group11_mod4_groupproject_project_submission

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Essence Tours offers its customers the opportunity to see the world in a different light through luxurious and tailor-‐made trips. The company’s website business objecGve is to drive conversions and ulGmately maximise revenue. For Essence Tours, conversions are related to potenGal travellers' informaGon gathering process, such as contact form / newsleNer sign-‐up and and brochure views. Within the digital ecosystem, the .com is a key conversion tool and digital markeGng is an intrinsic pillar to reaching and converGng the target audience. The number one reason customers abandon online travel bookings is their need / desire to perform addiGonal research before compleGng a booking, which is why compelling and informaGve content is crucial to aNracGng an maintaining consumer interest and prevenGng visitor abandonment. Therefore, we recommend that Essence Tours add capGvaGng and convincing content to the website as a key driver to increase lead generaGon. Sign-‐ups (contact form and newsleNer) are part of the soluGon, demonstraGng content efficacy and resulGng in increased lead generaGon. These tenets inform the observaGons, metrics and tests in each secGon of the proposal. This report will outline how the below summarized objecGves, tools, measurement metrics and KPIs will help achieve the company’s objecGve.

Data Report Objec.ve Metric Goal

Traffic Increase Gme spent on website, brochure requests and sign-‐up for informaGon

Session length

Brochure requests

Over 3 minutes

Up 30%

Site Content

OpGmise the desktop site to make holiday research and the informaGon gathering process easier

Bounce rate (desktop)

Page visit

Under 20%

Up by an addiGonal minute

Top Conversion

Path

Increase brand awareness to aNract interested visitors to increase conversion rate.

MCF grouping to track AdWords campaign and affiliate programmes

Conversion rate through groupings:

AdWords: 20% affiliate: 40%

Goal URL Revamp content on Goal URL pages to improve compleGon rates

Goal URL conversion

Measure AdWords

increase country-‐specific URLs to more than 36%

Social Increase reach and engagement Follower interacGon

Tweets per month

Up 50%

Double

The overarching KPI and measure of campaign success = an increase in sign-‐ups (conversions) by 50% in 12 months. An upturn in lead volume will generate sales revenue growth.

DIGITAL MARKETING & MEASUREMENT PROPOSAL

JUNE 2015

1 1h#p://www.marke.ngprofs.com/charts/2015/26813/why-‐consumers-‐abandon-‐online-‐travel-‐bookings-‐before-‐purchasing, 2h#p://www.pinpointe.com/blog/op.mizing-‐website-‐content-‐conversions, both downloaded 21.07.15

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TESTING AND METRICS

1.  Video content on each page to increase visitor interest. Use Benchmarking/Channels to compare previous with current month for % New Sessions (+30%), Pages/Session (3+), Average Session DuraGon (3 minutes+ Behavior/Engagement)

2.  Brochure request (currently just a PDF download) involves a sign-‐up process to capture visitor details before pdf is made available. Set Goal conversion for Brochure requests and check session numbers in Custom/Custom Variables (30% conversion rate against number of sessions, month-‐on-‐month)

3.  Enhance Organic search with a greater range of search terms and meta tags. Enable Webmaster Tools to compare CTRs with keywords. Set up keywords and test frequency of visit in Campaigns/Organic Keywords. This will hopefully increase the amount of potenGal holiday researchers to the website.

INSIGHT Customer sGmulus to search not translaGng into sign-‐ups because of sparse site content. Site content and informaGon needs to be richer for customers to engage with the content, without which they would leave the website faster and are less likely to sign-‐up. Website engagement

needs to be measured.3

DATA POINT Direct brings most traffic, but shorter visits when compared to Organic and Referral. (Organic bounce rate: 47.04%, Page/Session: 2.62. Referral bounce rate: 56.56%, Page/Session: 2.17).

Bounce Rate Pages/Session

Organic Search 47.04% 2.62

Referral 56.56% 2.17

Paid Search 60.65% 1.87

Direct 64.33% 1.84

Email 67.41% 1.68

Social 67.57% 1.58

Display 83.59% 1.18


JUNE 2015

TRAFFIC OBJECTIVE: Increase visitor engagement

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Organic Search

Referral Paid Search

Direct Email Social Display

Bounce Rate Pages / Session

2 3h#p://www.marke.ngsherpa.com/ar.cle/how-‐to/calculate-‐scores-‐every-‐visitor, downloaded 21.07.15

INSIGHT People want to fully focus and experience a holiday website on a desktop/laptop rather than a small screen for many reasons, including the ability to view bigger pictures and the simplicity of form compleGon. AddiGonally, booking holidays is a big commitment and consumers generally prefer to use a desktop for more important maNers. Most people book and research holidays

on a desktop rather than on mobile.5


1.  MarkeGng efforts should be primarily focussed on driving traffic to desktop rather than mobile devices, since that’s where most of the audience is. This can be done by AdWords, Display Ads, email campaigns etc.

2.  Increase Gme spent on each Goal URL (Asia, Africa, BalGc) by 1+ minute over current Gmes on both plaporms. This can be achieved by introducing more engaging content (pictures, videos, tesGmonials etc.).

3.  Reduce Bounce Rate for Desktop devices to below 20% by opGmising the landing page.

DATA POINT Desktop has the highest page views (2641, 46.3%) and the lowest bounce rate (25.34%). Mobile had a 75.32% bounce rate and had the least amount of Gme spent on each page. Bounce rate for mobile is

typically higher than desktop (usually 10-‐20%).4

Pageviews Bounce Rate

Desktop 2641 25.34%

Mobile 943 75.32%

Tablet 816 60.39%


JUNE 2015

SITE CONTENT OBJECTIVE: Reduce Bounce Rate

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

desktop mobile tablet

Bounce Rate Pageviews

3 4h#p://www.gorockeHuel.com/the-‐rocket-‐blog/whats-‐the-‐average-‐bounce-‐rate-‐in-‐google-‐analy.cs, 5h#ps://econsultancy.com/blog/62788-‐mobile-‐is-‐almost-‐as-‐popular-‐as-‐desktop-‐for-‐travel-‐research-‐report/, both downloaded 21.07.15

INSIGHT Most visitors that convert on the site are familiar with Essence Tours, whereas the audience that are interested in travel, but do not use direct channels to access the site, convert less. This behaviour implies that Essence Tours is not pursuing successful paid search campaigns and is failing to target

and convince interested target groups.


1.  IdenGfy the role of brand knowledge for conversions by dividing the organic search channel into branded and non-‐branded keywords.6 This will provide the necessary basis to evaluate the success of online markeGng, AdWords campaigns and affiliate campaigns compared to direct channels.

2.  Start an AdWords campaign to increase customer awareness in online travel search and compare results when using branded vs. non-‐branded keywords. Track the success of individual keywords by creaGng custom MCF channel grouping to evaluate against a conversion goal of 20%.

3.  Create an affiliate campaign strictly targeted toward relevant publishers to increase traffic from referrals. Track the performance of each individual partner using custom MCF channels and measure against an overall goal of a 40% conversion rate for referral programs.

DATA POINT Conversions very rarely originate or go through referral and paid search channels since 57% of all

conversions use the direct channel at least once, whilst an addiGonal 8.3% go through organic search.


JUNE 2015

TOP CONVERSION PATH OBJECTIVE: Increase conversion from paid search and referral channels

179 165

60 53 46 44 43 35 34 30

$-‐

$10,000

$20,000

$30,000

$40,000

$50,000

$60,000

$70,000

$80,000

$90,000

$100,000

0

50

100

150

200

Organic Search > Direct

Direct > Direct

Email > Direct

Organic Search > Organic Search

Social Network > Direct

Referral > Direct

Organic Search > Direct > Direct

Direct > Direct > Direct

Paid Search > Organic Search

Direct > Organic Search

Conversions Conversion Value

4 6h#p://online-‐behavior.com/analy.cs/mul.-‐channel-‐funnels, downloaded 21.07.15


1.  Add informaGve, engaging and convincing content to tour-‐specific pages to improve conversion rates. Use A/B tesGng, compeGGve analysis, customer surveys, and market research to opGmise content.

2.  Move Goal URL contact forms to a more prominent posiGon (above fold -‐ note the design of the general contact page). This is hubspot’s number 1 Gp for improving contact form conversion rates.7

3.  Use Google AdWords to drive traffic to Goal URLs from pre-‐qualified leads further along the decision path than the typical Essence customer (“africa tours,” “balGc tours,” “asia and australia tours”). Success will be measured by increased page views (Goal URL page views and unique page views are significantly lower than for home page) and improved conversion rates.

DATA POINT The general contact form compleGon percentage is significantly higher at 36.1% than for any of the country-‐specific (£ value) pages -‐ Africa (18.2%), Asia/Australia (12.4%) and BalGc (9.7%)

INSIGHT Current site design and content is not moving customers along the decision and purchase path. By signing up on the general contact page rather than the specific Goal URL pages, the customer lacks an understanding of which trip is best suited to their needs and desires. This means the customer is further from the purchase step and decision making process. Therefore more informaGve content and beNer page design is required to convince customers that a specific

tour is right for them.


JUNE 2015

GOAL URL OBJECTIVE: Improve compleGon rates for country-‐specific pages

36.1%

18.2%

12.4% 9.7%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

General Contact Africa Asia/Australia BalGc

General Contact Africa Asia/Australia BalGc

5 7h#p://blog.hubspot.com/marke.ng/op.mize-‐conversion-‐forms, downloaded 21.07.15


1.  Improve number of likes, shares and photos on Facebook and TwiNer using either a compeGGon (send us your favourite holiday snap!) or promoGon (first 500 likes/comments receive discount/reduced deposit/no booking fee). Gain share of voice through user generated photo (earned) content.

2.  Improve the average level of engagement for Facebook photo posts from 10.5% to 50% within 18 months. Use social listening to idenGfy common themes and serve photos based on these themes.

3.  The above can be achieved by focusing on one type of post I.e. Photo, instead of spreading media. Photos can have links & statuses aNached as it is proven that photos produce beNer engagement.

DATA POINT Photo posts currently have the highest percentage of engagement at 10.5% compared to

approximately 3% for links and status updates on Facebook.


JUNE 2015

SOCIAL OBJECTIVE: Increase reach and engagement

INSIGHT Photos are the most interacGve and shareable form of post because of their eye-‐catching nature.

Photos account for 75% of content posted by Facebook pages worldwide.8 The value of an individual photo is amplified when users “like” it, since the image will be diffused across an enGre network

(increasing the credibility of the image and broadening the audience reach).

This level of engagement drives interest in the website and the conversaGons that take place in the social media sphere

8h#p://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/photos-‐generate-‐engagement-‐research/, downloaded 21.07.15

1022

78 29

824

18 11

557

12 6

Average Reach Post clicks Likes, Comments and Shares

Photos Links Status

6

group11_mod4_groupproject_project_submission

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