Author Archives: schatzi

Mar
31
2023

How to Increase Class Admissions Using Online Course Registration Software

It is a testing time for schools and colleges when a new session starts and candidates queue up in front of the Admissions offices to collect enrollment forms. There is competition all around even amongst the best of institutes during this time of the year as to which institute will rope in more quality candidates. Apart from previous track records that they boast of, the institutes also try out multiple promotional strategies to uphold their individual USPs. Students and parents these days have too many options when it comes to selecting an institution for educational purposes. They give preference to those institutes that offer them better admission facilities apart from other infrastructural benefits. So, if the institutes avail of the online course registration software, they certainly stand a chance to stay ahead in the competition.

The online course registration software enables class organizers to provide their candidates with the following advanced facilities:

Online course registration service:The software application allows institute authorities to create multiple online class registration forms for various online and onsite classes. In these forms they may include details of course modules along with their respective pricing structures. Once these forms are published on the net, students can access them from any part of the world, 24/7 and sign up conveniently for the courses of their choice. Since, no paperwork or physical labor is involved in this procedure, they prefer using the online system for taking admissions.

Online payment facility:The software provides a number of secure online payment options to their registrants. So, candidates can pay their course fees via any of these gateways by using their credit cards either through their computers or via any other web enabled mobile devices. This makes their work even easier as they do not have to carry cash to pay the amount at the institute’s office. Since, there is a real-time monitoring facility available with the software both the institute authorities and the student parties can make use of the functionality quite well.

Automated email communication:That the online forms along with the fee have been submitted properly may be confirmed via emails to the candidates. Even when there is any other notification to be sent out, the institutes may do it via the online method. The course registration software has a robust email messaging engine. Using this tool, they can send out an unlimited number of mails to their registrants. This automated communication process adds to the satisfaction of the candidates taking admission.

Social media notifications:On availing the course registration software, class organizers can promote their classes on social networking sites. This kind of a marketing initiative gives them an edge over others as they can reach out to a wider target audience within a shorter span of time. To avail of this facility, they need to purchase a social media connector at a nominal cost.

Improved student-faculty interaction:The software application has various powerful modalities that facilitate better interactions between the students and their faculty members. The students can also share their study materials using numerous online social tools. Moreover, the software also provides an additional connector for institutes using learning management systems for managing registrations from that LMS interface.

All these advanced facilities help the institutes attract more students during the admission seasons.

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Mar
30
2023

Social Media for Business (1) – Top 3 SMM Time Management Tips

I don’t need to tell you how effective involvement in social media is essential for your business growth but effective here is a keyword. Social websites are not called social for no reason: they are friendly in nature. To succeed in SMM, you need to focus on building relationships and avoid the sales pitch or at least make it subtle.

It goes without saying that the process can be time-consuming especially with the avalanche of social media options out there. So, how can you leverage SMM without investing too much time into it? Here are some tips to help you out.

Tip 1: Go for cost effective delegation that yields proven results

I often feel that doubling or tripling the number of my page fans/friends on Facebook is both time-consuming and boring until I was browsing a freelancing site and found this interesting job post:” I am looking for someone to add friends to my Facebook account from a certain city. I’m looking to have 3000 friends added from certain area.”

Guess what, the employer offered $15 for this job and there many candidates were lined up. The beauty of hiring freelancers to do the “donkey work” on your behalf is that you save your precious time for what really matters plus there is no risk involved here since you only pay for results. In fact, I would recommend that you browse job postings in some freelancing sites to get more ideas for time-saving tasks that you can delegate. A good place to check is oDesk because they have category for SMM jobs.

In addition, if writing is not your cup of tea, it is worthwhile to hire a SEO copywriter to take care of your blog content because if your blog didn’t standout to your niche market, others will and you certainly don’t want that.

Also, hiring a professional to do few short yet excellent video presentations about your business to be published on YouTube and your own site is definitely an investment in place.

Time is money. Sometimes”buying” some of your precious time for few bucks can be a sound decision. And if you take the freelancing sites route, you will always end up with a good deal.

Tip 2: Be Selective

You need to be very selective and choose the best social media sites that are in line with your business goals. In doing so, think quality versus quantity. In other words, it is better to have quality profiles in 3 social sites and take the time to create a powerful presence there than just creating profiles in 1000 sites that you probably wouldn’t visit again! As a minimum, you need to go for Twitter, Facebook plus your own blog. And hey, YouTube is a fantastic visibility magnet so keep it in mind! Later on, you may also add LinkedIn to the mix.

Tip 3: Leverage Technology

There are so many free tools available online that helps you preschedule your social media posts, the most popular of which is ping.fm. You can dedicate 2 hours per week for prescheduling your posts and that’s it!

Having said that, it is important to realize that these automatic tools only take care of the “broadcasting” side of social media on your behalf. You still need to be effectively present in some carefully selected social media sites in order to answer questions, interact, and build relationships with your niche market. Good luck!

Mar
29
2023

How Budding and Small Hotels Can Lessen The Effects of Rate Parity

Rate parity is a term that always alarms hoteliers and can even be a growth barrier for small and new players. Rate parity is the practice of maintaining consistent and same rates of the same room type on all the distribution channels/booking platforms, be it hotel’s own website or OTAs irrespective of commissions being earned by an OTA. The objective of this practice is to create leveled playground for all the players alike. Both hotels and OTAs have to agree to rate parity norms when they sign up with an OTA.

At times, this leveled field makes it difficult for new players to compete in this fierce competition and suffocates them even before they can spread their wings.

How should hotels look at Rate Parity?

The practice of Rate parity came up to safeguard the interests of OTAs from situations where hotels can reduce their website rates and cut OTAs.

Why hotels rely heavily on OTAs?

OTAs provide a readymade platform for any hotel to clinch bookings from the very first day they enter the world of online booking. They do not have to spend heavy on marketing, just negotiate better deals with the right OTAs and they are set to make revenues. Hotels can easily look OTA commissions as their marketing costs but with a higher success rate. Hence, the advantage that OTAs offer to hotels somewhat nullifies the disadvantage of rate parity to hotels.

What are the challenges of rate parity for budding and small hotels?

In small and new hotels, every single booking is crucial. Paying hefty commissions to OTAs from already thin margins becomes very difficult for hotels. This is where direct bookings can prove to be a game changer. However, fetching direct bookings can be an uphill task without promotional campaign and price manipulation. Many times, OTAs will ask hotels to keep them in the loop when they run any promotional campaigns or discounted pricing on their websites. To prevent any breach of Rate Parity clause sometimes small hotels exclude the entire room category from OTAs and sell it on their website at their own prices.

Competing with OTAs for prices is difficult for small hotels since OTAs are known to reduce prices below agreed prices by reducing their commissions. We do not live in a perfect world!

This requires hotels to keep a check on prices of various OTAs to keep their prices competitive with them. When OTA channels are not directly linked to a hotel’s PMS system through a channel manager, rate parity is even more difficult to manage. Hoteliers then have to log into multiple systems to update their rates. However, it is much easier and faster, if the hotel is using hotel technology tools to manage all this.

Few are of the opinion that in this situation, small hotels are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as the saying goes since on one hand, they do not have the marketing budget to achieve the kind of reach that OTA provide. On the other hand, it is difficult for them to pay the big fat commission to the OTAs. Moreover, OTAs bring them business. Hence, hotels want to drive more direct bookings. However, this course requires more dollars to spend on marketing. They are in this vicious circle.

Here are some tactics that hotels can use to tackle rate parity challenges

Creating bundled packages

Hotels can augment their offerings keeping the price same as OTA price by adding perks like free parking, Wi-Fi, wine tasting sessions, complimentary breakfast, sight-seeing, free pick-ups, etc. This practice can help them have a clear edge over OTAs without violating rate parity norms since for the same price the hotel is offering a better deal than the OTAs.

Lower your rates to a limited audience.

Hotels can reduce the prices for an age group, category, Close User Group (CUG) or mobile app users. Run e-mail promotional offers for CUG members or on mobile app bookings. This can help them drive direct bookings on their website and mobile app without violating rate parity clause.

Loyalty Program and Customer Engagement

Another way to boost direct bookings is loyalty programs. Loyalty programs provide manifold benefits apart from just saving OTA commissions. Getting a repeat booking from a loyal customer is far cheaper than acquiring a new customer. On top of that, hotels are aware of their choice and preferences that enable them to serve them even better. This spreads positive word of mouth for the brand and paves the way for more direct bookings.

Use Meta search engines

Meta Search engines like TripAdvisor and Trivago can be considered as a savior of small hotels. Small hotels can even feature on top of the list in TripConnect since it works on a PPC model unlike commissions as in case of OTAs. Metasearch engines are quite popular among consumers since they not only provide a comparison among different properties but also allow them to choose the cheapest channel to book the hotel. Consumers are often seen to resort to book direct provided the difference is not huge since direct bookings are considered more reliable.

User-friendly website and booking process

To boost direct bookings hoteliers must ensure that they have the necessary infrastructure in place, which induces and propels direct bookings like – a comprehensive user-friendly website with a clean interface providing all the necessary information without having to search for it. In addition, the hoteliers must make sure that the booking process is simple instead of cumbersome so that prospects do not bounce back. OTAs have a clear edge in this department, but hotels have no choice but to bring their online infrastructure at par with those of OTAs.

From above discussion, we may assume that while Rate Parity agreements can decelerate the direct bookings of any hotel; there are numerous factors that prove that OTAs are in fact good partners with hotels. Hotels can adopt several bypass strategies to mitigate the defies of Rate Parity and the same time enjoy the large number of bookings from the OTAs

Mar
28
2023

Puzzle Games Are Educational and Stimulate the Brain

Puzzle games, especially mathematical types of puzzle games, are known to improve the ability of our brains as we have to use our brains to figure out the puzzle. Some schools even encourage their students to play puzzle games. Various types of free puzzle games are available online for players to choose from.

Minesweeper is one of the most well-known computer puzzle games, since it comes free with every computer. A player is presented with lots of small squares where a certain number of bombs are hidden. The objective of the game is to find out where those bombs are hidden. The game is over once all the bombs are found. The game is lost when a player clicks on a square that has a bomb hidden in it.

Sudoku is one of the best known and most popular mathematical types of puzzle games. This game can be found in a number of game portals, as well as books that consist solely of Sudoku games. In addition, numerous newspapers worldwide have published free puzzle games like Sudoku, throughout the years. Sudoku is played on a nine by nine grid where a player has to enter a single digit, making sure that each digit does not appear more than once on any single column or single row. Simpler forms of Sudoku also exist for beginners. These are usually played on a four by four grid or a two by two grid.

Hangman is one of the most well-known and popular word guessing games. The player has to guess the word by guessing the correct letters in the word. If any of the letters are guessed correctly, the position and number of times the letters appear in the word will be revealed to the player. This makes it easier for the player to guess the word the more they fill in the blanks. However, if any letters are guessed incorrectly, the game will add a body part to the hangman picture. Once the hangman picture is completely drawn, the game is over and the player loses. Therefore, a player only has a limited number of tries to guess the correct word in the game.

Word Search is a puzzle where you locate words inside a square filled with jumbled letters. You have a list of words to find by searching each line and locating the word whether it is positioned horizontally or vertically. It takes good eye sight and the ability to be able to find words at a glance to master this game.