Collate, compare, convert. Marketers will recognize this as the customer journey for today’s connected users, who have access to a wider range of instant online research tools than ever before. And this is especially true in the travel industry, where online users repeatedly check in with a brand to secure the best deals of the moment, visiting an average of 38 sites before booking a vacation.
A reality of travel marketing today is that consumers are aware that price and availability fluctuate constantly depending on a variety of factors such as season, weather forecasts, events or amount of time remaining before departure. In this context it is crucial for marketers to be able to reach them at pivotal moments along their online journey to secure the conversion before the next-best brand beats them to it.
Tapping into traveler data – a data-driven vs rule-driven approach
The classic rule-driven approach to advertising has its limitations. Firstly, no rule applies to all cases, and secondly, the rule will always be biased depending on who created it. A data-driven approach not only reduces this bias, but it is auto-generative and remains updated.
More sophisticated methods of refining data are now making it possible for marketers to deliver far more personalized, relevant messaging based on various subsets of the data. An amazing opportunity can arise from big data generated by users’ interactions while they search for the perfect vacation – this is a powerful tool that can be leveraged to target the right customer, at the right time, with an offer they simply cannot resist.
Datasets could include: number of visits, volume of pages visited, time since last visit, position within the sales funnel, a new versus existing customer, price range, and seasonality. These datasets can be integrated with travel specific data such as route, destination, duration, type of product, hotel ratings, travel class, type of flights (direct only vs stopover), and the distance from departure date.
