Amber+Phillips

__media type="custom" key="19111804"Monday:__ Web 1.0


 * On Page**
 * o SEO- their metatag title is “Welcome to Echo Trails” this could be better if they simply made it Echo Trials guided tours, however it is a decent title and not to long
 * o Keywords: Echo Trails has far too many key words. They have 47 in total; they need to make their key words a more concise list. They should cut their list down to 10-15 words, and they need to be specific such as Switzerland hiking, Swiss trails, Guided tours of Switzerland, and hiking in Switzerland. These are keywords that will work for people in Switzerland searching for the website and also catch people from other countries who are searching.
 * o They should use a H1 to make the “Welcome to Echo Trails” bigger, it appears to be a bolder font and a different color but it is not much bigger than the rest of the text.
 * o On a basic first look at the page it is interesting to the eye, and seems to contain remotely interesting information and easy to navigate, but when you scroll down to the bottom of the page the pictures cover the end of the text, this needs to be corrected so the reader is able to read the entirety of the text on the webpage.
 * o They also need to create names for the pictures, they are all saved as Image.docs
 * o It would aslo be helpful for eco-trails to make the font on the webpage a little bigger; the font is small enough that it could be hard for people to read.
 * o The sentence “Guided day walks, hikes, bike tours and events from Lucerne led by native English speaker.” Needs to be corrected. It should say led by a native English speaker or speakers.
 * o When running the website through Tagxedo.com the important words of the website are the ones mentioned the most such as: hiking, biking, tours, Switzerland, guided, trails, and so on. This shows that the content on the website isn’t necessarily bad, and it is small formatting changes that need to be made to make the website more accessible.
 * o It would also be a good idea for them to add more photos to their website, when the reader views different pages of the website they all have the same few photos. Adding photos will help draw interest from the reader.

Suggestions of portals to sublink to:
 * Off Page:**
 * o When looking for the company on yellow pages, they did not exist. Adding the company to yellow pages would help them in the long run because customers will be able to easily access them when looking for the company.
 * o Echo trails needs to work to get their name out there by registering with more local directories and hiring a blogger for the company. This will allow the company to reach more people. It is important for them to increase the knowledge about their company, and the recognition of the name.
 * o It would be helpful for them to link with __ hikingandbackpacking.com __ this is a website that goes through and describes different backpacking and hiking activities, and it also shows readers where to go to find good deals on hiking equipment. This would be a good website for eco-trails to be linked with because people will come there looking for places to hike as well as gear, and linking their website with this will increase traffic.
 * o Another good website for them to link on is __ walksworldwide.com __ this is a website where people from all over the world can research different countries to hike in. This would be helpful for Echo Trails because this will pull in people from other countries when they are looking at taking a holiday and trying to decide where to go. If they are able to go to this website and learn about Echo Trails then it will increase the traffic coming to Echo Trails website, and will help get their name out there in the hiking world.

I chose to analyze companies out of Switzerland because they are the direct competition of the Echo Trails website, and this is the completion they need to be directly worried about. They need to find a way to create a competitive advantage over these companies.
 * Competitor Analysis:**
 * www.alpinehikers.com**
 * o Their metatag title is “Hiking Tours in Switzerland” this is good because it is something that people are looking for, and it is not too long.
 * o The pictures are named which helps people find the website easier, because they aren’t wasting the space by calling them simply images.
 * o The top of the webpage looks more professional, but the website itself isn’t as pleasing to the eye as Echo Trials website. The background is very boring and the website looks like it was just created.
 * o When running this website through tagxedo it shows a lot of similar words such as Switzerland, guided, hiking tours, mountains, and vacation…This is an important point that Echo Trails doesn’t have on their page, it would be helpful for them to market vacation more on their website. They could reach a different crowd by saying that people could hike on their vacation.
 * www.swisshiking.com**
 * o Their metatag title is “Switzerland Hiking Tours since 1978 - Hiking Tours Switzerland - Alps Hiking Tours – Hiking Switzerland” this is extremely long.
 * o They have 16 key words, which is quite a few, but this is a much better number than the amount that Echo Trails has. The key words they have are very helpful because they are about vacations, and they are all things that foreigners looking to travel there would search.
 * o The images are named, which gives them an advantage over Echo Trails.
 * o When running this page on tagxedo it shows similar words to the other two websites but it addresses two aspects that Echo Trials does not. Two of the big words are family and accommodations. These are two more aspects that would be good to add to Echo Trails website. If they can show that their tours are good family activities, they will attract more people. And it is also important for them to like hotels to their sight, because if people can go from their sight to directly find close accommodations, that will strengthen peoples idea of the company.

__Tuesday:__ web 2.0


 * Pay per click ads:**
 * o The first places Echo Trails should look at advertising is with travel websites, this will allow them to be there when people are researching where to travel, it will automatically put their name in people’s minds from the get go. Two websites they should definitely register their ads with are [|www.travel.com] and [|www.lonelyplanet.com] these are both websites that assist people in researching trips. Key words for these websites would be: Switzerland, hiking, trails in Switzerland, and traveling in Switzerland.
 * o Another place Echo Trails should advertise is on Google. Google is such a large and widely known website that it is a must do for them. They need to get Echo Trails name out, and Google would be the fastest way to do that. They should use key words on this such as: traveling to Switzerland, Hiking in Switzerland, places to hike, and Hiking Trails. This will allow their ad to pop up and people to see their name before they research more on where they want to go.
 * o As for the ad itself they should use one of the pictures off of their website, something that is fun, and shows people enjoying themselves while hiking. This is important because the ad needs to catch peoples attention.
 * o When advertising on the travel websites they shouldn’t pay for as many clicks as on they will on Google, because those websites will not have the high traffic that Google has. They should set a limit on the clicks per day on the travel websites so that once they reach that number for the day the ad goes away and they don’t end up paying a lot of money. It is also important to not set the click number too high on these websites because they don’t have the protection against people over clicking like Google does. Google has a system that keeps people from clicking on your ad a billion times just to make you pay, which is why Echo Trails should set the clicks per day higher on Google.

__Competition analysis on social media:__ Alpine Hikers- Swiss hiking-
 * Social Media:**
 * o Their facebook page needs to be revamped. They need to make a page that is the company, because their current page is the man that founded the company. It would help them to be a company page because people could like the page and be fans of it not friends of the owner.
 * o The name of the page needs to be changed to Echo Trails in Lucerne Switzerland this will allow people to actually be able to find the facebook page.
 * o The company appears to do a good job of keeping the information on the page current, the posts are recent. This is good because people will be able to get on at any given time and know what is going on recently. They also do a good job of keeping people informed of what is going on in the city, and neat ideas for people to do while visiting the town.
 * o Echo trails needs to take a long hard look at the pictures they are posting on their website. Many of the pictures don’t make much since, or are not very professional. They need to create albums that people can get on and look through of people hiking. If they wanted to keep the pictures they have of sights around the town they need to create a specific album for that. This way people aren’t cluttered with random pictures when they simply want to see the hiking pictures.
 * o People are actively posting on their facebook page, this shows that people have found it and are able to post on the page about their experiences.
 * o Echo Trails is on Trip Advisor, however there are only two posts on the website about Echo Trails, it would be a good idea for Echo Trails to encourage consumers to go on this website and rank them and tell about their experiences. This way it would help get there name out more, and allow people to have more reviews on the company to look at when making travel choices.
 * o They don’t have a twitter- twitter would be a good thing for Echo Trails to have. This way people could get on and tweet about their experiences hiking. This would help them reach a different crowd than they may reach on facebook. They could also use their twitter account to post different times and trails they were hiking each day to keep the public informed about the daily hikes. It would also be helpful for them to inform consumers about the company and things that were going on with them. Twitter could also be used to announce special deals.
 * o Their page is a company page, this gives them an advantage over Echo Trails because it is easier to search and find their page on facebook.
 * o There page has many more photos on it, they are all organized in albums and labeled in ways that are much easier to understand. This also makes their page look more professional
 * o The content in the photos is a lot better than the photos on Echo Trails website. They are of people hiking and enjoying themselves.
 * o Overall their page looks much more professional
 * o They don’t have twitter and are not listed on Trip Advisor.
 * o They do not have a facebook page
 * o Do not have a Twitter account
 * o Are not listed on Trip Advisor

__Wednesday 3.0__

Mobile:
 * o Being that Echo Trials is on facebook, this allows people to access their page from anywhere. This is nice because people can mobile upload photos and wall posts when they are hiking.
 * o They also need to make their website compatible with mobile phones, this way it is accessible to people of the new generation who use phones to research.

__QR:__
 * o It would be helpful for Echo Trails to use qr codes. They could place them on their brochures so people could read fun hidden messages about the company.
 * o They could also place them on their website so that when consumers were visiting the website they could read hidden information on the page.
 * o Echo Trails could also create a game that was a scavenger hunt on their trails where the posted these qr codes on various places throughout the trail. This would make a fun game for people to go through the trails and go from one place to the next by reading the qr codes. This would bring a lot of people to the trails if it was a fun game people could come play.

__Augmented Reality:__ __My idea:__ Echo Trails should pair up with Hotel Alpina and Lucerne Golf Club to create a package deal. This will allow consumers to pay a flat rate and get deals from the golf club and Echo Trails while at the same time booking their hotel for the vacation. This will make the vacation process much easier, and will help target a different group of people. Echo Trails will be able to access families, groups, and couples who want to go on vacation and book all of their activities at the same time the book their hotel. This will allow people to save money at the same time because it will be discounted to do all of the steps together. Lumping all these things together will be great for families who want to take family vacations and do all of their activities together. Echo Trails will create a new company facebook page, this is where they will do giveaways every 6 months. In order to win this trip you have to daily get on and scan the qr code of the day off the website. On a random day the code will change and the person to scan the winning code wins the trip. Once one person scans the code the code will change back to the none winning code. This will in turn increase the traffic on their facebook page as word of mouth spreads the name of the company. Overall this idea would help Echo Trails to target a different market, and appeal to families, groups, and couples. This will allow them to reach a broader group, and in turn increase their sales. It will also increase traffic on their facebook page.
 * o Echo trails has a long way to go before they can start using Augmented Reality. They first need to get up to date with their current Social Media such as facebook, twitter, and trip advisor.