Nobody Wants to Buy a Timeshare!
-by Scoop
May 7, 2010 — There has never been a shortage of fables in this business and there are a couple of whoppers that continue to plague our industry, resulting in lost opportunities with literally tens of thousands of qualified prospects each month that could generate millions in additional revenue (sales).
The first fallacy is that (paraphrasing): “Nobody gets up in the morning and thinks that today would be a good day to buy a timeshare…’ and the second delusion, its cousin if you will, is that it is necessary to: ‘avoid, at all costs, using the dreaded timeshare word in marketing materials, phone/OPC pitches…’
As an illustration one only needs to go online and Google “timeshare” and have a peak at what millionsof consumers are searching for every single day of the year (just in the U.S.A.)!
In the online world of millions (perhaps billions) of websites, of which the majority are ‘commerce’ related (business) ones, to have a website ranked by an independent third party such as Alexa.com in the top 100,000 most visited websites is not a bad place to be! (Rankings below are in the USA and are as of 5/03/2010; and ‘stats’ are updated every five (5) minutes).
- www.rci.com (Traffic Rank: U.S. 3,034)
- www.intervalworld.com (Traffic Rank: U.S. 3,684)
- www.buyatimeshare.com (Traffic Rank: U.S 7,829)
- www.sellmytimesharenow.com (Traffic Rank: U.S. 10,788)
- www.redweek.com (Traffic Rank: U.S. 13,110)
- www.buyatimeshare.com (Traffic Rank: U.S. 20,774)
- www.vacationtimesharerentals.com (Traffic Rank: 22,692)
- www.tug2.net (Traffic Rank: 46,922)
- www.timesharesonly.com (Traffic Rank: U.S. 57,624)
On top of being highly visited websites, these particular ones mostly maintain that coveted first page organic (non-paid) position on Google (and other search engines). The only conclusion that can be drawn is that ‘someone’ is interested in ‘timeshare’ and since those websites are mostly for-profit, ‘someone’ is perhaps buying today as well!
According to Google’s ‘search-trends’, every month there are millions of people (‘someone’) online who use ‘keyword’ searches such as ‘timeshare’, ‘timeshare vacations’, timeshare discounts’, etc. and just the one word “timeshare” commands nearly two (2) million worldwide searchers each and every month. Yet, where are the TS developers (‘offers’)?
Most TS developers have yet to capitalize on the power, reach and scope of the online community and that is both astonishing and akin to securing an OPC location on a very busy street like Las Vegas Blvd. (aka: The Strip) but then ignoring all the ‘walk-by’ traffic and instead of staffing the booth with sharp OPCs it is decided to place ‘take-one’ brochures…
Okay, ‘forget’ about that dreaded timeshare word but what is even more astonishing is that Google’s ‘search-trends’ reports that there are over thirty (30) million searches (‘someone’) each month using the ‘keyword’ “vacations”. The absence of TS developers there, too, is just too perplexing to put into words, although I suspect part of the problem is some may not agree that we are actually in the vacation business!
How about the millions more online consumers (travelers; prospects) who every day use keyword searches such as “vacation ideas”, “family vacations”, “romantic vacations”, etc.? There, too, you’ll likely not find a TS developer’s enticements, which leaves me nearly speechless!
But especially when traditional marketing costs are considered (along with the state of the ‘biz’ and economy), the real insanity of it all is that any developer can set up an effective online ‘in-house’ marketing program for what amounts to ‘pennies’. But that doesn’t appear to have grabbed their attention either.
In fact the evidence suggests most continue to ignore the Internet as if it is a passing ‘fad’ and perhaps it will ‘go-away’. Or, God forbid, they believe– as some did thinking economically challenging times would never have an effect on TS sales– that the Internet simply doesn’t apply to their business ‘model’!
Email Scoop: scoop@insidethegate.com
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