At the start of the pandemic, business travel decreased drastically and fewer people than ever were traveling for pleasure. Health-related fears and travel restrictions additionally led to significant decreases in revenue for travel professionals. But now the industry is finally seeing an uptick in business as more people are getting vaccinated and travel restrictions are being lifted.
The public is breathing a sigh of relief, and more people are starting to make summer and fall travel plans. After being quarantined for so long, expectations and goals for their vacations have changed along with their points of view, and travel professionals must adjust their marketing strategies to meet these new needs.
Consumers are also experiencing a lot of confusion about both domestic and international travel rules. As more people are booking trips online and relying on the internet for most of their travel information, personalized segmentation will be key for travel professionals who want to reach potential clients. Automating your marketing strategy is key, and this strategy must be personalized to take into consideration that customers’ values have changed since the onset of the pandemic.
Personalized segmentation
People are willing to spend more money on a trip or experience that is meaningful to them. For this reason, a personalized marketing campaign that targets a specific type of customer will be more effective than a general advertisement that doesn’t make a connection. Email list segmentation is a good place to start. Get hyper-segmented and organize your subscriber lists by purchase history, age, and other preferences so you can offer customers something worthy of their time and money.
Dividing your outreach by channel is a good first step, but to really get specific, you’ll need to get to know who your customers are. Start collecting useful information when customers first subscribe through a survey or quiz. The survey should gather information such as destinations they’d like to go, how they like to travel, and what kinds of activities they enjoy. And don’t be afraid to retarget your advertising based on how users interact with your content. It will be well worth your time to focus on the interests of your audience.
This may sound like an intimidating task, particularly if you’ve just started your online presence. Fortunately, there are many tools available that your employees can use to collaborate together online and automate much of their daily practices. All businesses can greatly benefit from automated services. This way, instead of having an employee waste their time tediously analyzing customer data, simply have the automated software do it for you. Automation in marketing and customer outreach can be a cost-effective and customer-focused addition to your marketing strategies.
Until you are comfortable moving on to more powerful software, there are basic ecommerce programs available online to help you track data and cultivate new business. Today’s marketing automation programs can segment lists for you, analyze your data, and generate leads. While you should continue to do your due diligence, marketing automation can help your travel brand stay relevant and essential to your customers.
