"It remains to be seen if bandb will bring in the 10-fold dollars that a good marketing campaign should. But that's a decision for next November. "
I've been working in marketing for almost twenty years... heck I even got my masters in marketing. On average we deliver even more than that. Maybe we've spoiled people, but a 10-fold return is an unbelievable, record-breaking, career-making, too-good-to-be true return on investment. I'd be thrilled to death with a 3X return, and happy as the day is long with a 2X return. I'd happy just to see a break-even campaign in a lot of instances. 10X may be what you feel is appropriate, but in marketing worlds, that is not a threshold very often even considered.
If you look at marketing as a financial investment - good financial investments over a long period of time often return 10-15% (obviously huge generalization), and secure investments more like 4%. So if you are deciding to take your money out of the bank and spend on marketing, or leave it in there - and you can make 10X on your money through marketing - you have found the Holy Grail of what to do with your resources..
JBanczak said:
"It remains to be seen if bandb will bring in the 10-fold dollars that a good marketing campaign should. But that's a decision for next November. "
I've been working in marketing for almost twenty years... heck I even got my masters in marketing. On average we deliver even more than that. Maybe we've spoiled people, but a 10-fold return is an unbelievable, record-breaking, career-making, too-good-to-be true return on investment. I'd be thrilled to death with a 3X return, and happy as the day is long with a 2X return. I'd happy just to see a break-even campaign in a lot of instances. 10X may be what you feel is appropriate, but in marketing worlds, that is not a threshold very often even considered.
If you look at marketing as a financial investment - good financial investments over a long period of time often return 10-15% (obviously huge generalization), and secure investments more like 4%. So if you are deciding to take your money out of the bank and spend on marketing, or leave it in there - and you can make 10X on your money through marketing - you have found the Holy Grail of what to do with your resources.
John,
Are you seriously telling me I should only expect to pull in $800-$1200 off my $400 paid subscription to bandb? You're kidding, right? Why would I even bother if I could only plan on getting a return of 4 room nights out of my listing
in an entire YEAR? I'm expecting that kind of return per MONTH. You can't be serious because you guys keep touting how some innkeepers have increased occupancy by 20% by listing with you. You said yourself somewhere in here that your site has a proven record (in most locations) for very good traffic, lots of click-thrus and low bounce rates, that certainly has to translate into more than $400 in bookings.
If you are serious then your marketing should state that. "Most B&B's on our directory can expect to see and additional $400/year in revenue once their listing is placed."
Break even is a joke. No one lists on a directory to break even. No one buys an ad to break even. And if that's what happens they're spending their money in the wrong place. I expect listing with you to provide real revenue. Simply paying for the listing is not revenue. 2x the listing price isn't worth it, either.
Given this has been discussed to death and we really can't know where guests found our listings online, I always figure that they err in your favor sometimes, and in someone else's favor other times. That said, I would not have renewed if you weren't hitting close to 10X return for me. A little more, a little less, but a good average hovering around 10X these past 5 years.
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