Online Marketing: It's the Principles
by Cindy Green — Partner, Adventurocity Inc.
Marketing online is simple, right? Just put up a Web site with information from your brochures, answer travelers' e-mails, and secure editorial coverage & advertising in key publications.
Well, no, not exactly. Those tasks need to be performed, but very little value is provided to prospective customers when you approach your Web site in this way. Any positive results are either unsteady or insufficient for your travel business.
Traditional marketing principles are equally, if not more, important with Internet marketing. Companies need to consider how they approach travelers online in order to develop the marketing model and organizational structure to drive and support their business efforts.
Successful e-marketing starts from the foundation of a reasoned doctrine and a methodical plan, not simply a list of must-dos or clever tasks. We recommend the following key principles:
- Focus on a Definitive Travel Customer
Develop your travel Web site with your customers in mind.
More choices for destinations and activities are now available to travelers. Discerning consumers have diverse interests, deeper personal needs, and specific travel requirements. If you are not trying to target the mass market, then the contents of your Web site should not be geared to the masses.
So what type of travel experience are your prospective travel customers looking for? What are you offering that meets those interests, needs, and requirements? This should be made clear on your homepage and the rest of the site geared to serving them.
- Offer Real Value
Aesthetic appeal has its merits, but substance is more important to attract and retain prospective, long-term customers.
People use the Web primarily for research — that is, to get hard facts about destinations, products, and services — not to get an impression or image.
To make an impression with your customers, the text of your Web site should be comprehensive, informative, and presented in a clear and logical manner. Be unique. Highlight the attributes, features, or benefits of your travel offerings that set you apart from competitors. Make your case.
- Model a Long-Term Marketing Strategy
Tacking the Internet onto the end of a marketing plan and conducting indiscriminate short-term marketing activities is tantamount to limiting the growth of your travel business. With so many travel and tourism competitors out there, how can you possibly raise and retain market demand and key customer loyalty?
A long-term approach to marketing, as with developing long-term customer relationships, is essential for a sustainable travel business. Build, schedule, and benchmark market development and customer relationship plans, budgets, and processes to create a networked presence, competitive advantage, and meet definitive yet realistic marketing objectives. Short-term marketing tactics and programs are utilized to secure milestones, adjust to market fluctuations, and initiate incremental refinements to your long-term marketing strategy.
Marketing, in the broadest sense, is about determining what people want and offering products and services of value so that they become and remain as your customers. It's through your Web site that your offers are fully showcased, communicated and, more importantly, evaluated by travelers prior to a trip. Since the Internet is a two-way, one-to-one medium, customer impression and response is almost immediate.
That said, each decision concerning large numbers of customers has potentially extensive and exponential returns — or irreversible consequences.
Contact us with your comments on this article or find out how human-centred technology can work for you and your customers.
