“Times are hard
You're afraid to pay the fee
So you find yourself somebody
Who can do the job for free.” ~Steely Dan
When the economy tanks, as in the current financial crisis, resort portfolios tend to take a hit. Unfortunately, for many resort companies, the machine is leveraged on portfolio interest and ongoing sales. Tough times put more pressure on sales. As consumers get lighter in the pockets each marketing dollars seems to have a diminishing return.
Any well run business will focus on increasing efficiencies. Even in the best times it still makes good business sense to target your marketing efforts and bring in new customer as efficiently as possible. The downward spiral of the economy makes these best practices all the more pressing.
Online lead generation is a trend that brings targeting to a whole new level. Certain mechanisms, like broadcast emails, can be interpreted as SPAM and have a low conversion rate. A completely new trend is mini-vacation specific hubs that entice new sales prospects with real value. These vacation portholes bring together multiple resorts and leverage their targeted marketing efforts over several different offers. One emerging example of consumer oriented vacation package sites is vacation-Offer.com.
Vacation-Offer brings together a consumer facing side like Orbitz while including vacation ownership education to prepare the guests for their experience and the required sales tour. As one Vacation-Offer representative said, “The idea is not to scare them away with the prospects of a sales tour. We put together a site that falls in line with many other professional travel portholes and we educate the prospects. Keep them comfortable and let them make an active decision. That is our games plan. It helps that we focus on targeting our advertising to drive qualified people to the site.”
Breaking the mold on online lead generation is a major step forward for more efficient business models in the resort business. The web boom has set standards for how a travel site looks and acts. It is time that resorts design for people’s comfort zones and provide a clear message to start the sales process.
