Having lost institutional knowledge and marketing manpower, do you feel like you’re always playing catch-up in the midst of the new surge in travel demand?

It’s been rough out there – we feel you. Fluctuating demand keeps us guessing if the seasons will keep their shape, what trends will emerge and how to adjust accordingly. You may have had zero control over the external factors that previously impacted on the business of travel but guess what: you’ve reached the other side. You can once again control your response to current stressors.

Get your marketing engine going so that it’s always ready to meet demand, whatever the season.

Get going

Traditionally, the period following the festive season, January to February, has always been a busy time for travel booking.

At Wetu, our platform would annually see a 30% spike in usage over this period, pre-Covid, with folks wanting to escape the cold Northern Hemisphere for warmer climes – will we see a return to the spike in 2023?

More than just hoping for a spike, we want to help you lay the foundations for the slow transition to more predictable business cycles.

What’s the job you want done?

Surely, to be ready for whatever comes, to prepare your marketing engine for an uptick in bookings, whenever it comes. Pushing your marketing budget entirely into seasonal ROI objectives may not be feasible, especially if your cash flow is low. So, you need to be able to do two things:

  1. When you do campaign-based seasonal marketing bursts, it must be cost-effective and manageable with the resources at your disposal.
  2. The rest of the time, you need an ongoing marketing push that keeps your brand presence and messaging consistent regardless of the season.

Either way, with your marketing always switched on, you’ll be ready to catch the low-hanging fruit of opportunity as and when they drop.

What’s ‘Always on’ marketing?

It’s not so much about being physically available as your brand being visible and accessible on an uninterrupted basis. The ‘always on’ approach demonstrates that your brand is prepared and able to address the demand and trends of the moment.

You can focus on travel intent, anticipating client needs and their reasons for travelling. By doing small, targeted A/B tests on destination or product imagery, marketing mailer or social media copy, and calls to action on your ads and marketing assets, you can scale up and push budget only into those efforts that yield positive learnings – it saves you funding entire campaigns on potentially ineffectual ads.

Always-on marketing allows you to gain momentum and awareness in the market year-round, as opposed to a campaign where you operate in cycles – Search Engine Journal

How do you manage to keep your marketing activities going 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year? Being ‘always on’ drips your brand awareness consistently through your marketing channels for recurring impact. It increases opportunities for people to find out about your brand and for it to reach maximum visibility.

This is a job for content – nurturing content that resonates with your target market and provides various touchpoints with your brand along the funnel. And Wetu can be the constant in your ‘always on’ strategy.

Marketing for readiness

Readiness does not happen overnight – we recommend you start sooner rather than later because once January rolls by, you’ll be too busy.

To get your engine purring smoothly, you need to overcome some efficiency challenges, brought on by lack of data, content and infrastructure. Build on what you’ve got:

  • Data – base your efforts on client data gleaned from past purchasing behaviour, client preferences and interests. Look at what’s sold well and why; look at reviews and referrals – clients will recommend you to family and friends based on their experience with your brand.
  • Infrastructure – manage, source and easily push out assets from a centralised platform into your marketing funnel, into emails, landing pages, social media and ads, onto your website and third-party sites, on mobile, and out to trade partners to re-market your products.
  • Content – keep your pipeline stocked with relevant, persuasive content, and keep your team well supplied with knowledge left behind by colleagues who have moved on.

You must be seen to be believed

Being consistent helps, and so does being everywhere. No pressure.

What makes it less daunting is that you have digital content that never sleeps. Managing it is less taxing on manpower and time costs because your content is versatile and easy to repurpose. You can sustain your presence and visibility throughout the year, and use the same persuasive content, so developing trust and confidence in your audience. You also benefit from instant updates wherever the content is accessed.

Best of all, your team needn’t be hands-on every day, all day long.

If you’re an accommodation, restaurant or activity supplier, use your Wetu platform to:

  • Represent your brand accurately – upload your latest product images, update your descriptions and documentation.
  • Enable your trade partners to quickly access and incorporate your assets into their sales in order to help them cope with shorter lead times.

If you’re a tour operator, DMC or travel agent, use your Wetu platform to:

  • Curate your digital content so that it is available everyone on your team.
  • Enable quick access to your collateral to respond to the tidal wave of new bookings and to revive old enquiries.

Free yourself to focus on the business of selling more by injecting digital content into your marketing engine and letting your Wetu tools do the heavy lifting. Switch on and be ready, now and all year round.

Sharing is caring...