Mobile Marketing Is Changing Travel Industry

Nowadays, businesses are using their desktop sites, mobile sites, and mobile apps to deliver timely and relevant information to consumers. Websites and apps are key resources for people to research travel information and make purchases. What’s more, consumers have been accustomed to great digital experiences and smooth operation. This sets an extremely high standard for travel brands, who are responding by devoting more resources to improve mobile marketing skills and e-commerce capabilities.

As travel and accommodation businesses continue to optimize their digital offerings, they have come to realize that mobile is becoming the next major battleground for gaining revenue and increasing customer engagement. Customers have spent lots of time online to search travel information for their trip, and now more time is devoted to searching via mobile devices. Travel brands expect that mobile revenue will increase steadily over the next three years. Mobile marketing is a core competency because mobile penetrates every aspect of a brand’s digital strategy, from hyper-relevant marketing, multichannel conversions, to customer engagement.

The rise of mobile technologies has fundamentally changed the way people search information and book travel products. Mobile marketing may be the most powerful fuel to drive the travel industry, because it has provided unprecedented convenience for consumers to get access to online booking platforms anytime and anywhere. Mobile sometimes could be found through the entire customer lifecycle, hence many travel brands are currently focusing on building up mobile platforms for profitable results.

Here are some musts for travel mobile marketing in 2017 which may help you facilitate your customer research:

Location-based Services. Location data is one of the essential information for business in the travel industry. Since 56% of smartphone users will do local searches, it’s a must to optimize your business. You need to make sure your business is also exposed on Google, Instagram or Foursquare. Usually, travelers will take advantage of a variety of location-based functions on social media platforms before and during a trip. Local search results have a big effect on a consumer’s decision-making process, such as reading reviews to select a recommended restaurant nearby, or take part in an art show for visual inspiration,

Mobile Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy. Most searches take place on mobile devices and mobile experiences weigh heavily in google searching engine rankings. There are many things that brands can do to improve their mobile SEO, including using responsive web pages, sticking to one concept per page and so on.

Incentive measures for active social media users. With nearly 80% of social media usage time taking place on mobile, brand’s presence on various platforms is indispensable for staying connected with customers. Restaurants, hotels, and tour operators can give discounts if a user leaves a review on Facebook, uploads a brand related photo on Instagram, or retweets a post on Twitter.

Mobile-Friendly Offline Functionality. Providing offline functions on mobile devices has become increasingly important. While traveling in a foreign country, Wi-Fi is not always available and expensive roaming charges leave many mobile devices in an airplane mode. For businesses in the tourism industry, it is urgent to think about how offline functions can solve your customer’s problems.