In a recent article, we outlined the importance of understanding, and benefiting from, sophisticated travel data. Now we look at how data can drive revenue.
NB: This is an analysis by Scott Garner, chief commercial office of ADARA.
We focused especially on the complexity of the data, and the benefit of understanding the “holistic” traveler, hidden within the multiplicity of data layers.
Now we turn to specific examples - how complex data can be used to actually optimize revenue.
ADARA recently partnered with Cendyn/ONE, a cloud-based CRM provider for the hospitality industry, to orchestrate a data-driven digital marketing campaign that secured a 34% increase in hotel bookings for a major five-star resort.
How were the results achieved?
First, extensive customer data sets were analyzed, segmented and combined to create an “ideal” target audience for driving hospitality conversion.
Cendyn/ONE analyzed its CRM data, including demographic, behavioral, and geographic and lifestyle preferences; while ADARA evaluated the loyalty, booking and search data available through its ADARA Magellan travel intelligence platform to determine the most appropriate profiles.
Then, working with the luxury resort client, Cendyn/ONE designed an A/B test campaign that compared premium content targeting (Campaign A) with ADARA’s data-driven audience targeting (Campaign B).
In addition to the higher conversion rate, the data-driven campaign approach (Campaign B) generated 121% more revenue, resulting in a 31% higher return on the client’s ad spend.
The lesson of the exercise quickly became clear:
The combination of first-party CRM data, transactional data and purchasing intent data creates a dramatic increase in online campaign performance.
As a benchmark for future online campaigns, the “fusing” of these data sets to benefit travel marketers holds considerable promise.
In another example, Delta and its agency partner Digitas worked with ADARA and Twitter to utilize data to help deliver special promotional messages to a very specific audience segment, such as recent flight searchers or recent flight bookers, and to continue a conversation with them while on-the-go with a Promoted Tweet.
For users, the end result was highly relevant and useful messages.
As in the case of the luxury travel resort, the potential to increase revenue, and customer contact, begins with understanding the customer through the data he/she provides in the booking path – and using that data to build value by making compelling, real-time offers.
What the Future Holds
In fact, the data value chain can extend in multiple directions during the course of a customer journey:
1. E-commerce benchmarking
By analyzing online purchase patterns, hotels can better understand how their conversion rates compare to others in their competitive set.
This can lead to creating metrics for generating improved conversion, and performance.
2. Missed opportunities
When consumers visit a site and do not make a reservation, they leave behind a trail of information that indicates why they did not complete their reservation, and how they can be converted into future business.
“Decoding” the data can help travel suppliers – hotels, airlines, even OTAs - win more customers, and higher value customers, in the future.
3. Attribution
How does a travel brand understand and measure the success of its online marketing campaigns?
Using advanced analytics, it’s possible to measure how many bookings are completed from what source, in real-time - and tie that to the marketing campaigns that actually deliver the bookings . . . whether the bookings come from a branded website, an OTA, or another third party intermediary, such as a destination.
Summing up
This real-time, minute-by-minute tracking of business, presents new ways to think about OTAs and the future of bookings – and another metric for evaluating sources of business.
In all, the value of travel data has grown exponentially in the past decade, and we believe we are at the beginning of an arc of growth that will only accelerate.
The value derives, ultimately, from the fact that travel data is uniquely predictive, and – when analyzed properly – uniquely actionable.
Not only travel providers, but also other companies wishing to reach travelers, are making great strides in understanding travel data much better -- leveraging it to gain greater insights, and reaping revenue rewards that were previously unattainable.
NB: This is an analysis by Scott Garner, chief commercial office of ADARA. It appears here as part of Tnooz's sponsored content initiative.
NB2: Image by Shutterstock