These days, travel marketing is not easy.
It doesn’t help that it is even harder just to stay relevant in Singapore.
Smart phone are everywhere in Singapore, in fact it is THE highest globally.
Singaporeans are so digitally savvy and everyone is just well experienced in traveling.
Just look at any Instagram profile, I can bet you that there’s at least 1 travel photo.
So with this situation looking gloomy, how do we do travel marketing?
Let’s take a look the current trends.
Trends of Travel Marketing
When it comes to travel marketing, you cannot have missed out on the Mumbrella Asia Travel Marketing Summit.
Big brands like Changi Airport, Singapore Tourism Board and even Google, are all in attendance.
One of the main things they gathered to talk about for the Travel industry is something that I bet has been bogging your mind.
It’s none other than Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing methods.
“Should I still be using traditional methods for my travel agency?”
“With so much disruption, how do keep my brand relevant?”
I bet the queries go on and on, and that you will have valid concerns for using both.
Whatever it is, I bet you know about the infamous Kodak case study.
So if you want to stay ahead of the disruption, lets look the future of Travel Marketing.
Influencer Marketing is the future
Notice how I talked about looking at any Instagram profile of any Singaporean to understand the frequency of travel.
Coincidence? I think not.
But yet, it makes COMPLETE sense.
In 2017, there were 1.9 million Instagram users in Singapore.
471 × 460
Credit: NapoleonCat.com
Let’s take that into perspective.
That’s one third of Singapore on Instagram and it can only be on the rise.
Why would you want to miss out on that?
Aside from that Influencer Marketing gets you on the right track by creating that quality brand affinity.
Just imagine, a high profile globe trotter influencer/blogger like Rebecca talking about your brand.
Credits: @beccabeczten
What would people think?
“Wa, even this traveler recommend this travel agency sia, can try”
But of course, it’s not just that simple.
Not convinced? Here’s how social media affects businesses.
Let me share with you insider tips on what you MUST avoid.
Hard selling
How many of you like being handed a travel brochure?
Well, basically no one.
Now imagine swiping up to this:
Credit: Template.com
It’ll be just another post that’s swiped away.
Everyone in the travel industry is so accustomed to pushing out their travel packages.
But just try that on Instagram and I can almost assure you that it will just get swiped away.
Audiences on Instagram are just not receptive to images that highly resemble ads.
Now see this:
Credits: @beccabeczten
Wow.
Now you’re reading the caption wondering where the place is and you’ve seen what agency can bring you to such a place.
You now have the brand’s name in your head.
This is a perfect example of how to leverage on influencers/bloggers, by letting them have the freedom to create content and blend it into your campaign’s direction.
You can then include your agency’s handle and funnel your prospects from there.
However, you need to take note of something in this soft sell approach.
Unauthentic Content
Travel packages aren’t like products where it can just be handed out to influencers/bloggers to try and you won’t want to be sponsoring a large number on trips that leads to high cost.
You will then think that creating a magically story for your influencer to post will be great to push out your services.
You are wrong.
Influencers well, have friends. These friends will call out any lie that you got the influencer to post as an attempt to be funny.
This “joke” will lead to a horrible impression of your brand.
So what can you do?
Here’s an example:
Credits: @peachpopss
By asking your influencer/blogger to share a real story and then weaving in about the services you can offer, keeps it 100% real, yet keeping that soft sell approach.
Of course, also preventing funny people’s comments.
Conclusion
Travel Marketing now is in a confusing disruptive stage.
You now have a decision to make about staying true to that film Kodak Camera or that evolving DSLR. Remember, this is exactly why you call those cameras “old-school”.
Yet it is ever so easy for you to attain bad branding with these small mistakes if you just aren’t careful enough.
Well, if you don’t know where to start on influencer marketing, here’s a guide.
If not, Kobe will be able to cover all this for you and bring you out of this confusion period. Read up on our previous case studies.
Don’t get lost in travel disruptive babble.
