Ten Things Travel Marketers Need to Do Now for a Successful Peaks
Autumn is fast upon us, and for senior travel marketers that can only mean one thing.
No, not to dust off your sequins for the new series of Strictly (although, yes, that).
It means that Peaks is looming, and the planning you put off while sipping cocktails on your summer hols can no longer be avoided.
Despite the turbulence of the last few years, the circadian rhythms of the travel calendar are immutable. The first six weeks of the new year remains the period when most, if not all, travel companies can expect to experience - and hopefully convert - most of their annual demand. And it’s when most, if not all, travel marketers can expect to see most of their budget directed, and experience most of the pressure.
That turbulence has flattened the traditional curve a bit, but it’s still there and if you haven’t started cementing your activity for Q1 it’s time to get busy. In our experience, it’s never too early to start planning. But leaving it too late is a certain fail.
You might be tied up with getting your September ‘mini Peaks’ campaign out of the door but here are ten tips to get your marketing plan for ‘Big Peaks’ fit to fire on all cylinders come the turn of the year:
Data Analysis
Take a look at how the year in full has gone and ask yourself these questions: Within your customer database, what are the key performance bright spots, and where are the risks? Are you tracking above or below whatever targets have been set by your stakeholder partners? Can you identify a reliable source of repeat customers likely to rebook, or do you need to commit budget to closing a gap via new customer acquisition? What’s happening in the market and is this aligned to your brand performance and strategy? Formulate your objectives for the turn of the year around the answers to these data points - it will help keep you and your agencies focused.
Agency briefing
If you’re using an agency, now’s the time to brief - early and with clear objectives. The background information from your data analysis helps your agency partners formulate a considered strategy and plan to drive performance. At a media level it also gives time to secure best placements and work on any value added media partnership deals too.
Budget planning
It’s important to assess how your budget is sitting. What’s left to spend - an especially important consideration if your financial year closes during the Peaks period itself. Is what’s left sufficient to hit your targets? Do a quick ‘cost per acquisition’ analysis on your year to date performance, overlaying what you’ve spent with the sales made and then forecast that out for the remainder of the year. Does it align to previous years CPAs and have you got enough budget to drive the forecast? It’s also a good bit of budget hygiene to do some reconciliation to understand if you have any accruals owed or any ‘just in case’ slush fund budget pots unspent. It’s time to pat down the pockets of all your channel heads and see if they really need that few thousand they squirrelled away.
Campaign message
Revisit the activity and performance of previous years, and undertake a competitor set review, to give you some insight and clues for how to position your brand this cycle. What’s your ‘hook to book’, and is it strong enough? Consumers are conditioned to expect deals each January, but consider your customer in particular. Do they want a discount, or is ‘value add’ their vibe? Do they want to save money, or get something for free? More discerning consumers may be swayed by best availability or upgrade offers - and discounting your price can cheapen your brand equity overall. If you build in enough time, you can always message test through digital channels and maybe even do some customer surveys to help refine your offering.
Lead Generation
Having a fresh pool of prospects in which to throw your hook is a great starting point for a Peaks plan. Think about what you can do in the run up to acquire new leads - ideally capturing qualified first party data so you can onboard them now ready to retarget them once your campaign launches.
Early bird offers
Your customer database is never more valuable than now. A well stocked pond of repeat customers and prospects will always yield a full net of bookings. But can you bait your hook with a tempting early bird offer incentive? Securing a sale pre-Peaks - when media is charged at less of a premium, and the competition isn’t as fierce - will be cheaper for you on a CPA level, and will help to ease the burden on your sales channels during Peaks itself.
Brand vs. Sale
You know your customers, and competitors enough to know what will work here. But if you have enough budget, spending wisely to have a good split of brand (or brand response) activity will better support your lower funnel sales driving activity. Even better, consider softening-up your customers with some pure brand creative in the build up to January to remind them why they love you and ensure brand consideration is strong.
Channel support and website development
This is a practical, but incredibly important, part of your planning. If your sales channels sit outside of Marketing, engage them now. Not doing so is like going fishing with your rod and tackle, but no net in which to put your catch once you’ve reeled it in. You need to ensure merchandising and channel performance is integrated into your planning - but also, your sales team will know what gets your phone lines ringing, your agency door swinging, and your online till pinging. They have great ideas and energy, and in my experience it’s always been best to involve them from the outset.
Specifically in relation to online, plan for your web channel, don’t expect to shoehorn offline creative online. Collectively build a strong merchandising plan with the web team, and make sure your channels are aligned on objectives. Be aware of code freeze dates and plan ahead to ensure your website is Peaks ready. And use the next few months to invest in any onsite content to support key products or regions to boost SEO.
Commercial engagement
Alongside your Sales Director, it’s really important that you align your plans now with your brand’s Commercial lead. Be really clear on what products / destinations they want you to ‘win in’, and align those with both current sales trends and any partnership commitments you have. Have you got enough availability for the big trending sellers, or do your product team need to source more? Remember, you can’t sell turkeys at Easter.
Plan B
Finally, a good plan should always have a back-up. If trading starts off sluggishly or there is some other unforeseen or uncontrollable external event (to which the travel industry has historically proven itself to be uniquely vulnerable), what can you pull off the shelf to give sales a boost?
As they say in the Cubs and Brownies, fail to prepare - prepare to fail. Good luck!
