The gloss may have worn off the dot com market but Internet business is booming for online ferry booking service, Ferryprice. 

Since its launch as
a separate brand two months ago over fifty thousand unique visitors have
reached its web site and sales are exceeding expectations.

The Ferryprice brand was created as part of a new marketing strategy for
online sales by Leisure Direction which sells competitively priced ferry
bookings to France and Ireland.  The web site www.ferryprice.co.uk was
promoted initially using only online techniques. This was followed by an
announcement to the travel media but no offline advertising has been
employed.
Alan Potts managing director of Leisure Direction realised that there was
a substantial market for online booking.  However the ability of potential customers to find the booking engine was the vital ingredient for success.

“We needed the highest possible online visibility for our services and to
do that we had to push our site up to the top ranks of web searches for
ferries.”

Leisure Direction employed Internet marketing agency Receptional.  A separate brand, Ferryprice, was created to run alongside the existing www.intofrance.co.uk so that bookings and enquiries generated by
Receptional could be accurately recorded, assessed and return on investment (ROI) calculated.

As well as advanced search engine submissions and pay-per-click bids, Receptional built the site from the ground up using sophisticated
optimisation techniques and DNS management to give Ferryprice high
Internet visibility.  Monitoring initial visitors and key word searches added
further to refinement of the online marketing strategy.

Because Ferryprice attracts a significant number of calls to its call
centre a unique 0800 number was added to the site so that telephone traffic from the site could be recorded independently of other marketing initiatives.

“We now have the precise tools for accurate measurement of this particular
brand,” said Alan.  “We can calculate ROI for our online marketing expenditure to the nearest penny and compare this with the performance of
other brands. The Internet is unique among marketing media in that it delivers detailed statistics without the need for further expenditure on market research.  Adding the 0800 number was the final piece of the jigsaw.”

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