Newsletter : May 2012
Written by Steph Kendall
Welcome to the New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz May 2012 issue. If you have news or comments, please email us news@tourism.net.nz.
In this May newsletter:
'Not Just A Place For Japanese Parents!
Recent research assessed by Tourism New Zealand concluded that younger Japanese travellers have traditionally regarded New Zealand as a 'place that parents visited'. However, opinion seems to be changing with younger Japanese travellers considering New Zealand as a preferred destination. To encourage this Tourism New Zealand has instigated its 'Fun Seeking Friends' marketing. Aimed at 20-35 year olds, in particular female travellers, people in this new market segment are single, new graduates, without dependants and keen to explore the world.
Marketing activity to date has included online advertising, videos and increased presence in high traffic areas such as metro stations and trains. Future activity for the winter season will focus on ski and snowboarding experiences as well as walking and hiking, ignited by the Yama (mountain) girl trend, a trend which has created a new breed of fashion-conscious hiking and outdoor lifestyle Japanese women.
Australian Visitor Numbers Recover
Wonders. Closer than they appear was the key proposition for Tourism New Zealand's successful joint venture campaign aimed at enticing Australians to self-drive the South Island during the recent summer months. The campaign achieved all its objectives and helped mitigate the decline in Australia visitor numbers from -21 percent in September 2011 to -3 percent in January 2012. (Overall Australian visitor arrivals into New Zealand for the year ending February 2012 remain strong, 3.2 per cent up on the previous year.) A similar campaign may be on the cards for the North Island later this year.
In the meantime, Tourism New Zealand are targeting the Australian coach tour market with 'Go with someone who knows'. The main thrust of the four week print advertising campaign (in Sydney and Melbourne) shows the benefits of travelling New Zealand by coach and aims to convert increased awareness into bookings.
Increase Your Customer Insight and Improve Your Marketing
Written by Steph Kendall
Looking for a quick, easy and inexpensive way to find out how your 'bookers' (your customers) found out about you? Then look no further than your on-site enquiry or booking form. By adding an additional field (or editing an existing one), you can find out exactly where your customers have come from and in doing so, work out which of your marketing dollars are reaping the best returns for your business. This is such an easy and inexpensive way to get a snapshot of what's working for you, that there's almost no excuse for not including it.
It is of course useful to know where visitors to your website come from (i.e. search engines, via your NZTG web page or other site listings, referring sites or directly to your URL). However, it is even more important to know where the visitors to your website making bookings or enquiries come from. These visitors are your money spinners – they genuinely increasing your business revenue and not just your website traffic numbers.
How Did You Hear About Us?
Here's 7 quick tips on how to integrate the 'How did you hear about us?' field on your website:
- Add the 'How did you hear about us?' field to the end of your form. Typically it sits after the customer contact details and booking requirements and before the 'Send' button.
- Make sure that answering this question is obligatory, one of the form's 'required fields'.
- Decide whether you want broad or specific insight into your customer.
- Keep the choice of answers relevant to your business so the answers are meaningful to you and keep the form as succinct as possible.
- Ensure that time-limited offers are removed when necessary and that feedback can be given relating to specific marketing campaigns (e.g. print advertisements).
- If using 'Word of Mouth' as an option, try to include an additional field for the customer to tell you exactly where the recommendation came from.
- Try to avoid using a tick box named 'Other' as this gives you practically no insight into that customer at all.
Broad or Specific Insight?
The type of information that you want to receive from this field is up to you. You may be happy enough knowing that your customer has found you via a search engine, or you may want to know whether it's Google, Bing or Yahoo!.
Suggestions for Broad Customer Insight Fields
Options for 'How did you hear about us?' answers such as the ones suggested below would be useful for a business with a broad interest in customer insight:
- NZTG (www.tourism.net.nz)
- Search engines
- Word of mouth
- Other, please specify
Suggestions for a Specific Customer Insight Fields
For businesses that really want to focus their marketing spend and gain a comprehensive insight into their customers, suggested options such as those below (grouped under headings for easier reading) could be more appropriate:
Offers / Competitions
- Christchurch Press May Offer – 3 Nights for 2
- Win A Weekend Away for the Family
Websites
- Bing
- Yahoo!
- Other Search Engine – Please state which one:
- New Zealand Tourism Guide (www.tourism.net.nz)
- TripAdvisor
- New Zealand 100% Pure (www.newzealand.com)
Publications
- National Geographic
- Adventure Magazine
- Wilderness Magazine
- New Zealand Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz)
Other
- Word of Mouth Recommendation – Please state from whom:
- Previously Used
You may have to play around with the choices you offer, especially if you run a marketing campaign for a limited time – out-of-date options will look unprofessional. Simply keep in mind the main purpose of the exercise and make sure the answers help you work out which marketing technique is or isn't successful.
Now You Know, Now What?
Aside from using the customer insight gleaned from your booking form field 'How did you hear about us?', you can of course refer to your website statistics to build up a comprehensive picture of your website's usage. By knowing what's happening, you can:
- Plan and budget for your marketing strategies (SEO, online listings, search engine advertising, print campaigns)
- Review your site content (revise web pages to make them more enticing)
- Trial new content (such as design elements and text)
- Promote a special offer
- Change or introduce new marketing initiatives – e.g. email marketing of special offers, Facebook vouchers and repeat business incentives (loyalty programmes).
To brush up on how you can use your website stats to help your business, refer to our pages:
- Introduction to Website Statistics
- Accessing Your Website Statistics
- What Your Statistics Mean
- Using Your Website Statistics
Top Tourism Site of the Month
This month's Top Tourism Site Award goes to First Light Travel
One of the first things that comes to mind about this website is the sense of a very well organised space. The website design enables plenty of information to be displayed in an uncluttered and attractive way, and although this means the viewer has to do a bit of scrolling, it is worth it. The design also incorporates clearly defined navigation, strong calls to action and a very clear statement of its service in prime location - “We create customised holiday itineraries around your preferences & budget - at no cost to you! Read more or start exploring here.”
Nominate a Site
If you think a New Zealand travel or tourism website deserves a 'Top Tourism Site Award', let us know about it. (View further information about the award criteria).
About the Top Tourism Site Award
The New Zealand Tourism Guide confers a Top Tourism Site Award to websites that:
- Enhance New Zealand as a travel destination
- Publish useful and informative content
- Are laid out in a professional and aesthetically-pleasing manner
- Are designed effectively for the World Wide Web
- May demonstrate easy functionality, interactivity, originality, outstanding graphic quality and marketing reach.
We welcome any feedback — send your comments to: news@tourism.net.nz
Kind regards,
The Team
Ph 0800 14 65 49
www.tourism.net.nz
New Zealand Tourism Guide
Head Office: Level One, 534 Colombo Street, Christchurch