Tips to encourage fan engagement with your Facebook business page

Below are some of our tips to boost fan interaction on your facebook business page.

• Encourage fans to post their questions or feedback on your page. Answer their questions, thank them for their reviews and feedback. Let them know that you're listening
• Share photos and videos on your page
• Ask for their feedback. For example, get your fans feedback on their thoughts on a colour scheme for your room renovations, or a menu change
• Celebrate company milestones, achievements or awards.
• Participate in seasonal celebrations/holidays. For example, post photos of the Christmas decorations in your office, or a Valentine's Day special etc
• Have fun - ask your fans questions, use polls etc or get fans to finish the sentence or fill in the blank. For example, When I'm travelling, my favourite song on my playlist is.......
• Play a game or post a puzzle on Facebook and get fans to respond with their answers. Eg guess where this photo was taken.
• Offer a contest
• Share interesting content with your fans. It doesn't need to be just specials. Offer other content of interest or relevance to your fans, such as tips, whitepaper downloads, links to interesting news articles etc.
• Offer content based on current news. Eg Did anyone watch Dancing with the stars last night? Who do you think will go?
• Leverage events and create buzz around upcoming events. Post photos or videos after the event

To get started on Facebook, or if you would like more information about facebook marketing and social media management, speak to TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3588 or visit www.tafastrack.com.au.

Email marketing - how to improve enewsletter open rates

Below are some simple tips on how you can improve email marketing opening rates.

From field and email address
Send your email from a recognisable 'from' email address and person. If your recipients don't recognise your email or person it's coming from, they will delete it or report it as spam. We recommend sending the enewsletters from a name, followed by your company name, eg Bob Smith | ABC Company.

Attention grabbing subject line
Your email recipients will scan a subject line to determine whether it's relevant or of interest to them. You can test subject lines to determine what holds the most interest for your email subscribers. Avoid using words or symbols (such as multiple exclamation marks), as this may trigger spam filters.

Ask to be added to your subscribers' address book
Some email providers will automatically send your emails to the spam/junk folder if your email address is not included in the address book or trusted senders list. To avoid your email being sent to the junk folder, ask your email subscribers to add your email to their address book.

Send emails to people who genuinely want to receive your email
Check your sign-up process. Does it clearly state that they will receive emails from you?

Improve email deliverability
One way to improve email deliverability is to remove any recipients who have complained from your mailing list. Delete bounced emails (wrong email addresses) from your list and improve your reputation.

For more tips on email marketing, speak to TA Fastrack today on 1300 659 289 or visit www.tafastrack.com.au.

Increase website conversion with these easy tips

The first thing you need to look at is getting a professionally designed website. First impressions count and a well designed website with SEO in mind will help with your conversions.

Some of the things you should look at to help improve website conversion include:

Improve the content
Content is king, especially for search engines, but how much information should you include? We recommend that you should at least provide enough information about your products and services for your customers to make an informed and immediate purchase decision.

Customers hate having to dig around and scroll down the page for additional information. They may even become frustrated if they have to email you to find out more about your hotel. If you are leaving out product information, you are losing conversions.

Use SEO tactics when creating content for your site. That means, you should spend some time researching your relevant keywords, properly adding these keywords to your webpage title, indexing your webpages, and providing relevant content on your various site pages. Be sure to also include some relevant keywords within the content for search engine optimisation. Include detailed product information and prices for your services if necessary.

If you leave too much to the imagination, you will lose potential customers who cannot be bothered looking through your website.

2. Strong calls to action and easy to find contact information
The best placement for your contact information is at the top of the page, above the fold. Use bright, bold text to make your call to action stand out and ensure it is easy to read.

Your call to action and contact info should be on every landing page so customers don't have to spend time trying to find out how to reach you to make a purchase. Invite your customers to call or email you, or add an enquiry form so they can contact you easily.

An important call to action is your book now button. Have your book now button on ever webpage so customers don't have to hunt around the website for it and keep it near the top above the fold, so it directs people to book immediately with you.

3. Website design
Is your website visually cluttered and overflowing with too much information? Or is your website designed poorly with low resolution logos, images and no information?

First impressions count. Make sure your website stands out with a clean, user-friendly layout. Your website should give visitors the feeling that you are a respectable, trustworthy company.

If you need a new website design, speak to a marketing consultant at TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3588 or visit www.tafastrack.com.au.

Responding to online negative reviews

Here are some stats for you to consider on why it's important to respond to negative reviews online:

• According to PhoCusWright, 87% of travellers found guest reviews from people they didn’t know influential in their travel decision
• Online reviews are second only to personal advice from a friend as the driver of purchase decisions
• 86% of Australians trust consumer recommendations, while only 14% of people trust advertisements
• 74% agree (including 14% who strongly agree) that they choose companies and brands based on what others say online about their customer service experiences
• 92% of travellers are more likely to book accommodations that post a detailed property description and photos. Travellers want to see the value they are getting for their money

Below are some of our tips on how you can respond to negative reviews and preserve your good online reputation.

DO

1. Get senior management involved in the process and get them to reply directly to the reviewer.
2. Try to respond within 24 hours of the review. This shows that you are listening and you care.
3. Thank the reviewer for their feedback to show that you are listening and you are taking this seriously.
4. Apologize that the stay did not go as planned.
5. Be transparent.
6. Point out to the reviewer that this is a rarity when compared with your regular customer service.
7. Explain what you will be doing based on their feedback. For example, your personal email or phone number so they can contact you directly, you have spoken to the department responsible, you are fixing the leaking sink etc.
8. Highlight any positive aspects that the reviewer left.
9. Offer a direct line of communication (your email, phone number).
10. Fix the problem if there is one.
11. Let the guest know you will share his/her feedback with the relevant staff/department to show you are doing something about it and you care about their feedback.
12. Show some personality. You can be more informal and to the point in your replies, but still always professional.

You can also

• Write an article on your blog to let everyone know how proactive you are being
• Write a press release about any significant changes made to your hotel/rooms due to feedback from customers, eg installation of double-glazed windows because of the noise etc.

DON’T

1. Ignore negative reviews and think they will go away. If you don’t respond in a timely manner, other people will think you don’t care, or the reviews are true, which will impact directly on your profit.
2. Write a response back to the reviewer when you’re angry.
3. Write a robot-like response or standard reply
4. Question the reviewer’s legitimacy.
5. Reply with a discount. This will only encourage other negative reviews.
6. Respond insincerely or sarcastically.
7. Try to remove negative reviews (most websites do not allow this anyway).
8. Forget to respond to positive reviews (only responding to negative ones can make you look defensive).
9. Write fake reviews (you will be found out).
10. Offer compensation as it might only encourage more complaints.
11. Avoid humour and especially sarcasm and never be defensive, petty or condescending.

In summary,

• Respond to the review as quickly as possible (within 24 hours)
• Thank the reviewer for their feedback
• Apologize for any legitimate negative experience
• Address the positive points first, then the negatives
• Maintain a conversational and professional tone - it's ok to be informal. You don't need to write a corporate/robot-like reply
• Explain the steps you’ll take or you have taken to prevent the incident from happening again
• Allow the guest to contact you offline if a follow-up discussion is needed
• Avoid angry, abusive responses – or any type of personal attack
• Try to win over the reviewer and reassure other travellers, eg encourage the reviewer to come back again
• Avoid only replying with a discount or coupon as this may indirectly encourage more complaints
• Avoid corporate speak that contains no meaningful information

Speak to TA Fastrack today if you need assistance with optimising your Tripadvisor listing by calling 1300 659 289 or visit www.tafastrack.com.au.