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R U Still Asking Guests Where They Found You?

How did you find us?

I’m surprised at how many Innkeepers are relying on the feedback from their guests as a justification for their marketing strategy.

  • Some do this by word of mouth “So how did you find out about us?”
  • Others do this asking “How did you find us” with a list of canned responses in their reservation system.

Experts say that a potential Guest will shop 13, 17, 22 different sites before choosing to book with you.

The total number of these sites is not what you need to focus on.  What you need to focus on is the fact that there isn’t one answer to the question “Where did your Guest find you”.

There are many different places a Guest checks out your business online before they book. Being aware of as many of these places, and the revenue generated by these referrals is what you need to know to justify your marketing strategy - - Not a Guess from the Guest.


So how do you go about obtaining such valuable data?

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  • Step 1: Choose a Reservation company that supports Google’s Universal Analytics and E-Commerce Tracking. We have successfully tested Think, ResNexus and Rezovations. If you have another Reservation company that is willing to support Google’s Universal Analytics and E-Commerce Tracking, please contact us about becoming a beta test site.
  • Step 2: Make sure that Google’s Universal Analytics and E-Commerce Tracking is CORRECTLY installed on your Website and Blog, on your Reservation Company software, and is configured correctly in your Google Analytics account to correctly track this information.

Once Google Analytics begins gathering this data, you will now be able to make intelligent decisions regarding where to spend your marketing dollars. There will be no more “guessing” or “estimating” as to how many bookings actually came from any of your referrals, such as your Google organic traffic, or TripAdvisor.com, or a newly written blog post, or a request for a Travel Guide.

You’ll have factual data. Not a guess, which is truly nothing more than fiction.

It’s imperative that you realize that just because you may be engaging in or paying for techniques that drive more traffic to your site, more traffic DOES NOT MEAN you will have more bookings. If you are driving un-targeted traffic, just to increase your organic referrals, and none of that traffic converts into bookings, you are wasting your time and your money.

By correctly configuring Universal Analytics and E-Commerce Tracking, you’ll take the guess work out of who you pay, what level you pay them for their services, and you will be able to concentrate your marketing budget on what actually is putting HEADS IN BEDS.

Not what you think, or are being told, is generating your revenue.

Need help? Have Questions? Please E-Mail Mark Hall at markhall@acorn-is.com

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