Time and time again, we see those that embrace data-driven marketing and analytics leading the way in the travel sector. Yet our latest research shows that although travel marketers are aware of the importance of data in marketing, most have barely scratched the surface of what’s possible.
With this in mind, here are my top tips to help marketers transform data into value:
1. Start with a best practice approach to data management
Data is the key to offering valuable customer insights, but you will only gain great insights if you have the right data infrastructures and processes in place that capture individual interactions as they happen.
The key to success is to implement a environment that delivers immediate business value while being flexible enough to take on new and valuable sources of data as they become available.
2. Connect online and offline channels
Many travel and leisure providers operate an omnichannel model with both online and offline stores, yet they struggle to understand customer behaviour across channels. Given the rise in consumers hopping between channels and devices, improving cross-channel marketing and measuring its effectiveness is harder to achieve.
With the right technology, you can join the dots between online and offline customer journeys to create a single customer view, improving both the customer experience and ROI at the same time.
3. Personalisation that goes beyond “Hello [first name]”
Most travel marketers (98%) personalise email campaigns. But personalising customer communications doesn’t have to stop here – it should be done across all channels and offer individual personalisation at every touch point in the customer’s journey.
Turning a tide on this approach is Jet2. Through advanced data science and machine learning techniques, Jet2 is able to understand what motivates each customer, how to use their previous buying behaviour to predict future preferences, and how to make the most of the best buying windows when they are counting down to, or returning from their trip.
