The hidden cost of random acts of marketing

Travel businesses have never had more ways to market themselves; social media, email, ads, blogs, webinars, podcasts, video, events, influencer partnerships - the list goes on. All of which can be significantly fast-tracked with the use of AI.

Yet many businesses and marketers I’ve spoken to lately feel like they’re working harder than ever outputting more activity, but seeing diminishing returns.

The problem is not a lack of marketing activity. The problem is a lack of marketing strategy.

Start by asking the right questions

Anyone who has worked with me knows I ask a lot of questions. When I connect with business leaders and marketing teams to explore their marketing strategy, my questions often surface an uncomfortable realisation - that they simply don’t have one.

• What are your growth goals this year and over the next three years? Loose percentage growth targets without clear target verticals, customer insights or competitor intelligence is a red flag.

• What problem are you trying to solve for your customers? A lack of customer feedback or market intelligence leads to ambiguous marketing messages and tactics that fall short of meeting customers' pain points and buying triggers.

• What role do your existing marketing channels play in the customer acquisition journey? A lack of marketing analytics often leads to poor prioritisation of marketing effort and investment.

The result? Everyone’s busy, there's lots of output to feel good about, but there’s no connection between activity and commercial outcomes.

Reactive marketing distracts from the big picture

Every week, marketing teams and business owners make dozens of tactical decisions. They post on LinkedIn to keep their brand visible. They send an email because a supplier has a promotion. They publish a blog because it's good for SEO.

Individually, these activities may seem worthwhile, and all too often they keep a stakeholder happy because the had an idea and now it’s come to life. But to what end? These 'random acts of marketing' are disconnected activities with no clear pathway to business outcomes. When applied in volume, they prevent lean marketing teams from delivering any pro-active, strategic output - always too busy responding to today’s ideas or problems, leaving no capacity to work on the big picture.

If you lead or work within a small marketing team, I’m confident you will recognise this challenge.

The real cost of random acts of marketing

The real cost isn't the money spent on these activities. It's the cost of the lost opportunity.

• Time spent creating content that doesn't support a campaign objective is a lost opportunity.

• Budget invested in ad channels that don't reach decision-makers is a lost opportunity.

• Resources allocated to activities that generate visibility but never progress prospects towards a sale is a lost opportunity.

• Budget spent on external agencies that don’t understand your business offering, customer objectives, competitor landscape or market is a lost opportunity.

In the travel industry, this challenge is particularly common. Travel marketing teams are often lean and their workload can be highly reactive to business-wide stakeholder needs, unpredictable supplier promotions, seasonality and unforeseen worldwide events. Margins are small, budgets are tights, and when sales aren’t meeting expectations it’s often the marketing budget and resourcing that’s first to get cut.

The result is a constant cycle of reactive output without a clear understanding of what activity is actually driving enquiries, bookings or customer retention.

Strategic marketing works differently.

Instead of starting with channels or content, it starts with asking the right questions.

• What are the business’s growth objectives?

• What products or services provide the best opportunity to drive that growth?

• Which customer segments offer the greatest growth opportunity?

• What barriers are preventing prospects from converting?

When you ask the right questions the right marketing activity and resources quickly fall into place.

Do more of what works and less of what doesn't

The most successful travel businesses aren't necessarily doing more marketing than their competitors. They're ensuring every marketing activity has a purpose, every campaign supports a commercial objective, and every dollar invested contributes to a larger growth outcome.

What I love most about these conversations with business leaders and travel marketers is their reaction when they realise they don’t need to keep doing more. In fact, they can often do less to get better outcomes. That always puts a smile on everyone’s face.

So if you’re looking for a strategic marketing partner to support your travel business and team to achieve better outcomes, we’d love to hear from you. Contact Amplifly today.