5 Ways Changing How We Market Travel

Change is in the air.

After a challenging 24 months, innovation and technology updates are moving in cracking pace as if making up for lost time. Much like how zero commission on airfares changed the dynamics in the travel industry and internet created a new breed of super travel retailers (Online Travel Agencies like Expedia, Priceline and Orbitz), there are 5 trends that are shaping huge changes in the way travel is marketed.

1. Mobilecommerce has a breakthrough
2. Social media brings a new social dilemma
3. Analytics is king
4. Selective outsourcing to get the best talents
5. Customer relationship management back in focus as loyalty pays

1. Mobilecommerce hasa breakthrough
Mobile marketing has been on the verge of a breakthrough…well, almost every year for the last 5 years. 2010 is proving to be the year of mobile and mobile apps. Much of thatcould be attributed to the success of the iPhone (and proliferation of smartphones) where almost every telecom and tech giant (google, Microsoft) scrabbled to deliver new phones, new OS and new apps. In 2009, about 4.2B was spent on mobile applications, according to figures from Gartner, a US technology research firm. This figure is set to grow.

This evolving mobile marketing landscape signals big changes to the travel industry. Travel companies are starting to develop apps to market its products and services, travel consumers are using apps to research travel and share information and there is a blending of social and mobile apps to take the social aspects of travel further with the mobile.

On the horizon, there are increasingly more ways to pay via the mobile. Most travel companies are already allocating marketing budget to test mobile marketing. It will be critical for travel companies to understand how touse mobile media effectively to reach or engage travellers and to be ready to enable mobile commerce to facilitate travel purchases.

2. Social media brings a new social dilemma
Mobile would have dominated most of the headlines in the past 12 months, if not for the othersocial and marketing trend– the growth of social media networks. Social media has a particularly potent fit with travel industry given travel asan experience of the unknown, lends itself to much discussions and debates. Travellers looking to visit a destination trust the opinions of other travellers far more implicitly than that of the travel industry (looking to sell them something) and travellers who have completed their journeys are keen to share their views, thoughts, photographs and more.

Social media and social media marketing is not a fad – it is here to stay. Having a social media strategy is no longer optional and is a legitimate part of the marketing mix. As travel companies start to think about social media as part of the long term strategy, the marketing approachwillchange. Social media marketing will be a legitimate part of the marketing mix and a clearer social media plan and policy will merge. There will still be trials and tests on how best to utilise social media marketing to meet different objectives but it will start to evolve into a more analytic, bottom lined approach. Which brings us to the next point….

3. Analytics is king
The growth and growth of online marketing created a new paradigm in travel marketing – ability to track marketing investment in great detail and ability todetermine marketing channels with the best return on investment. The new marketing challenge is how to make sense in this explosion of data sets.

A new breed of marketers has emerged and the composition of the marketing team in travel companies will change towards being more analytics driven andless sales-y. Travel marketing teams will be equipped to analyse and gain insight about travel customers and about the business. Train or hire. However, recognise that there’s also the danger of knee jerk reactions. Consumer behaviour is changing very quickly and data sets are reflective of these swift changes.Smart analytical marketers will realisethat not all changes require action.

4. Selective marketing outsourcing to get the best talents
Traditionally, outsourcing is used when a company is looking to cut cost and be more efficient. Many companies that downsize, expand or restructure find that outsourcing certain functions could prove to be a cost effective and flexible solutions. High quality seldom figures in the outsourcing equation.

However, as technology changes are moving at a faster pace, new online marketing tactics require more specialised skills and experience. As the cost of hiring, training and retaining talentsbecome more expensive, there willbe a trend towards selective marketing outsourcing to get the best marketing talents to best meetbusiness objectives.

As the core business focus of many travel operators from airlines to hotels is to manage and create the ultimate travel experience, many will start to look at acquiring specialised marketing skills and expertise externally.This will help reduce the cost of hiring permanent employees in the near term while the business map out more define marketing strategy and goals. External experts may also assist in providing an external perspective to the business and assist in accelerating the learning process.

5. Customer relationship management back in focus as loyalty pays
Internet created many new forms of marketing techniques. However, creation of new marketing tactic also put otherson a backburner.
One of the most common phrases overheard - there is just no such thing ascustomer loyalty out there. As such, seemingly a large focus of online marketing is centred around acquisition of traffic or customers.

One of the big lessons learnt during the global financial crisis was that it is companies with the most engaged users/customers that were most apt to survive and even grow in the crisis.

It has been reaffirmed to businesses : Loyalty Pays

In addition, armed with improvement in technologies, companies are now equipped with better tools to engage consumers as well as to more intelligently gather and interpret information/data about their users.

When it comes toexperiential product like travel, customer relationship management is even more critical. Consumers have higher expectations– they want to know that companies care and that they matter to the company. A good CRM, Rewards or Loyalty program reinforces this.

Travel companies are starting to collect data and information about travellers, from who they are to how they useproducts/services. Travel companies armed with these information are using them to betterengage customers,creating a preferred way to communicate and also anticipating behaviour to better meet consumer needs.Metrics that define travel “loyalty” such as customer lifetime value, frequency of purchase, frequency of communicationand the list goes on will be created. CRM will get back into focus.

#ENDS#

For further information please contact:
Chloe Lim
aoom – art of online marketing – consultancy
Tel: 1300 916 154
Email: chloe.lim@aoom.com.au

About aoom consultancy
aoom – art of online marketing – consultancy is a specialised online marketing consultancy dedicated to help businesses establish and optimise their online presence through creative online marketing strategies and tactics.

aoom is a full service online marketing consultancy offering expertise from high level marketing strategy through to hands-on implementation across a range of online marketing services including affiliate marketing, CRM, search engine marketing, social media marketing to website usability. aoom consultancy balances the art of marketing with the science of online to drive the best online results for businesses.