Karen Gedney takes a look at what it takes to be a good email copywriter and offers the following tips:

- Funnel Your Creativity Into the Subject Line
- Know Your Template
- Activate the Impulse to Buy
- Divide and Conquer
- E-Mail Assignments Are Like Mini Masterpieces

Read the whole story here:What It Takes to Be a Good E-Mail Copywriter

tags: ecommerce

In a move that further strengthens its global presence and positions it for additional growth in the Asia-Pacific region, Travelocity has acquired complete ownership of ZUJI, the leading online travel company in the Asia-Pacific region. ZUJI includes operations in Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.

Travelocity and its affiliates previously owned, directly and indirectly, approximately 13.63% of ZUJI. In the transaction completed on Jan. 24, 2006 in Singapore, Travelocity purchased the remaining shares in ZUJI from Abacus International Pte. Ltd. and AGC Holdings Ltd., a consortium of 15 airlines in the region, giving Travelocity ownership of 100% of ZUJI. The purchase price was approximately US$34 million.

Everyone knows that a website's design and 'feel' is crucial to attracting and more importantly keeping visitors on your site. Canadian researchers report that it takes users just one-twentieth of a second (less than the time it takes us to blink) to give a website a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on aesthetics.

All the more reason to design right!

Read the whole story here: CNN.com - Web sites judged in a blink - Jan 17, 2006

tags: ecommerce

Online travel spending is off to a great start in 2006, with more people booking their journeys online.
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Excerpt:
The growth in 2006 online consumer spending follows a year of solid gains. Total online spending for the full year 2005, including travel, reached $143.2 billion, up 22 percent over 2004. Online non-travel spending in 2005 accounted for $82.3 billion, an increase of 24 percent over 2004 levels.

The 2006 year opened on a strong note, with solid growth of 33 percent in online non-travel sales versus the same period in 2005,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks. “It’s clear based on what we’re seeing so far in 2006 that the strength in online sales will not wane anytime soon.”

Read the whole story: 2006 online travel spending off to a strong start

tags: ecommerce

The Expedia Best Price Guarantee that made waves last week seems to have too many strings attached, claim industry experts.
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Excerpt:
Expedia.com last week unveiled a number of initiatives that the Bellevue online travel service said will set "a new industry standard for empowering consumers in booking travel."

Kayak.com Chief Executive Steve Hafner, whose Norwalk, Conn.-based startup allows consumers to search the Internet for cheap airline fares, seized on that issue last week, calling the number of exceptions in Expedia's guarantee "laughable."

Read the whole story: The Insider: Expedia guarantee comes with conditions

tags: ecommerce

Expedia.com now offers a Best Price Guarantee on Flights, hotels, vacations, cruises, rental cars, and activities.
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Excerpt:
What is the Best Price Guarantee?
It's really quite simple: We're committed to bringing you the lowest prices, all the time. If you find a better price online for your exact trip within 24 hours, we'll refund the difference—and we'll give you a $50 travel coupon.

Visit the BPG Page:Expedia.com Best Price Guarantee: Shop with confidence and enjoy your trip!

tags: ecommerce

Consumers request plenty of product information by e-mail. Unfortunately, many do not get what they ask for.

According to responses compiled by Quris from more than 2,500 consumers on a Harris Interactive panel, a gap exists between the information consumers ask for by e-mail and what they get.

Surprisingly, although 77% of consumers report wanting to receive offers from marketers — and you would think that is exactly what marketers would want to send — only 8% reported getting them.

Read the whole article here: E-Mail Hits and Misses

tags: ecommerce

This is a free report offered by MarketingSherpa.com and contains results from 110 organizations. It covers topics like:

- Email campaign segmentation test results
- Search marketing lessons
- Offline advertising and marketing lessons
- Web site design and landing page lessons
- Business-to-Business marketing campaign lessons
- Office politics and job searching tips for a successful marketing career

Get the free report here: MarketingSherpa.com : Practical News & Case Studies on Internet Advertising, Marketing & PR

tags: ecommerce

Clickz.com reports: "Google is experimenting with plotting local advertisers' locations on its Maps product, giving marketers a visual and spatial accompaniment to their locally targeted ads."

This is a great functionality - so far it has been reported that the Starwood and Intercontinental brands are participating in testing.

Try it out for yourself:
Visit Google Local and search for "hotels" in/near New York (Link)

This will give you a list of hotels in the area with positional markers..clicking on the markers gives you more information about the hotel. Logos may also be included in the future, by Google.

JJ

Read the original article: Google Tests Local Ads on Maps

tags: hospitality

Neil Salerno analyses the trend among hotels and airlines of "punishing" 3rd party bookers in order to coax them into booking directly.

The article makes some valid points, esp. regarding discrimination to influence a desired outcome...which is never a good strategy for an effective long-term relationship!

I believe a lot of what is said however, applies well to the smaller - medium segment of the market. When considering larger hotel chains who already have a considerable investment / base in online marketing and tools, it makes sense to shift as many bookers as possible to direct channels...it's far less expensive per booking! Also another factor that must be considered is the market and competition..and unusual conditions like prevalent, legal rate cartels (just visit the Middle East :)) Oh..and the BRG (Best Rates Guarantee) trend hasn't just been a trend-bandwagon...it's really done its job, at least for those chains who're dedicated to an honest, no small-print approach.

In the end though, we just have to take the right approach...never forgetting we're in the "Hospitality" industry and are selling "experiences"!

JJ

Read the article: Shame, Shame, Shame on You! Shortsighted Thinking is a Terrible Thing - By Neil Salerno :: Hotel News Resource

tags: hospitality

SkyScanner have unveiled a preview of the latest version of its flight search engine. Via a link from the current SkyScanner homepage, you can now explore a faster, simpler and more accurate version of the award winning flight search engine. Check it out at: http://beta.skyscanner.net/

Features Tour


tags: airlines

NORWALK, Conn., Jan 09, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Since opening its doors in 1998, priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) has saved customers more than $5.5 billion* on their travel purchases. Today, priceline.com made a commitment to increase those savings with the launch of a significant web site redesign and service upgrades that give customers even more choices when it comes to finding the right travel products at the right price.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts throughout Asia Pacific are the newest members of Travelocity’s industry-leading global Net Rate Hotel programme and will be featured on Travelocity’s hotel and TotalTripSM shopping engines.

The deal gives millions of consumers worldwide access to Starwood’s many brands throughout the region, including the newly-acquired Le Meridien properties.

Read the full story here: Starwood Asia Pacific taps Travelocity

tags: hospitality

New research from SEMPO sheds light on what's happening in the search marketing industry today, from the size of the industry to key trends that will shape the year ahead.

The SEMPO sponsored survey was conducted by Radar Research, LLC and Intellisurvey, and drew 553 respondents. This is the second annual industry-wide survey; last year's 2004 State of the Search Marketing Industry was released a little more than a year ago.

The report had both predictable findings and a few surprises. According to the study, the U.S. and Canadian SEM industry has grown from $4 billion to $5.75 billion, with paid placement accounting for 83% of the total spend.

Read the article here: Search Engine Watch

tags: hospitality

Travelers who book through an online agent don't always get a fair shake; fly, ritzy little robin, fly! (1/16/06)

Michele Cennamo was planning to surprise her cousin by taking her on a weeklong vacation in the Bahamas for her 60th birthday last fall. The Manhattan legal assistant had reserved a room at the Atlantis, a high-rise hotel on Paradise Island, through Expedia, the online travel site. "I was looking forward to walking along the beach and hanging out by the pool," she says.

Read the whole article here:USNews.com: Travelers who book through an online agent don't always get a fair shake; fly, ritzy little robin, fly! (1/16/06)

tags: hospitality

Gary Marino is giving e-shoppers an alternative to credit cards -- and his Bill Me Later service is catching on. Is it an idea too good to survive?

Here's how it works: When consumers click on the Bill Me Later icon, they're asked for only two bits of information: date of birth and the last four digits of the purchaser's Social Security number.

Read the whole article here: Big Plastic's Online Challenger

By Max Starkov and Jason Price

In 2006, 27%-29% of all revenues in hospitality will be generated from the Internet (25% in 2005, 20% in 2004). Another 27% of all hotel bookings will be influenced by the Internet, but done offline (call center, walk-ins, group bookings, etc). By the end of 2007, 39% of all travel sales will be online (Merrill Lynch). Are hoteliers taking full advantage of this dramatic channel shift? Has the shift increased commoditization of hotel rooms and the overall experience? Is there such a thing as customer loyalty in this environment? Can one compete with the intermediaries? Has the online channel become the company’s fastest growing revenue channel? Is there more a hotelier can do to compete and succeed? The 2006 Top Ten New Year’s Internet Marketing Strategy Resolutions, presented for a sixth year in a row but in today’s context, by Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS) provides some of the answers and action steps.

Read the whole article here: Hospitality Net - Industry News - Hotelier's 2006 Top Ten Internet Marketing Resolutions | By Max Starkov and Jason Price

tags: hospitality

This piece gives insight into the best way to set up a hotel Web site to serve an online customer base. Once the online customer segment has been analyzed using customer segmentation, it's much easier to target specific visitors as well as figure out ways to attract any types of customers that are missing.

Read the article here:The Wired Hotel: Understanding the needs of your most valuable web site visitors - By Jerry Tarasofsky :: Hotel News Resource

tags: ecommerce

eLong, Inc., a leading online travel service provider in China, has announced that it was ranked first in the category of Travel Booking Websites in the 2005-2006 China Internet Industry Survey Report Release. It also received the 2005-2006 China Internet Industry Top 100 Award in a ceremony held by the Internet Society of China and co-organized by CCIDConsulting, IDC China, iResearch and Analysys International.

Read the article here: elong ranks first

tags: e-commerce

A research project indicates that direct, personalized incentives increase consumer retention and purchase follow-through.

It is increasingly apparent that travel consumers love the internet when it comes to travel planning and booking, and it’s safe to say that online marketers play an influential role in their decisions to book trips online.

Read this article by Leah Woolford here: iMedia Connection: DM Tactics Benefit Travel Marketers

tags: marketing

The Goldman, Sachs & Co., Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive fifth annual Holiday eSpending Report revealed today that online holiday shopping totaled $30.1 billion, excluding travel, during the 2005 holiday season (October 29 - December 23).

This season's online spending in the United States resulted in a 30 percent increase (+/- 3.1 percent margin of error) from the 2004 holiday season.

"Consumers continue to shop later in the online holiday season as their trust in on-time delivery grows. While 2005 holiday sales appear to be at the high end of expectations, continued heightened competition could hurt profitability," said Anthony Noto, Internet and entertainment analyst, Goldman Sachs.

Read the article here: Retail Merchandiser - Holiday Online Shopping Tops $30 Billion