Digital marketing for natural parks, in Mexico!

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At the beginning of November I had the pleasure of participating in a UNWTO Regional Course in Mexico. The objective was to help those responsible for the main natural parks in this country to improve the management of the parks and to put them on the market.

Mexico and natural parks

Mexico is known for having a wide variety of natural parks and protected areas. Some of the best known include:

  • Sierra de Guadalupe National Park: This park is located in central Mexico and is known for its mountainous landscapes and for being home to a wide variety of fauna and flora.
  • Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve: This reserve is located in the Yucatan peninsula and is known for its white sand beaches and turquoise waters. It is also home to a large number of animal and plant species.
  • Sierra de Órganos National Park: This park is located in the state of Zacatecas and is known for its impressive rock formations and for being home to a large number of plant and animal species, such as white-tailed deer and gray wolves.
  • Desierto de los Leones National Park: This park is located in the Sierra Madre Occidental and is known for its mountainous landscapes and for being home to a large number of plant and animal species, such as the golden eagle and white-tailed deer.

The parks of Monterey

In the Sierra Madre is where the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park is also located: This park is known for its impressive views of the desert and for being home to a large number of plant and animal species, such as the gray fox and the eagle owl. Around Monterrey there is also the La Estanzuela National Park, the Cerro de la Silla Protected Natural Area and the Chipinque Ecological Park, the latter with spectacular views of the city of Monterrey.

We visited all these parks, as well as the protected area of ​​the Bishopric where a Monterrey history museum is located, which helped me to better understand the idiosyncrasies of the city and its inhabitants. Above all, with regard to the Battle of Monterrey, in which Mexico ended up losing half of its territory to the United States. This part of the story is not explained in Spain and I only knew about it through Hollywood movies.

About the Digital Marketing course

The course was titled: “Tourism and Protected Areas: A vision of Sustainable Management”

On the one hand, he participated Ana Baez in the management of the parks, and I for the improvement of its commercialization. Ana is a super expert in natural parks and protected areas, and to a large extent, the origin of Costa Rica's good position in this tourism segment. It was an honor to be the "opening act" for her and help the parks to reach their users and thus contribute to the economic sustainability of the project... which obviously also leads to having funds for conservation and therefore also environmental sustainability .

The training was carried out at the TEC de Monterrey during the first week of November 2022. Although calling it training is to greatly simplify what is actually carried out with the course participants. The UNWTO methodology is that of "learning by doing", so our work is that of facilitators: a mixture of trainer and consultant, and the final objective is that the participants return home with a Marketing plan (in my case ) under his arm, and with the necessary training to implement it.

Monterrey and Nuevo Leon

I had never been in the Monterrey area, the state of Nuevo León (northern Mexico). It is spectacular from the point of view of nature and the preservation of fauna and flora, but it is also spectacular from the point of view of the city itself: a mega-city of 8 million inhabitants. A rich area, with work for everyone (less than 2% unemployment), with a highly developed industrial sector and manufacturing for the US and Mexico, but also with first-class services: they are one of the main centers of Tourism Latin American doctor.

Very different from the image of Mexico that I had up to that moment. And it's not that the image was bad, it's that it was more folkloric. Until this trip, I had been in the Los Cabos area (where I went fishing after a trip I made to Los Angeles/San Diego/Las Vegas), and on another occasion, to teach Digital Marketing classes for destinations. , also with the UNWTO, in Zacatecas (another beautiful area of ​​Mexico).

The course went very well, as always, when people understand the potential of the Internet to market their products and services, and you show them how to do it, they are fascinated with the subject and always more, the vision of the network changes for them . There is always a before and after.

... and after finishing the course

Taking advantage of the fact that I was in Mexico, I was able to accept participation in a Tourism Innovation congress that was held in Veracruz, the following week, within the framework of the Expo Veracruz. Obviously, I also took the opportunity to visit this part of the country, very focused on the beaches and Mayan ruins. Also in nature tourism. Again, it was a pleasant surprise for me.

Anyway… a trip to Mexico is 100% recommended!

Here are some links:

  • Nuevo Leon Tourism: New Lion
  • Veracruz Tourism: Veracruz
  • I leave you a link to the webinars, where you will find one that I gave on December 20, 2022 for the Secretary of Tourism of Mexico: A world without cookies

I hope you find it useful

A hug

Digital Marketing for receptive travel agencies, in Tanzania!

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At the end of November I was participating in a joint mission of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the UNBP the United Nations agency that fights poverty, the World Bank and the Association of Travel Agents of Tanzania (TATOTZ). It was about helping incoming travel agencies and small local tour operators to get direct customers instead of passing customers through the entire tourism distribution chain.

Tanzania and incoming agencies

The problem that local agencies have is that the prices of a safari in Tanzania are very high, but then, when the product is offered to clients, they feel that despite everything being wonderful, they are not receiving the service for which they have paid. Especially at the level of service providers (hotels, guides, transport experience...).

For example, someone who has paid €1,700 for a safari of 1 day and one night in the Ngorongoro Crater, does not accept being charged €5 for a coke to drink during dinner at the hotel... they comment "with what that I have paid, are the drinks not included? Not even the non-alcoholic ones?”

But the truth is that only a tiny amount of money has arrived at the hotel. What comes to them hardly covers the expenses that the client will incur. The margins they work with are less than 5%. If anything goes wrong, the profits are gone and they lose money.

Where does the customer's money go?

Where will the €1700 that the customer has paid go? Well, to all intermediary agencies. Each one of them has doubled the initial price of the package that the customer has purchased. This is how the tourist intermediation sector works when the client is so far from the issuing agencies.

But not everything is the fault of the intermediary agencies, nor of our local agencies. They carry out their function: they have their clients and contribute them to the distribution chain, advise, help design a specific product for them and offer guarantees and insurance. They do their job perfectly.

The shopping experience in a receptive agency

If you ever try to buy a package directly at an incoming agency in Tanzania, you will find that everyone offers the same thing: "custom-made safaris", without more... "tell us what you want and we will prepare it for you"... (but how? Am I going to know what I want, if I don't know anything about Tanzania?). And with such varied and disparate prices, one is unable to choose which is the appropriate service... so it is not surprising that potential clients decide that they are going to trust their lifelong travel agency and that they are the ones who set up trip.

For more INRI, as the most famous safari location in Tanzania (the aforementioned crater) is touching Kenya, and Kenya has done its homework at the marketing level, most likely when you hire the safari, your local agency will hire it to a tour operator, and that this tour operator contracts it with a receptive agency in Kenya, which will make you visit the Masai Mara park in Kenya first, stay there and then, one day, go to the Serengeti park in Tanzania or the Ngorongoro crater.

The rest of the parks in Tanzania are empty! Tourists do not arrive there despite the million and a half annual tourists that they receive as a country.

The “other” function of incoming agencies

In short... that the population of Tanzania is on the verge of poverty, or fully in it, while the north country and Zanzibar are full of tourists. This is when the sustainability of a country's tourism development project comes in.

It is not enough that tourism is respectful of the environment and helps protect it, it is also necessary that we make sure that the money generated by tourism reaches the local population. Working with the receiving agencies seems the most feasible solution and that is what the United Nations opted for: the receiving agencies are the local entity that will distribute the money to guide companies, transport companies, hotels and natural parks.

Marketing and incoming agencies

On behalf of the UNWTO, 5 specialists in sustainable Tourism Marketing intervene. First giving 5 more technical online webinars, for receptive travel agencies, and then in person a 5-day course on how to market your tourist experiences directly to the end user and how to create an International Digital Marketing Plan.

There is much work to be done. The people who attended the course were enthusiastic about the knowledge on how to create and market their tourism experiences on the internet, but they have serious problems with technical web management. The hostings are not good, some websites are hacked, the webmasters are subcontracted in distant countries and are unprofessional, there are no local providers with knowledge of digital marketing... in short... there is a long way to go. But at least they have the intention to fix it and this is already a big what… the intention is the precursor of the action, so go ahead!

I leave you with some links.

  • Tanzania Tourist Office: Tanzania
  • Tanzania Tour Operators Association website: TATOTZ
  • My Instagram in case you want to see some of the photos and videos I took during my visit to Tanzania: Instagram Montse Peñarroya
  • A link to the open webinars that the organizers publish on Youtube. There are some from the World Tourism Organization, though not the ones from Tanzania: open webinars

I hope you find it useful.

A hug

How to Make a Benchmark

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of teaching the first session of the new edition of Digital Marketing Course for Cultural Industries organized by the SDE (Servei and Business Development, the Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries).

One of the points that we saw was Benchmarking and I explained to the students that Marketing cannot be done without taking the market into account and therefore it is essential that we know what our position is with respect to the companies with which we compete or with respect to companies similar to our.

How to make a benchmark?

This requires defining the variables we want to analyze, to know what our position is based on these variables, see what the position of the competition, then, is ideal capture it all in a positioning map.

The variables that I propose in my classes are as follows:

Benchmark technical level:

  • How many pages indexed in Google have a website? (: (Without quotation marks and domain name who wish to analyze) in Google this information looking for "nombredominio.com site" is obtained).
  • What authority does a website have? (obtained from the Google bar, any SEO plugin or from an online tool).
  • How many pages are linking to the page you analyze? (I recommend obtaining these data from which Alexa.com offers). Later note: Alexa stopped working in 2021. We now use SEMrush (www.semrush.com)
  • What position does that website ranking in Alexa.com? Later note: Alexa stopped working in 2021. We now use SEMrush (www.semrush.com)

Marketing Benchmark level:

  • What is the target audience for that enterprise and which segments attacks through its online communication?
  • What is your value proposition?
  • What Digital Marketing actions have detected that performs this company? (This can see watching who linkea to page [online news, blogs, directories ...] and looking for his name on Google [see social networking profiles, quotes, articles, etc.]).
  • What features we would highlight their website.

With this a good record for each of our competitors and also for our own company is obtained. And these data will help us know where we want to be, where we want to go and how we will do it.

The positioning map that I use is a graph showing bubble techniques 3 variables: the PageRank (the radius of the bubble), the position in the Alexa ranking (egComo hacer un benchmarkand abscissa) and the size of the page (vertical axis).

The attached image is of one of these maps, the other image corresponds to a record of competence (in this case corresponds to a theater).

Yesterday I promised the students would write this post and would hang up Excel I had created from the websites of some of the companies attending the class, so that you have sample and was not needed to start it from scratch (the graph it is complicated to make, the axis scales are logarithmic, the axes are reversed so that the best position appears on the top right, and definitely not a chart by selecting data from a table is displayed by pressing a button ... of Hence recommend students to use mine as a basis for their work).

Anyway ... here goes the Excel worksheet for creating the graphic benchmarking.
Excel Chart "How to Make a Benchmark” to serve as a base.

(If you do not see the graphic good or bubbles are not 3D is because you are using an older version of Excel. Although I have saved the file in .xls format so that everyone can open, you are actually created using the .xlsx )

I hope you find it useful and now already know cow do a good benchmark.

If you attended the event and want the complete slides of the entire Digital Marketing for Cultural Industries course, remember that the SDE will send you an email with a link to their servers from which you can download them.

A hug.

Video "Introduction to Digital Márqueting"

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He Online Master in Digital Marketing and Social Networks University of Vic is about to begin.

As the first edition, it has not been easy. We had to prepare videos and syllabi of all subjects, coordinating the agendas of teachers and consultants (who are also professionals in their respective fields), prepare weminars, Discussions, case studies, and interviews with companies, and endless work but even from outside can not see, it does require great dedication. But you're all about ... and we are thrilled!

The video you can see below is the first video of the course Introduction to Digital Marketing. In this video I make a summary of the subject, and I share why I think just seeing the 12 points can already be useful to create the communication plan for your business ... but if you also want to know how to do everything I explain ... for this is the master :-)

The Masters will begin on October 18th and is 100% online.

There are still 5 places, so if you fancy, you're in time to register.

You will find more information here:

Online Master in Digital Marketing and Social Networks

See you!

A hug.

How to adapt your business to the new internet approaching

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If 10 years ago, just when the first smartphones, saw it coming a big wave that would change our business dramatically, today, we come another wave coming that again, it will be disruptive and require major adaptation by companies . We started to call to web 4.0.

cambra_sabadellJanuary 26 morning, I have the pleasure of teaching in the Chamber of Commerce of Sabadell, a conference on how this wave coming and how we should adapt our companies. This session is open to everyone and is free (does not happen every day that I invite everyone ... usually my sessions are part of a master or are in company and thus deprived by) ... so even if a little late, I extend the invitation to readers of this website.

The session will address what the web 4.0, what are its characteristics (and go over the web 3.0 to see how it is becoming 4.0) among others will see what is the IOT, the VR, RA, the Semantic Web, how they are using the first AIs, how the economy transforms collaborative value chains, how it handles the Big Data, and go over all the changes that these new technologies behave in our companies).

The conference begins at 9:30 am 'at the headquarters of the Chamber of Sabadell. For more information you will find it here: Montse Peñarroya Conference Web 4.0

See you tomorrow.

A hug

Meet the new SEO MOOC 2016

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Description MOOC SEO: Master the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). 2016 has been a year of great change in the Google algorithm. Learn what's behind a good current SEO strategy, including keyword planning, content optimization, link building, semantic markers, Ecommerce SEO, local search and mobile strategy.

It was like a birth, but finally the great day has arrived! The MOOC SEO that prepare Helena Casas and myself with the University of Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya, is finally online.

But what is a MOOC?

The acronym MOOC are "Massive Open Online Course" ie massive open online course. This means that the course is open to everyone and is 100% online.

In fact it is a course in which teaching is taught through video. Specifically 21 training videos average about 5 minutes each.

Why an SEO MOOC?

Well, the SEO has changed a lot during this 2016, the large deployment of semantic responses from Google, the creation of the Knowledge Graph, changes in Pinguin, etc. So along with Helena Casas decided it would be nice to create a series of videos explaining today, how SEO works. And since both are teachers of Multimedia degree at the University of Vic and this university has one great soundstages to film this type of video, plus highly qualified staff to edit, create decided under his banner.

MOOC How does SEO work?

The MOOC consists of short videos in which deepens in each of the aspects that affect SEO. The course is organized in modules formed by 2 or 3 videos. After each module an online test is performed to ensure that the student makes a progression in their knowledge.

At the end of MOOC students will be able to realize the strategic SEO plan for a company ... and in fact, this is the final exercise.

The course lasts 6 weeks.

Does SEO MOOC free or paid?

Como la mayor parte de MOOC, éste puede realizarse de forma gratuita y obtener así el certificado de “Participación en curso de SEO: Posicionamiento en Buscadores”, pero puesto que el curso se imparte dentro de la plataforma universitaria MiriadaX, se ofrece también un certificado oficial, previo pago de su coste, a aquellos inscritos que lo soliciten y que hayan logrado el 100% de todos y cada uno de los módulos del curso. Este certificado reconoce la superación, con éxito, del curso. Puede descargarse como un diploma en formato PDF y como un badge, que además, se muestra en la plataforma y puede exportarse a “Mozilla Open Badges”. El coste del certificado de superación de este curso es de 40 € (impuestos incluidos).

Where will I find more information about the SEO MOOC?

For here: Mooc de SEO on the website of Miriadax (MOOC platform university in Castilian and Portuguese)

I hope it is of your interest and we let's see MOOC in :-)

We'll talk!

Conclusions of the IX World Congress on Mountain Tourism

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Last week I had the pleasure to participate in the issue 9ena World Congress on Mountain Tourism "Mountainlikers” which is held biannually in Andorra.

This time the conference was dedicated to the adventure sports practiced on the mountain, and an important part of the speakers dealt their presentations on this subject.

Although I could not attend all lectures, these are some of the conclusions I arrived:

  1. Adventure tourism is softening: adventures are become more accessible to everyone. In fact, users what they want are "special moments" experiences that are unique and memorable, without the need to be extreme. The trend seems to be that tourists increasingly seek health and fun combinations. In this regard, I would emphasize phrases like "thermal water & mountain destination are a good combination"And the tendency to mix Medical Tourism and Mountain Tourism, as a form of seasonally adjusted a destination.
  2. Sustainable tourism: All types of mountain tourism, if managed correctly, They can be seen as a type of sustainable tourism for their social aspect and the fact that income can be distributed among the mountain people. Also for the fact that if we seek "authenticity" as the destination value proposition, this type of tourism is a very good way to raise awareness of the local culture and therefore to preserve it.
  3. Environment: management of mountain tourism is extremely important to consider environmental conservation. In this regard several examples of how it is carried out in destinations like Peru, Switzerland and Andorra, among others showed.

Two initiatives stand out:

On the one hand the company Milenium Destination which makes trips between French and Koreans aim to know the destination, its people and its culture: in his travels 10 French move to Korea to do treking with 10 Koreans, with those who stay and live the days of the trip . Also they organized in reverse.

Furthermore, the clothing brand Mountain Marmot, He shared with Congress his new marketing strategy based on attempting to provide unique experiences to their customers and then to publicize these experiences through their web and social networks. Let along these lines its promotional video, which was one of the funniest things Congress.

Finally, I end this summary with a small photo gallery of the conference and the activities of the technical conference on the last day in which we could see first hand insitu Naturlandia, One of the best worked at the level of product creation and marqueting Andorrans tourism resources.

Presentation of the Specialization Course in Digital Marketing

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Friday 22 January will present the 6th edition of Specialization Course in Digital Marketing organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Sabadell and have the pleasure of coordinating academically.

The course starts on February 25 and lasts for 80 hours (16 sessions of 5 hours) which is mainly taught on Thursday morning.

This year, the course consists of 7 major areas:

  1. Benchmarking: How to know your position before your competitors online.
  2. How to attract visitors to a website: SEO, SEM, emailmarketing, Videomarketing, Mobilemarketing.
  3. How to convert visitors into customers: Usability, web analytics, etc.
  4. e-commerce: How to create it, what tools to use, legislation, logistics, etc.
  5. Customer loyalty through Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
  6. The website: Create a corporate website using WordPress, in 4 sessions.
  7. The creation of an action plan: Class create the action plan of each company.

The modules can be purchased separately, so if you are interested in one in particular, there is no problem that only attend one ... although the novelty this year is that the title of Specialist in Digital Marketing is double and offers House and validates the University of Vic. If you do not perform any of the modules, you lose the ability to obtain the title.

For more information about the course, please download the PDF with the promotional brochure and attends the presentation next Friday 22: PDF Specialization Course in Digital Marketing

After the presentation will offer a free session on "Using enterprise-level Whatsapp". In this session you will learn the 4 ways to use this tool (service customer groups, distribution lists and events), the features you need to know to manage enterprise-wide, and 12 etiquette tips in communication messages. Are you going to miss it?

Here I leave a video with comments from students who have completed the course in other editions.

See you!

full course of Digital Marketing in Sabadell

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The next February 20 will begin the full course of Digital Marketing to be held in the Chamber of Commerce of Sabadell for the past 5 years. This course is the equivalent of a university Graduate and is provided with the same profundad and rigor.

The Digital Marketing course is taught in sessions of 5 hours once a week. And it has a total duration of Students come to class once a week and in total there are 81 hours. Ends on June 19. During the course of the 22 basic techniques of Digital Marketing they will work and a website using WordPress as a tool for content management and web publishing will be created.

If you want to see the entire agenda, you will find in this PDF: Digital Marketing Course in Sabadell

Insert the video below shows the views of 3 students last year.

We will make a presentation session course on Friday 16 January in CAmara Commerce Sabadell. So if you have questions or you want to ask any question, we will be at your disposal live in that moment and by mail, whenever you need it :-)

Here you will find more information about the presentation session of the course: Session Presentation Digital Marketing Course starts at 9h30 'on 16 January.

See you.

A hug

How to make money online - Business Models Network

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On January 16 I have the pleasure of imparting a two hour lecture on business models that work on the network, at the Chamber of Commerce Sabadell.

Esta es una charla que imparto muchas veces a lo largo del año en varios másters y postgrados, y que siempre gusta mucho a los alumnos. Sistemáticamente vamos repasando uno a uno los diferentes modelos de negocio que utilizan los sitios web. Analizamos todos los modelos publicitarios, todos los modelos que se aplican a mercados, así como otros modelos de negocio. Los alumnos disfrutan aun más, cuando llegamos a los nuevos modelos cómo el del pago por suscriptores de Youtube. Al finalizar la charla se tiene una idea clara sobre cómo utilizar un sitio web para obtener ingresos adicionales, o sobre cómo transformar el sitio web de una empresa para convertirlo en un negocio online.

In general, it offered a different view of how the Internet works and how to make a living companies that use the network to generate revenue.

This session will also take the opportunity to present the Digital Marketing Course of the Chamber of Commerce of Sabadell, Which will begin in February.

The talk is free, but seating is limited, so if you want to attend, please contact the Chamber par register: Internet Business Models

See you there.

A hug.