Retreat Insider

Autumn is a good season at All About Retreats! Historically, more retreat or conference center owners, managers, and marketing mavens are browsing the web for new marketing feeds and discover AAR through it’s high website rankings on Google, MSN, and Yahoo! AAR’s webstats show that traffic increases by 23% between October and Thanksgiving, with another higher upsurge mid January through April. Centers evaluating what works and what doesn’t in their marketing mix, as reflected in their YTD revenues and bookings for the coming months, make marketing budget decisions.

Even as the downturn of our economy has made a noticeable impact on some meeting hospitality venues, others are well-positioned and enjoying level, and even increased business activity compared to recent years!

What are the factors that can make the difference??

Here is what we hear from our members:

Facilities, Amenities and Geography

1. Camp-style retreat and conference centers (50 to 1000 guests, at least two seasons a year) are seeing an increase in business in the Eastern US and the Western and Southwestern states, level in the Southeast and Mid-West where church group business is high. Attributes: Relative low cost versus other choices for large groups; expansive natural setting and a wide array of facilities.

2. Small venues (from 8 to 20 guests) are generally healthy across the US (except Hawaii) IF their marketing is diversified among portals and directories that include:

• Vacation Home Rentals
• Weddings and Family Gatherings
• Retreats
• Directories and influence that draw Corporate Meetings

Attributes: 8 to 12 guests lodge in private room with bath; facilities include a dedicated meeting space AND a private chef provides excellent cuisine; diverse revenue sources; customer that expects to pay more AND gets what they pay for; corporate groups who are willing to pay for privacy, service, service and service.

3. Mid size venues (30 to 60 guests) are turning in mixed reviews across the US

AAR members whose websites were developed by our parent company, Feather River Productions, LLC recently asked us to explain website traffic stats which show All About Retreats as a referring domain. ALL AAR members will find at least some traffic under referring domains that is credited to All About Retreats … but the info does not give a complete picture!

Our Webmaster, James Foreman, reviewed FRP client stats as well as AAR’s stats. Here is what he discovered, which may shed light on all of our Members’ web stat interpretations:

1. Keeping in mind that the website visitors coming from AAR to each Member’s site normally only see your listing page ( i.e. http://allaboutretreats.com/centers/massachusetts.html), then visit the AAR home page. This is because when there is a search on Google, we have indexed for local natural search keywords. Unless they are web savvy or know the crumb trail they followed, visitors do not know that they came to your site through All About Retreats
2. Our company name is not in the title of the state or region page, which is the title that a person reads when they view our link on Google, Yahoo etc. When people complete your contact form they may not know which site they found you on, especially in relation to All About Retreats. We will be changing this soon (see below).
3. In looking at our client stats and AAR’s stats (Google Analytics), AAR consistently sends visitors to ALL member websites. We suggest that you look at your Google stats on a regular basis and view the referring domains aspect of your stats to see how many clicks you have been getting over a period of a year or so. In 2008, AAR is among the 5 highest referrers from a website that is not a search engine for many AAR Members and our website clients.
4. Further, you will see in your stats that on average people who come to your site from AAR, stay on your webiste, viewing 3 to 5 pages, which is a healthy indicator of interest in your site, your center and what you have to offer.
5. In addition, this time of year is the slowest time for booking retreats across the board. This changes considerably after the new year begins. We hear about conversion slow downs every year at this time, and are working to increase our exposure to areas beyond retreats so that this is alleviated through diversification and an advanced search market strategy.
6. Conclusion: Though we have branded All About Retreats, we focus more energy on branding our advertising Members, not reminding web surfers what site they’re on. This appears to be a negative if a company relies on hearing about referrals from those emailing or calling you rather than reading and knowing how ti interpret your own web statistics.
7. Finally, notice how many times people DO NOT answer your contact form question about where they heard about you. Is your office staff inquiring about referral source? Are you?

GOOD NEWS FOR AAR MEMBERS:

Within the month of November, All About Retreats will launch it’s 9th iteration with some powerful new features and benefits to our Members. AAR will leave similar directory websites in the dust with our new services, and give more control to our listing Members in viewing their clicks, content and all else.

So, if you’re thinking about joining the AAR community … stop thinking and just do it! About 80% of our Members are are long-term loyal customers to whom we are grateful for continuing confidence and support! Get your sustainable business infrastructure in place and get ready for 2009!