Digital Marketing Summit 2018 in Belize

This past weekend, the Belizing.com team had the opportunity to attend the BTB Digital Marketing Summit at the Belize Biltmore Plaza in Belize City. The room was filled with both long-time successful business owners and startup entrepreneurs.

This was a great opportunity to expand our networks and gain useful information to improve our online presence through effective digital marketing. The panel of speakers at the summit did an excellent job discussing the importance of effective digital marketing.

There were representatives from international companies like Lonely Planet, TravelClick, and AFAR, as well as local companies and organizations such as Tropic Air, Opstaat Creative, and the Belize Tourism Board.

Each presentation was insightful. Five things that definitely stuck with me from the presentations were

1. You have SEVEN seconds to capture someone’s attention. (Manny Melendez – TravelClick) Human beings have grown to be impatient and have developed very short attention spans. If our attention is not captured within seven seconds, then we move on to the next topic. Hence, it’s important to have online content that will captivate your target audience within the first few seconds.
2. Content is king, but distribution is queen. (Maura Byrne – TravAliancemedia) Having quality content is good; but, if the content is not distributed properly or effectively, then the ROI (Return of Investment) wouldn’t be as favorable.
3. Produce honest and authentic content – create that personal connection with your audience. (Kristin F. Simmons) Make sure to engage with your audience. Effective digital marketing involves the art of communication and eliciting emotion. This way, viewers become genuinely interested in you and your content.
4. 90% of visitors don’t book on the first visit (Manny Melendez - TravelClick) Most users first visit to your website does not result in a successful conversion. How do you bring that traffic back to your website and make it a successful conversion? Retargeted Ads!
5. “Know Because We Go” (Hannah Karns - Lonely Planet) Create and share content (videos, blogs, & pictures) that connects people to the local community. 

Technology is such a crucial aspect of today’s everyday life. No longer are the days that we only use the World Wide Web to send emails or play video games. We are living in the connected age with the Internet! It is a must to be educated about using the Internet as a marketing resource!

Digital marketing plays an essential role in the success of your business. Although we have become users behind cold machines, the time to create an intimate connection with your target audience has become ever so important. Successful social networking contributes to the success and relevance of your business.

Today, digital marketing allows your business to reach out to your target market in an international level with the benefits of ease, versatility, and speed.

Belizing.com is, first and foremost, a digital marketing company whose premier objective is to connect our partner companies with qualified leads who are ready to book; and, we facilitate convenient and secure online bookings and credit card payments through our website. We are the Airbnb for Tours and Shuttle Services in Belize. Or perhaps Airbnb is the Belizing.com for worldwide shared accomodation?

Here are some of the services we offer that can help you improve your online presense & marketing:

The website integration is a digital marketing technique that we use to optimize your reach to potential clients. This program includes:

(a) Placing a booking button on your website that links to your specific listings on belizing.com to encourage customers to book your services online.

(b) Adding Belizing.com advertisement targeting code for Search and Social Media. This code snippet is used for Google and Facebook ads. These are linked to digital marketing ad campaigns that we then create for your company. The point is to identify your potential customers and reach out to them in every step of their buyer journey from product awareness, to product consideration, to conversion.

Belizing.com leverages digital marketing across a wide range of media channels including web, mobile, social media, and video platforms. Our digital ad campaigns run at a global scale, with local and international expertise and support to reach the right audience at the right time. Our Belizing.com ads have been seen millions of times across all channels, and our search ads consistently outrank our competitors in Belize including TripAdvisor, expedia.com, booking.com, and others. The goal is to capture the right leads for all our partner companies.

If you take us on selected trips that you offer, we write blogs and promote it on social media. Our website currently gets over 50,000 hits per month, and growing, from qualified leads. Having your company mentioned in our blog will be excellent exposure to travelers. As you know, buyers usually do their research and want to learn about the tours from a real experience before making a decision. This can be re-posted on your own website blog and can be linked to each other's post. This is very helpful for your website SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

We offer free photography and videography services to showcase your personnel, facilities, equipment, and tour activities. These photos and videos are optimized for web distribution to enhance your online profile on Belizing.com and for use on your own web properties (website, Facebook, YouTube, etc). Professional quality pictures are important for the buyer's perception of your company and services. We can also do short on-camera interviews and other footage we can use to produce promotional videos for you.

The Belizing.com team would also like to commend BTB for hosting such an impactful event, which will certainly bring heightened awareness of the importance of digital marketing in promoting the Belize tourism product. 

As the digital marketing landscape continues to evolve, we should continue the conversation within our community, advocate for the importance of assimilating to the new digital age, and share our knowledge and expertise within our community. We can all benefit by enhancing the online presence of Belize and utilizing digital marketing to its full capacity.