|
|  |
|
|
Creating An Electronic Dialog With Consumers
By George Zimmermann
The new realities of web-based marketing are dramatically changing the strategies at Travel Michigan. In 2001, ninety-four percent of our consumer inquiries were via our web site, michigan.org, or email, with only six percent via phone or mail. Our web inquiries were up 23% in 2001 over 2000, and have jumped more than 30% in the first four months of 2002.
Back in the 90s, when the toll-free phone number was the prime touch point with consumers, the strategy of most state tourism promotion agencies was to use advertising, public relations, promotions, etc. to motivate consumers to call for more information and publications such as our own Michigan Travel Ideas. The research confirmed that a significant percentage of consumers who responded and inquired converted to travelers. Most state tourism promotion entities were not encouraging repeated contacts with consumers; given the per-inquiry costs of servicing each caller, the states focused on attracting new inquiries, not on establishing a continuing dialog with previous callers.
As in so many areas, the maturation of the web has significantly impacted the consumer interaction model. Some of these changes are obvious -- for example, that the incremental cost of servicing 500,000 consumers via your web site versus 5,000 is negligible. More subtle are the relatively inexpensive vehicles for both attracting new leads and communicating with them on an on-going basis. Email addresses of consumers interested in receiving travel information can be purchased, swapped or captured via a contest or promotion. We utilize all of these techniques at Travel Michigan.
Once we have started a dialog with a consumer interested in Michigan as a destination, our goal is to continue that conversation via our monthly newsletter. Thus far, approximately 50,000 consumers have signed up to receive this monthly communication on upcoming Michigan events, news about attractions, and deals. Expanding our consumer newsletter distribution is a top priority for Travel Michigan.
Given the importance of the web to Travel Michigan's program, we seek to maximize the web promotion component of any advertising, public relations, partnership or other marketing activity. We ask every first-time visitor to our web site to sign up for our consumer newsletter. Through the web, we can build that on-going dialog with a virtually unlimited number of consumers who want to travel in Michigan.
|
|
|
