The importance of branding in travel search

NB: This is a guest article by Martin MacDonald, SEO director Expedia Affiliate Network, covering SEO and social media.

We are frequently told by leading industry thinkers that social convergence with search is the big thing to take care of in 2012, and to a certain extent that is true – but it is just part of a larger picture.

Social media presence is one of the many parts of online brand building or brand awareness. This is on the whole something which is overlooked by the affiliate industry, particularly those that focus on SEM.

The thinking for some time has been “minimize traffic acquisition cost ruthlessly” in order to maximize profits. While this indeed is a route to profits in the short term, the simple truth is that as a strategy, it almost never leads to a sustainable business model.

There are those among us that remember back to the days when paid search was wide open, and profits were ready for the taking on almost any vertical – those days are now a number of years behind us, yet the mindset simply has not changed for a lot of marketers.

The new reality is:

[(Cost Per Acquisition = Cost of Traffic * Conversion Rate) * Repeat Visit Rate].

Let’s put it simply – you are paying an average across all media channels (paid, organic, social, print, outdoor, radio, TV etc.) a net cost of £0.50 per visitor to your website.

You know that first time visitors to your site purchase at an average rate of 1%. This means that you are currently paying £50 in marketing costs for each transaction you receive. Let’s assume that you earn on average £60 per transaction, a nice 20% margin on cost.

Now let’s look at typical human behavior and lifetime client value. I know that personally I tend to use one of two or three travel sites, and rarely search for other providers – I am happy with the experience and service of the brands that I already am familiar with. I either search for their brand name, or type the URL directly into the browser.

This is pretty much standard in the modern world, with google (or other search engine) being used primarily as a navigational hub as opposed to a search service.

So how much did I cost my merchant in advertising cost? Well, outside of the initial £50 they spent attracting me, not much – and I have probably made over 10 purchases in the last few years. This now gives me a blended CPA (amount of money it costs to attract a customer) of no more than £5.

These figures are of course totally made up, but making a decision based on your own data is simple enough as long as you have got Google Analytics installed.

In the event that you do, navigate to the page: Conversions -> Goals -> Overview, then click the “advanced segments” button at the top of the page, and you can choose between the stats for new and returning visitors.

In addition to segmenting repeat visitors, you can also see how different types of traffic perform and use that to focus your marketing efforts to the areas that bring the most valuable business, or the lowest cost visitors, depending on your KPI’s.

But what about the branding?

Well – traditional search marketing theory dictates that a domain name like “cheap-hotels-in-central-london.com” is a great idea.

It is absolutely on niche for travel, it’s likely to rank well in search engines, and would have a great CTR on paid search. The problem is though; it’s a one-time benefit.

When you attract a customer with this type of site, you are in the auction system again next time that person is looking for a provider. It is going to be spectacularly difficult to build any brand awareness, resulting in you having to pay for every bit of business, and building something that can maintain itself is considerably harder.

Building a brand doesn’t need to be something that is supported by a multi-million pound advertising campaign either. With the advent of the internet, cheap media production and social networking it has become easier than ever to build a brand, at least in the eyes of the search engines.

So without further ado, my top tips on branding online presence:

1. Market research

Every niche, no matter how small or obscure, biases towards certain social networks, forums or blogs. Make sure you know where your audience are, and be part of that community.

2. Community

Even if you are not a thought leader in the industry, take part in as many discussions that it makes sense to. Don’t start posting useless views such as “I agree”, or “great post”, but where you can add anything to the tapestry of the discussion, be sure to.

3. Visual appeal

Have a memorable design/colour scheme/logo/strapline/mission statement. Something that sets you apart from the crowd. An excellent example from another competitive industry is “Fanatical Support” (Rackspace), and who doesn’t know the old Carlsberg beer line of “Probably the best in the world”. These provide some personality to the brand, and are particularly handy for memory recall if used with a mnemonic device.

4. Think big

Remember that everything you do online has the potential to go viral, however small. Never post anything anywhere that you wouldn’t want any of the following to be read by your customers/ your competitors/your mother. Sticking to the above is a pretty clear cut way of avoiding any Kenneth Cole-type indiscretion!

Summing up

The final question on whether to build a brand, or a search-biased company, comes with longevity.

When you are looking for an exit (whether that be simply selling the website through a service like Flippa.com right through to an IPO or a buyout) the value of the brand is what sets apart certain websites, and results in their valuation being much higher.

Facebook being a topical case in point!

NB: This is a guest article by Martin MacDonald, SEO director Expedia Affiliate Network, covering SEO and social media.

NB2: Trust image via Shutterstock.

Related posts:

1. Rough guide to running combined online search-TV campaigns in travel
2. Google makes travel search three-dimensional with Social Search
3. How to take travel search marketing to the next level with product feeds