Something for you about digital sales and marketing

As ToolBox is an official member of ETOA, European Tour Operator Association, we have an access to the discussions made among members. One current issue is about digitaliazation. We have been talking about having wider perspective in eMarketing and eSales. Not only concentrating netsales, or bloggers, or social media. I don’t mean that these previous ones are something which is creating negative results but more it is way too simple of understanding how to reach consumers. It is making this marketing quite “black & white”. The most unacceptable is to explain everything what is happening in tourism business by using one method or marketing tool. Why not making a eMarketing strategy where all “players” are involved?  Dividing resources (financial and human ones) within different marketing activies and creating classic marketing-mix. This has been getting more and more acceptance among travel professionals and taking more into the consideration of consumers point of view. Maybe it is only lack of time, money and people when we are explaining “the success stories” of our accomplishments in marketing activities “how one video changed everything”. Here in ETOA blog there is an other discussion of consumer’s complexity – and I am the one who is the “bad” guy here! 🙂  “Is your digital strategy losing customers?We probably suspected it all along, but consumers are growing increasingly frustrated with the amount of untargeted marketing offers sent by airlines and travel providers. This is the conclusion from a survey carried out by Boxever, a Dublin based predictive marketing and customer intelligence platform for airlines and travel retailers. In a survey of more than 500 travellers, it found that three quarters of travel offers received are considered to be completely irrelevant to their needs and preferences. As a result, travellers aren’t receiving the level of personalised and value-oriented offers they require, which in turn affects how they engage with brands. There is a significant further impact of overwhelming customers with untargeted communications. Among the sample of travellers in the survey, 59% said they would unsubscribe from a company’s content after receiving numerous, irrelevant offers, 50% would be less likely to open that company’s next offer and 40% would be less inclined to buy from that company. If the main focus of your digital strategy is the trend setting, high spending, early-adopting millennial traveller, the survey found that it is this group that is most likely to respond negatively. Millennials are 13% more likely than the general population to unsubscribe from a company’s content and 10% more likely to delete a company’s mobile app after experiencing non-targeted and poorly-personalized engagements. Respondents in the survey agreed on several common marketing pitfalls that negatively affect their engagement with brands, chief among them Offers that don’t correspond with where an individual is and what he or she is doing (62%)Communications that aren’t tailored to an individual’s needs and interests (43%)Interactions that make the recipient feel like the brand doesn’t know him or her (29%) The report provides some useful pointers about how digital marketers can get it right. Outside of prices and discounts, the overall theme is about adding value to something the consumer is already doing or planning to do. An additional element in creating high impact outbound communications is when an offer revisits a trip or event in which the consumer has previously expressed interest. The Boxever report also highlights that the most influential factor in determining where travellers make their reservations is a website’s ease-of-use for searching and booking. In particular, the intuitive capabilities of the brand’s website, and those that can remember the unique preferences of customers, sending targeted offers and resources (based on past website interactions) to make the planning process and actual trip easier, more productive, and enjoyable.”