Guest Post: Boost bookings with automated, personalised travel experiences

Sjuul van der Leeuw, CEO of Deployteq, part of the Inspired Thinking Group, details why you should capitalise on AI, VR, and AR as part of it

Marketing teams in every sector are struggling with the same core content challenge – soaring customer demand for high-volume, high-quality, personalised content, while budgets and resources remain stagnant.

The travel industry is no exception. Customers want a more personalised experience, delivered across all their favourite channels (and there are more popping up by the day), and they need it now. So how can these brands adapt?

The answer lies in marketing automation. Not only will this help travel companies reduce the amount of manual resource they require, but it’s also a great way to introduce other technologies into their marketing.

Capitalise on technology advancements

As mentioned, new channels of communication are revealing themselves all the time, while technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are becoming more prevalent and accessible to the average consumer. Deloitte found that brands are 41% more likely to be considered if they offer an AR experience.

This changes how brands are expected to communicate. A simple email campaign can still be effective, but if you truly want to capture the attention (and imagination) of your audience then you need to make it a multichannel experience. That could be personalised flight recommendations via your app, an interactive guide to the area they’re travelling to, or even a VR tour of their accommodation.

Any marketing automation solution worth its salt will be designed to integrate with these technologies and systems, so that you can seamlessly incorporate them into your marketing mix. From here, you can quickly craft a bespoke customer journey that spans multiple channels and touchpoints, engaging your audience wherever (and however) they’re most likely to interact.

Drive brand loyalty via powerful segmentation

Travel customers now have a plethora of options to choose from, which makes cutting through the noise even more difficult, and important. You want to draw in new customers, encourage repeat bookings from existing, and even create brand advocates that will do some of the heavy lifting for you through word of mouth.

Quality and value are of course key considerations, but personalisation of customer experiences will also drive sales. 81% of consumers prefer companies that offer them a personalised experience, according to CX expert Shep Hyken.

Marketing automation systems will help you segment your audience in order to deliver more relevant communications, plugging directly into your data pool (remember, first-party data is always best) to define groups based on behaviours, interactions, purchases, preferences and more.

Top-of-the-line platforms will allow you to be even more targeted, leveraging dynamic content to craft individual communications for each customer, populated with specific dates, destinations, pricing and loyalty points.

Attitudes to the environment are just one instance where this can be effective. Booking.com’s Sustainable Travel Report 2024 found that 46% of customers are drawn to accommodation that’s labelled as more sustainable, and 75% want to travel more sustainably in the next 12 months. Adjusting to these shifting demands requires brands to make significant cultural and process changes, but marketing automation can also support.

Your data will tell you who amongst your audience are the most environmentally conscious, based on preferences, browsing history, previous trips and other factors. So, instead of sending out blanket communications to your entire customer base, why not target those for whom this is a pressing concern, and give them personalised, sustainable travel suggestions that enhance their booking experience?

Deliver meaningful, rapid customer support

Travel is an industry that can change very quickly based on near-endless variables, a perfect example being the Microsoft outage in July that caused instant, worldwide disruption.

When this happens, travellers require immediate assistance, information and guidance. Not doing so may cause them to turn their back on your brand, but it just isn’t feasible through manual methods.

A marketing automation platform, integrated with third-party travel data systems, will ingest up-to-the-minute information, feed it into pre-prepared templates and workflows, and translate that into real-time updates for your customers. For example, if a flight is delayed, you can reach out with the latest departure time, alternate arrangements and even details around claiming compensation.

At those high-stress moments for your customers, you can limit frustration and even build trust.

Are you automating personalised marketing content?

Content is king right now, and if you’re not leveraging automation then demand will soon outstrip your production capabilities – if it hasn’t already.

You still need the expertise of people to design creative, craft templates and map out more complex workflows, but the right marketing automation platform will enable you to make best use of your data, integrate new technologies into your mix, and start delivering personalised customer experiences at scale that drive brand loyalty, sales and revenue.