This week was International Client’s Day. A day designed specifically for business to say thank you. A day dedicated to clients – arguably, the most valuable part of any organization.
 
A wise man once said,  “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” And he is correct, of course. Keep your employees happy and that happiness will be passed on to your customers.

But International Client’s Day should make all of us take look at ourselves, our business practices and ask some key questions.  
 
Are our customer policies really as client friendly as they could be? Do we give our clients the very best experience every day? Are our activities based on what’s best for us as a business, or what is best for the customer? How loyal are our clients? Can we do better?
 
Of course, one way to find out is with a customer survey. EVC Marketing has recently connected with the Bob Kobek and the team at CustomerCount, the leading cloud-based customer feedback solution in the travel sector. He believes the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is still one of the best universal indicators of client loyalty, happiness and satisfaction.
 
By employing just two simple questions, CustomerCount can quantify how loyal your customers are and identify which customers are in danger of leaving you.
 
Not only does the NPS survey recognize customers (detractors and passives) who require further follow up and support, it’s a great way to acknowledge your promoters, thank them and build on their loyalty and positivity about your brand.
 
A poor NPS score could also just be the motivator an organization needs to improve the products and services they offer consumers.

The NPS survey is quick and simple to set up on CustomerCount’s cloud-based platform and the results are easy to understand. With decades of experience, CustomerCount can take the guesswork out of customer loyalty and provide you with actionable information to use on a daily basis.
 
And, they have additional professional assistance on hand through the WRAP program partners (Worldwide Research Analytics Program), a group of independent minds and businesses brought together by Bob and CustomerCount. EVC Marketing has recently joined the program to provide reputation marketing and management solutions to resorts.
 
So, if you want to take your data analysis to the next level or if your NPS results have flagged up issues affecting your resort’s online reputation, we have skilled specialists to provide industry-specific observations, strategies and advice.
 
So on International Client’s Day, you can thank your clients with discounts, offers and gifts.
 
But why not do your business a favour and find out what your clients really think - then improve your processes, focus on your clients’ needs and exceed their expectations.
 
To set up your Net Promoter Score survey in a matter of minutes, give us a call at EVC Marketing and we’ll walk you through it. You can contact us on +44 (0) 208 123 9273, by email at [email protected] or Facebook Messenger us at: m.me/evcmarketing.

EVC Marketing Communications will be represented at the upcoming ARDA World convention by Emily Collins and John Heffernan.

The convention, which takes place from April 7 through to April 11 at the Hilton in Orlando, is the leading industry event for the vacation ownership market.

"We are excited about attending the convention this year. This will be John's first time at ARDA World and we're looking forward to learning more from other digital marketers in the industry and sharing what we've learnt in the European market," said EVC Marketing MD, Emily Collins.

Sessions of particular interest include:

• Fundamentals of Timeshare - Marketing
• Chief Marketing and Branding Officer Panel
• Use it or Lose it - Keeps Heads in Your Beds; Winning the Rental Game
• Artificial Intelligence - Impact on Sales & Marketing, Resorts, IT, Feedback/Measurement

News and updates will be added to the EVC Marketing Facebook page throughout the convention.

Over recent months, EVC Marketing has been working closely with CustomerCount on a number of projects and is set to join its WRAP programme. The Worldwide Research Analytics Program (WRAP) comprises a group of independent businesses brought together by CustomerCount to provide clients with additional reporting, deeper insight and reputation management services.

Both Emily and John can be contacted via LinkedIn or Facebook Messenger to make appointments during ARDA World.

You have a great idea for a new page on your website or an article for your resort blog. You’ve written 500 words so Google will be impressed with your knowledge and authority on the subject. And you’ve found some amazing images (and added the alt-tags) to support the piece.

But in the back of your mind, you have a worry and it’s stopping you from pressing PUBLISH.

You’re just not sure your copy is mistake-free. The last thing you want is for a colleague or owner to point out the glaring typo in the second paragraph of your masterpiece. But how do you check whether it’s or its? Is it your or you’re? And just where does that apostrophe go?

One of the best tools that I use on a daily basis, including writing this article, is Grammarly. A simple-to-use writing assistant that makes sure everything I write is clear, effective and, most importantly, mistake-free.

We all pick up bad writing habits along the way. But posting an article or news piece full of spelling mistakes and grammar errors is simply not good enough. It diminishes the credibility and value of your work. And getting the style and tone wrong can have major negative implications as well as making you feel a fool.

Grammarly can help by offering accurate, context-specific suggestions for all your written work. The software scans your copy for common and complex grammatical mistakes. This includes everything from subject-verb agreement to article use to modifier placement. It will also explain its suggested changes and you receive a weekly progress report.  

It’s rather reassuring to know you have written 85 per cent more accurately than other Grammarly users!

There are now 10 million Grammarly users all producing great written work free of grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. And you can too.

Access to Grammarly is through a free extension to Chrome and Firefox browsers. Just click the button on the webpage and follow the instructions. Grammarly will then check everything you write from Facebook posts to emails.

Alternatively, once you open your Grammarly account, you can upload your document file and it will check it for you.

If you feel you need more support, then you can upgrade to Grammarly Premium. This offers more advanced feedback in areas such as wordiness, plagiarism, inconsistent writing style and unclear sentence structure. It's not expensive and might give you more reassurance with your writing.

I enjoy using Grammarly so much that I have become an affiliate. It makes me feel confident when I write for my clients and for my business. It will help you too. So why not click this link, find out more and, if you sign up, I’ll earn a little bit of commission?

But you’ll earn the respect of your colleagues, managers and owners each time you write an email, report or that new website page with Grammarly supporting you. And that’s worth a whole lot more.

Are you looking for ways to grow your resort business? Want to know how use social media to achieve your growth goals? Not sure what is good and bad practice? This great infographic from Printsome covers 50 tips to get you started.

The Printsome team starts with five things to avoid:

• Don’t start without a clear strategy - know what you want to achieve
• Don’t buy fake followers or likes - they won't engage with you so there's no point
• Don’t share too much in a short amount of time - control what you distribute with a content calendar
• Don’t attack every single platform at once - be where your customers are
• Don’t just talk about your brand - it is not all about you and your brand

Check out the infographic below for more information. If you're still lost, then contact EVC Marketing and we'll help you develop a strategy that will help you achieve your goals.

There are lots of free and paid-for services that will help you with your digital marketing so we thought we'd share some of our favourites each month.

This month our recommended service is Animoto - a simple video creation tool that makes creating videos a breeze.

First of all, let's get the costs out of the way. This is a paid-for service, but we think it is great value for money and worth every penny.

Costs range from £7.99 per month for a Personal account up to £24 per month for a Business account. Here at EVC Marketing, we have chosen the Professional account at £16 month (billed for the year at £192).

We chose to spend a little extra because Animoto is packed with features and we wanted to get the most from them. Our package includes:

• High quality video (HD 1080p)
• 2,000+ commercially licensed music tracks
• 50+ pre-built Marketing storyboards
• 100+ Memories styles
• 25+ professional fonts
• Unlimited custom colours
• No Animoto branding on videos
• Add your logo as a corner watermark

OK, so now you know the costs, why do we like Animoto so much?

Well, it is one of the easiest tools we know of to create short, punchy, social media or website-ready videos using your resort photos or any video footage you have available.

Using their online video editor, just choose a style and a song, add your photos, video clips and text, then produce it and share! No video editing experience is required at all.

There are some stylish templates that can help you start a project. Then you can personalise them to your own specific needs with your own photographic material, logo, resort colour scheme and logo.

Want to add music to your video? Then it is super easy with Animoto as you have access to over 2,000 quality tracks (with the Professional package). And, you don't need to worry about copyright. As you are licenced to use the music, Facebook and YouTube will not have an issue with the music when you upload it to these platforms. This is a major plus for us.

With video now one of the most important aspects of social media, it is imperative that you are able to produce great videos quickly and easily. The results will speak for themselves. It will help you increase your rental sales, drive website traffice interested in holidays rentals and reach a whole new audience that might otherwise never discover you.

Still not sure if Animoto is for you? Then check our their Animoto Success Stories. Or take a look at one we made earlier for one of our clients.

We are delighted to announce that Emily Collins from EVC Marketing will be attending the upcoming free Dial An Exchange (DAE) Forum on Tuesday, October 16.

The D (Debate) A (Action) E (Evolve) Forum will take place at The Upper House Hotel, Barlaston, Stoke on Trent. The day will comprise a number of short presentations and discussion topics.  The main objective of the day is to provide an environment that stimulates discussion and assists each resort to develop a plan that will help them evolve and continue to provide great holidays and holiday ownership, well into the future.

The final topic for discussion is Improving Your Online Presence and Image with a look at key things you can do using social media - particularly in relation to new Facebook implementations and additional options with Instagram.
 
If you are a committee member or part of the management team at a UK or European-based mature resort and would like to attend, then contact Paula Vickers or Wendy Holey on:

Paula: 01756 747087 [email protected]
Wendy: 01756 747073 [email protected]

The EVC Marketing team enjoyed a taste of paradise this year with the development of a new website for Ali'i Kai Resort located on the island of Kauai in Hawaii.

Ali'i Kai is a small, exclusive resort located in the north of the island in Princeville. Recently affiliated to RCI's fractional exchange system, The Registry Collection, the resort offers two-bedroom luxury apartments and a range of on-site amenities.

It is perfectly located to enjoy all that Kauai has to offer with its amazing beaches, delightful towns, great hiking and watersports.

The brief for the website was to produce an informative site that is easy to navigate and provides detailed information about the resort and its amenities for visitors, while reflecting the wild beauty of Kauai. Known as the Garden Island, Kauai is the greenest and wettest island in the Hawaiian archipelago and is packed with dramatic jungle beauty, mountains, lush green valleys, jagged cliffs, waterfalls and rivers.

Simple contact and enquiry forms make it easy for visitors to request specific dates to book rental accommodation at the resort or to ask questions.

The news section of the website allows relevant and interesting content to be added on a regular basis keeping the site fresh and new. While an events sections keeps visitors up to date with the events and activities taking place on the island.

In addition to building the website, our team set up the resort's social media platforms inclduding Facebook and Instagram.

"We are really pleased with how this site looks and works and we can tell from the large number of enquiries that visitors to the website like what they see and want to visit," said Emily Collins from EVC Marketing. "We had a limited budget but we have produced a website that reflects Ali'i Kai Resort's premium apartments."

For further information on EVC Marketing's website building services, please contact us.

Frustrated at your website's Google search rankings? Then maybe these 3 Google SEO updates for 2018 will help you improve your rankings.

1 Meta Description Expansion

According to industry authority Moz the long-held 155-character cap for meta descriptions started to waver about three years ago. Little by little, the average length of displayed meta descriptions started to increase and it became evident Google was testing displaying longer meta descriptions.

By the end of 2017 the data showed that, with a few exceptions, the 155-character limit was now indeed dead. Moz now recommends a 300-character limit, a great relief for anyone who has ever tried to write strong meta descriptions in a stifling 155-character count.

The character limit change is a great opportunity to revisit and expand upon meta descriptions on your core pages.

It is now recommend that you draft longer meta descriptions that both expand the keyword focus and act as a piece of value proposition defining text.

As Moz explains: “For critical pages, writing a good meta description is like writing ad copy — there's real value in crafting that copy to drive interest and clicks. There's no guarantee Google will use that copy, and that fact can be frustrating, but the odds are still in your favour.”

2 Keyword Permutations

According to research from SEO expert Barry Schwartz, it appears that part of a Google's recent update entitled Maccabee was aimed at devaluing sites with large quantities of landing pages that systematically target every possible keyword permutation.

This suggests that Google has found this practice is being endemic of primarily lower-quality sites aimed at creating an artificially large keyword net to drag in traffic.

This practice is somewhat similar to the old practice of 'Keyword Stuffing' whereby content was awkwardly drafted to include the highest density of keyword and keyword permutations possible in an attempt to trick earlier and more primitive search engine algorithms into thinking the content was of high value.

Mr. Schwartz points out that the sites that are being penalised are those with, “tons and tons of landing pages targeting massive arrays of keyword permutations.

So for example, if they are a travel site, they would target all the destinations they service and also add landing pages for [destination sub name] + [activity name] and sometimes even go beyond that. If they were a service business, they would target [city name] + [service A] and then [city name] + [service B] and so on. There were many styles and types of sites doing this across blogs, travel, e-commerce, directories, and more.”

Due to this patch, we recommend altering any SEO strategy that relies on creating a large number of landing pages for the same service or offering.

3 Mobile Speed Update is Imminent

It should come as a surprise to no one that Google continues to put the squeeze on sites with slow mobile load speed. Google announced that starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for all mobile searches.

Google claims that this update will be aimed only at sites with the very slowest mobile load speeds, but it should serve as another wake-up call for everyone with sub-par mobile load speeds. Furthermore, Google noted that there would not be a ranking boost for fast load speeds, only a downgrade for the slowest.

If you're worried about mobile load speed (and pretty much everyone should be), we recommend regularly using Google's own PageSpeed Insights tool.

The tool gives not only a general prognosis on mobile load speed, it provides individualised recommendations on speed-improving optimisations.

Conclusion and an Evergreen Strategy

Keeping up to date with Google's technical SEO is very important for any business that relies on organic traffic. As more and more SEO tricks and hacks are outsmarted by Google, it’s important to remember the golden evergreen SEO strategy.

From the start and forevermore, Google’s long-term strategy is to deliver the most relevant and highest value results for every single search query. Each technical or structural update in Google’s search engine algorithmic structure is an attempt to improve the quality of results.

Therefore, your long-term SEO strategy should always be to be the most relevant and highest value website for the keywords you’re seeking to rank for. Work to create a website and web content that is better than your competition. Always seek to provide value for your users/readers with a combination of high-quality information and resources.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) regulations become law on 25th May 2018.

The law is applicable EU-wide including the UK post-Brexit and involves ANY company that collects/processes/stores or uses the personal data of EU/UK individuals and includes direct mail, print and third party suppliers who may have, or require, access to the data you hold.
 
This includes timeshare resorts – and you cannot hide behind your signed contracts and constitutions.
 
Within the legal obligations, it is important that businesses understand the difference between a Data Controller, a Data Processer and a Data Protection Officer.

• A Data Controller (DC) – Is the business data owner that defines the purpose and means for which the data is collected and processed.
  
• A Data Processor (DP) – Is the person or department who processes the data on behalf of the Data Controller.
• The Data Protection Officer (DPO) – is a defined person (or persons) with responsibility for monitoring compliance, employee inclusion and company obligations to maintain records of data processing activities and to map how data is collected, why, how it is processed and stored and who has authorised access.

The DPO should trace the flow of data within the business and external third-party suppliers to ensure compliant systems and processes.

The law is specifically changing focus to prioritise the individual’s rights including the right to be informed (of any data breach) and the right to be forgotten (erasure of data) which may be subject to the “legitimate interest” exemption e.g. clients who have financial commitment etc.
 
Data security and privacy must be by design and a documented process must be in place. There is a 72-hour timeline requirement for data breach notifications and responses to individual subject data requests.
 
Remember that individual employee laptops, or any data removed from the office premises, must have encryption of data to be compliant.
 
In addition, there is the option to streamline existing data – to actively erase data when no longer required – which will deliver a more lean, focused and targeted data contact opportunity.
 
Third party suppliers may need to have a security level or data processing agreement.
 
Finally, as part of the process your resort needs to consider employee GDPR options and employee awareness training so that they understand what is required of them going forward when handling personal data.
 
In short – a business needs to operate a higher standard of data security.
 
If you require any information on making your practice GDPR compliant, contact EVC Marketing now.

Digital marketing specialists EVC Marketing and Red Live Media have joined forces for the upcoming DAE Forum on Wednesday, November 15.

The event is being hosted by Dial An Exchange and will be attended by representatives of mature  and legacy resorts around the UK and in Europe. The aim of the forum is to provide understandable, usable and informative advice on a range of subjects.

EVC Marketing and Red Live Media will be represented by John Heffernan who has a wealth of experience in the digital arena and will provide attendees with action points they can implement now to improve their website and social media.

During the presentation, John will give practical advice and techniques on how to use digital marketing to improve engagement with owners and guests, increase rentals  from a range of marketplaces and encourage timeshare sales.

Attendees will also receive a DAE USB-drive which will contain a guide  providing practical advice on improving website and social media marketing with some great easy-to-implement tips and hints.

The event is also being attended by Andrew Horton from Resort Fiduciary Services and Brad Revell and Vicky Dubois Sandy from Resort Solutions.