More than seven out of 10 families plan to travel when school lets out for the summer, and three-quarters of them say they will book their travel online, according to an AOL-sponsored survey conducted by OTX. Two-thirds of respondents said they had not yet booked their summer travel.

“Even in the early summer months, advertisers can influence vacation decisions with price-focused offers that will be appealing in the current economic environment,” said Anne Hunter, vice president of AOL’s Platform-A.

Ms. Hunter also said that it was getting easier for travel marketers to reach in-market consumers, thanks to online retargeting.

Nearly one-half of respondents relied on friends and family for travel recommendations and information, while 21% said they used travel books. Almost three-quarters said they used the Internet for vacation planning. Of these Web-savvy consumers, 72% browsed search engines, 58% went to online booking sites, 26% visited consumer testimonial sites and 19% browsed travel information sites.

Since 2000, the number of consumers booking travel online has increased every year, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

With 75% of consumers using the Internet to plan their trips, businesses in the travel and tourism industry would do well to increase their search and email marketing campaigns in order to help increase revenues this summer.

Customers are searching the Internet more and more when looking for local products and services, yet only a small percentage of small businesses are showing up in local search results.

If you have a business that caters to your local area, this is something you can capitalize on due to the lack of online competition.

Statistics show that more than 70% of households do some type of search for a local product or service every day.

In order to be found, the first thing you need to do is put yourself in the shoes of your prospect and think about what they are searching for.

Here are some examples –

For Real Estate, they might type “Houses for sale, Chicago suburbs” or “homes for sale, boston, ma”

For an Attorney, they might type, “Lawyers in Salt Lake City”

For a landscaper they might type, “Lawn care services, Va. Beach, VA”

For a remodeling contractor they might type, “Kansas City house remodeling”

etc.

Each of the major search engines has setup local search sites that specialize in helping people find businesses at the local level. Here are some of the major places you should submit your local business:

Google Local - https://www.google.com/local/add/login?hl=en_US
Yahoo Local - http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
Super Pages - http://www.superpages.com/about/new_chg_listing.html
City Search - https://selfenroll.citysearch.com/
True Local - http://www.truelocal.com/getlisted.aspx
MSN Local - http://maps.live.com/
YellowPages.com - http://www.yellowpages.com/sp/contact/update.jsp
Local.com - http://advertise.local.com
Insider Pages - http://www.insiderpages.com/
Judy’s Book - http://www.judysbook.com/merchant/

These are the places you want to make sure your business is found for the search terms people are likely to type in for your product or service. Try a few searches in the above directories for your business.

You should also notice that in the major search engines, the first results displayed are the local directory listings complete with a “map it” feature to the business location.

Most of the above listings are free but some also have premium listings you can pay for. Because most local businesses are not taking advantage of this, you can position yourself for some serious business by being found here.

Would showing up on the top 10 of Google for local search results mean anything to your business? You bet! Get started today or contact us if you need assistance with local search or search engine marketing in general.

Increase Your Sales Through Email Automation

Although it’s important to have a professional website, email is still the
primary communications tool on the Internet. Without email, your website
is no better than an old-fashioned glossy brochure — it just sits there
and does nothing for your business.

It’s very important then that your business makes email marketing a
priority.

Attention should be given to 2 main areas:

1) Capturing the email address of prospects
2) Following up with consistent outbound emails to those prospects

What’s Your Bait?

The first thing you will want to think about is your “bait” or free offer. What
can you offer your website visitors in exchange for their email address? This
can be a free report, whitepaper, video, case study, etc.

It’s very important that whatever you offer does have real value for your
prospect. Due to the spam problem, people do not give out their email
address easily these days so you need to offer something valuable in
exchange.

Once you’ve determined your free offer, make sure that you have a form
that asks for at least the email address and first name prominently on your
home page (and preferably on all pages of your site).

Using Auto-Response Emails

One of the most powerful email marketing tools is the follow up
auto-responder.

An autoresponder allows you to pre-load a series of emails into a
simple email database that will then send your emails out at
pre-determined intervals to your prospect.

For example, if someone orders your free special report, they would
immediately be sent a PDF of the report AND begin automatically receiving
a series of emails designed to educate and inform them about the subject
they inquired about and show them how your product or service can meet
their needs.

These emails should be very heavy on useful content and very light on the
sales pitch. Remember, studies show it takes an average of 7 to 10 contacts
before a customer will buy. It takes even more contacts via Internet
Marketing because of a high level of skepticism.

The beauty of an autoresponder system is that it eliminated the manual
labor and cost of follow up entirely!

Your Monthly Newsletter

In addition to your follow up autoresponder series, you should also send
prospects and customers your monthly newsletter. This will help build trust
and credibility over time and dramatically increase your sales.

Remember: the majority of prospects that inquire about your product or
service may not have an immediate need. However, if they have qualified
themselves as a prospect, you will want to keep communicating with them
and educating them about your company and products.

An online email marketing system that includes newsletter and follow up
autoresponder capability can help you do just that.

Can We Help?

If you’re looking for a good, easy-to-use email marketing system, check
out our OnNet Mail system. It’s the most robust, easy to use system
available for all your email marketing needs.