The full 'Social Media Targeting for Tour Operators' keynote seminar, first given at the British Travel and Transport Show 2016. Key learner outcomes: - How to target the right audiences for your brand - How to engage and educate new prospects around your brand - How to convert your new prospects into customers Key presentation takeaways: - Social media has grown to become one of the most effective advertising platforms for any business - The targeting capabilities offered by social media mean that you can easily focus your marketing efforts where you know they have the greatest impact - By knowing your target audience, every business - particularly tour operators - can benefit almost immediately - Targeting options are only going to improve as we move forward, with greater information, insight and granularity becoming available. Contact information: info@digitalvisitor.com +44 (0)1179 111 420

1. Social Media
Targeting for
Tour Operators
British Travel & Tourism Show 2016

2. 2
• Connect our clients with their most valuable
audiences
• Our core services all centre around acquiring
targeted, quality and convertible digital
visitors
• Broad experience across many verticals, with
particular expertise in travel and tourism
About Digital Visitor

3. Today’s Outcomes
3
Understand how to:
• Target the right audiences for your
brand
• Engage and educate prospects
• Convert these into customers
…using social media

4. • Recent research – took a step back
• What is the most effective marketing strategy
for tourism?
1. What are the most sensible marketing
strategies to employ?
2. Most impactful but also…
3. Most cost effective
Before We Begin…
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5. 5
All Leisure Journeys Start with Inspiration.

6. What Inspires Leisure Travel Decisions?
6
Firstly we wanted to understand what inspires leisure
travel decision?
• Today social interactions inspire and influence
travel decisions the most
• The internet is the most influential channel
• Traditional media is dominated by costly TV
advertising
• Digital is the key medium – affordable,
measurable, highly targeted

7. Secondly, we needed to understand how people
research online:
• Over 80% of people use social networks and
content sharing sites for leisure and travel
inspiration
• Search engines are also a popular method of
research
How Do People Research Online?
7

8. What Advertising is Most Effective?
Finally, we needed to understand what media
would be most effective.
• We have highlighted the 6 areas that social
media operates within
• social content and interactions are a key
driver for people taking actions
• Trusted editorial content is also acted upon
• Emails are effective for driving actions
• Social media ads drive more actions than
radio
Social Content
& Interactions
Social
Advertising
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9. 9
The Evolution of Leisure & Travel Marketing

10. Conclusions - Social Media?
1. Online and WOM – the best way to inspire travel decisions,
presenting a perfect opportunity for social media
2. Over 80% of people use social networks and content sharing
sites for leisure and travel inspiration
3. Social media operates across 6 major areas of action from
advertising
4. More budget friendly than traditional media, publications & TV
5. To this we can add targeting like no other medium

11. 11
Draw The Right Crowd.

12. 3 ways of targeting the right
audiences for your brand:
1. Social advertising
2. Influencers
3. Brand partnerships
Audience Targeting
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13. 13
Social Advertising.

14. • Presents an almost unbelievable array of
targeting parameters
• Facebook leads the way – others follow
• Continually developing content types that can
be presented to audiences as well as
targeting capabilities
Social Advertising
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15. • Use your own profiling insights
• Target by age, location, interests, life events,
family and their information
• ‘flex targeting’ enable not only combinations
but exclusions e.g. interested in x or y, not z
• The scope for targeting is truly incredible
Facebook Advertising
15

16. © Digital Visitor Ltd 2015
• Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,
England +60km
• Age: 25 - 45 year olds
• Gender: all
• Detailed targeting:
• Include: (03-05 Years) parents with
preschoolers, (06-08 Years) parents with
early school-age children,
Farm Park

17. © Digital Visitor Ltd 2015
• Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,
England +60km
• Age: 25 - 45 year olds
• Gender: Female
• Detailed targeting:
• Include: Newly engaged <1 month, Newly
engaged <3 months
• Could refine with interested in ‘National Trust’
Wedding Venue

18. © Digital Visitor Ltd 2015
• Location: United Kingdom
• Age: 21 - 40 year olds
• Gender: all
• Detailed targeting:
• Include: Currently travelling, frequent
international travelers, returned from trip 2 weeks
ago, all frequent travelers
• Must also match: Environmentally friendly, ethical
living, environmental protection, rural tourism
Ethical Tour Operator

19. © Digital Visitor Ltd 2015
• Location: Within 70 miles of Head office in NW.
Synergise with prevalent offline in this area
• Age: 60+
• Gender: all
• Detailed targeting: Interests: Holidays in the
UK, SAGA, Hoseasons, Haven Holidays, Warner
Leisure Hotels
Coach Tour Operator in NW
19

20. • A few other points
• Custom audiences – attract your existing
online audiences
• Lookalike audiences
• Target competitor brands
• Retargeting website visitors
• All targeting is objective orientated,
Traditional business KPIS – traffic on your site,
leads generated, conversions etc…
Facebook Targeting
20

21. • Options also regularly evolving
• Promoted posts are the main ad format
• Also have Twitter cards – 9 different types, all
focusing on core digital business KPIs such as
leads, traffic, content views, app installs
• Despite seeming more text orientated,
images still perform best as expected
• Individual targeting not as strong, but using a
lookalike brand delivers best results
Twitter Targeting
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22. • Owned by Facebook - uses all the same
functionality for ad targeting
• More of a closed network and advertising
only accessible to all within the last 6
months
• Traffic more contained within Instagram
• Engagement strong, but traffic not great
Instagram Targeting
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23. 23
Influencer PR.

24. • Influencers – bloggers, instagrammers,
community managers present a very good
opportunity to put your brand in front of the
right audiences
• Working with our network of 8000 influencers
segmented by sector and where possible
readership, continually secure quality brand
coverage
• Steps to securing coverage with influencers
Influencer PR
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25. 1. Identify the right influencers, not necessarily
vertical – more audiences
2. Approach with specific content themes –
creative ideas with ways to portray your
brand
3. Be prepared to have 25% success, therefore
list should be 4x desired amount
4. Close project management
5. Build appropriate link
Influencer PR
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26. 26
Brand Partnerships.

27. • Work with complimentary brands to extend
the reach of your digital activities
• We’ve connected many retail brands and
travel companies
Brand Partnerships
27

28. 1. Identify brands with similar target audience
2. With complimentary product
3. Should have a large audience
4. Should commit to broadcasting your content
/ brand to their social audiences and if lucky,
their email database
Brand Partnerships
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29. 29
Converting Targeted
Audiences.

30. • Now you’ve targeted the right audiences
• How do you capture & convert them?
Targeting for Conversion
30

31. • The only audiences you really own are
• Your customers who buy from you
• Your opted-in prospects
• Social audiences belong to the network, not you
• Don’t invest heavily in social audiences growth, let this
happen organically
• Spend budget on growing your email database
• Significantly more valuable for conversion
• Especially for decision making older audiences
Mindset For Conversions From Social
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32. Immediate
Opportunity
Lead
Generation
Targeted
Prospects
32
Immediate, mid
& long term
opportunity
Email
Acquisition
Targeted
Prospects
Conversion Paths

33. • As mentioned, social networks are firmly embedded in
business KPIS and their demands
• All networks developing their lead generation capabilities.
• Drive targeted audiences to specific lead generation posts.
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have these
• Encourage an immediate action, sign-up for offer, x% off
purchase, value add opportunity, download application
etc…
• One-off opportunity to convert in a short time
Lead Generation

34. • Guide targeted audiences to an online application
• On your website, on your Facebook page
• Application encourages prospects to explore your brand,
immerses them in and educates them about your
offering
• They then add their contact information, opt-in to
receive more info from you
Email Acquisition
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35. • Able to deliver not only short term sales but
medium and longer term value, capturing
customer contact data for your own database
• Can then communicate via email to nurture
this prospect, sending brand communications
• Email isn’t going anywhere – strong and
engaged email database is a strong sales
asset
• Measurable
Email Acquisition

36. © Digital Visitor Ltd 2015
The Over 50s
• Active advocate of the impact social and our
approach can have on specifically targeting
over 50s
• Huge audiences on social
• Learnt how to optimise the process to
specifically attract this audience
• Further segment, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80 with
different online behaviours and drivers

37. 37
The Future.

38. 1) Targeted everything and quality over quantity
2) The future
3) Privacy
Where Is This Going?
38

39. • Quality audiences key for future – why?
• Avoid wasted spend
• Reduce intrusion for non-prospects
• Improve brand reputation
• In line with new laws on privacy - 2018
• Its my belief mass market advertising is only employed when we
don’t have the tools to be specific and targeted, there is a better
way for the brand AND the consumer
Targeted Everything & Quality
39

40. • Brand new tools are entering the market that
allow for even greater audience insight
• What content do your target audiences
engage with, share, comment on
• Who are the greatest influencers?
• This insight can shape whole brand strategies
and ensure all digital communications are
targeted to the audiences you most want and
that most want you!
Deeper Insight
40

41. • Big changes are coming with consumer data and privacy and were
implementing the changes right now for our clients
• Opt-in as standard and the ‘right to be forgotten’ best practice
• Bulk emailing lists, and renting data will become a thing of the past
• Targeting content and your audiences will become standard
Privacy
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42. 42
Summary.

43. 1) Digital and more so social, now the most effective
advertising medium to promote your business
2) Targeted capabilities are incredible, enabling you to
focus your marketing efforts where they have the
greatest impact
3) By knowing your target audiences, every business
can benefit right now
4) The future is only going to get more targeted with
even greater info and insight becoming available
Key Takeaways
43

44. Anthony Rawlins
anthony@digitalvisitor.com
Thank you for your
kind attention.
If you have any
questions please
don't hesitate to
contact me.