bad customer review.

Cue the dramatic music, folks. Your vacation rental company is doomed.

…Or is it?

Good news for inbound marketing for vacation rental companies! No, you can’t delete a bad review. Nor can you chase after those customers and shout at them to take it down. But, you can turn these negative reviews around. Here’s how:

Timing is everything. You have to respond in a timely manner or risk losing valuable business. You may have lost that one particular customer, but you still have the chance to reel in others who have seen the bad review. There is a nifty Google alerts tool for inbound marketing for vacation rental companies that will send you an email alert when any content is written on the internet that includes your company’s name or website. However, only pages that are indexed by Google will be sent to you. Respond to each one as quick as possible.

Research the facts. If the customer is complaining about a specific employee or a particular situation, find out all that you can about what happened. You should have a firm understanding of the issue before continuing on.

Be as professional and as civil as possible. First, give the customer a sincere and thoughtful apology. Be clear as to why you are apologizing and take full responsibility—no excuses!  Shockingly enough, customers are not always right. However, saying this in a review is not going to help your case. Plus, most people just want their complaint to be acknowledged. Hey, you might not have lost them as a customer yet!

Thank them! If the review was especially harsh, it could be hard to do this. However, you do need to let your customers know that their feedback is appreciated, whether or not you enjoyed reading their callous review.

Turn it around. If there is an instance that a “bad” review is simply a matter of preference, there could be a relatively simple fix. For example, if one of your guests at a vacation rental left a bad review saying that it was located in a “noisy” or “busy” area, apologize and offer a suggestion. Perhaps the place they stayed at was geared more for young adults on their spring break who are interested more in the busy night life. Tell your customer this and advise them of a quieter vacation rental in a calm neighborhood that would be more their speed, in case they are to return.

Correct the problem. Assure them that you have listened. Explain to them all of the efforts your company has made since to fix the problem. This is one of the most important steps. People will start to notice when multiple customers have had a recurring problem. Potential customers will also appreciate the fact that, as a company, you are willing listen to your customers and that you will make improvements accordingly. This is key for inbound marketing for vacation rental companies because other potential guests can see your reply and will be impressed by your professionalism and ability to accept criticism.

Make it right. If possible, offer to make the situation right for the customer. This could be in the form of a refund or a gift certificate. Let them know that they are a valuable customer and that you want to prove to them that the situation has been ameliorated.

Getting a bad review does not have to turn into a Hollywood drama. Honestly, it will happen to even the best companies at some point in the business. Use best strategies when it comes to inbound marketing for vacation rental companies to ensure that one bad review does not send your business spiraling. You’d be surprised at just how much customers will appreciate their comments being heard. Contact a company that specializes in inbound marketing for vacation rental companies for more tips and tricks of the trade. 

Make a point of assessing the strategies of companies that are in the same industry as you. However, it would be helpful to also take a sneak peak at other businesses that have been recognized for their mobile marketing solutions. It’s important to look at a variety of mobile marketing strategies all while keeping in mind that what works for one industry may not work for yours. Fortunately, mobile marketing is still in its beginning stages so this gives businesses more creative freedom when determining their perfect mobile marketing strategies. Practice grading the mobile marketing solutions of your own business and see how they compare to the competition’s.

(+/-1) Deliver with a mobile mentality. If your emails and website were created with mobile devices in mind, award yourself one point. Mobile emails and webpages are going to be seen through a much smaller platform than traditional emails and you need to remember this when creating a subject line and writing content. Convey your message simply but without losing meaning and you’ve got the right idea. Plus one point!

(+/-1) Provide easily clickable buttons and links. If your websites and emails have tiny buttons and difficult links, users will soon become frustrated and proceed elsewhere. Minus one point for any mobile marketing solutions that have users poking at their screen with frustrated fingers.

(+/-1) Know your targeted audience. You’ll want to focus your mobile marketing strategies based on what percentage of your users are viewing your material on a mobile device. If you’re ideal customers are retirees, your strategy will be much different than if your audience consists mostly of college students. Add a point if your mobile marketing solutions are customized according to your ideal audience.

(+/-1) Think height over width. If your content is more easily read vertically, give yourself one more point. Most mobile users read material with their phone held upright, and won’t want to be forced to turn their phone sideways in order to understand the message.

(+/-1) Use a logical font size. Smaller is better when it comes to mobile, right? Not always. Putting small font on an email or website that is already going to be viewed through a small screen is the best way to impair your viewers’ eyesight. Minus a point if an email has your users squinting.

(+/-1) Avoid complex coding and heavy content. Think simple and think fast. Customers using a mobile device are probably already multi-tasking. They won’t want to wait around for content to load. If your solution is to keep it moving, give yourself a point.

(+/-1) Look for your main message and call to action. If they are in the top left corner, give yourself one last point. This is the place in which they’ll best be seen. Are you having to scroll past the fold in order to read an important piece of information? Minus a point!

5-7 Points: Mobile Marketing Master.

Great job. You may need only to tweak your mobile marketing solutions a tad and you should be all set to go mobile! Remember though, technology is always changing and shifting so your business, in turn, should never stop testing and improving.

3-5 Points: Mobile Rookie

Keep those mobile eyes and ears peeled for mobile marketing solutions that work well for other businesses. Try incorporating some of their practices in order to improve upon your own. Assess and grade your emails and website often to stay ahead of the competition.

Less than 3 points:

Needs Improvement. Don’t worry if your mobile marketing solutions fall short at first. As mentioned before, this is a new market for most businesses so it will be a learning process at first. Keep testing and assessing your efforts on different mobile devices to better your strategies.  

Ah, Instagram. It is the reason why our social media newsfeeds are constantly filled with “polaroids” of the day to day lives of our friends and family. Many businesses have shied away from using Instagram because they assume that the app is geared more towards person to person interaction. This may be so, but several industries could also benefit by jumping on the “faux-polaroid” bandwagon. Instagram has been a favorite for travelers and tourists alike as a means to document their trips and share their images with social media. If these potential visitors are on Instagram, so should all hospitality businesses be on Instagram. Hotels, restaurants and other similar industries are sorely missing out by not using this app as part of their strategy for inbound marketing for hospitality.

Because a picture can communicate so much almost instantly, Instagram is an awesome way to showcase your brand’s personality. Marketing has come a long way in that people no longer want to be distant from the company that they buy their goods and services from. By posting photos that highlight your unique personality as a brand, your target audience will better relate to you as a company. It gives your business a face to the name, so to speak. Give your inbound marketing for hospitality that personal touch by using this fun and creative app.

Instagram is also a great way to encourage visitors to come to your area and visit your establishment. Feel free to post any photos that are travel-related that you think would pique the interest of future guests. Instagram is a popular fun way for travelers to share their own photos with the rest of the world. Their purpose is not necessarily to make us jealous by the fact that they are in the Cayman Islands and we are not, but to share with us certain images and ideas in case we later find ourselves vacationing there ourselves. Mimic this tactic for inbound marketing for hospitality and promote your brand by posting photos of the places (i.e. yours) where viewers would possibly want to visit. Spice it up a bit and make those images really intriguing! The app can be really fun because it allows you to have lots of simple editing and enhancement tools, right at your fingertips.

Speaking of that super cool editing feature, it should be noted that among some social circles, Instagram has gotten a bit of a reputation. The reason why some people may turn up their noses at the thought of using Instagram is because some users “abuse the privilege.” I don’t believe that there is a platform out there that has more than its fair share of dogs wearing glasses, over-edited images of sunsets, close-ups of home cooked meals, or self-promotional “selfies.” As you can imagine, having your newsfeed flooded by a thousand pictures of your neighbor’s cat dressed up in costume is not an ideal situation. Don’t contribute to this reputation when utilizing your inbound marketing for hospitality by posting hoards of unoriginal, thoughtless content. Steer clear of posting numerous uninteresting photos and, even though the editing tools can be fun, try not to overdo it. The photograph should be awesome before editing, so don’t compensate by upping the contrast and adding filters.

Remember, the foundation of having a solid social media strategy is to intertwine all of your different networks. Instagram is one of the few social media sites that is solely photo-centric. It can be a great way to add to your inbound marketing for hospitality strategies by also posting relevant photos to your other connected sites. Interested users can then like, share, tweet or re-post Instagram images on their own networks. This results in even more exposure and recommendations for your company. So make sure that after you set up your Instagram account you integrate it throughout your different networking platforms for a more complete inbound marketing strategy for your hospitality industry business. For more tips and assistance on how to use Instagram and other social media networks, contact Paveya today!

There is such a vast amount of content available on the internet, that it may be hard for your targeted audience to sift through it all to find interesting information. According to Beth Kanter, who was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most influential women in technology, we are living in an era of content abundance. She states that on Facebook alone the average user creates 90 pieces of content each month. Consider for a moment that there are over 800 million Facebook users. That is a lot of content. If retail companies continue to create content for the sole purpose of blabbering on about their brand, it’s going to get old quick for the majority of their customers.  

We need to shift the focus of inbound marketing for retail to better provide your users with quality and engaging content. Retail needs to find new ways to advertise their brand without constantly self-promoting and obnoxiously pushing their brand on users who are already blasted with too much content. The solution? Content curation.

Content curation is defined as the process of sorting through overwhelming amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme. If your inbound marketing for retail strategy centers on blabbering about your business and continually patting yourself on the back, people are going to be quick to pass on your self-absorbed content.

So how can inbound marketing for retail utilize content curation? Pinterest has several great examples of effective content curation, although you can apply the same strategies anywhere. The image here was pinned by Evokingyou.com which is a blog focused on photography, fashion among other things. The pin has taken several different stylish pieces and arranged them in a visually pleasing way. These products are not from the same brand, but they are put together cohesively. This example is specific to the clothing industry, of course, but it can apply for any types of goods or services. The key to content curation for inbound marketing for retail is taking your product and displaying it in a way that does not necessarily make it the focus, but as a delightful garnish—an a la carte piece that will encourage viewers to go out and buy it, and buy it now.

The idea behind content curation is not to advertise solely your own brand, but to present your products and pieces with others in a way that will make consumers want to buy it! This may mean having to go outside your brand. This may be a big, scary step for inbound marketing for retail, but it works. Don’t believe me? A study was done by www.convinceandconvert.com in 2011 to determine how customers responded to two different content types: created (typical advertisements) and curated. According to that study, brands that posted curated content linking to 3rd party sites experienced a 33% increase in clicks versus those with original content linking back to their site. Still want to keep patting your own back, retail? Consider content curation for inbound marketing for retail. Don’t be that awkward brand left alone in the corner talking about yourself. No one wants to listen!

Alas, it must be said that our technology addled world can’t always be so perfect. If you’ve ever had a bad experience while shopping online, you know that the e-commerce web design can be prove to be just as much of a hindrance than it is a help when shopping for purchases. When it comes to e-commerce web design, here are some best practices to apply when ensuring your customers have a pleasurable and stress-free online shopping experience.

1. Keep that search bar in plain view.

Shoppers sometimes come to an e-commerce site to browse, but more often than not, the person will already have something in mind to look for. Consider making your search bar the main focus of your e-commerce web design. It will encourage customers to look around your site and will also assist those who are looking for something more specific.

2. Allow customers to refine options.

Let customers to filter their search options to better provide them with results that they might be interested in. For example, with items such as clothing, make sure you include size filters so a customer won’t become frustrated when their search continually produces items that are not available in their size.

3. Improve immediacy and speed.

If your e-commerce web design becomes heavy and is crammed full of slow loading content, people who come to your website for a quick and convenient shopping experience will be quick to leave. Your website needs to be able to load on shoppers’ screens quickly and efficiently to keep them interested and engaged.

4.Clarify which items are out of stock.

You will have a ton of angry customers on your hand if you fail to let them know when you are out of a certain product. Once, I ordered a tee shirt that was actually out of stock on an online clothing company. I alerted them to the problem and they ended up refunding my money and sending me a free tee shirt. You could potentially lose money by having to “appease” those customers who complain about ordering an out-of-stock product.

5. Use quality photos.

We have yet to make online shopping into the equivalent of shopping for a product in person. The closest thing to seeing a product in person is providing high quality photos on your e-commerce web design. Using poor quality photos or having none at all opens the door for all sorts of problems. Potential buyers won’t want to buy an item they can’t see, and if they do, they could end up getting a product that looks entirely different than the one on the website. Without these photos, consumers will quickly become disgruntled.

6. Include testimonials.

You know that your product is phenomenal, but buyers might not want to take your word for it. They might, however, believe reviews left by customers who have already purchased the product. Don’t let the possibility of receiving negative reviews scare you—almost every product out there is bound to get some negative reviews, but those will just give you more room for improvement.

7. Eliminate checkout distractions.

It is so crucial not to distract your potential customer at this point in the buying process. You want them to be focused enough to complete the entire order. For your e-commerce web design, make sure you remove items like sidebar navigation and define a clear goal to the path. The more content on this page, the less appealing for the buyer.

Your e-commerce web design should be entirely focused on making the process of online shopping as simple and pleasant as possible. Shoppers who quickly become aggravated with the functions of your site are not going to stick around for long. For e-commerce web design especially, it is so important to build a website that is not just visually pleasing but is also easy to navigate and functional. For more tips, contact an internet marketing agency that specializes in e-commerce and online marketing. 

On the flip side, if you don’t know what you’re doing, real estate agent websites can also wreak havoc on your reputation– recent studies suggest that 95% of buyers and sellers begin their real estate search on the internet. Without a plan for your internet marketing, you could potentially be losing clients, well, 24/7, 365 days a year. And I’m here to tell you how to do just that.

Announcing the top 4 Ways to Create a Negative Image, Lose Clients, Confuse Buyers and Have the WORST Real Estate Agent Website Ever:

1) Camouflage your contact information

When creating the worst real estate agent website in history, it is absolutely imperative to hide your contact information. Might as well make a game of it—keep your potential clients guessing as to how to reach you. Make your information as tiny as possible and make sure to hide that contact form in some remote corner! Or, make them fill out a really long form with lots of required questions. In fact, if you really want to aggravate your customers, throw out that contact information all together. Let them work for it.

2) Delete your blog

Who needs content? Again, keep them guessing about what you offer, why you are good at what you do and why they should choose you. Take all those pages of significant content that you spent hours writing and throw them out completely. Relevant material on properties, the real estate market, how-to guides and community information? Only the best real estate agent websites would waste their time on that type content. If you want to bore your clients and customers completely, make sure those blogs are gone for good. Note: If you do insist on having a blog, use only the most mind-numbing, repetitive information possible. The older it is the better. That’ll turn your customers away for sure!

3) Forget about Social Media

No one uses Facebook anymore and I’m pretty sure no one even knows what “Twitter” means. Don’t waste your time being on social media sites that will probably become ancient history in the next week or so. To create the worst real estate agent website ever, you won’t want to include any links to your social media sites. Why would customers or clients want to connect with you on a more personal or professional level? Leave that to the real estate agents who want to build their brand and provide personal advices and service.

4) Outdate your website

When potential clients arrive at your website, your job is to annoy them as quickly as possible. You can do this is by one of several ways. Perhaps you could add your personal favorite song, a scrolling marquee text,  obnoxious flashy buttons or post numerous blinking, or animated images. Remember, we’re creating the worst real estate agent website here, so no clean, simple pages with easy to understand navigation allowed. Use only the darkest backgrounds with an even darker text to really ruin your viewers’ eyesight. If you have a headshot from the early nineties, I would strongly recommend using it. If not, find your worst, most unprofessional photo from your Mardi Gras party and post that instead!

I would hope that it goes without saying, but I do not—I repeat, I do not— recommend these strategies. I’m not sure there is any scenario in which making the worst real estate agent website would be beneficial to anyone, unless there is some horrible website contest that I just haven’t heard about yet. I would suggest, however, that you do the opposite of what I have just told you. A well put-together, high quality and engaging real estate agent website can really work wonders for your inbound marketing. Like I said before, your website will be out there working 24/7, 365 days a year to promote you as a real estate agent. Just make sure you are promoting the right way. 

Dust off your SEO

Travel giants such as Travelocity have grown as popular as they are because of their advertising and SEO strategies. Over 80% of online transactions begin with keyword searches. Inbound marketing for hotels relies on optimizing your site to keep it appearing on the first page of search results. Any further and you might as well be invisible. Conduct ongoing keyword research to make sure your company is targeting your ideal audience by using the most profitable long-tail keywords. Analyze your competition and see what’s working for them. Utilize free keyword grading tools and analyze keyword traffic. SEO can be hard work but in the long term it will pay off and bring hoards of traffic to your site.

Give your content a fresh coat of paint

I’ve been over this time and time again, but I cannot stress this enough: To keep visitors coming to your website, you need to supply them with fresh and engaging content. Inbound for marketing for hotels is unique in that you’ve got a great reason to write new content. Ideas for your blog should be easy—you are writing for people who know very little about the area! Talk about local events that are happening near your hotel’s location, post about some of the best restaurants and bars, highlight some of the greatest activities in your area. You can provide them with a unique local standpoint, and that, for vacationers, is incredibly valuable. Hotels should never run out of fun content!

Tend to your Social Media

People want to be constantly connected via their social networks. People are heading over to sites like Twitter and Facebook to check out deals or do research on where to stay during their vacation. If your social media sites are dull and boring, chances are vacationers will not choose your hotel. Social media can be a fun and rewarding aspect of inbound marketing for hotels. Networking sites allow companies to engage directly with their customers, and your guests will certainly appreciate this! Try holding a contest or starting a conversation with people who are planning a vacation to the area.

Weed out bad reviews

There are so many search engines that allow customers to post reviews and rate different establishments. Even if you have not set up an account for your hotel, chances are if you’ve had a particularly unsatisfied customer (hey, it happens) they have posted a review about your hotel already. While you cannot necessarily “remove” these bad reviews, on most sites you can reply to any negative feedback or thank a customer for a positive review. Make sure your responses are professional and friendly, and for any negative comments, assure any future customers that you have done everything in your power to fix the issue.

Try to conduct these little spring cleaning practices often, especially right before your busiest seasons. Don’t focus on just one of these tips; concentrate your time and effort across the board. Inbound marketing for hotels should be a comprehensive project that encapsulates SEO, social media, and content. Take advantage of the slower business hours of the wintertime and spruce up your inbound marketing strategies for hotels. Contact your inbound marketing professionals for more tips and tricks of the trade.

If you are a vacation rental company in the market for a new website design, you probably already know that this isn’t a task you’ll want to take on on your own. 

Unless you have a website developer on staff, creating a high-quality website design from scratch is a pretty daunting undertaking, even for those of us who claim to be technically savvy. When you’re ready to sit down and start brainstorming ideas for that shiny new website of your dreams, here is a checklist to refer to when considering your new vacation rental website design.

• Appeal to your target audience. Websites are not one size fits all. Are you trying to reach out to students on spring break or are your properties targeted more towards retirees wanting to relax? Do you want to appeal to families or couples on their honeymoon? You really need to hone in and clearly define your audience when deciding on a customized vacation rental web design.
• Consistency/Repetition. Your website is going to have many, many pages. This is a good thing. However, you need to make sure that your image or brand name is the same throughout each page. This means keeping your logo and placement, as well as your footers, headers and navigation area, consistent. For every new page of content, make sure the same general format is repeated.
• Make your title informative. If the name of your vacation rental company does not clearly define the business you’re in, consider adding a short descriptive tagline in your header. Insert your tagline below the company name on the header of every page to keep your viewer informed. Also, put key information on the footer as well, such as contact information, physical address, copyright and the date your site was last updated.
• Prominent display. When creating an effective vacation rental web design, it is crucial to have all your relevant information above the fold of your vacation rental web design. This means that viewers should have access to all of the pertinent content without having to scroll down. Also, avoid the use of horizontal scrolling.
• Balance. To make your vacation rental web design visually pleasing, you will need a decent balance of text, graphics and white space. Avoid large chunks of text by creating lists or bullet points and use only images that relate to your content and are of high quality.
• Contrast between text and background. Nothing is more annoying than viewing a website that is hard to read. If you have a dark background with dark text, you might as well just kick people off your website. They aren’t going to stay long if they have to squint to read your information. Having a professional and clear format is essential for vacation rental web design.

We highly suggest that you invest in an experienced website developer because when it comes to building a superior web design, you get what you pay for. However, it is a good idea to have a general idea of what you’re looking for before meeting with your new website designer. Come prepared and use the above tips to come up with a very basic vacation rental website design. That way, you can collaborate with your web designer on the best customized web design for your company. Your web designer will remind you of these best practices when finalizing on a new design, but contributing to the planning of your webpage will help you and your web designer produce a design that is right for you.

The time is right for Pinterest and small business. Just this past Tuesday, March 12th,  Pinterest unveiled their new, handy-dandy web analytics tool. Since I spend my time on my own personal Pinterest re-pinning tasty brownie recipes and photos of tropical island getaways, this tool won’t be of any value to me. But luckily for you, the benefits for internet marketing for small business are abundant. This nifty (and free!) tool allows site owners to track the number of pinners and pins collecting material from their sites and the number of repinners and repins that those initial pins received.

For all you non-Pinterest users, all of that pinning and repining nonsense probably sounded a whole lot like gobbledegook. Allow me to explain: A “pin” is simply an image or video that you wish to follow with your Pinterest followers. Any pin that you upload can be repinned, and all of those subsequent “repins” will link back to their original source (your business). Users of Pinterest have their own boards where they can organize pins by topics. Depending on your small business, these boards can be customized to fit you. For example, if you own a local restaurant, your boards could consist of things such as “Entrees,” “Drinks,” “Recipes” or “Local Events.” Be creative; you can create your own boards and post anything that you believe would entice your customers to visit your small business. Ultimately, the overall goal for internet marketing for small business is to encourage other people to repin and share your images and videos with their followers. When you post interesting content, your pins can travel with lightning speed across a network of other Pinterest users.

Hopefully, now you can understand a little better how that awesome new analytics tool could benefit you as a small business owner. To start using the analytics, first set up your business Pinterest account. Then, have them verify your business by going to your profile, clicking the pencil icon on the botton right corner of the name box, and entering in your website. After you finish that, you can access the Analytics tab in the main menu on the top right and start discovering the different features. For example, with the tool you can determine what is trending overall and what is not, what posts of yours are working and which aren’t. Use this data to create better pins in the future and keep your followers craving more. You can even look back at your most repined content to improve your internet marketing for small business over time. Small businesses on Pinterest can also track total impressions and their reach on the network, as well as referral traffic in both clicks and unique visitors that are sent back to their sites.

 If you’re ready to use this exciting new tool for internet marketing for small business, head on over to Pinterest now and get your small business account set up. Free internet marketing? Can’t beat that.  Happy pinning!

The good news is that Google has caught on to sneaky firms and businesses that have been using cheap tactics to appear on that treasured first page. This gives the lawyers who have committed to quality lawyer SEO tactics the chance to appear on those first pages instead of the firms who utilize superficial SEO. So, for those lawyers who are concerned about boosting their page through relevant content, here are three things NOT to do.

Exchange Ineffective Links:

Link building is an important part of lawyer SEO, but there is a right and wrong way to do it. If you exchange links with a website that is completely unrelated to your own, you may gain a few more visitors to your site, but they won’t be your targeted audience and they’ll soon become disgruntled. This technique is not effective when the links that are both coming and going from your page are irrelevant to your viewers. For those who catch on to your evil plan (i.e. everyone) this will be a huge red flag and will steer people clear of your website.

Stuff with Keywords:

Yes, using keywords, especially long-tail keywords, is a fantastic way to guide people to your site. Search engines such as Google crawl over pages and pick out specific keywords to provide their users with more targeted results. So, when used in the right way, keywords are awesome—except when you “stuff” your content. Using a keyword repeatedly is unethical and will sound unnatural. When you use a keyword so many times that it becomes distracting, your content will lose its value. For example, I have used the words “lawyer SEO” a few times in this article because, to put it simply, that is the topic of this article. However, I’d also like to inform search engines as to what my content is about without sounding like a broken record. I’d like for the people who want to learn more about the topic to arrive here. Fair enough, right?

Copy Content/Swap Pages:

This is the really sneaky stuff. Some web developers have copied pages from websites with a high-ranking in order to boost their own. Once their ranking begins to improve, they swap out the “stolen” content for some of their own. That’s low. If you create your own content and make it engaging and valuable, people will come to your site. It’s as easy as that.

When you use only best practices when it comes to lawyer SEO, you should have no problem boosting your websites rankings. If you use unethical tactics, it is possible that you may receive some traffic at first. However, doing this will certainly harm you in the long run. It’s pretty easy for savvy internet users to distinguish the noble websites from all the scammers. Invest in a suitable internet marketing strategy and watch your page rankings soar. For more information, contact a company that specializes in lawyer SEO.