The path to purchase for holiday makers and business travellers is changing rapidly. Companies need to stay ahead of the game by not just being active across multiple digital channels but truly understanding how users are making decisions online and how they can influence the customer journey like never before. This presentation covers: • The evolving path to purchase and how to put the customer first. • Changes to Google search: o The rollout of Google’s RankBrain and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting search. o New Google penalties and what they mean for travel companies. o The renewed emphasis on mobile and user experience in search. • How to leverage content across the paid, owned, earned and shared media spectrum to reach customers at key moments before purchase.

1. In partnership with Travolution
www.travolution.com
Digital Travel Trends 2016 – Don’t Get Left Behind!

2. Agenda
1. The Changing Customer Journey
2. Important Google Updates
3. Reputation & The Power of Reviews
4. Overcoming the Social Firewall
5. Retargeting & Dynamic Content Delivery
6. Questions

3. Customers Make Their Own Path

4. 24
Average journey
length in days
before purchase
1:43
Average research
time in hours
before purchase
17.6
Average site visits
before purchase
Online Travel Buying Has Become
A Full Time Job

5. Resulting In A Complicated And Noisy
Path To Purchase

6. For brands 80% of success is
simply showing up:
•In the right place
•At the right time
•With the right content
•In the right format
Omni-Channel: Every brand
interaction is seamless and
consistent no matter what channel
or device
Leading To Customer
Centric Marketing

7. Moments Of Truth

8. How This Works
Stimulus ZMOT
2MOT
Retargeting
Social activations
Display offer

9. The Secrets To Search

10. The Brains Behind
Search
Google Is Changing…
Mobile Matters Content is
King
Links are a
Silent Killer
Google has made 4 big changes this year

11. What you need to know about RankBrain:
•Simplifies longer search queries to deliver proven results
•RankBrain is learning what’s ‘good’ and what’s ‘bad’ in each industry niche
•Focus on your Travel niche, look to the leaders
•Make great content and focus on context, relationships and entities
•DO THE BASICS WELL and don’t try and game the system
RankBrain: Artificial Intelligence & Search

12. • 60% of searches for destination information come from mobile devices
• 52% of travellers would switch sites if it took too long to load
on their mobile
Mobile Matters
Since 2015 over half of searches came from mobile devices so you have
to provide a good user experience or risk losing significant traffic

13. Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP):
To improve mobile UX Google strongly hinted that
AMP adoption will become important:
• AMP is a new open source HTML protocol
that enables web pages to seamlessly load
faster on mobile devices
• Define specific elements of AMP HTML and
make a second cached AMP version of
each page
For now QUICKER simply is BETTER
AMP The Future Of Mobile!

14. Content Is King
Google values unique, well written and relevant content above all else.
The ‘Panda Algorithm penalises poor website copy.

15. Panda has been slowly rolling out since July 2015. Now, for the first time, it
will be continuous.
1. Evaluate your website copy
2. Build out key people and product pages, in line with marketing
objectives
3. Improve content quality, word count, keyword focus and relevance
where needed
4. RESOLVE ANY DUPLICATE CONTENT ISSUES
Travel Tip: 32% choose to book with a particular travel company due to
detailed information on the website
How To Appease The Panda?

16. Google judges a site’s popularity based on the number and quality of links
to it using the ‘Penguin’ algorithm to penalise those with ‘suspicious’ link
profiles.
•Penguin will be active again rolling out later this year
•As a result any sites with unknown or historical negative links could be
penalised, losing substantial amounts of traffic
Links Are A Silent Killer

17. Google has indicated a new ‘real time’ Penguin update is coming soon so:
1.Check Google’s Search Console for any penalty notices
2.Check a sample of links pointing to your site to see if you are at risk
3.Remove or “disavow” any negative or suspicious links
4.Generate authoritative and editorially granted links to boost trust and
authority in your niche
Travel Tip:
•In March Google punished sites which exchanged reviews for freebies
•In future check any blogger relationships:
• Insist they add a “rel=nofollow” link which doesn’t pass on SEO
authority (PageRank)
• Get bloggers to disclose any relationship or sponsored content
• Before any blogger outreach programme check they haven’t been hit
by any penalties
How To Please The Penguin?

18. Reviews: The Uncontrollable Killer

19. So…
1.Make sure you are prepared for any crises
2.Monitor your online reputation carefully (search and 3rd
party sites)
3.Respond to any negative reviews in a timely and proactive manner
Travel Tip: Use review collection and monitoring services like Get Five Stars
People Trust People
And Then Trust Brands
say review sites
have the most
influence on their
booking decision
59%
of users view online
reviews as strongly
as personal reviews
75%

20. Infiltrating the Path to Purchase

21. Meaning you need to get users to share stories for you.
So encourage sharing and user generated content through:
•Competitions, incentives and rewards that motivate
•That hit a common theme/desire among audiences
•Is playful and easy to participate/gamify
•Easy to collect and curated content around a focal point (hashtag)
Overcoming The Organic Firewall
factored online &
peer opinions into
their buying
decisions
follow travel brands
to learn about
promotions &
announcements
But organic post
reach on
Facebook has
dropped to just 2%
Millennials say User
Generated Content
(USG) is 20% more
influential than any
other type of media
60% 48% 2% 20%

22. By collecting user data and remarketing you can:
Segment users through web interactions
Deliver tailored ads and offers that resonate
Bring users back to your website
Create a custom experience to returning visitors
Be seen at the right times throughout the path to purchase
Learn and refine for later campaigns
Remarketing & Dynamic Content Delivery
PROSPECT YOUR SITE
PROSPECT
IS TRACKED
PROSPECT
LEAVES
YOUR AD ON
OTHER SITES
PROSPECT RETURNS TO YOUR SITE

23. 1. Get to know your customer better
2. Create content that meets customers’
practical and inspirational needs
3. Be mobile, be relevant, be Google friendly
4. Monitor your reputation
5. Mobilise your followers on social
6. Leverage data and remarketing
In Summary
Win the Zero Moment of Truth

24. Kevin Mullaney
Flagship Consulting
020 7680 7119
kevin.mullaney@flagshipconsulting.co.uk
@kevinmullaney @FlagshipCons