The first few months of 2018 always see a huge surge in holiday related search engine queries. These continue throughout the first half of the year, reaching a peak in June, July and August for last-minute holiday searches. But how are they searching and what can you do to stand out from the crowds? Here, digital marketing specialists, Clicky, summarise elements of their Travel White Paper, offering top tips on getting the most out of the busiest times:
The short-term solutions are vital at this time of year and paid search ads are key to this. At peak times, it is always worth upping your CPC (Cost-Per-Click) limit or increasing your ad budget to ensure that your PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads get seen.
In the longer term, ensuring that your site is optimised for natural search ahead of seasonal peaks is vital. This gives Google the time to crawl your site and adjust your search rankings accordingly. If you haven’t already done this, now is the time to try and secure those last-minute holiday bookings in the run up to the summer.
According to Google, in July 2017 alone, UK residents spent £4.5 billion on their visits abroad and in 2017, Britons have taken more holidays on average per person than at any time since 2011. In 2018 31% of consumers are looking to spend more on holidays, which means that making sure you are prepared for the demand is vital to the growth of your business.
Currently the top 5 destinations for UK Travellers are Spain, USA, Italy, France and Greece. For those visiting the UK, we seem to draw the most attention from the likes of the USA, Spain, Germany, Italy and France. The number of people booking their holidays online just keeps going up, with a notable increase in 2017 from 76% to 83%. Desktops are still the most common online booking method, but this is declining, and mobile is where there is a vast amount of opportunity. With a 7% increase in mobile bookings from 2016 to 2017, the 18-24 age group saw the largest increase, but this use is growing across all age groups.
According to booking.com, 1 in 2 travellers’ journeys start on a mobile device, so ensuring that your site can be seen, easily navigated and used across all digital platforms is vital. Travel companies that closely measure the impact of mobile and cross-device activities will have greater insights about their consumers and therefore be able to better tailor their marketing strategies.
Content is king. 75% of digital users consume travel content online at the start of their booking journey and in the 45 days before confirming, bookers make 121 visits to travel sites. Social media plays a vital role, initially selling the idea of the destination and then offering more company specific information, hotel details etc. that drive sales. User generated content is also vital with 75% of digital users consuming travel content, spending on average a whopping 2.4 billion minutes per month on travel content collectively.
Online video content is making huge waves, with 1 in 4 travellers being triggered to start thinking about booking a trip after having seen it. Travel advertising also still plays a vital role, with 59% of travel bookers recalling travel ads.
So, where should your focus be?
- Consider all of the ‘touch points’ that a potential customer could have when thinking of booking travel. Is your business present in all of them?
- Make sure that you have a multi-channel marketing strategy that allows you to reach your target audience, wherever they are looking for travel content.
- Remarket… win back customers who viewed your content early in the path to purchase with remarketing campaigns.
- Be ‘User Friendly’ – Optimise your site for different devices. The aim shouldn’t be to get customers to change channels or devices, but to ensure that they can achieve what they need to as early as possible.
Clicky’s expertise in the travel industry is second to none, with an enviable list of national and regional clients including; Elegant Resorts, Darwin Escapes, Sykes Cottages, Toad Hall Cottages, Your Travel and more recently, Carden Park Golf Resort & Spa. To keep up to date with all Clicky’s latest news and personal posts from Clicky CEO, Oli Yeates, visit the #magazine at: www.clicky.co.uk/magazine/.
