Our constant growth is due to a lot of elements, such as the distribution of promotional items (cards, banners, booklet, stickers, etc... ) across the UK, large interactive facebook groups and page, competitions, charity donations, Google ad word campaigns and in-print advertising such as the BMF magazine and some show guides.
To do all of this marketing there is a large cost and one which grows each year - we could of course stop this spend and 'presume' and expect that people will find the website by organic searches and word of mouth, however that can be a costly mistake.
In fact one that the heads of Slazenger thought in the early 80's, where they became complacent as many people were using their racquets and wearing their clothing, sweat bands and tennis shoes, so they stopped paying for advertising - and look where they ended up (being bought as a cheap label and something we 'used' to wear).
When we created THE BIKER GUIDE website in 2009, it was to bring together a collection of information specifically for the Biker Community on a website that was free and easy to use. With many daily visitors (some days over 4,000), we are glad to see that this concept is one that has been much needed. As we include such a large amount of readable and relevant content (news, events, competitions, etc...), with the aim to captivate and keep those visitors interested, so that they trust THE BIKER GUIDE as a brand and with that they then trust, use and visit those clients that we include in the extensive business directory.
When we asked visitors to the website what their habits were when looking for anything Motorcycle related, we found that 89% of our visitors use only www.thebikerguide.co.uk when looking for anything Motorcycle related.
As the website is promoted to the Biker Community, through a variety of means, so our advertisers can gain new customers, we have no intensions of changing the business model to become a commission basis website. If we work this way it would then mean that the website became overloaded with adverts and listings, which could results in 'non-Biker Friendly' places being included, which would result in our visitors not being happy and/or having an unpleasant stay (and then not wanting to use THE BIKER GUIDE) and then we fear that what anything that is then free to be included on, yet enjoyed by so many people cannot last.
We are very aware (as we ask our visitors) that sometimes people will stay somewhere or use a website and do not even mention THE BIKER GUIDE, this is mainly down to the various marketing we do to promote a client.
For example a client might be included on the website, in an e-shot sent direct to people and also on the facebook pages and group. We hope this will see an interest in the clients website, an increase in facebook likes and of course bookings/sales. For accommodation providers we have also been told that many people will take the details of a place and pass by on their trip, rather than book prior, again this is hard to quantify from click throughs.
It is also worth mentioning that, if you go into a shop to buy a can of Coke do you say to the shopkeeper 'Hey I am buying this can of drink because I saw the advert for the Christmas Coke Van on tv last night' - No we don't think so!
Managed to see Charlie Boorman being interviewed. He intimated that he would be doing a survival/TV reality show soon, but definitely NOT the Jungle ( cannot possibly repeat his story of penis' and balls!!!)... sort of guessed at the Bear Grylls, but who knows.
