Digitally savvy travelers present a unique marketing opportunity. Here are five ideas that can attract and win over social media-savvy travelers.
Facebook Fare Finder
Airlines can create a page on Facebook where users can check fares in cash or redeem miles for travel simply by clicking on a friend’s profile or photograph. This will help users to estimate the total fare required for a get-together without even initiating a search away from the social network.
Passenger Rewards
Social media has empowered individuals around the world to become strong influencers. Thanks to them, negative feedback in social media spreads faster and farther than positive feedback.
In order to promote positive feedback and create brand ambassadors/well-wishers/travelers in the form of individual customers, airlines/travel agencies must introduce rewards in the form of miles, facilities, ancillaries, vouchers, etc. This will help the airline become more popular, bring them closer to their customers, and also enable them to do better customer analytics.
Social Loyalty Program
Airlines, hotels, and other travel partners can launch a social loyalty program. This will enable them to increase their reach and introduce a more effective loyalty program than the existing one.
The program will help the airline and its partners to obtain critical demographic and psychographic information about customers. Showcasing appropriate products based on real-time inputs of members will help them boost membership and loyalty, apart from sales conversion. Additionally, by including the right retail partners, airlines can attract customers to increase or purchase miles.
The new social loyalty program will produce data that will enable an interactive and customer-driven loyalty program.
Airline-based Gaming Apps
The gaming industry is among the highest revenue earners in social media. Social media games like “Candy Crush” and “Farmville” are extremely popular and top earners in their genre.
Similarly, airlines can engage with their customers with the help of social media applications. These apps can put customers in real-life scenarios involving the airline travel experience, strengthening the ‘customer connect’. In addition, apps can also become ancillary channels for revenue by selling virtual seats, miles, fuel, aircraft and much more in the form of games. “Airport City: Free to Fly” on Facebook is a classic example in the travel space.
Sales based on Facebook Likes and Tweets
We live in an age where the customer’s actions are decisions. Airlines and travel organizations can leverage social media with the help of analytics to pitch sales. Analyzing a prospect’s interests, behavior, comments, Facebook likes, and tweets ensures that organizations make the right decisions at the right time. Real-time information and accurate analysis enable the organization to display only relevant information and products to prospects. It will help airlines build brand loyalty, increase sales and brand awareness and find brand ambassadors among satisfied travelers.
The digitally savvy traveler needs a digitally savvy approach on the part of the travel industry. Are the stakeholders ready?
