Call us on: 210 7010075
16
Apr
2015

Salina Travel - Case study

Salina Travel - Case study

Salina Travel is one of the leading tourist offices in Athens. Its presence in the tourist Industry lasts almost 25 years. They have established a very good reputation among their clients. Their success is reflected in the increasing clientele, good financial figures, and the awards they received from various international organisations in the past years.

Few years ago, they decided to expand their presence by using the possibilities offered by the new technologies. In order to cope with the new strategy they decided to invest money and effort to establish a presence in the internet hopping to enhance their presence in the market and, at the same time, to increase their share of the tourist market.

An important element of their strategy, was to collaborate with website developers and not with one of the leading companies of the digital industry. This decision had a serious impact on the cost by keeping it low at the initial stage but creating serious obstacles in their strategy, as we will see below.

The website was developed and delivered on time, containing all information that Salina Travel wanted to incorporate in the website, in order to help travellers to plan their travels and vacation. But, the developed website could not regarded as a user friendly one and its effectiveness was in doubt.

The management of Salina travel was unaware of the internet marketing techniques, and the believed that problem was created due to lack of presentation of the company by the search engines. So, they tried, with external assistance, to solve the problem. They made additions and alterations to the website, with a relevant cost, but they did not change the design and the structure of the website in order to make it Search Engines friendly.

Despite the effort, Salina Travel continued suffering from the inefficiency of the website. This situation became critical. Finally, the management realised that the problem was the result of their collaboration with people not having the appropriate expertise in the field of web design and development as well as digital marketing strategies.They realised that they had invested money and time with no success. So, they decided to act fast in order to rectify the unpleasant situation.

After conducting a market research, they approach intros.gr. They approached us to have an integrated Internet approach. More money had to be invested, but the new investment was less that the money already spent in order to have the outcome they were looking for. Moreover, they did not get the outcome they wanted.

This new approach was undoubtedly more efficient. During the initial discussions, Intros.gr made clear to Salina Travel that their first priority should be the formation of an effective internet marketing strategy plan. Also they made clear that the success should be relied upon the adoption of the appropriate technical infrastructure. Salina Travel posses a large bulk of information offered to its clients - existing and potential ones - through its main and satellite websites (www.greeceferryticket.com and www.greecehotelholiday.com ), so Intros.gr recommended the use of a high performance dedicated server in order to support these websites. Intros.gr, also, underlined to the client the importance of an appropriate marketing strategy, which should include items such as newsletter, social media channels, search engines etc.

We helped them understand that the base of an effective Internet marketing strategy is a well designed and developed website. Intros.gr stated to Salina Travel the importance for the redesigning and the development of their website. With the client’s approval, Intros.grredesigned the website, changing both the structure and appearance.

In the new design, we used, mainly, the red colour of the logo. The purpose is to create a pleasant mood to the visitors of the website and also to underline the importance of various parts of the website.

We designed a new user-friendly menu. We introduced, small icons in order to direct the visitor to the appropriate part of the website i.e. a small airplane for the air tickets. This method was applied in the whole website. An additional benefit is that the new menu is applicable, also, to tablets and smart-phones by using the techniques of Responsive Design.

We changed, the way of the reservations were made, by introducing new forms and made them easy to be filled by the clients. Proper attention was given to special offers and discounts given to the clients by Salina Travel. 

The website of Salina Travel was linked to the satellite ones greecehotelholiday.com and greeceferryticket.com. This method, in one hand assists the visitor of the website to collect all the necessary information fast and easy and in the other hand offers the opportunity to upgrade the rank of the website by the search engines.

It is important to mention, that Salina Travel treats every user, not only as a potential client, but also as a person seeking travel information. Based on its multiyear experience, Salina Travel can provide a wide range of travel information. All this information is presented in the front page of the website in a completely autonomous and user friendly section, so any user can access it easily and find out what he is looking for.

It is obvious that, we applied all necessary techniques of Responsive Design, in order to give access to the website through mobile devices.

Αποτελέσματα στις επισκέψεις μετά την εφαρμογή όλων των τελευταίων τεχνικών του Responsive Design

In order to develop the new website design requirements, intros.gr used Joomla, with K2 component in conjunction with K2 responsive scroller.

We used Joomla in order to provide an easy content management website. Editing in website can be performed by Salina Travel’s staff, even if they have basic knowledge of computers and internet.

We stayed focused on Search Engine Optimization. Users can reach Salina Travel’s website easily and rapidly. With the redesign and development of the website, we manage to make the website appear in the first results on users’ queries.

The next benefit, we gained from the project, was to keep users in the website by helping them to find out that they are looking for and to decide the best option for them. Users visiting the website do not abandon it, disappointed by its complexity.

salina-travel.gr - statistics before redesign and after

The Salina Travel case, as a conclusion, proves the necessity for a complete internet marketing plan in which the major role will be played by a well designed and developed website supported by other strategies such as newsletters,social media etc. In the years of our experience, in intros.gr we concluded, that "the cost of a complete internet presence project, is far less that the cost of executing every different aspect of the project by professionals who do not cooperate and collaborate".

Salina Travel, is already seeing the efficiency of their new web presence to rise. They learn, unfortunately in the hard and costly way, that a big investment is not enough. It should be put on a company or a team of professionals, characterized by knowledge, experience and a global look on your internet presence.

Intros.gr recognises that a website is an asset and it should be treated as such. Intros.gr is ready to offer to its client tailor made internet marketing plans based on a well designed and fully functional website. Do not hesitate to request a quote for your website and a marketing strategy or contact us for any questions you might have.