Increase Online Business with Professional Photography and Online Videos
The importance of making a good “first impression” may be over emphasized, but its concept rings true, especially within the hospitality industry, where positive first impressions of your property can turn viewers into visitors. Utilizing professional photographs, along with a well designed website, is the perfect combination to entice your viewers to spend more time on your site and convert lookers into bookers. Photography gives you the opportunity to help your guests visualize their stay at your property. With the plethora of information made available online these day to potential guests, it is rare that a booking is made without someone first looking at pictures of rooms, amenities, and property location.
Professional photography may be one of the most crucial components for your online business to be successful. You may ask yourself if it’s worth paying for something that you could do on your own. Will the cost of a professional photographer really make a difference in capturing my property that will translate into increase revenue? With the advancement of digital cameras, it is tempting to think you can achieve photographs for your website similar to a those of a professional. However, not only do professionals have the correct equipment to best capture the highlights of your property, but they also understand certain photographic techniques to capture your subject in the right light, all of which gives your property a distinct look and personality.
Before hiring a professional photographer, request to see a portfolio of their work to determine what type of photography they specialize in and if they have done lodging property work before. Make sure the portfolio is not just comprised of landscapes, portraiture, and wedding photographs. There are different techniques behind all types of photography, so confirm your professional has a strong portfolio that showcases property features and architectural details.
Professionally produced videos are becoming just as important as professional photography in the hospitality and lodging industry. Video tours allow your viewers to experience your property’s accommodations, lifestyle, area attractions, and how you differ from your competitors, all in a concise, engaging fashion. Videos quickly capture the viewer’s attention and help spark interest in your property. According to comScore, Inc., more then 170 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in November 2009, with nearly 31 billion videos viewed. comScore, Inc. also cited that Google Sites accounted for 39% of all videos viewed online in the U.S. during that same time frame. This data proves that it is not only imperative to broadcast video on your own website, but to also utilize social media platforms, such as YouTube, to help direct traffic to videos that showcase your property’s best attributes.
Professional photography and videos should be essential elements of your marketing strategies. It is a proven fact that eye-catching photography and videos have a positive influence and impact on your online viewers. These tools become the incentive that convert potential guests into new reservations and, as a result, will be instrumental in increasing your bottom line.
Did you know? RezStream has a professional photographer on staff for all of your hospitality photography needs. Learn more about RezStream’s photography and video services today! Please call us at 866-360-8210 or email sales@temp.rezstream.com.
All About ExpressionEngine
Rick Ellis first developed ExpressionEngine as a blogging tool under the name “pMachine” in 2001. An early prototype of pMachine was installed on Nancy Sinatra’s (Frank’s daughter) website. After some real world testing and success, pMachine was released to the public in 2002.
By the end of 2002, pMachine had been featured in a few books and magazines and was having some success, but at that point, the Web was young and still developing. Ellis noticed website owners and developers wanted more control and management over their content. That’s when Rick Ellis developed a more robust tool called ExpressionEngine and the web development community took notice.
The first version of ExpressionEngine was first released to the public in 2004 as a general-purpose content management system written in object-oriented PHP and using MySQL for storing data.
ExpressionEngine’s publishing features are robust, comprehensive, and highly flexible. Where other content management systems may have limitations in terms of visual design elements and/or display and organization of content, ExpressionEngine fills the needs of these major voids.
Throughout the years, ExpressionEngine has increased its features, flexibility, and popularity among larger businesses in helping build their web presence. These steps advanced ExpressionEngine to version 1.6.8. As its usage continued to grow, more features were requested from site owners and developers. ExpressionEngine developers were now building “application-like” sites and needed even more flexibility and features at their disposal. Ellis Lab listened to these requests and delivered with ExpressionEngine 2.0. This version has been completely rebuilt on Ellis Lab’s “CodeIgniter,” an application MVC framework.
New Features of ExpressionEngine 2.0
Built On CodeIgniter
Acclaimed for its speed and flexibility, CodeIgniter has become the application framework of choice for many of the premiere PHP developers in the world.
New Interface
The ExpressionEngine control panel has been redesigned to make your experience and workflow faster, more intuitive, efficient, and better organized for superior control.
File Manager with Image Editor
ExpressionEngine 2.0 features an incredibly powerful and intuitive file and asset manager that can be used from within the publishing interface or on its own. The new file manager includes the ability to crop, resize, and rotate your images directly in the control panel.
Key Features of ExpressionEngine
Multiple Categories
Each entry can be assigned to multiple categories, and you can create as many unique category groups as you want.
Relationships
You can create relationships between entries in different sections of your site, enabling information to be shared.
Expiring Entries
You can set an expiration date on your entries so they will be automatically removed from your site on that requested date.
Multi-User System
ExpressionEngine is a true multi-user system. Each user can be granted a wide range of privileges, which allows you to define with precise control what each user is permitted to do.
Security
ExpressionEngine has the most comprehensive suite of security features of any publishing platform on the market.
When will ExpressionEngine 2.0 be ready for prime time?
As of this article, ExpressionEngine 2.0 is in Beta form, which is available to the public; however bugs, errors, and minor fixes still need to be worked out. In addition, there are very few add-ons, extensions, and modules that may be needed to accomplish feature requests.
RezStream recommends waiting to upgrade your site until ExpressionEngine 2.2 is released, hopefully in spring/summer 2010. That doesn’t mean you should wait until then if you are thinking of having a site built. RezStream can easily accomplish this process using the current version 1.6.8, which can easily be upgraded to 2.2 when it becomes available. If you have further questions regarding ExpressionEngine, please feel to contact RezStream at 303.872.0220.