Promoting an Aviation Business -- Suggestions?

Jay Honeck said:
That last one is a tough nut, though. I've yet to figure that one out, in 9 years of trying. The chains have all the marketing clout, and they make sure that THEY are on the top of those search pages... :mad2:
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Actually it's totally doable. The problem is that your website is absolutely horrible from a search engine's perspective and is likely to never rank well without major re-work. Your website is just text inside images which is horrible because it provides no content for the search engines. If you look at the markup for your site there is just nothing to analyze. It's all images. Images do nothing for search engine ranking. DO NOT put text in images.

The only real "text" on your main page is keywords in the HTML but keywords do almost NOTHING for you with Google. They want a website with real meaningful content.

So hook up with someone that understands web design and SEO. I know you've said before that you can do your website yourself but you really shouldn't - you don't have the time to do a good job.

View the source for your site. That is what Google is looking at. If you can't tell what your website is and understand all the content from looking at the HTML then don't expect google to either.
 
SCCutler said:
Design up a killer flyer, and encourage your pilot friends to print it and post it at FBO bulletin boards when they fly Hither and Thither (and, perhaps, even the occasional Yon).
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and send it to me so I can put it on my FBO bulletin board. ([email protected]). Is there a compendium of FBO email addresses anywhere?

Organize an event and get it on the various regional event listings.

Andy Anderson [mailto:[email protected]] for this area.
 
Everskyward said:
Looking at a map it seems the two major cities nearby are Houston and San Antonio. They are also close enough to make your place a weekend getaway even for people who are driving so you could target some of your marketing there. It seems to me that you might have more success in your current location than in Iowa since the beach feels like a more logical vacation destination.
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Yes, yes, and yes.

Our top sources for business currently are San Antonio, Houston, and Austin.

And this is much more of a destination than Iowa City was, that's for sure!
 
Chip Sylverne said:
Just looked at your site. First thing is, you're going to make me work to find an identifier for your airport. If you want me to fly in, it ought to be right there on top of the home page, along with a link to airnav. The weather cancellation policy is great.
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I would think you can also get the airport to help you get your word out. Pilots who fly in to your hotel benefit them as well in fuel sales, and traffic (operations) numbers. The bigger those numbers, the more better they can compete for expansion grants etc. Helping you grow will help them grow.
 
Jay Honeck said:
In your opinion, what's the most effective (and cost effective) way to advertise nowadays, in a fragmented internet world?

Thanks for any and all advice!
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"Free tank of fuel for the trip home"*




* With a week's stay.

Tell AvWeb about the place and deal. Make it "content" instead of advertising.
 
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Some thoughts:

Research your local 99s - go to one of their meetings - or suggest your airport as a destination. They often schedule "fly-ins" and might be looking for a new place to go.

Another thought is the people who are ALREADY sleeping in your hotel. I remember a little bed and breakfast I stayed at in California - once a year or maybe twice a year they would send me a coupon good for the off season. Something like stay x number of nights get one night free or something. Getting regular mail or email from them kept them fresh in my mind and I knew I was getting a "special" deal so I kept going back.

If you keep in touch with your customers, calling them or emailing them or sending them deals - they will remember you and spread the word.

Another neat thing I've seen is VERY high quality souveniers such as stoneware (carved mugs) in the lobby. Between $15 - $20 per mug they must have made a profit, and the people took them home and woke up every morning remembering the name of the hotel.

Here is the mug (still have it almost 10 years later):

home05.jpg



So - keeping in touch with your current customers, and selling mementos would be my suggestions.
 
I believe if you make a PDF of your flyer available, many people will print it and hang it in their FBOs for free, no cost to you.

One example of where social media can be leveraged to help you out. "Pilots: Print this out and hang it at your airport!"

We know we're losing numbers and interesting places to fly to are few and far between. We'll help.
 
Jay Honeck said:
We can't hang out with pilots, if'n they don't know we're here! :yesnod:
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I find it a little difficult to believe your only reason to own a "aviation themed" hotel is to "hang out with pilots".

If you just want pilots to "hang out with", go to the local airport, rent a hangar, get a grill and a huge cooler filled with beer and offer free cookouts every weekend. :rolleyes:

As far as hotels go, just because I'm a pilot doesn't mean I want to "hang out" at aviation themed venues. :dunno:
 
Oh and another idea. Use your pilots of america friends to collect a list of aviation free forums (Red / Purple / Blue) and either give them incentives to post for you or simply create a login and post yourself on each one. Most of them have a section for "cool places to fly" or something like that. You could also research air shows in the area or ask the bigger local airports when they have the most crowds.
 
Some thoughts:

Research your local 99s - go to one of their meetings - or suggest your airport as a destination. They often schedule "fly-ins" and might be looking for a new place to go.
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Good idea. Mary is in the 99s, too.

Another thought is the people who are ALREADY sleeping in your hotel. I remember a little bed and breakfast I stayed at in California - once a year or maybe twice a year they would send me a coupon good for the off season. Something like stay x number of nights get one night free or something. Getting regular mail or email from them kept them fresh in my mind and I knew I was getting a "special" deal so I kept going back.
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Great minds think alike. Each of our guests receives a "Thank you" post card in the mail -- worth 10% off their next visit.

Another neat thing I've seen is VERY high quality souveniers such as stoneware (carved mugs) in the lobby. Between $15 - $20 per mug they must have made a profit, and the people took them home and woke up every morning remembering the name of the hotel.

Here is the mug (still have it almost 10 years later):
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Hee hee! Our #1 best selling souvenir is our coffee mug. They are the same ones we use in our delivered breakfast each morning. I searched for many months to find that mug, back when we had the hotel in Iowa.

The criteria were: Sturdy enough to drive a nail, and with a handle big enough to get all four of my fingers in. They are great mugs, and were popular in Iowa, too.

BTW: We sell them at our cost: $6 apiece. :D
 
Jay Honeck said:
Good idea. Mary is in the 99s, too.



Great minds think alike. Each of our guests receives a "Thank you" post card in the mail -- worth 10% off their next visit.



Hee hee! Our #1 best selling souvenir is our coffee mug. They are the same ones we use in our delivered breakfast, and I searched for months to find it, back when we had the hotel in Iowa.

The criteria were: Sturdy enough to drive a nail, and with a handle big enough to get all four of my fingers in. They were popular in Iowa, too.

BTW: We sell them at our cost: $6 apiece. :D
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Maybe raise it to $7 or $8 and make a profit?
 
Another idea to encourage people giving your their home mailing address and email address:

Buy a glass jar, cut out strips of paper (where they write their email for the newsletter) and then have a monthly drawing. Something like half off one night's stay or a similar thing.

People for some reason love "winning" things.
 
Henning said:
Do you have a bar?
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Officially? No.

But pilots are often met with a cold Shiner Bock... :D

Oh, and the inn is within walking distance of every bar, restaurant, and live music venue on the island...
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Another idea to encourage people giving your their home mailing address and email address:

Buy a glass jar, cut out strips of paper (where they write their email for the newsletter) and then have a monthly drawing. Something like half off one night's stay or a similar thing.

People for some reason love "winning" things.
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Actually, we're doing that as we speak. We recently hit 1,000 "fans" on Facebook, so we've drawn a name (from the pool of Facebook "likers") and are giving away a free night.

If you know this guy, have him call us, quick! https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1124300496
 
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jesse said:
So hook up with someone that understands web design and SEO. I know you've said before that you can do your website yourself but you really shouldn't - you don't have the time to do a good job.
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I agree with Jesse about the website. I think you should have someone with some knowledge of website design do it over. It's not only that it is not search engine friendly (I don't know anything about that so I'll defer to Jesse) but it's not as polished as it could be. I probably couldn't do any better but someone with the knowledge could.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Actually, we're doing that as we speak. We recently hit 1,000 "fans" on Facebook, so we've drawn a name (from the pool of Facebook "likers") and are giving away a free night.
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You're stealing all my ideas!

Keep up the contests thing. Oh and I haven't seen your site but people love the internet so if you don't have a way for them to reserve or at least send a reservation request online they might go elsewhere.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Officially? No.

But pilots are often met with a cold Shiner Bock... :D

Oh, and the inn is within walking distance of every bar, restaurant, and live music venue on the island...
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Do you have strippers or pole dancers? Mirrors on the walls and ceilings and 4 hr block rates?
 
Google, Google, Google, everything Google, until you are blue in the face. Make Amelia's stand out.

I say that because that is how I, a relatively educated man, search for everything.

And keep and eye on the pulse of things, and switch your efforts when needed: loved me the broadcast.com, made Mark Cuban really rich, but what is it now? Bet we say the same about Facebook in a few years (think about AIM) . . .
 
I think if it was me, one small thing I would do is make up a small poster, about letter size, and several reductions in size of the same poster. Mail a package of three posters, one of each size, along with a cover letter requesting they post it on their bulletin board to every FBO in the nation, state by state as your income will allow.

Even if you could only send out ten or twenty a week, it would work.

In advertising, every little bit helps, but if you choose to go into a publication, do it for the long haul, every issue for at least ten years. That means pick an ad size you will be able to afford in the leanest of times, always be in every issue.

Offer discounts and whatever else you can dream up to make em want to stay a night or so.

You say you have courtesy cars at the airport. How about working out some sort of thing with a local commercial pilot to offer airplane rides as well. This will have a great appeal to non pilots who stay at your hotel.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

John
 
Jay (and others), if you need a real good connection for direct mail campaigns, I got a real good guy who can do the entire campaign, design to post office.
 
SCCutler said:
Jay and Mary's place is not just within walking distance of the good places to eat and drink - it's in easy *stumbling* distance.

Ask me how I know (grin).
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Well yeah, but then again, you're a MEMBER of the bar! :)

And Jay,
I'll second the social media thing. Think Twitter, MyTransponder, various podcasts, etc.
 
SCCutler said:
Jay and Mary's place is not just within walking distance of the good places to eat and drink - it's in easy *stumbling* distance.

Ask me how I know (grin).
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Heh. I have it on good advice that it is possible to CRAWL here from the nearest bar.

This was told to me by a ferry pilot who managed to get himself tossed out of several of the more, er, lively bars on the island during his week-plus stay.

Damned pilots. They're always looking to cause trouble... :lol:
 
gprellwitz said:
Sort of like FaceBook for pilots. http://www.mytransponder.com
Also have a look at http://www.flyronline.com/
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Great. Another time suck. :lol:

I got as far as uploading a picture of myself to MyTransponder when the page crashed. Here's what I got:

******************************************************
Server error
The website encountered an error while retrieving http://www.mytransponder.com/signup_home.php. It may be down for maintenance or configured incorrectly.
Here are some suggestions:
Reload this webpage later.
HTTP Error 500 (Internal Server Error): An unexpected condition was encountered while the server was attempting to fulfill the request.
******************************************************
 
Ouch. A number of us have contact info for the operator of MyT. If you want us to send him a note, let us know.
 
I just signed up about 5 minutes after Jay and got right in,, and my pic loaded too.:)
 
John Baker said:
I think if it was me, one small thing I would do is make up a small poster, about letter size, and several reductions in size of the same poster. Mail a package of three posters, one of each size, along with a cover letter requesting they post it on their bulletin board to every FBO in the nation, state by state as your income will allow.

Even if you could only send out ten or twenty a week, it would work.

In advertising, every little bit helps, but if you choose to go into a publication, do it for the long haul, every issue for at least ten years. That means pick an ad size you will be able to afford in the leanest of times, always be in every issue.

Offer discounts and whatever else you can dream up to make em want to stay a night or so.

You say you have courtesy cars at the airport. How about working out some sort of thing with a local commercial pilot to offer airplane rides as well. This will have a great appeal to non pilots who stay at your hotel.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

John
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That's a pretty solid list IMO...
 
Henning said:
If you're not on Facebook, you're silly....
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I figured that Facebook had already been covered, and he said that he was on it.

Another place would be local EAA chapter newsletters. Ads there tend to be inexpensive. Try getting pilots to write articles about their stay with you for their local newsletters. Those editors are always looking for new content!
 
gprellwitz said:
I figured that Facebook had already been covered, and he said that he was on it.

Another place would be local EAA chapter newsletters. Ads there tend to be inexpensive. Try getting pilots to write articles about their stay with you for their local newsletters. Those editors are always looking for new content!
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I took FB as a given as well so I never mentioned it. I thought I remember something popping up, but that may have been Jay's personal page.

The "Creating Content Articles for Publications" is a Great thing. You cannot afford to buy that kind of print real estate. You have some one with a good camera and a way with words come and write an article that they can submit to aviation magazines.
 
Henning said:
I took FB as a given as well so I never mentioned it. I thought I remember something popping up, but that may have been Jay's personal page.

The "Creating Content Articles for Publications" is a Great thing. You cannot afford to buy that kind of print real estate. You have some one with a good camera and a way with words come and write an article that they can submit to aviation magazines.
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Oh, and did I mention Pilot's Getaways Magazine? You need to have George do at least a 2 page destination feature on Amelia's Landing.
 
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