Streamlining Travel Platform Marketing with AI… and More
In September 2024, booking.com was the most visited travel and tourism website worldwide. That month, Booking’s web page recorded roughly 548 million visits. Tripadvisor.com and americanexpress.com followed in the ranking, with around 138 million and 102 million visits, respectively. – Statista
In the competitive realm of travel marketing, success requires more than a catchy ad or a polished website. Understanding your key customers—who they are, how they prefer to engage, and how to reach them—is essential. This blog takes a look at leveraging audience segmentation, multichannel marketing, and artificial intelligence (AI), to connect with customers and attract new prospects within the travel platform market.
The Travel Platform Industry – Where We’ve Been
The journey of travel platforms has been defined by technological advancements and shifts in consumer behavior. Initially, traditional travel agencies dominated, offering personalized but often time-consuming services. The rise of the internet brought about online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia and Travelocity, enabling consumers to book flights and accommodations independently.
Next, meta-search engines such as Kayak and Skyscanner emerged, allowing travelers to compare prices and options across multiple sources, increasing competition and enhancing consumer choice. Today, AI and data analytics empower platforms to deliver personalized experiences through tailored recommendations and dynamic pricing.
Looking ahead, innovations like augmented reality (AR) for virtual tours, advanced AI for hyper-personalization, and blockchain for secure transactions are beginning to re-shape the industry. Plus, a strong emphasis on health, safety, and sustainability will remain crucial for consumers, mirroring broader technological and social changes. For travel marketers, adapting to this evolution is imperative.
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The Power of Audience Segmentation
Audience segmentation essentially boils down to one thing – Know Who Your Customers Are. By analyzing your current customer base, you can identify specific groups most likely to engage with targeted offers. For example, families might respond better to package deals that include kids’ activities, while solo travelers may seek adventure-focused experiences.
Effective segmentation also allows for precise messaging. By tailoring campaigns to resonate with different groups, travel platforms can enhance customer engagement and create a more streamlined experience. Customers are more likely to engage when they receive relevant content on their preferred channels at the right time. This naturally leads us to the importance of multichannel marketing.
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Understanding Multichannel Marketing
Multichannel marketing engages customers across various platforms – social media, email, websites, mobile apps, traditional media, and more. This approach not only broadens your reach but also allows you to tailor your messaging to fit the preferences of different audiences. For travel platforms, this means being where your customers are, whether they’re scrolling through Instagram for inspiration or checking emails for travel deals.
For visualization, let’s take a look at a high level segmentation of the travel platform audience through the lens of Claritas’ PRIZM® Premier audience segmentation.
This graph looks only at age as a factor, yet already tells a significant story. The data shows that older demographics may not use online travel platforms much. When diving deeper, several segments within the 55+ and 65+ segments, do actively engage with certain sites. For example, Claritas audience segment, “Cruisin to Retirement” (upscale older, suburbanites, mostly without kids) is 60% more likely to have used TripAdvisor and 40% more likely than other segments to have used Orbitz within the past 30 days.
Conversely, the 35-54 age bracket tends to dominate usage across almost all the platforms, likely due (at least in part) to their increased travel frequency. They are also almost 3X more likely to have used Google Flights and 2X more likely to select Hotels.com. This insight underscores the need to analyze more variables—geographic location, income, education and travel habits, for example. This will help you understand the best ways to reach your ideal audiences. Which online sites should you advertise within? Would radio, TV/CTV prove beneficial? What about print advertising? And will social media/influencer marketing be effective?
In actuality, pairing a strong audience segmentation strategy with multichannel marketing is a proven winning strategy. But, as with travel platforms, marketing is continuing to evolve. So … let’s kick it up a notch.
The Role of AI in Travel Marketing
AI has transformed the way businesses operate, and travel marketing is no exception. With capabilities such as data analysis, predictive modeling, and personalized content creation, AI can help travel platforms understand customer behaviors and preferences more deeply. AI algorithms analyze customer data to create personalized experiences. By understanding past and current behaviors and preferences, travel platforms can recommend tailored travel packages or deals that resonate with individual customers. This level of personalization can be deployed across all channels, ensuring consistent messaging that feels relevant and engaging to your customer.
And now Claritas offers the integration of patented and advanced AI technology into our infrastructure and machine learning methodologies, further enhancing the accuracy, speed, and ease-of-use of the Claritas solutions. Some of our core AI-driven solutions include:
Claritas Audience Optimization is a sophisticated approach that leverages advanced AI technologies to enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by up to 15% through dynamic audience targeting throughout your campaign.
Claritas AI Personalization uses unsupervised learning to align different creative and messaging across the consumer journey. This multichannel approach dynamically tailors messaging across every touchpoint – social media, email, display ads, video, and even traditional channels like TV and radio.
Claritas AI Media Optimization goes a step further by optimizing the media mix itself. By analyzing audience response and message performance, we fine-tune your marketing efforts for maximum impact.
Claritas AI-driven Measurement and Attribution optimizes return on ad spend by providing detailed reporting and performance analysis of what’s working, so AI can improve what isn’t across audiences, messages and channels.
With AI fine-tuning every message and channel in real time, travel platforms can drive engagement and boost ROI, revolutionizing the industry landscape.
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Incorporating audience segmentation, multichannel marketing, and AI into your travel platform strategy can dramatically enhance marketing efficiency and customer engagement. By understanding your audience, personalizing experiences, and optimizing efforts across channels, you can create a powerful marketing engine that attracts customers and fosters lasting relationships. With AI fine-tuning audiences, creative and media in real-time, travel platforms can embrace these innovations to thrive in the dynamic world of travel marketing.