The Future of loyalty programs

Indeed, this article is spot on when it say that “one size does not fit all” and why should it? We all want, like or need different things and loyalty programs really have to improve.

For one, they should truly make an effort in offering redemption option that do not make you wait for month before you get a chance get a reward. I, for example, have quite a few BA miles on my account and yet, the last time I flew BA, none of the flights I wanted (and needed) to take were eligible for my points to be used. How very frustrating! It also made me wonder what was the point of collecting these BA miles and why I should bother at all with making the effort of flying BA...

They should also consider the fact that needs have changed for consumers and I am not sure that loyalty programs rewards have changed in the same direction. 

I believe that if rewards wee more accessible and more in tunes with the members wishes, it would be beneficial to both parties. Consumers would get a reward sooner and therefore feel “rewarded” for their consumption. At the same time, more small use of reward points means they would be a lot less people reaching a level where they can claim much bigger and expensive reward... A Win-Win if I dare say.

THE ARTICLE

Five hidden secrets of social media failure

This article reflected on one key point when you incorporate social media in your marketing strategy. You need to be extremely reactive which, as it is mentioned in the article, is not necessarily the first quality of a big corporation.

As a rule, social media are fast changing media and the fact that more and more people are now able to set up a blog, a social network and any other sort of social platform in less than 24 hrs, means that reactivity and quick thinking will be more and more important for the e-marketers. I think it give enormous opportunity for small companied to punch way above their weight in terms of marketing. Most small companies have the need to be reactive to all the opportunities on the market. It is both their strength, when going in head first pays off, and their weakness when that lack of planning brings failure.

But, for bigger companies, it normally takes a long time to prepare and launch a new strategy, a little bit like a container ship trying to do a u-turn. Social media may be  a very important part of their marketing strategy but until they can change their way of working and implementing strategy, it might not be their best suited media.

http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/five_hidden_secrets_of_social_media_failure

Hotel Arctic Affiliated Program

Hotel Arctic on Prezi

Viator Affiliate

Become a Viator Travel Affiliate

Add customer value and loyalty plus build an extra revenue stream by joining Viator's industry-leading Travel Affiliate Program.

In as little as 30 minutes your customers can be browsing and booking our range of thousands of sightseeing tours, attractions and transfers in 75+ countries and over 450 destinations worldwide.

Benefits of the Viator Travel Affiliate Program

Utilize Viator's powerful content database to display unique and targeted product offerings
Online reporting tools and monthly commission payments
Unique controls allow you to select what is displayed to your customers
Improved administration website featuring new functions and site abilities
Leverage the world's largest collection of tours and activities
Earn a new unique revenue stream with tours and activities
No set-up costs or monthly account fees
Reduce website maintenance with automated tools and feeds

Setting up takes 3 easy steps!

• Register : Enter in your business contact and website details.

• Payment Details : Enter your EFT payment details for fast and easy commission payments.

• Website editing : Customize your Viator Partner site to match your website design and colors.

Minimum partner requirements

Active, high-traffic travel website with relative content
Experience with HTML coding, XML feed integration and iframes
Ability to market Viator products using content feeds, links, banners and other contextual marketing
EFT commission payments

Features

• Automated online program set up & prompt professional support for you and your customers
• Thousands of travel products worldwide
• Tours, events, and attractions
• Full product display and information
• Search by country, city, product type and/or keyword
• Online booking capability
• Online documentation capability
• Commission paid on all utilized sales
• Generate additional sales of Viator products through your own affiliate partners' websites
• "Custom design" your Viator Affiliate pages
• Add XML to your pages
• Improved User Interface that improves conversion and sales
• Automated marketing tools for maintenance free
  

Benefits

• In only minutes you can feature Viator product through your travel website at no cost to you, and allow us to look after your customers' bookings
• Vast choice of travel products offered to your online customers
• Add value to your customer's travel experience while increasing your bottom line with travel products previously not time/cost efficient for you to source or book
• Eliminates customer service calls
• Ease of access so that customers can leisurely browse or be only one click from the travel products they want
• User-friendly booking interface, no time lost waiting on the telephone by you
• User-friendly online documentation, no waiting for the supplier to send the travel voucher
• Superior incremental income
• Online tools give you control over much of the 'look & feel" of your Viator pages, including colors & fonts, for more seamless integration with your own website
  

Payment

Viator shall pay Affiliate a referral fee of five percent.
Viator may also enter into an incentive agreement with Affiliate with respect to any additional fees to be paid.
Fees shall be paid for each calendar month in the month subsequent to the calendar month if it reaches $100.

Amazon Affiliate Program

What is the Amazon Associates program?

Amazon Associates is one of the first online affiliate marketing programs and was launched in 1996. The Amazon Associates program has a more than 12 year track record of developing solutions to help website owners, Web developers, and Amazon sellers make money by advertising millions of new and used products from Amazon.com and its subsidiaries, such as Endless.com and SmallParts.com. When website owners and bloggers who are Associates create links and customers click through those links and buy products from Amazon, they earn referral fees. It’s free to join and easy to use.

It provides customers the convenience of referring them to a trusted site where they can immediately purchase the products you advertise on your site. And when they do, you can earn up to 15% in referral fees.

How does it work?

With our simple tools, you can choose several ways to link to Amazon.com and Endless.com from your site.

To add compelling content and enhance your site, you can customize Links, aStores and Widgets. Simply browse and select the type of product you'd like to add, then follow instructions to get started.

Add Widgets to your Site

Make a slideshow of your favorite books, let your viewers play samples of top selling MP3s, or showcase Amazons latest deals with Amazon Widgets. Widgets are easily configurable features for your page that allow your viewers to see Amazon content without leaving your website or blog. Handpick your favorite Amazon products, showcase bestsellers or allow us to auto-select products that are relevant to your readers. Build your own customized Amazon Widget in as little as one minute.

Track Reports Daily

Learn more about your customers and identify their preferences. What types of links motivate your customers to buy? What other types of products (e.g. books, electronics, music) do they purchase from Amazon.com or Endless.com?

We provide easy to read reports that contain extensive data about the activity of your links to empower you to optimize your performance in the program. This information includes details on your traffic, revenue, earnings, conversion rates, and link types. Up to date reports ensure you have the information you need to maximize the earning potential of your site.

Compensation OverviewPerformance Fee StructureUnder the Performance Fee Structure, your advertising rate will range from 4% to 15%, and be based on the total number of qualifying shipped items from both Amazon and third-party sellers.

Classic fee Structure This is our fixed-referral-rate plan. You earn a 4% advertising fee on items offered by Amazon or by third parties. 

11 Social Media New Year’s Resolutions For 2011

Here really is a very good article and one that should be forwarded away as much as possible. Yes, it is another article about social media and yes, all the points Greg Finn makes you have read before and yet, most of us, myself included, even though we do know better, do not make enough of an effort to keep up with social media.

It is true that the simple fact of keeping up with what is new is time consuming and therefore we find it difficult to keep our social media account active, organized and up to date. That said, all these are extremely efficient marketing tools and most of them are free and when they are not, they are extremely cheap compare to the more classic methods.

I won’t be going through all of his resolutions, but he made 4 points, which I thought were really important:

1) Market your social accounts. It is truly surprising that so many companies do not use all the tools to integrate their social media account within their own website… again, easy ad free! It is equally important to market it offline!

2) Claim your social name on new network. If a new web was to be launched, uww. for example (Universal Wide Web), everyone will instantly go and buy their respective domain names and yet when a new social platform starts, a lot of people don’t bother registering their company name until the site get some traction. I would imagine quite a few people will have (or already had) bad surprises which can easily be avoided.

3) Increase your video presence. Video are quite easy to make now and more and more popular, especially with speedier Internet access!

4) Test location based social network. The entire web might be to big for some people but now it doesn’t have to be! Almost all the social media platform are launching “local” services and they are an extremely useful tool to get in touch with your immediate and local clientele…

Here are Greg Finn’s 11 Social Media resolution for 2011

1 Keep Building & Improving Your Customer Service
2 Market Your Social Accounts As Often As Possible (Even In Other Marketing)
3 Improve Your StumbleUpon Presence
4 Test Social Advertising
5 Take a closer look at podcast
6 Claim your social names on new network
7 Make Sure You Have A Social Analytics Program That Is Working For You
8 Leverage Video Sharing Sites
9 Keep Rewarding Loyal Fans With ‘Social-Only’ Exclusives
10 Test your location based social media
11 Leverage Your Offline Presence To Boost Your Online Social Accounts

Read the full article here

6th Sense in the Hospitality Industry

6th sense in the hospitality industry on Prezi

Six social media trends for 2011, according to Harvard Business Review

 Mr David Armano, in his article for the HBR makes quite a few very good points and I have to say that his analysis of the market trends for 2011 are looking rather spot on. That said, social media are moving so fast that, it is unlikely a new “type” of social media would not rise by the end of the year…

Out of the six possible trends Mr Armano is proposing, I found trends 1 (It's The Integration Economy, Stupid) and 6 (Social Functionality Makes Websites Fashionable Again) to be pretty much the same and with the rise of social media (SM), it is to be expected that big brands would seriously consider SM to be one of the most important factor for growth in the next few years. They will, I’m sure, invest heavily, both time and money, on social media.

Trend 2 (Tablet & Mobile Wars Create Ubiquitous Social Computing) was on the cards since the launch of the iPad and can only be good news for us consumers, as prices will fall sharply as soon as all the tablets are launched. This time Apple did not get that much of a head start…

Trends 3 (Facebook Interrupts Location-Based Networking) and 5 (Google Doesn't Beat Them, They Join Them) could also be one and the same. Facebook fighting with all his might (and ressources) to get as much of foursquare “location” market share and google getting a few more fingers in a few more pies is  not so much of a trend than a tradition!

However, trend 4 (Average Participants Experience Social Media Schizophrenia) will definitely be the one to watch! Not only having so many usernames and password is a bit of an annoyance but it also makes you think about which social network s worth using and which are worth dropping. The problem for SM is that the more people are using them the more attractive they are but it is also true the other way around and I think in 2011, we might witness the fall of more than one social media…

http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/six_social_media_trends_for_2011_according_to_harvard_business_review

You can view the full article here: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/12/six_social_media_trends_for_20_1.html