Monday, 5 March 2018

The importance of digital marketing in the tourism industry


The importance of digital marketing in the tourism industry

In his article “The importance of digital marketing in the tourism industry”, Gurneet Kaur explains us how, with the launch of new technologies, companies need to adapt and adjust their marketing plans in order to keep up with the competition. Kaur believes that digital marketing should not be seen only as an additional source of revenue, but mostly as a new way to develop and maintain a long-term relationship with the various stakeholders. In fact, these new technologies have created emerging opportunities for companies to be in close contact with customers, therefore to understand better their wants and needs and to be able to respond quicker. As a result, according to Kaur, this is one of the main reasons why digital marketing is more successful than traditional marketing.

In his study, Kaur identified six characteristics of a successful digital marketing campaign. With those characteristics, he explains how it is imperative to have a quality website in order to attract customers and keep them on the website for an extended period of time. Therefore, the navigation needs to be smooth and it is a good idea to open menus, packages and offers in a new page in order to avoid disrupting the current user experience.
A second characteristic is to have a strong social media presence on the major social medias (Facebook; Instagram; Twitter; LinkedIn and Youtube). Kaur explains how this should not only be considered as a way to promote the newest product or service, but also as a way to add value to the audiences’ lives by posting certain types on content that will help improve the engagement rate. Also, it is important that companies do not make the mistake of considering these platforms as one. Each of them is different and needs to be approached by different angles.
Another important characteristic for a successful digital marketing campaign is to have quality content that is engaging and brings value to the customer. In fact, like Kaur quoted, “The 80/20 rule should always be a big part of your social media strategy. It simply comes down to this: use just 20% of your content to promote your brand, and dedicate 80% to content that really interests your audience and engages them in conversations” (Socialmeida.com).

Kaur concludes by emphasising the importance of digital marketing as a tool to track data and reach out to existing and newer audiences. It is therefore important for businesses to keep up to date with the innovation in order to be successful.

We find this article to be of crucial importance, especially considering the fact that digital marketing is a relatively new way of promoting a business’ products and services as well as getting in contact with its customers. Therefore, this article may provide a starting point for a company that wants to take advantage of this huge opportunity in order to increase its market share. Also, it provides the opportunity for senior managers to catch up with the trend and re-think their marketing strategies.

Although this article covers many aspects of digital marketing, we found that an important characteristic is missing. We believe that, in order to have a successful digital marketing campaign, companies need to focus on social media influencers as well. With the grow of social medias such as Youtube and Instagram, we saw the rise of travel influencers that made these social medias their work. Accounts such as Funforluis and Doyoutravel are great ways to increase brand value and popularity, considering that these accounts have more than 3,5 million subscribers combined. Therefore, considering the number of influencers on all social medias, it could be a great added value for companies in the events and tourism industry.

Lucas Daigle & Nicolo Farina

http://granthaalayah.com/Articles/Vol5Iss6/10_IJRG17_A06_387.pdf

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