How Social Content Influences Travel Decisions

I have discussed in numerous articles the different moods and customers’ propensity to purchase at the various stages of the booking process, within the Social Media Marketing strategy. The first stage of the process deserves special attention: the stage in which the customer feels the need to travel or responds to a stimulus that encourages them to do so. Naturally, we are primarily referring to leisure travel rather than business travel, where the stimuli that prompt a trip and influence the choice of services are entirely different—perhaps more focused on facilities and location than on experiences as such. This stage, which runs from the initial moment when the customer feels motivated or interested in travelling, is perhaps the most important, as it will partly determine the services that make up the final trip. For this to happen, one of two things will generally have occurred:

• The customer has come across something that sparks their interest or motivates them to discover a destination or enjoy an experience.
• We have somehow managed to spark that interest through a stimulus generated via conversation.

In the first case, the customer may have found content about the destination or a hotel on social platforms or tourist information websites. They may research and become captivated by viewing other travellers’ photographs, videos on YouTube, browsing Travel Blogs, or tourism portals. In their search for information, they are likely to reach our online spaces, and we must be ready to:

• Capture their attention and try to spark their interest in discovering our product.
• Start a conversation through which we can better understand their preferences and wishes, and try to meet them.

If we fail to do so, they will move on, and our only remaining opportunity to win the customer during their purchasing process will be at the next stage, where price will be decisive, or through a new stimulus that tips the balance in favour of our product. Of course, there will then be no expectation, so the price will have to be very low to be sufficiently compelling. A corporate blog or participation in Social Networks, Travel Blogs or Traveller Communities is an excellent opportunity to start that conversation. If, on the other hand, we have generated the stimulus ourselves and sparked interest in travelling or enjoying an experience, it is highly likely that nothing will prevent the customer from choosing our hotel for their trip. It is precisely at this stage that the greatest mistakes made by hotels—and even their agencies—are identified in their marketing campaigns. At this stage, the customer is in a mindset that is highly sensitive to information and very receptive, which makes the strategist’s work easier. The following are absurd and completely useless at this stage:

• Messages with an overly corporate focus.
• Using the brand as the value proposition.
• Messages based on price, offers or discounts.
• Campaigns based on facilities rather than guest experiences.
• …

As I say, at this point the customer is eager to receive proposals, ideas, incentives, content and information, presented clearly and concisely. Therefore, for customers at this stage, a good photograph taken by a previous guest at our property may be more effective than a search engine marketing campaign. Price will be a factor to consider at the following stages.