Websites can open up a vast new world of marketing opportunities for motorcoach companies. The ever-increasing number of customers making travel purchases online is driving the adoption of more website technologies.

Motorcoach operators choosing to create Websites have had to constantly keep up with changes and make key decisions on how to maximize the benefits of their sites while fitting the necessary maintenance into their busy schedules and the marketing costs into their budgets. Throughout the process, some operators have discovered the best ways to utilize a company's website and transform it into an indispensable tool for their customers.

Creating Customer Convenience

Ferndale, Wash.-based Bellair Charters, which developed its company Website ten years ago, recently upgraded from an HTML system to Plone, a content management system (CMS). The new CMS enables them to add customer-oriented tools to the site, including a search bar, events calendar, and up-to-the-minute updates on their airport shuttle service schedule. “We definitely knew we needed a search bar on the site, because [as it grew], it was getting a bit complicated for people to find what they needed,” says Joel Litwin, marketing representative.

Plone also allows multiple users to add or modify site content, making it easy for the company's dispatch department to update its Airporter shuttle schedule.

Bellair also plans to add a reservations button to every Web page, rather than select pages, so that customers can make a reservation at any point during their site visit. “The whole idea is just to make it easy for people to get what they want, so they don’t have to spend a lot of time searching,” Litwin says. “My philosophy is, people [using] the Internet just want to get to where they need to go, and get out. Make it as easy as possible for them to do that.”

After getting their Website up and running six years ago, Kalamazoo, Mich.-based B&W Charters saw results right away and has continued to grow. “We used to get five quotes a day, maybe up to five, now we usually get 15 or more,” says Gene Wright II, director of marketing.

The company’s first Website consisted of only four pages, written in HTML. It has since evolved into several pages, with links to their partners and a request-for-quote feature. Now a more sophisticated site, it is designed to guide customers to the quote request page and features specific pages for travel agents and event and convention planners.

The initial site for Nashville, Tenn.-based Anchor Trailways was created in two days and was originally in a FrontPage format. The current revisions have taken considerably longer, and this time, the company is working with a Web development company to optimize the site’s capabilities.

Traffic is good, reports Mark Szyperski, Anchor Trailways’ director of business development, and the impact on business from having a Website was immediate. The feedback the operator has received shows that more and more customers are finding them online, while fewer are finding them in the Yellow Pages. “Word of mouth is still almost the number one way people find us, but now it’s followed up more by the Internet, so we’re cutting back on Yellow Page advertising,” he says.

Web-Savvy Market

Having a company Website can mean more to a business than just providing a convenience for customers to find a motorcoach operator and request charter service. It can also act as a crucial tool for tapping into a growing customer base: those who no longer use the phone and rely primarily on the Internet and e-mail for business.

“[These customers] go to your Website, request a quote, and you email them back. Until you get to the point of doing the charter and needing to talk to them and get more details, [many] would still prefer that you e-mail them,” says Barry Saxton, general manager, Grace Coach Lines. “Unless you understand that, you’re missing some business because there are people who are only going to do business based on the Website and e-mail. That’s the customer you’re attracting by having a Website.”

Because a segment of the population still does not use the Internet, some operators are not abandoning other marketing initiatives, such as print ads in the Yellow Pages or local newspapers, just yet. “A lot of the older population use buses to get to the casinos here, because they can get package deals. Not a lot of them get online,” says Wright. He adds that they still run ads in magazines targeting the senior market.

Search Engine Optimization

To help attract more of its Web-savvy customer base, motorcoach operators are making their company Websites easier for customers searching for local businesses to find. B&W’s Wright says he set up the company's website to specifically pop up in local area searches, not nationally, so that only people who are near enough actually to use B&W will find their name in search results. “People prefer to look for businesses locally. The unique thing about our site is that it is coded correctly, so that we won’t pop up in outlying areas,” says Wright.

Another important way to maximize a Website’s effectiveness is to increase traffic by enhancing search engine optimization (SEO). Wright notes that the traffic on their Website increased substantially after making a few simple revisions.

“Basic things that most people could do would be to check the keywords [those that customers use when searching online for the service] on the site, make sure you have relevant text, add captions to photos, and check the amount of inbound links,” suggests Wright.

Ann Hale, president and owner of A-Team Charters,agrees, noting that whatever is written on the first page affects where your name appears in search results and how your ad appears. “Google will show you how many times [key] words get used, like ‘motorcoach’, which we use all the time, and is all over my Website, but people seldom use it. They search for ‘bus,’” she says. She is revising the site and replacing each “motorcoach” reference with “bus,” so the site is more likely to appear when potential customers search.

Learning more about SEO and how to apply it to site content can help operators get customers to find them before their competitors do. Often, the average person looking for a bus for a school field trip or church outing does not spend much time searching through several pages, so appearing on the first page of search results could mean gaining sales. “Whatever pops up on that first Google page is who they’re using, so if you have a good natural (free) listing, people will find you,” Wright adds.

Leveling the Playing Field

Ranking highly in search results makes companies more visible and provides them with a stronger Online presence, as an increasing amount of business is booked online. Smaller motorcoach companies may find that their Website allows them to compete more easily with some of the larger local operations.

Hale also notes that, just by using Google AdWords, A-Team’s still-new Website, which went live in February, received 61 hits in the first 10 minutes. “Smaller companies can look a lot bigger if they have a Website presence,” she says. The two-and-a-half-year-old company is already getting about half of its business online rather than through the paper Yellow Pages. “A few of the really big companies in town use ad words, and we only have two buses, so we’re trying to get on a more level playing field. [Your Website] can help show how your company is unique,” she adds.

Timing Advantage

While developing a Website and doing business online can take some time and resources, the advantage is the opportunity to book charter reservations immediately.

“Because the traveler today is used to going to rental car and airline companies [online] and getting information immediately, we want to provide them with the same experience,” says Szypersky.

“They want information about us now, and we want to give it to them while they’re interested. If they have to wait for a brochure to come in the mail, by that time they may have already gone on to someone else.”

B&W Charters has also realized the benefits of catching customers at the right time on the Website through their online request-for-quote feature. “I can get [quotes] out in five minutes, once the request comes in, and from what I hear, that’s pretty quick. Most online forms, they say, ‘give us 24 to 48 hours.’ It’s just like anything else. When people are online, throwing out their requests, they’re ready to book,” he says.

Szypersky has also been able to book jobs due to the Website's timing opportunities. He refers to a convention shuttle job: “When the customer wanted more information, I was able to send him to our Website while talking to him on the phone. It helps in the whole marketing process. It completes the picture.”

Visuals Versus Verbiage

In planning the A-Team’s Website, Hale decided to emphasize photos over text. “I think when people go to Websites [to charter] a bus, they want to see pictures, to know that the service will be good. I think we did that using as few words as possible, and maximized our pages,” she says. She adds that she is constantly changing the site photos to keep the site exciting and interesting.

In the future, A-Team Charter and Anchor Trailways plan to use Adobe Flash software to add video to their Websites. Regarding sophisticated online visuals, Wright commented that they can occasionally enhance the site's value but are not vital. “A few companies have video, and I think it works well, but I don’t think it’s something that’s going to make or break the deal right now, [since] a lot of [motorcoach] companies still don’t have Websites,” he says.

Wright underscores the importance of using the Website to provide organized, thorough, and visually appealing information to potential clients. “[Some companies] will just send [customers] a quick little snippet, saying what the price is, and that’s it. They don’t talk about their equipment, thank the person for taking time, or use a nice block format,” he says. “Those are some of the things that we do… It goes a long way in terms of making sure you get that business.”