Vice President of Marketing, Travel Leaders Group CHALLENGE A - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Vice President of Marketing, Travel Leaders Group

CHALLENGE A Rapidly-Changing Travel Market

CHALLENGE Lead Gen Driving Deal Seekers

OPPORTUNITY Selling the Travel Agents (Not Travel)

THE NEW CHALLENGE Evolving to Reach Those Who May Not Consider a Travel Agent

The Travel Leaders Group Customer

Travel Leaders Group 7

Brian Hegarty Vice President of Marketing, Travel Leaders Group

APPROACH • •

The Travel Leaders Group approach 1 2 3 4

Understanding the challenge we are solving 2 1 2 3 4

• Unqualified inquiries through third-party channels resulted in low-quality ity traffic ic and nd leads that frustrated agents • Randomized assignment of leads that did qualify meant a disconnect between the customer’s needs and the agent’s expertise Cust stom omer: r: Kate Agent ent: : Thoma omas Mom of 2, looking to Specializes in European bicycling book a Disney cruise tours and foodie getaways

Not this: But this:

Not this: But this:

To run perpetually and at scale 1 2 3 4

• A marketplace etplace of agents ts who have quali alified fied attrib ibutes utes in defined areas of expertise: • Destinations, • Interests and types of travel • Suppliers • This allows us to present ent search h resul ults ts to prospects with agents who match h the expertise rtise quali lific ficatio ations ns that a customer is looking for • The platform was plan anned, ned, develop eloped ed and maintain intained ed in-hou house se by the TLG marketing and dev teams

Training ng • Training, tip sheets and best practices • Online training sessions on-demand • Workshop sessions at events Adoptio ption • Leveraging the audience of agents who had a desi sire e to drive e new traffic fic and no resources to drive demand • The program feeds itself, su success ess drives es the agents nts to engage ge in improving their profiles

Storytellin g Workshops

• Fost ster ering ng content development skills • Giving ng the agents nts reso sour urces ces – help them do what we can’t: • Discovering their value proposition • Capture and telling their stories • Writing and editing • Proving the case with su successful essful early adopter ters s to encour urage ge growth wth

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Investment doesn’t end at launch 1 2 2 3 4

• Use ser testing sting • Website UX • Mobile focus • Recorded sessions • Data analysi sis • Acquisition channels — SEO/SEM/PPC, 3 rd Party, email, social, etc … • Matching algorithms • Weekl ekly and monthly thly tweaks aks • Iterative development approach • A/B test stin ing: Button placement, multivariate, headline placement • Agen ent t particip cipati ation on optimization

• Cont nten ent t is king ng • Agent profiles with enhanc nced ed conten ent t received 91% more lead ads vs. agents with basic profiles • Technol olog ogy y fac acilit litate ates opportu ortunit ity • Faceted search functionality expanded Google indexed pages from a few w hundred ed to 100K • Value e of orga ganic ic traf affic ic • SEO/SEM /SEM accounts for 25% 25% of site traffic but 70% of leads generated • Spee eed d wins ns • Agents who respond to a lead withi hin n 24 hours have ve a 75% % increased eased chance e of closin ing g the lead

• Agents were nervous to launch a feedback mechanism • Made it optional & provided training on how to turn a negative review into a positive • Less than half the agents have it on their profile • Almost 20,000 reviews published on all profiles • Search results now favor agent with more reviews

• Agents were nervous to launch a feedback mechanism • Made it optional, and provided training on how to turn a negative review into a positive • Less than half the agents have it on their profile • Almost 20,000 reviews published on all profiles • Search results now favor agent with more reviews

What t have we learned? rned? • Focus on agent as product • AGC is the ‘secret sauce’ to success • More unique content = more lines in the water • Higher quality content = better bait • Customers favor expertise over convenience of location What t is new? ? What t is next? t? • Travel Leaders Network impact • Network affect • More Agents = More Unique Content = More Authority = More Leads • Result = 30%+ YOY growth in Q1

Broader (campaigns) and deeper (funnel) 1 2 3 2 4

• Incorporating profiles into specific marketing promotions • Sign off and call-to-action from personal agent

• Moving up the funnel, optimi imizi zing ng dema mand • Very specific, hi high-quality quality cont nten ent t su supporti orting g cus ustom omer er research habits, decision process and buyer journey • Test st pilot a relatively untapped market segment, then n expand pand Test Segment #1 Destination Weddings & Honeymoons

• A new brand • Lifestyle brand — emotional connection of WHY people travel • Perpetual etual demand nd gener erati ation on platform rm • Customer-centric and content-focused • The he importance rtance of the he rese search you u cond nducte cted • Customer journey • Persona targets • Content mapping • Content tent variety ety targete eted to audience ce • Transfo sformatio rmation • People, process, technology, content, data

The Results

• 100,000 00 leads generated • 25% conversion rate from lead to closed won • $5,000 0 average sale • $1 $125 25,00 000,000 0,000 in sales generated from this program

• Busi sines ess s is P s P2P • UCG Perso sonaliz izes es your brand • Authenticity, passion & credibility • Life moves ves fast st • Good to be aware of trends nds — bad to just st be trend ndy • Know your customers & your product • Build foundation on core fundamentals

Roundtable Vice President of Marketing, Travel Leaders Group

Thank You! Brian Hegarty, Travel Leaders Group