2009 September :: Travel Manager

September 29, 2009 – 5:33 pm

TravelManager is providing the software solution for Arrow Stage Lines to handle their ticket sales on the new Shuttle Service launched yesterday for the Kansas City Chiefs Fans. By offering Motorcoaches rather than transit buses the fans are going to be upgrading their transportation to the Arrowhead Stadium for their teams home games.

Arrow Stage Lines Shuttle Service Arrow Stages Lines & Kansas City Chiefs

Arrow Stage Lines Shuttle Service for Kansas City Chiefs

We’re excited to be part of this growing area for private motorcoach companies to cater for fans left out in the cold by cuts in public transit services. The fans are in for a pleasant surprise with the quality of the vehicles they’ll be riding, Arrow Stage Lines have one of the best fleets in the industry.

For more information about the new service we recommend you watch the Kansas City Chiefs press release yesterday:

Screen shot 2009 09 29 at 17.28.32 Arrow Stages Lines & Kansas City Chiefs

Kansas City Chiefs - Press Conference

Or better still if you’re a fan why not book your ticket online:

www.arrowstagelines.com/kansas-chiefs

Best of luck to Arrow Stage Lines.

Regards,

Eamonn

September 27, 2009 – 11:59 am

It’s very easy to setup an online advertisement campaign but unfortunately it’s not so easy to manage and insure you’re getting value for money.

They’re are a lot of companies paying too much per click and not enough time tracking the value of the clicks. Remember Google only started Adwords in Oct 2000 with about 350 customers, but by 2007 they had over 1m advertisers. Worse still the benefit of an level playing field Adwords brought to advertising is being eroded with large national brokers massively out spending local operators (often paying too much themselves!!!).

Wasting Dollars on Poor Adwords Campaigns Is Google Adwords worth it?

Wasting dollars by not tracking online advertisement conversions?

The industry needs to get back to connecting with their customers and leveraging the Internet as a more than a just a lead generator to a customer service and relationship management tool.

The Internet is maturing and so should our attitude to how we use it to grow revenues.

Regards,

Eamonn

**By using the TravelManager quotation widget on your website you can traffic all sources of leads generated (from multiple locations). So before starting a campaign make sure you have a way to track the source of leads and their conversions.

September 23, 2009 – 10:06 am

Since we announced the worlds first iPhone application for the motorcoach and bus industry, on the 17th September we have had 60 operators download the application. We thought it would be interesting to show you where they are located in the world (all countries with more than 1 download are shown)

USA – 18
France – 7
UK – 5
Taiwan – 5
Japan – 5
Russia – 4
Ireland – 3
Italy – 2
Canada – 2
Brazil – 2
Chech Rep – 2
Germany – 2
Poland – 2
Norway – 2
Denmark – 2
Hong Kong – 2

Just goes to show – that operators all over the world have the same issues to overcome and realise that real-time and mobility are the future. Now that we have TravelManager’s online quotation widget in 12 different languages (with more to come) we can expect interesting times ahead

Regards

Dean

September 21, 2009 – 9:00 am

Just when you thought that you’d figured out search engines and pay-per-click advertisement the market is starting to change. Yep, you’ve heard it here 1st, all things that worked well in the past are not going to provide the same ROI into the future.

Like the smart companies that starting using Google Adwords ahead of their competition it’s time to another step forward by using social media to get in on the conversation with you potential customers.

Picture 13 Online Marketing is changing (again!!)

Social Media Conversations

**It’s no coincidence that Facebook has hit 300m+ users and a profit.

Regards,
Eamonn

**Here’s a great article that while applies to the Hotel industry is quite applicable with the Motor coach and tours industry: Future Trends

September 18, 2009 – 3:49 pm

What would you do if your world changed like this?

Fortunately, its not happening this fast – but it is happening. The world is changing – everything is going from analog to digital. We all “know” that – but did you know that its actually accelerating? Moores Law and The Network affect are ensuring that it is.

What are you doing to make sure your keeping up?

September 17, 2009 – 10:24 am

The TravelManager application (rather cleverly called “TM App”) is now available to download for FREE from the Apple App Store.

So this marks another first for TravelManager. The FIRST iPhone application available to download.

More features and functionality will be added over time – so if you want to stay ahead of the competition keep your feedback coming.

Regards

Dean

September 14, 2009 – 3:49 pm

So now that you’ve created a Facebook page it’s time to start promoting it. This can be done several ways:

Picture 8 Getting Fans to your Facebook Page

Irish Coaches Facebook Page

1) Paid Advertisement

2) Inviting Friends to become a Fan of your page

3) Promoting your page off Facebook

We’re going to try all 3 techniques to see how effective they are and we’re going to share the results over the coming months.

Social Media Marketing

Paid Advertisement:

This is probably the fastest way to get your page out there and infront of your target audience. It involves creating a advertisement that will be listed on facebook users pages that fit your profile. So for example you can have you advertisement displayed to specific age ranges, genders, countries etc.

You can pay per impression (number of times you’re advert is displayed) or pay per click (like Google Adwords). For the initial campaign Irish Coaches are going to use pay-per-click.

Inviting Friends to become a Fan:

One thing that has annoyed a lot of people promoting businesses on Facebook is that you can’t invite people directly to become a fan of your page. They have to be a friend and then you can use the “Suggest to Friends” facility to promote your page.

This means that you won’t be able to start sending invites to all your customers or mailing lists, rather you have to either become friends on facebook or promote your page without using Facebook.

Promoting your page off Facebook:

What I mean by this is NOT using Facebook to promote your Facebook page. This has surprized a lot of people that Facebook is quite restrictive on helping you to promote your page. Apart from inviting your friends to become fans or by adding a “Badge” (link from your website) they’re is very few other tools you can use.

Regards,

Eamonn

**Useful Diagram:

sales funnel Facebook Getting Fans to your Facebook Page

Sales Funnel using Facebook

September 9, 2009 – 5:07 am

TravelManager delivers another first for the motorcoach industry with its new affiliates / reseller solution for the charter and tours functionality. This functionality is now in closed beta trial with a number of European operators and we have a tentative launch date of October 7th.

We have built the capability to have resellers within TravelManager. You can give each reseller a different commission structure. eg. you can provide resellers with a fixed commission or a percentage commission rate. TravelManager takes care of the rest for you

resellers1 Broaden your reach with Affiliates / Resellers

Once a reseller / affiliate has been created they can start selling your tours or charters and earn commission. They can purchase services by entering in their unique reseller code and a unique PIN number.

More information and screenshots will be available during September. See keep watching

Regards

Dean

September 8, 2009 – 3:23 pm

No sector is immune to the review virus. By that we mean – expect every sector, every industry, every product and every service to be reviewed as some point in the near future. To prove my point:

Rate Sleeping in Airports

Rate the company you work for

Rate a dish at a Restaurant (note: a dish not the actual restaurant)

When Spencer & Darwin said “Survival of the fittest” – I believe they meant not the strongest or fastest but the most adaptable survive.

Every business will HAVE to adapt to this new paradigm. Soon rather than later – as in the Internet space trust is everything and if your one of the first to engage then you have longer to build that trust.

TravelManagers rating and review engine might just be something you want to take a look at.

Dean

September 7, 2009 – 9:41 am

Microsoft have put together a rather interesting video which showcases some of the technology that they think will be around in the year 2019 – so only 10 short years away

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

As people become more accustomed to technology and as technology lowers the barriers to entry for new entrants in many markets its critical for businesses to be aware of “whats possible” now and in the near future so they may make the necessary decisions now and not when its too late.

Whats your thoughts on some of the technology in this video?

Dean

Pages

Archives

Categories