BULLETINS

Great quality content on travel websites speaks to people: it’s inspiring, it’s relevant and it’s bookable. For the first decade or so, online travel was all about “price, price and price”. Buyers still want a good price, but they’re also looking for inspiration, community and engagement and travel sellers want not only better margins but also a deeper relationship with the customers. Investing in Quality content - means richer content – compelling copy, creative use of video and images, access to customer reviews. To achieve this, travel sellers can focus on three decisive stages.

Discovery – How do you get noticed?

Catch and conversion – How do you entice the customer and turn looking into booking?

Relationships – How can you make sure the sale is the start of a beautiful relationship with the customer – and not just a one-off?

Discovery

There are several ways for customers to find your travel site. Web sites have always been able to improve their ranking on search engines through SEO.

Google’s latest version of its Panda algorithm explicitly seeks to weed out poor content. This is great news for sites that keep their content fresh with regular updates, good writing and with social media integration. But it’s not such great news for static, unconnected, poorly written sites which focus on sales only.

Catch and conversion

The next challenge for the travel seller is getting people to spend some money. Quality visual content is a good way to inspire people about travel possibilities but more than 50% start giving up on the process when they see the price. Here, the search environment plays an important role in helping the customer to find fully-priced travel options. Knowing exactly what’s available and at what price points gives people the confidence to make buying decisions. Precomputed price search environments are ideal for accessing large volumes of search content and delivering the information fast.

Relationships

Once the sale is made, the focus on quality content can provide the basis to build a relationship with the customer that lasts beyond the transaction. Allowing customers to share their travel experience has a double benefit. It can give travellers more confidence at the booking stage if they can read about positive experiences of other customers. Reviews also create a community feel. Even letting people share their travel photos, as US-carrier JetBlue does, goes some way to creating that spirit.

Content and more

As mentioned, content is more than what is on the web site: data from a sale is content and allows travel sellers to personalize their offering to customers. Travel email solutions should make sure the targeted and promoted fares are available for the customer to book when they open the marketing email.

Content makes the difference

It takes the right stuff for online travel sellers to succeed in today’s market. And that right stuff is great quality content. Delivering content that’s engaging, relevant and accurate through the customer journey and beyond will make all the difference.

Courtesy: http://www.tnooz.com/