The site design and build took under 3 months and its easy to use booking system is already pulling bookings on a daily basis.

We are also pleased to be marketing the site through Google Adwords, targeting niche PPC Cornwall Holiday related terms – with the ads acheiving a daily click rate of over 20%

Polruan Holiday Cottages

The 2012 du Muarier Festival, in Fowey, Cornwall will run from 10th May through to the 19th and include the usual ten days of entertainment featuring star names, talks, walks, theatre and concerts.

You can read more information on the festival here and of course the new festival site when launched will contain all the latest up-to-date information on events and the guests attending.

Source: Location, Location, Location – Geo-marketing & Why it Matters Infographic

The article below recently appeared within the excellent Google Insights website – it contains some excellent observations on the habits of the less strapped customers who will pay extra for flights, hotels and other holidaying travel options

These include:

• Nearly 3 out of 5 of Affluent Travelers List ‘Beach” as a Top Destination
• Search is primarily used for information and research, it also prompts 1 out of 10 affluent travelers to book
• Affluent travelers are 18% more likely than general travelers to access the internet through Mobile phone
• The Internet Is The No. 1 Travel Planning Tool for Affluent Travellers

You can view the the full presentation below – or download it in pdf format here

Its a US study by Google and OTX of 5000 travellers – but is still relevant for UK

Some pointers within I would highlight

• The Internet is the top source for hotel research
• Family, friends, or colleagues are also number 2 and of course social media is increasingly the tool of choice to discuss these elements Ie – here are pics of my holidayWant to go somewhere nice and warm this year And so on – are all things we see every day with friends on social platforms

• Nearly 3 in 4 affluents book hotels online
• What’s interesting here is that under 10% actually call the hotel to book

• 97% of Leisure travellers price compare
• 98% of Affluent travellers price compare
• So those with the more money choose more so to shop around for the best prices

• 72%  of Affluents consider past hotel experiences
• This intimates that Affluent customers are your best repeat customers

• No 1 outcome – Make it is convenient for consumers to reserve their hotel stay with a simple, easily accessible booking engine
• When’s the last time you tried to book a room on your own booking form – try it and see how good an experience it is (or not) and then remember that 75% of your best customers will be doing exactly the same thing

You can download the full pdf document here

I have enclosed a couple of examples

Running a Match Search Query report on Google Analytics report on an Adgroup – in May I received correct results (I think!!)

But in April I got this

Whats interesting is that the phrases are the same – just the figures have been increased by the number of weeks

If this is the case and google are not going to fix this April’s figures are useless – and we are going to have to wait until May ends to see things get back to normal

I have contacted google and await a response

The projects vision is to encourage a wider appreciation of the heritage of the harbour area by bringing together a wide range of local people and organisations to promote and sustain the local heritage. It will be implemented with the full support of Fowey Town Council, Polruan Town Trust and Lanteglos Parish Council and will utilise many forms of media to aid its exposure to the public – audio, literal, visual with the website being used as a conduit for these activities.

But in this post from PPC Hero Blog – where it is discussed in depth – my interest was peeked when I read that googles disables some of these terms as they deem them to not be commercially viable (in other words – they want us to bid on higher value terms?)

Read more here PPC Hero Blog

I recently have been the beneficiary of such as experience from a major player in retail – IKEA – below is a copy of an email I sent this morning to IKEA customer services (and to the UK CEO).

I had been told lots of horror stories of how busy and confusing it would be BUT – I loved it

My wife and I spent nearly 5 hours at the store and left with over £900 of goods – and lots of ideas for the future

When I got home I decided my old office desk (and peripherals) needed replacing and had already noted some of the items you had so on the 8th ordered

Order no  **********

And 7 days later they arrived – BUT – the corner table was very poorly packed and had been quite badly damaged.

I then spoke to online customer services and they agreed to dispatch a new one to be delivered on the 23rd Dec. I had already removed my old desk so I set up my new office equipment – including the badly damaged desk (I have pictures if required).

iSell No.    **********

On the 23rd I dismantled the 1st damaged desk and the new one turned up – in the same inadequate packaging as the other and – guess what – it was also damaged!
SO – the delivery driver then took back the 1st damaged one – and left me with the second damaged one.

After Xmas – (I did call before but was on hold for ages – so called again after Xmas) – and it was agreed to dispatch a third desk – this time with extra packaging – to be delivered on the 14th Jan – that’s over 6 weeks since the original purchase
iSell No.    **********

On the 14th I again dismantled my desk and at 2pm a driver arrived – but only to pick up the damaged 2nd desk – I checked to see if he had the new desk and he didn’t – so I refused for him to take the damaged 2nd desk – and called Ikea online AGAIN – and they said that the new desk was out for delivery on a separate van – and guess what – it never came.

SO I have had to put up the damaged 2nd desk AGAIN – and have no idea when I am to get my 3rd – hopefully non-faulty desk – so just to clarify as of this morning I STILL HAVE NO DESK!

I am very dissatisfied with this – having had such a great experience with the store – online has proved to be a disaster – I have spent lots of my own time tryong to get this sorted out – but and still desk-less.

I would be most interested in your thoughts

Of course from a purchasing POV – would I visit the store again – definitely – would I use the online store again – at the moment no.

This is a fatal error many companies make when developing an online presence – they often forget that the fulfilment aspect is as important – this could be not responding to an email, a form that is responded to, a brochure request is not responded to  - it all reflects – and whilst the IKEA shopping online experience was high quality – the dispatch & delivery, at the moment is extremely flawed.

Have you purchased online but been let down by the delivery of the products ordered?

I came across this excellent post this week about Free Content Management Systems (CMS) and which ones to consider.

I was never a WordPress fan until I had my ears burnt about it and must admit its a very mature platform now.

Any others out there that may be worth looking at?