For travel and tourism marketers, an integrated direct marketing strategy is the best way to engage with consumers. Airlines and hotel chains alike have been integrating efforts across online channels including search, e-mail, mobile and social media, with offline channels such as direct mail and in-store signage, in order to get marketing messages out to customers and prospects.
Spyro Kourtis, president and CEO of the Hacker Group, a direct marketing agency, said their goal is to provide easy access to travel information and hit customers across the sales cycle in various channels. He notes that many of his travel clients communicate with customers via e-mail, direct mail and social media. They use data to track which customers respond best to which media.
“They are not going to purchase with one touch,” he says. “You are trying to guide them through a sales funnel… by sending relevant communication and nudging them along across channels without them feeling like they are being pushed.”
Digital is core to travel marketing and is at the center of this cross-channel approach. According to Forrester Research, the travel industry is way ahead of the curve when it comes to spending marketing dollars online. Travel and hospitality marketers spend 29% of their marketing budget on interactive, which includes search, e-mail, display advertising, social and mobile. Retailers spend just 14% of their budgets on online marketing; financial services firms, only 3%.
This year, Forrester expects marketing spending for leisure and unmanaged business travel to total $183 billion, $80 billion online.
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