How to Get in Your Customers’ Pocket

Your customers increasingly browse, shop, and buy their travel via mobile devices. Unfortunately, getting your product in front of customers seems harder than ever. The diversity of choices available means you have to continually find new ways to attract and engage customers. Travel, in particular, faces the additional challenge of representing a “sometimes” purchase for your customers, that is, one that they typically make just a few times a year—if that.

But… it ain’t all bad news. The key word in the paragraph above is “seems.” The diversity of options mobile provides your customers also offers you creative, innovative ways to engage your customers not just once a year, but every day. And that’s the subject of this week’s Travel Tuesday post How to Get in Your Customers’ Pants… Pocket over on Tim Peter Thinks. Check it out if you get the chance.

Interested in more? Register to receive a free copy of my new special report, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World,” produced in conjunction with Vizergy, here. You might also enjoy some of our past coverage of mobile, including:

• Today and Tomorrow: Mobile and the Changing Customer Journey
• What’s the Future of E-commerce? Look to the Past to Find Out
• Why You’re Slowing the Growth of Mobile E-commerce

The Future of Travel Search and Mobile (Travel Tuesday)

I posted my regular Travel Tuesday piece over on Thinks this week, highlighting remarkable comments made by Google’s UK head of travel about the where the growth in search volume is coming from. You can read all about it in this post The Future of Travel Search and Mobile.

Oh, and it’s worth noting that this shift will affect what you must do to reach customers going forward. If you want to learn more about how you can adapt to the changing realities of customer behavior, you can register to receive a free copy of my new special report, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World,” produced in conjunction with Vizergy, here.

Why Mobile Matters for Travel Marketers

Anyone who’s read this blog (or the main blog), knows that I think mobile’s going to be huge. All signs point to that fact.

Not “forecast.” Or “prediction.” Or “guess.”

Fact.

Whether it’s Booking.com tripling its mobile business last year or (according to Business Travel News), Choice getting 10% of its bookings from mobile or La Quinta getting 23% of its traffic from mobile, mobile is beginning to represent some meaningful numbers.

And as the Business Travel News article linked above highlights, the growth these players shared “…does not take into account the growing volume of bookings from third-party mobile sites and apps, available not only from the legacy online travel agencies but the ever-expanding list of startups targeting the hotel sector.”

Guests and passengers and travelers in general use mobile because it helps them accomplish their goals. Both research and my experience suggest that consumers no longer care about “channels” or, for that matter, devices. They’ll use whatever’s handy — desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone — to meet their needs. In fact, Pew notes that a growing number of people use their mobile phone as their primary means of accessing the Internet, bypassing the desktop altogether (while some of Pew’s research in this area refers primarily to teens, A. it’s also true many older demographics use “cell-mostly” internet, and B. Gen Y and Millennial demographic cohorts represent your customers in just a few years).

Why do travelers use mobile so much?

Because it’s always at hand.

Literally.

So, the fact remains, your guests and passengers increasingly rely on mobile to research, shop, browse, and buy travel and related services. The question is: Are you helping them?

Interested in more? Sign up for our free newsletter to get more information on how to build your social, local, mobile marketing strategy. You might also enjoy some of our past coverage of mobile, including:

• Today and Tomorrow: Mobile and the Changing Customer Journey
• What’s the Future of E-commerce? Look to the Past to Find Out
• Why You’re Slowing the Growth of Mobile E-commerce

Booking.com just announced something amazing

So, I don’t normally cover press releases, but this one’s worth mentioning:Priceline subsidiary Booking.com reported late last week that their mobile booking revenue tripled last year. Which would be impressive, until you consider that it tripled to $3 billion from $1 billion in 2011. That’s billion. With a “b.”

Um… wow.

I gave a talk this morning to a group of travel and hospitality companies about how big mobile’s going to be. And I referenced items like the growth of the millennial market, how to handle the iOS/Android debate, and all that jazz. But, by any standard, those are some impressive results. I’m thinking there might be something to this mobile web business after all.

Interested in more? Sign up for our free newsletter and get more information on how to build your social, local, mobile marketing strategy. And, if you’ve got a minute, you might enjoy some past coverage of mobile, including:

• Is Mobile Overtaking Desktop Internet Use?
• Will Cyber Monday Give Way to Mobile Monday? 7 Tips to Consider
• Google Uncovers the Secrets of the Multiscreen World
• Is E-commerce Destined to Win

Tuesday Travel: Weekly Marketing Roundup

Looking to improve your hotel’s marketing going into 2013? Here’s a quick round-up of this week’s best hotel marketing and distribution tips and techniques:

• Tnooz says to forget flights, Google is quietly adding new features to Hotel Finder as rivals look on (and advertise), moving more towards a fully featured OTA solution.
• Of course, you can use Hotel Finder to your company’s advantage. Happily, HotelMarketing.com has a look at how to claim your Google Hotel Finder page.
• While we’re on the topic of Google, Tnooz has a breakdown on who comes out on top for organic and paid search in travel, particularly with generic terms where so many customers start their shopping process.
• Now making sure that you’ve claimed your Google+ Places page (key to showing up in Hotel Finder as noted a moment ago) matters more than you may think. David Meerman Scott highlights how Google Plus emerging as a back door to top search results.
• Of course, getting people to your website only matters if you offer them a solid experience. Hotel News Now takes a look at how website personalization drives demand and loyalty.
• Another factor in consumer’s purchasing decisions? Your online reputation. Chris Anderson at Cornell’s Center for Hospitality research has a new study that may confirm your online reputation directly affects your hotel’s revenue per room

. Well worth the read.

• Increasingly, folks coming to your site will do so on mobile devices. Over on the main blog, I take a look at why “mobile first” matters next year.
• I’m not the only one pushing mobile: TechCrunch suggests Priceline bought Kayak because of its strong mobile growth. Key quote, “…a big part of Kayak’s resurgence has been its focus on mobile. In its Q3 report, Kayak showed that its mobile revenue per thousand queries (RPM) had increased 63 percent compared to the same quarter in 2011.” The same article notes that mobile now accounts for about 18% of Kayak’s search activity.

Don’t forget to check back here regularly for additional hotel marketing tips and techniques. And take a look at my main blog for additional online marketing and e-commerce news and info.

The Rise of Mobile and What You Can Do About It

Travel Industry Wire has a must-read on five online travel trends set to explode. Here’s their take on mobile:

“…mobile services must fulfill a basic need. So apps may not be for everybody but firms should be optimizing for mobile. Before doing so they must carefully consider their target audience.

You can’t really talk about mobile without thinking about social and of course local. If any further proof is needed: in March this year 350 million Facebook users (who are also consumers!) had accessed the social network via a mobile device.

Hotwire President Clem Bason argues that: ‘A number of companies have integrated social media into their mobile offerings, but no travel company has completely nailed it yet.’ ” [Emphasis mine]

Additionally, recent research from the Pew Internet & American Life study suggests that mobile has reached its tipping point while Google provides clear insights into the mutli-screen world. So, if mobile’s so important, why aren’t more travel companies — a sector where mobile’s a no-brainer — nailing it?

The worst part? It’s not actually that hard. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to belittle the work needed. It’s real. But the fundamentals of a mobile strategy remain clear. For instance, check out the following:

• Are you mobile enough?
• Why the mobile web scares Google to death
• Apple vs. Samsung vs… You?
• Are apps necessary to your mobile strategy?

If you’re looking at how mobile can work better for your brand in 2013, give me a call or drop me a linel. I’m happy to help.

IAB Study on Travel and Media

The IAB has an interesting study outlining trends among travelers and their media use. Some of the key findings?

• Travel is their top “big ticket” purchase. 23% of Americans are planning vacation travel in the next six months, making the category the top “big ticket” item they plan to purchase in the period
• Internet use almost equal with TV. On weekdays, internet weekly reach among intended travelers approaches parity with TV (91% internet vs. 95% TV)
• Media use grows when they’re ready to travel. Soon-to-be travelers are more likely to surf the internet (91% vs. 82%), listen to radio (77% vs. 69%), and read magazines (61% vs. 51%) and newspapers (58% vs. 50%) than the general population
• Heavy use of email. They are far more likely to send and read emails than the average American (94% vs. 83%)
• And of mobile phone apps. Their rates of app usage is much greater than the average American The six most popular categories more than those in the general population:
  • Games (70% travel intenders vs. 66% general population)
  • Weather (69% travel intenders vs. 57% general population)
  • Entertainment (60% travel intenders vs. 54% general population)
  • Social Networking (58% travel intenders vs. 52% general population)
  • Radio (45% travel intenders vs. 39% general population)
  • Travel (53% travel intenders vs. 38% general population)

You can retrieve the whole study from the IAB here [PDF link].

Mobile strategy tips from HEDNA

Anyone who’s been around the travel industry for long knows about HEDNA, the organization dedicated to easing distribution for hoteliers and distribution channel operators. I was fortunate enough to keynote HEDNA’s spring meeting in Spain last week and can honestly say I learned at least as much as I shared with the audience. So, today’s recapped 5 amazing mobile strategy tips from HEDNA over on the main blog. Check it out.

And, please remember, I’m available to speak at your next event, too. You can read all about how I can help you have a successful conference here.