I had the chance to catch up with David Bratton of Destination Analysts prior to his session today, here is a recap of our conversation:
DS: How has web 2.0 changed research?
DB: We’ve put a lot of work into our online web usability
testing product. It is all done online and the advantage for customers is it is about half the price of standard lab research. It
takes less time and users are more comfortable in their own environment which
leads to better data. We record all the testing segments and then break them into clips for presentations
for the DMO and their stakeholders.
We just did one in Juno, Alaska. It was an interesting
project. Their target market was an
older segment and we needed to find older individuals and see how they accesses
the web for travel information. It was very enlightening.
DS: What sort of changes have you seen in the market?
DB: Research is very valuable and people haven’t had access to all of this data in the
past. Many have not even used online surveys
before. But now, people are realizing that the web site is their most important marketing tool and consumer feedback
is very important to make it more marketable. Today, you can’t just
throw something up there and hope it will work.
Through all this work, we have found commonalities that consumers want in all DMO
web sites. We will share some of those with the group today.
DS: How about one example?
DB: A lot of DMO’s have many audiences to serve with multi points of information on the site. Destinations use their own
terminology, for example, "expert opinions".
To the DMO, that means people who are
familiar with the destination providing feedback and information to the visitor. But the consumer may not
really understand what that means and they don’t engage. We make too many assumptions that consumers
are tech savvy and know our world, but many don’t. When we make things too cute, we lose some potential
visitors.
DS: How about one recommendation on building a better consumer
friendly web site?
DB: You need to understand what your consumer wants. Consistently survey your consumer through
online surveys and usability testing to find out what works and what doesn’t.
More to come throughout the day....
