Social Media Targeting for Tour Operators - Digital Visitor at BTTS '16

Social Media Targeting for Tour Operators

British Travel & Tourism Show 2016

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• Connect our clients with their most valuable audiences

• Our core services all centre around acquiring targeted, quality and convertible digital visitors

• Broad experience across many verticals, with particular expertise in travel and tourism

About Digital Visitor

Today’s Outcomes

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Understand how to:

• Target the right audiences for your

brand

• Engage and educate prospects

• Convert these into customers

…using social media

• Recent research – took a step back

• What is the most effective marketing strategy

for tourism?

1. What are the most sensible marketing

strategies to employ?

2. Most impactful but also…

3. Most cost effective

Before We Begin…

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All Leisure Journeys Start with Inspiration.

What Inspires Leisure Travel Decisions?

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Firstly we wanted to understand what inspires leisure

travel decision?

• Today social interactions inspire and influence

travel decisions the most

• The internet is the most influential channel

• Traditional media is dominated by costly TV

advertising

• Digital is the key medium – affordable,

measurable, highly targeted

Secondly, we needed to understand how people

research online:

• Over 80% of people use social networks and

content sharing sites for leisure and travel

inspiration

• Search engines are also a popular method of

research

How Do People Research Online?

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What Advertising is Most Effective?

Finally, we needed to understand what media

would be most effective.

• We have highlighted the 6 areas that social

media operates within

• social content and interactions are a key

driver for people taking actions

• Trusted editorial content is also acted upon

• Emails are effective for driving actions

• Social media ads drive more actions than

radio

Social Content & Interactions

Social Advertising

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The Evolution of Leisure & Travel Marketing

Conclusions - Social Media?

1. Online and WOM – the best way to inspire travel decisions,

presenting a perfect opportunity for social media

2. Over 80% of people use social networks and content sharing

sites for leisure and travel inspiration

3. Social media operates across 6 major areas of action from

advertising

4. More budget friendly than traditional media, publications & TV

5. To this we can add targeting like no other medium

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Draw The Right Crowd.

3 ways of targeting the right

audiences for your brand:

1. Social advertising

2. Influencers

3. Brand partnerships

Audience Targeting

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Social Advertising.

• Presents an almost unbelievable array of

targeting parameters

• Facebook leads the way – others follow

• Continually developing content types that can

be presented to audiences as well as

targeting capabilities

Social Advertising

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• Use your own profiling insights

• Target by age, location, interests, life events,

family and their information

• ‘flex targeting’ enable not only combinations

but exclusions e.g. interested in x or y, not z

• The scope for targeting is truly incredible

Facebook Advertising

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© Digital Visitor Ltd 2015

• Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,

England +60km

• Age: 25 - 45 year olds

• Gender: all

• Detailed targeting:

• Include: (03-05 Years) parents with

preschoolers, (06-08 Years) parents with

early school-age children,

Farm Park

© Digital Visitor Ltd 2015

• Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,

England +60km

• Age: 25 - 45 year olds

• Gender: Female

• Detailed targeting:

• Include: Newly engaged <1 month, Newly

engaged <3 months

• Could refine with interested in ‘National Trust’

Wedding Venue

© Digital Visitor Ltd 2015

• Location: United Kingdom

• Age: 21 - 40 year olds

• Gender: all

• Detailed targeting:

• Include: Currently travelling, frequent

international travelers, returned from trip 2 weeks

ago, all frequent travelers

• Must also match: Environmentally friendly, ethical

living, environmental protection, rural tourism

Ethical Tour Operator

© Digital Visitor Ltd 2015

• Location: Within 70 miles of Head office in NW.

Synergise with prevalent offline in this area

• Age: 60+

• Gender: all

• Detailed targeting: Interests: Holidays in the

UK, SAGA, Hoseasons, Haven Holidays, Warner

Leisure Hotels

Coach Tour Operator in NW

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• A few other points

• Custom audiences – attract your existing

online audiences

• Lookalike audiences

• Target competitor brands

• Retargeting website visitors

• All targeting is objective orientated,

Traditional business KPIS – traffic on your site,

leads generated, conversions etc…

Facebook Targeting

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• Options also regularly evolving

• Promoted posts are the main ad format

• Also have Twitter cards – 9 different types, all

focusing on core digital business KPIs such as

leads, traffic, content views, app installs

• Despite seeming more text orientated,

images still perform best as expected

• Individual targeting not as strong, but using a

lookalike brand delivers best results

Twitter Targeting

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• Owned by Facebook - uses all the same

functionality for ad targeting

• More of a closed network and advertising

only accessible to all within the last 6

months

• Traffic more contained within Instagram

• Engagement strong, but traffic not great

Instagram Targeting

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Influencer PR.

• Influencers – bloggers, instagrammers,

community managers present a very good

opportunity to put your brand in front of the

right audiences

• Working with our network of 8000 influencers

segmented by sector and where possible

readership, continually secure quality brand

coverage

• Steps to securing coverage with influencers

Influencer PR

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1. Identify the right influencers, not necessarily

vertical – more audiences

2. Approach with specific content themes –

creative ideas with ways to portray your

brand

3. Be prepared to have 25% success, therefore

list should be 4x desired amount

4. Close project management

5. Build appropriate link

Influencer PR

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Brand Partnerships.

• Work with complimentary brands to extend

the reach of your digital activities

• We’ve connected many retail brands and

travel companies

Brand Partnerships

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1. Identify brands with similar target audience

2. With complimentary product

3. Should have a large audience

4. Should commit to broadcasting your content

/ brand to their social audiences and if lucky,

their email database

Brand Partnerships

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Converting Targeted Audiences.

• Now you’ve targeted the right audiences

• How do you capture & convert them?

Targeting for Conversion

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• The only audiences you really own are

• Your customers who buy from you

• Your opted-in prospects

• Social audiences belong to the network, not you

• Don’t invest heavily in social audiences growth, let this

happen organically

• Spend budget on growing your email database

• Significantly more valuable for conversion

• Especially for decision making older audiences

Mindset For Conversions From Social

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Immediate Opportunity

Lead Generation

Targeted Prospects

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Immediate, mid & long term opportunity

Email Acquisition

Targeted Prospects

Conversion Paths

• As mentioned, social networks are firmly embedded in

business KPIS and their demands

• All networks developing their lead generation capabilities.

• Drive targeted audiences to specific lead generation posts.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have these

• Encourage an immediate action, sign-up for offer, x% off

purchase, value add opportunity, download application

etc…

• One-off opportunity to convert in a short time

Lead Generation

• Guide targeted audiences to an online application

• On your website, on your Facebook page

• Application encourages prospects to explore your brand,

immerses them in and educates them about your

offering

• They then add their contact information, opt-in to

receive more info from you

Email Acquisition

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• Able to deliver not only short term sales but

medium and longer term value, capturing

customer contact data for your own database

• Can then communicate via email to nurture

this prospect, sending brand communications

• Email isn’t going anywhere – strong and

engaged email database is a strong sales

asset

• Measurable

Email Acquisition

© Digital Visitor Ltd 2015

The Over 50s

• Active advocate of the impact social and our

approach can have on specifically targeting

over 50s

• Huge audiences on social

• Learnt how to optimise the process to

specifically attract this audience

• Further segment, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80 with

different online behaviours and drivers

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The Future.

1) Targeted everything and quality over quantity

2) The future

3) Privacy

Where Is This Going?

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• Quality audiences key for future – why?

• Avoid wasted spend

• Reduce intrusion for non-prospects

• Improve brand reputation

• In line with new laws on privacy - 2018

• Its my belief mass market advertising is only employed when we

don’t have the tools to be specific and targeted, there is a better

way for the brand AND the consumer

Targeted Everything & Quality

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• Brand new tools are entering the market that

allow for even greater audience insight

• What content do your target audiences

engage with, share, comment on

• Who are the greatest influencers?

• This insight can shape whole brand strategies

and ensure all digital communications are

targeted to the audiences you most want and

that most want you!

Deeper Insight

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• Big changes are coming with consumer data and privacy and were

implementing the changes right now for our clients

• Opt-in as standard and the ‘right to be forgotten’ best practice

• Bulk emailing lists, and renting data will become a thing of the past

• Targeting content and your audiences will become standard

Privacy

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Summary.

1) Digital and more so social, now the most effective

advertising medium to promote your business

2) Targeted capabilities are incredible, enabling you to

focus your marketing efforts where they have the

greatest impact

3) By knowing your target audiences, every business

can benefit right now

4) The future is only going to get more targeted with

even greater info and insight becoming available

Key Takeaways

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Anthony Rawlins

anthony@digitalvisitor.com

Thank you for your

kind attention.

If you have any

questions please

don't hesitate to

contact me.