‘Build mobile strategy around existing customer interactions’, say travel industry leaders
Travel marketers are still failing to deliver search-optimised mobile websites nearly 18 months after ‘mobilegeddon’, when Google released a new, mobile-friendly ranking algorithm which saw major travel brands wiped from the first page of its search results.
Speaking at the Tourism Marketing Rockstar Convention in Sydney, MyTravelResearch.com director, Bronwyn White, told delegates brands are losing business to mobile-savvy competitors, not only during the booking phase but also in resort.
White: “We have two customers now, we have travellers and we have Google”
She said while the average traveller spends 13 hours online planning a trip before they book, they spend more time on their mobiles once they arrive, researching tours, bars and restaurants. Travel brands which fail to optimise for mobile are missing out on this incremental revenue in resort.
She added: “Travel marketers need to plan for a mobile future. More people are searching on mobile devices than desktop, particularly for travel content. We have two customers now, we have travellers and we have Google.”
White said it was only when mobilegeddon began to take effect – during Mumbrella’s Travel Marketing Summit in April 2015 – that some panelists from large travel brands realised they were no longer on the first page of Google.
MyTravelResearch.com co-founder, Carolyn Childs, said rather than flying blind when developing a mobile strategy, travel marketers should look at how their existing customers are interacting with them on mobile and build their strategy around that.
Childs: “Travel marketers should look at how their customers are interacting with them on mobile and build strategy around that”
Childs added: “What are people accessing on mobile and how are they using it? It’s not you [as a marketer] saying it, it’s the customer. Always go back to the evidence.”
