While working for a top tour operator, our company tested virtually every online marketing tool and technique. In the end, the electronic customer relationship management strategy we devised was generating up to £26 for every £1 spent.
Knowing your audience and catering to its needs will help you maximise the money you generate from your marketing spend.
Specialise
If you sell most of your services to people in a specific area, or to similar kinds of destination, don’t be afraid to specialise. Most firms have a set of services that looks like a standard bell curve; 60% core service in the middle, and 20% either side that are semi-related.
We’ve found that, if you can identify the 60%, you then know which bit is going to be easiest to market, because that bit is already successful. Take the other bookings by all means, but spend money on the middle bit – once that works efficiently, you can mop up the edges.
Analyse your data
Look at the data you hold about the people you serve. Gather more. Don’t be afraid of asking for more information about your customers – they’ll be flattered you care enough to want to serve them better.
Data gives you insight based on fact, and the results can be surprising. You might discover a previously unknown relationship between where a customer hears about you and how much or how often they spend, or find that dog owners book earlier (and so might not respond to last-minute offers).
Target your marketing
From your data, work out who buys what, when and why. Identify trends (how long between booking and departure if it’s a couple, versus a family) that will help you decide when and how to use your marketing budget. Use the insight to inform messaging.
We used promotional tactics such as ‘second kid goes for a quid’ to target young families, boosting sales while reducing wasted advertising. Data also identifies groups that are not useful to you.
Knowing which 2,000 people of the 10,000 you talk to spend money is critical.
Likewise, knowing which 2,000 order the most brochures but book the fewest holidays could save you thousands in print costs – refer them to your website instead.
Use email
Use email to get your message out. It’s cheap as chips and allows you to tailor what you send.
It’s no use sending a blanket email newsletter (or a printed brochure) full of happy families if the recipient wants romance or a quiet escape.
Email gives you the power to send a different message to each audience.
Direct people to relevant landing pages on your website. Make sure the offer is not only repeated, but that you provide an instant mechanism so they can book, even if it’s as simple as providing a phone number and a reference so whoever gets that call knows which page the caller is looking at.
If you can identify your audiences by segment, and target them only with relevant offers at the right time (one of the best times to cement a relationship is when customers return), then your sales will go up.
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