see!

Getting the Data

GA Evolution Data

Once at the GA Evolution site, and logged in, select the domain or domains (your website and your blog, for instance) to view, and check the boxes for the columns to display. Evolution allows the most common data points – Visits, Unique Page Views, and Bounce Rate – and also allows additional columns for Transactions, Quantity, eCommerce Conversions and CI (Confidence Interval or margin of error). You can add columns for your defined Goals, if you like. Select a date range, and if you would rather see data weekly instead of monthly, check that box.

When you’re ready, click the “Get Data” button, and a chart appears below, with columns for each selected item. If you used more than one domain, there will be a separate table of data for each.

Getting a Graph

GA Evolution Graph

To graph a particular column, simply click the column header. If you want to see your Visits over time, click the Visits column and the graph will appear above the data table. If you are using more than one domain, there will be multiple lines on the graph, one for each domain, measuring the same column information. If you click another column it is not added to the graph, but the existing graph is replaced with a new one for the new column. Hovering your mouse over a point on the graph gives information about the value at that point.

Google Analytics is  a free tool, though the author of it has a PayPal button on the site in case you would like to support his work with a donation. Try it, and see if you find it useful.

Let us know how it worked for you!

Instead of re-writing the article, we will simply mention and link to the great information provided by our friends at Acorn Internet Services showing a comparison of statistics on bookings from before there were Google Place Pages and currently, and also noting which directories produce bookings. This is obtained from Acorn’s customers who use Acorn’s Intell-A-Keeper tracking software.

We will comment more on this topic before long.

Enjoy this useful information!

If you’re like me, you’ve used Google Analytics for quite some time, and find the wealth of information quite useful. One area that has always been a bit frustrating, and not as useful as it seems it should be, is the Site Overlay report. When you would click on this report, a window would open showing the home page of the site, then an overlay would appear (making the site page fade a bit), with some statistics on different links, showing how frequently they were clicked.

Depending on your browser and operating system, sometimes this display would not clear properly, causing problems with browsing later. In any case, the information was tantalizing, but but not always clearly understandable.

Google has now replaced Site Overlay with In-Page Analytics (right). This display is very similar to Site Overlay, but seems, at least at first blush, to work much better, and is in a frame in the page, instead of a new window. Google says the feature is still considered beta, meaning things may change, or may not always work correctly, but so far it seems smooth in our exploration of it.

The little percentage numbers near a link indicate the percentage of clicks for that link. Hovering the cursor over the number drops down a small window with details indicating the number and percentage of clicks, the goals information if they are configured, and, if ecommerce is configured, transaction and revenue information relative to the link.

For most this will be a nice improvement over Site Overlay, and may be very helpful in diagnosing the performance of your web site. What do I mean by that? Suppose you believe that your site visitors will click on certain links on your home page, such as your rooms page or your availability link. In-Page Analytics lets you see what percentage of the clicks actually go through that path, and determine what they are doing from there. You may be in for a surprise.

It is quite possible that the wonderful “call to action” link that you feel is on your page is not getting many clicks. What should you do? One option is to make it more prominent, wait a few weeks, and see if the statistics have changed. Another is to use Google’s Website Optimizer to create multiple versions of the call to action, and see which produces the best results.

The point isn’t that there is a particular answer that will work for everyone. Instead, the point is that information is valuable, and knowing that something is not performing as expected is the first step to making changes for the better.

Try In-Page Analytics, and see how your links are performing. Then you can determine if you need to make any changes.

Amid all the frenzy of keeping up with Twitter and Facebook and now Foursquare and YouTube and Blogging and sorting out which directories to list on, and responding to the never-ending flow of emails from directories telling you to hurry and post your latest specials for this month, your latest photos, your latest hot deals, your best recipes and oh, yes, did you remember that you actually have a business to run? sometimes it is nice to … just … take … a … step … back, take a deep breath, and remember what it is we’re trying to do here.

Now, that’s better.

What we try to do

All the different things we’re called upon to do, and sometimes we think we’re required to keep up on, can get so fragmented, that they can pull us in too many directions and keep us from our real job. Recently there was a thread on a B&B forum (I’ve seen the same series of questions and comments on several different forums – the topic pops up every now and then) asking, quite appropriately, how to decide which (pay) directories to list on. The discussion evolved into a discussion of the value of directory links for search engine ranking. Innkeepers must be experts in search engine optimization (SEO) and in statistical analysis of directory listing results, you see.

Meanwhile, every so often there is another blog post about measuring return on investment (ROI) from social media (meaning Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.). Some say it is worthless. Others find value in social media. Innkeepers must be experts in determining ROI in the newest, cutting edge media, too.

And, of course, all innkeepers must be great copywriters so they can blog regularly, post to their Facebook page, and also keep the website up-to-date, post tweets on Twitter, check-in on Foursquare, and, between breakfast, cleaning, shopping and check-ins, run off a couple of quick inn videos and post them to YouTube.

But there’s a secret. We tend to think that everyone else is doing all of these things successfully, so we must do them, too. The secret is, they’re not. Most are only doing a few of these things, if any. Most are not doing them all that well. A few are doing several of them. Even fewer do them really well.

Gaining perspective

Don’t misunderstand: All these things that we busy ourselves about – social media, blogging, seeking the best bang for the buck on directories, etc. – are good things. What we sometimes lose sight of is that they are part of a much bigger picture.

Perhaps as a result of the sheer volume of new information, and the detailed information we must master, we have turned to “experts” to tell us what we need to know. The result is that we have a lot of detailed information on relatively narrow subjects. Only rarely, however, do we put these subjects together into a larger picture.

I will admit at the outset that I am not a trained marketing expert. Consequently, I may not use “correct” marketing-speak. I may miss some things the trained marketer may know. Mea culpa. However, both for our Freeport Maine Bed & Breakfast, and for our other businesses and elsewhere, marketing has been a significant part of my experience.

Much as I dislike the term “heads in beds”, that is the bottom line for most small lodging properties. Some are thrilled to have any guests, any time. Others seek to attract a particular segment of the traveling pubic. But at the end of the day we all need to count the revenue from those guests to pay the bills.

Re-thinking marketing

The level of detail provided by the “experts” (some are truly experts in their area; others are most definitely not), seduces us into a “bottom-up” approach to marketing. We examine each individual directory, social media site, etc., and try to see if it is worthwhile.

If we step back from this a bit, we’ll see that what we are really doing with that approach is letting each of these small contributions create our overall marketing plan, with no real objectives or strategy. It becomes an ad hoc plan.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to start at the top, and see how all these things can work together to accomplish your objectives?

Starting at the Top

1. Setting Objectives

Begin by defining your objectives. It is fine to have big, general objectives (I want to make a profit), but the more specific you can be, the easier it will be to measure your progress. For most small properties, it will be selling a certain number of rooms in a year (or month, etc.), or increasing revenue (or profit) by a certain amount.

Whatever you may set as your objectives, translate them into both money and bookings, so that, based on your average booking value, you know how many bookings you need, as well as how much money you need, to achieve your goal.

Set narrower objectives, too. More visitors to the web site/blog/Facebook page (how many more?). Longer average visits to the web site (how much longer?). You get the idea.

2. Create a Strategy to Accomplish Your Objectives

All the things we started out mentioning (directories, blogs, social media, video, your web site) plus the more obvious, paid advertising, are your tools to accomplish these goals.

If blogging once a week brings you X bookings per year, and blogging twice a week brings you 30% more, will that help you reach your goals? If so, then you should be blogging twice a week.

Similarly, if adding a new directory can add 3% to your annual bookings, and you think that is worthwhile, then you should add that directory. How do you know if a directory will add 3%? That isn’t easy to determine, and results will differ by directory, by your geographic region, and, in some cases, by the membership level you purchase on the directory. Our article on evaluating directories covers many of the considerations. Be wary of claims by the directories that they can produce a certain number of bookings. While these may be based on their click-through rates, they are, at best, averages and, at worst, an effort to sell you something. Higher levels may help, but there will be no guarantees.

What about Facebook, Twitter, etc.? Most of the debate centers around the difficulty in attributing booking results to social media. In this internet age, we are accustomed to relating clicks on our web links with bookings to determine the source of a booking. Social media isn’t that straightforward. It usually requires more time and attention than a simple web page or website, and bookings don’t always come with technical data to show they originated with Twitter or Facebook.

In addition, as with directories the value may lie in more than just matching bookings to the source. Directories can provide value through their reviews, or through publicity they generate for you, despite never sending you a booking directly. Social media is relationship building. If you make friends through social media, and the friend refers another friend, you may have bookings you will never be able to identify as coming from social media, yet the investment of time has paid off.

As mentioned at the outset, discussions of directories (and other potential referral sources) often leads to a discussion of placement in organic search results. However, this is really combining apples and oranges. Listing on directories should be viewed as having value (or not) on their own merit, not whether they help your site place well in organic search results.

Why would we say that? Google’s official view is that paid listings (like paid listings on directories) do not enhance the reputation of your site. We have seen exceptions – most likely where Google has not discovered that the listing is a paid listing – but generally paid directory listings do not help you place well in general search results. It does appear that they can be of some help in local search results, however, so don’t dismiss directories as not helping at all with search placement.

One of the best summaries of the factors that help your site place well in search is Google’s own SEO Starter Guide (pdf).

3. Measure Your Accomplishments

Use a tool to help measure your results. A web-based statistics program such as Google Analytics will help you see where the visits to your web site are coming from, how long the average visitor stays, how many pages they view, etc. If you configure ecommerce tracking you may also be able to track some of the revenue to the source (this is very difficult to configure correctly using online booking systems, but can be done). Other systems, such as Intell-A-Keeper make no effort to trace web site visits, themselves, but track booking sources.

No online tool is perfect. At the very least, it is very tricky to track bookings attributable to social media. Even Intell-A-Keeper can not track a booking source if the guest last visited the referral source too long ago for their computer to have retained the information.

Consequently, you’ll need to create your own record of the things you are trying to measure, and how they are working.

Getting Started

Most likely you’ve already begun using some (or even all) of the tools mentioned. If so, you only need to set your objectives and begin measuring the results. If you need to adjust your use of the tools, to better meet your objectives, or to aid in measurement, what are you waiting for? Do it!

If you haven’t begun using the various tools, or some of them, don’t just dive in! Set up your objectives, and think carefully about how each tool fits those objectives. Decide which social media tools are right for you. Decide which directories are likely to pay off (considering all the different areas of value they may bring), and be sure you are signed up for only those who will help you reach your goals.

If you don’t have the background or the skills to do some or even all of these things, don’t despair! There are a number of bed & breakfast-centered companies (several of whom are mentioned above) who can provide help with some, or all, of these services. Others, including PAII, provide training in using these tools, to help you learn to do it yourself.

Most important of all, however, is measuring the results so that you know when you’ve accomplished your objectives!