Travel Marketing Software

Do large travel companies have better, more knowledgable, creative, inspired and capable marketing talent than small firms? Or do they have bigger budgets, more contributors and helpful software?

Many small travel companies manage their marketing themselves creating content with a strategy and using a big portion of their budget for pay per click or video ads. Big companies do the very same thing, but they often can tap into elite-level marketing software to gain a substantial performance boost.

So the real advantage of big companies is data, and the new analytics which small businesses haven’t accessed.

And while software isn’t a magic bullet, it can lift an entire department and orchestrate effective campaigns. The point to make though isn’t about execution automation. A travel marketing software platform such as the one introduced below gives marketers deep insights into optimizing all touchpoints in your travel customer’s journey. The depth of analytics is the key benefit that drives campaign success.

And users are freed from technical coding and guessing which is going out of style. They set it up professionally and you can get right to customer insights. And it’s designed specifically for travel companies and the unique engagement and sales events in this industry.

The Cost is Worth It

Travel marketing software comes at a cost. However, 2024/2025 economic growth means this is the right time to commit to adopting it. What it can do for your challenged, stressed, underinformed small business marketer working in the dark is noteworthy. It’s the horse before the cart and can help you compete at a higher level and get your unique brand and offer to the right audience which means you won’t have to compete anymore!

And for marketing managers who struggle to prove their merit to capture more funding, a professional-level platform can help you persuasively showcase your successful marketing initiatives. In fact, it’s likely to take you to heights you can’t reach any other way.

Great software can eliminate low-value work while supercharging high-value work. Let’s look at the full value so you can make a decision.

Full Funnel with Deep Analytics

Some travel management software and tour management software on the market assists with marketing. However, travel companies need more robust solutions that power up the full lead channel from beginning to post-sales to extend customer loyalty.

Some may have AI benefits too with predictive and prescriptive analytics and guidance on customer touchpoints along with industry benchmarks. It can help you find your KPIs. But the key benefit is a massive improvement in insight and campaign synchronization — easing the stress of managing complex campaigns in different media.

Not Marketing in the Dark

If you run a small travel company, you know how difficult it is to draw insights from the basic free analytics tools you might currently use such as Google Analytics or Hubspot. They falter at identifying the best lead sources, insights on engagement, intent and interest, and helping to convert visitors from diverse channels and sources. Better analytics tools not only bring great insights into your lead-building process, they make digital marketing more informed and successful.

The biggest stress is not knowing what we’re doing.

With greater command of the full lead funnel and engagement process, travel company managers and investors begin to feel confident that marketing is worth the investment.

Specialized for the Travel Industry

The beauty of SaaS-powered travel marketing software is that it’s specialized for travel businesses and is a foundation for all your travel marketing activities. It streamlines campaigns and provides deep insights into their effectiveness. So adopting a platform puts marketing managers in control of the full marketing funnel and empowering them to plan content, SEO, advertising, social media activities and promotions expertly. Staff and outsourced experts are all on the same page, fully informed about the company’s strategy and tactics.

Without good marketing tools, all marketing initiatives are insecure and likely ineffective. Integration and timing are essential to getting attention and making impact, and that drives action. Even if managers know where their customers are coming from and what content they like, they aren’t sure what’s driving their sales or which promotions create sales revenue. Good analytics is critically important.

Without these insights, it is difficult to commit to search engine optimization, social media, content marketing, advertising and creative upselling efforts. Travel companies need a full-service, full-funnel solution that creates actionable insights, focuses their marketing initiatives and optimizes campaigns.

Solutions such as Sojern and DotDigital, or Adobe Marketing 360 for instance help companies integrate marketing directly into business operations where staff can get closer to prospects and customers.

The question though of whether digital marketing is outsourced in whole or part is moot. The platform’s ability to leverage and inform everything from content strategy to SEO to ppc optimization to promotion design, upselling and customer loyalty is impressive. For everyone in the department, the software brings integration and focus.

Most marketing by small companies is piecemeal and lacks the power to attract, make impact, engage, and create loyalty. Without understanding and controlling customer touchpoints, the customer experience an you’re unable to move them effectively through the funnel.

And since marketing is really about brand building and promotion, a marketing management platform helps to build that powerful, unique and satisfying brand image for the marketplace. Such mastery helps managers build the marketing campaign and assets to a professional level.

Not all marketing work can or should be brought in-house. For instance, outsourcing for graphic design, SEO, Content and advertising campaigns are often better left with experts who contribute their part.

Where expertise needs to be developed and used can be brought in-house. But current inhouse marketing staff, if they exist, don’t have to be experts in all of these areas, because they can’t be experts in all of them, and it would distract them from their key role — which is to orchestrate and optimize the marketing program via a comprehensive travel marketing platform.
Orchestrating, synchronizing and managing all components is important as focus brings results.

The aforementioned travel marketing software platform Sojern conducted a survey of 800 DMOs, to understand how they’re handling digital marketing today.

They discovered that email marketing, social mdia and content management were being managed in-house. It is the upper funnel (generating awareness and demand) that is an obvious priority.

They report that 20-40% of marketing budgets go to creating content, while 60-80% are spent on paid media to promote that content. No mention was made of optimizing content or social media campaigns, but this is where first-party data collection comes in. Without that data, it is impossible to improve content or social campaigns or optimize paid advertising campaigns.

It’s clear that most companies are painfully dependent on digital advertising for lead generation and maintaining brand visibility. And that data is critically important to optimizing visitor and customer experiences. It’s crucial to lead development, upselling and loyalty campaigns.

It goes without saying that collecting data and utilizing it well is vital to marketing and business success. This is where full funnel marketing travel marketing software pays for itself. It informs every aspect of marketing decision-making and resource allocation.

Finding a good travel marketing software platform should be a high priority.

Even if an agency, destination management business, hotel, or tour operator business is doing okay with their current approach, growth, technology change, and more make it wise to upgrade to a dedicated marketing solution.

DMOs and tour operators need help in improving targeting, reach, impact, cost-effectiveness, KPIs, brand focus, and click fraud. The software helps with that optimization. And optimization is the word that needs to be applied to all marketing endeavors.

Travel marketing companies feel social media advertising, SEM/SEO are most important. Native advertising, display and video ads, and in streaming video ads are the formats cited as most important.

Of course, without skilled content creators and content strategy, along with SEOs and active promotion, organic marketing campaigns are likely to be ineffective. It takes great skill and great content to win the ranking wars on Google in the travel sector and engage on social media.

As this graphic reveals, DMO managers are having the most difficulty producing quality content, creating brand engagement, finding clear KPIs, and the limited capacity of in-house teams to create the quality and volume of content necessary.

Finally, travel marketing software is about to be rocked by artificial intelligence. Systems are being developed and improved to help marketers optimize campaign execution with insights into performance data.

They believe data analysis, predictive analysis & forecasting, generative AI content creation, and content personalization will deliver the best AI-powered improvement.

Even without AI enhancements, these integrated marketing systems can provide benefits many different ways.
And it matters not that you lack expertise in using these tools. All that’s necessary is a willingness to try, learn, improve and enjoy digital marketing.

Example: Saas Travel Marketing Software Platform

Travel marketing platforms have tools, insights and reporting to help you showcase the value of marketing. There aren’t many available but one product is worth a look.

Sojern

Sojern an easy-to-use SaaS travel marketing platform built to help clients find, attract, understand, engage and convert travelers at every stage of their planning and booking journey.

They can add value at every customer touchpoint freeing you from manual analysis and actions that may not be accurate. The added insight and objectivity of the Sojern service helps you avoid mistakes and weak marketing campaigns.

It’s not just the AI-powered digital marketing campaign management. It’s that they provide more insight into the traveler buying journey than customers can see on their own. They enrich first-party data, develop profiles and help target your best prospects. It can you build the perfect audience for your travel product, event or service.

Sojern offers a number of services and their travel insights dashboard which provide Real-time Travel Data Insights into to help hotels, attractions and tourism boards understand travel behavior. They collect this data via several major travel partners.

Conclusion About Travel Software

While managers and teams might unintentially hire for redundant manual skills, modern all-in-one travel software platforms can remove the unnecessary, manual skills that actually slow digital marketing departments and limit their potential.

With good tools, your talent can focus on the 20% of your work that brings the very results. And you save on labor costs, human fatigue, and staff churn. The value proposition is clear: give motivated, inspired talent the best tools and you’ll receive the best performance from marketing.

Looking to add to your travel marketing team in 2024? Give me a call at 416 998 2646.