For many families, a vacation is a huge investment. Paying for airfare, hotel rooms, meals and excursions for a family of any size typically costs thousands of dollars - not to mention valuable vacation time. With time, money and memories at stake, no one wants to make a bad choice when it comes to any facet of their trip.
That’s why many travelers rely on reviews from Yelp, TripAdvisor and online travel agencies to help them feel secure in the vacation choices they make. TripAdvisor has further raised the trust game by offering 360-degree tours of hotel rooms, so consumers can really experience their destination before taking out their credit cards.
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How can travel marketers take this content and make it more visible to the customers they really need to reach - those who are close to a decision, but need that last little nudge?
There are ways to leverage reviews, consumer-generated images and other assets across earned, owned and paid media.
Owning the consideration phase of the traveler’s journey
The consideration phase of the traveler’s journey is an area where marketers spend precious little time and money, but it may be one of the most important areas of the customer journey.
While marketers invest the lion’s share of their budgets in awareness-generating display advertising to attract potential vacationers, more effort needs to be invested in the traveler who has chosen a destination, but now needs to choose his or her actual accommodations - at the consideration phase.
Balancing honest and consumer-generated media with aspirational marketing creative can be exactly the combination marketers need to help customers reach their decision.
Ari Lewine - TripleLift
These travelers, like many, have a finite amount of time - maybe two weeks a year - to go on vacation, and only enough budget for one actual trip. They feel pressured to make the best choice given their limited resources, and it’s the marketer’s task to guide them to that choice and ensure they feel confident that they’ve chosen well.
The glossy, Photoshopped images used in print media and on many websites won’t get the job done here. Consumers are smart: They know when the ocean is too blue and the beachgoers are too perfect-looking. This is fine for aspirational marketing.
At the top of the funnel, the beginning of the consumer’s decision to travel, these idealized photos are what might tip the decision in the favor of a particular destination. Travelers decide that they do want to see Paris in spring, or Bermuda’s perfect pink beaches. But, the next step is deciding exactly when to go and where to stay.
For this part of the customer journey, those perfect photos and slick commercials probably won’t persuade customers on their own. Sites like TripAdvisor have given them access to real reviews and real photos, and that’s the level of honesty they seek as they approach the final steps of their decision-making journey.
They want to know what the lobby really looks like, what the view out the window is when you’re facing away from the ocean and how good the complimentary breakfast is. They need to feel like they’re actually there, to get as much detailed information as they can about their destination, before they ever click to book a reservation.
Bringing honesty into the marketing mix
That’s why savvy marketers will invest in 360-degree video ads that surface to users who are at this critical moment in their journey. Formats that feature either user-activated or autoplay video and show honest views of the hotel, the pool, the beach and other property features that can move the needle for those travelers who’ve marked the calendar, but haven’t booked their flights yet.
While video ads can run almost anywhere, native, in-feed ads can be especially persuasive, as they don’t obscure other content, and they are not intrusive as some rich media formats tend to be. Native video ads can also run on travel sites, which adds value by being both well-targeted and contextually relevant.
The consideration phase of the traveler’s journey is an area where marketers spend precious little time and money.
Ari Lewine - TripleLift
By the same token, ads featuring unretouched still images of hotels and resorts will go a long way. Large, in-feed image ads like those you see on Facebook can appear on other sites - and they can be highly engaging.
Carousel and scrolling image ads can also run in-feed on other sites, targeting those in-market users and displaying for them images that showcase actual vacationers on the beach, in restaurants, or shots of freshly made beds in a standard guest room.
For the truly fearless marketer, TripAdvisor offers an API, so reviews can appear within your owned and paid media, reaching those ready-to-book consumers at just the right moment.
This is a level of confidence any effective marketer should have, but not every marketer will be comfortable relinquishing this much control over their message. We get it.
That said, balancing honest and consumer-generated media with aspirational marketing creative can be exactly the combination marketers need to help customers reach their decision - and feel good about it.
So rather than relying on the glossy, perfect images and videos we’ve used in the past, why not test some creative that’s less perfect and more honest? Since we’ve already captured the imagination of our prospective traveler, let’s also try to win their hearts.
About the author...
Ari Lewine is the co-founder and chief strategy officer at
TripleLift.