As vaccines arrive, the world emerges from its collective hibernation. In many regions, pent-up travel demand is just waiting to be released. In other regions, travel demand has already resumed, albeit more local and less global than beforetimes.
A lot is riding on our industry’s restart; we need a strong summer travel season in the Northern Hemisphere to put us on the path to full recovery.
The tactics you implement right now will impact revenues for the rest of the year. Revenue and marketing teams must collaborate closely and make sure that pricing strategy matches marketing messaging. Those airlines that foster close alignment between marketing and revenue will find themselves ideally positioned to outperform competitors.
Of course, we're not out of the woods yet. Uncertainties persist. Impacts remain uneven. Normalcy has returned in some regions and remains stubbornly elusive in others. Navigating our businesses in this environment continues to be a balancing act. With these five tactics, you’ll be prepared to thrive in the year ahead.
Maintain accurate prices across channels
There’s a genuine issue when it comes to maintaining accurate prices across channels. When shopping for airfare, price is always a top consideration. But that's not necessarily because travelers are focused only on price. It's also because the ecosystem around shopping for airfare centers on price.
When a traveler searches for fares on a metasearch engine like Google Flights, three parameters are on display: the price, total travel time, and connections. While travelers can undoubtedly drill down to explore more, the human brain reduces information overload by focusing on limited parameters.
Imagine that your airline is the second result in the search below for a flight between San Francisco and London. Which result will entice a traveler to click first? Even if the top result doesn’t allow checked bags, many will click the lowest fare first. If your lowest compliant price isn’t in the mix, then the traveler may go elsewhere - even if your airline can match that lowest fare.
Alternatively, if your brand is way more expensive than the rest, it affects how they perceive your brand. It tanks their trust. You must maintain price accuracy (and ideally, market competitiveness) at the very top of the funnel so that consumers perceive your brand as trustworthy.
Make maps interactive - and shoppable
With information around the coronavirus changing every day, travelers want to know which routes are open so they can book with confidence. It's sensible to aggregate the latest information in an interactive, shoppable map so that travelers can research and book without leaving your airline’s website.
Shoppable maps are an intuitive and engaging way to research and shop for airfare. The interface helps navigate the pandemic’s shifting travel restrictions and also for finding inspiration and exploring options.
Showcasing your network at a glance makes it easy and fun for travelers to get inspired about a future trip. You can even show them visa restrictions or any variety of parameters that suit your business. As travelers research trip options visually, you can overlay compliant pricing, highlight your best offers, and offer a direct link to purchase.
Offer choices beyond air
In an environment where air travel doesn't always make sense for every trip, offer choices that focus on flexibility. This means putting multi-modal options into the mix. While it can be somewhat uncomfortable to offer non-air options in the trip planner, it’s a customer-centric move that puts travelers first.
Customers will be doing intermodal research on their own. Why not provide that research tool, deepen the relationship and keep them within your ecosystem? Self-service underscores one of the most powerful ways to develop sticky relationships with customers built on trust: show them that you put their interests ahead of profit.
Most customers will appreciate a company that looked out for them and doesn't merely try to sell them something at all costs. Keep the long game in mind. Serve customers where they are (navigating a tricky global pandemic) rather than where you want them to be (flying like its 2019).
Align marketing and revenue
Based on the deep discounts of last spring, airline fares are up 16.3%. These prices are likely to continue rising alongside growing demand, says MIT economist Kristin Forbes:
“When suddenly everyone wants to go out again, and there aren’t as many places to go as there used to be, that will make companies more comfortable raising prices, as there is a huge demand for limited capacity. That could make prices go up faster than expected.”
The last thing you want to do after a year of intense pain is to run unnecessary promotional offers. So optimize accordingly! Align your revenue strategy with marketing messaging to be sure that every single route is priced competitively. If the marketing team isn’t collaborating closely with revenue, they may be launch promotions for specific routes unsupported by demand data.
With the world returning to normal at different speeds, it's also essential to optimize your creative, copy, and offers based on geography. For instance, some areas are already seeing a return to regular travel patterns, with people traveling for events, family gatherings, and corporate conferences.
In these regions, it makes sense to speak directly to these trends with your marketing messaging. But encouraging that type of travel in areas still suffering from pandemic-related restrictions would be a bad look for your brand - and a waste of money.
Trust above all
As travel resumes, the most valuable currency of all will be trust. Refine your airline’s revenue strategies and marketing tactics so that they both provide the level of confidence that travelers seek.
Without that, you’ll find yourself underperforming competitors - and losing market share that will be difficult to regain over time.