Couple talking command to smart speaker. Intelligent assistant in smart home system.
Websites are content powerhouses. They give almost ready-to-book users a great understanding of your brand with pages and pages of quality information.
However, there are ways to highlight your brand personality at a much earlier stage in the vacation planning cycle. Catch them when they’re dreaming of a getaway — or even before they think of it. Attention-grabbing, new media can engage an audience and instantly inspire them to run to their calendars.
Showcase Your Brand Personality With These Innovative Technologies
- Facebook Messenger bots
Oftentimes people identify with specific travel styles. Are they the “outdoorsy adventurer” or “artistic wanderer?” Or maybe they’re like the rest of us who come for the beach and stay for the food. Facebook Messenger bot campaigns do a great job of appealing to all travel personas, letting them carry out a casual conversation that points them in their ideal direction.
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Start your bot campaign with a persona of your own. Call it a “Virtual Concierge” in an in-feed Facebook ad, and invite your audience to message you about your destination or resort. In the chat itself, use your unique brand voice to guide the user through a series of options; they can click to learn about things to do in the area or all-inclusive features like dining, nature, amenities and more.
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After you expand upon their chosen category comes the best part: capturing their email, phone number and other insights in your own marketing database to use as remarketing leads.
– - Voice skills
Take the chatbot a step further and create a voice skill to answer commonly asked questions about your brand. This skill (Amazon Alexa, Google Home, etc.) can be there for your audience at every stage of a vacation, acting as a trip planner at home or a concierge inside their hotel room. You can even weave your tourism partners and local events into the conversation flow.
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Potential visitors can make inquiries like, “Alexa, ask [your destination name] what nearby activities are best for the whole family,” and you can direct them to a local children’s museum or an afternoon kayak tour. Voice skills possess the unique ability to answer your audience’s questions in a way that is completely you. Hearing responses in your own brand personality from familiar voices like Alexa and Google can paint a trustworthy picture of the perfect trip.
– - AR portals
In times like today when people are cooped up in their homes, a portal to somewhere else can be more than tempting. Implemented through Facebook or Instagram, in-feed augmented reality portal posts “transport” users to any location from their phone, giving them a sneak peek of what traveling there could look like.
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Be sure to choose a place that’s unique and central to your brand. A user will spend more time in an AR portal than a typical audience interaction. Make your portal a whole travel experience, displaying little brand-isms throughout as a chance to incorporate your established personality.
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An AR portal is a newer form of technology that’s surprisingly inexpensive. They have a definite cool factor and are easy to create; all you need to get started is a 360 degree image of somewhere you want to feature. While portals are placed through organic or paid social media, you can also display QR codes linking to the portal on any collateral marketing materials. No matter where they are, your audience will want to be in your destination or resort.
Each of these technologies can elevate and complement your website simultaneously. They also can direct a target audience to your website, taking them from the dreaming to the booking. Wow them with the new tech first, then seal the deal. Travelers will flock to your destination or resort in no time.
Catch more of Starmark’s marketing insights in our Five for Five article spotlighting President Jacqui Hartnett.
