Using Facebook
integration for the purpose of driving
website traffic for the travel agents is a very
innovative idea that one can come across. This idea is not restricted
to the travel domain and to the travel agents and travel agencies.
The idea could be very well implemented for other domains as well,
like the e-commerce website. Facebook has always been valued as a
marketing
channel for the travel agent.
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| Facebook Integrated Travel Software |
This
write-up is all about letting the readers know about leveraging the
power of Facebook to increase the travel
agency business
and enhance credibility. Having your organizational present felt
through the Facebook or advertising through Facebook will not be
enough to achieve the level of success you required. This is because
people will need to know that you as a
travel agency provide an excellent service
and is trustworthy at the same time.
The
main reason for putting forward the idea of Facebook integration with
your business website is for the meaningful utilization of your
Facebook page. This technique will be helpful in acquiring new
customers, increasing the revenue and retaining the existing
customers. The last few years, Facebook has experienced a huge
growth, which has changed its image of being a social networking site
to a powerful marketing tool. This marketing platform is very
effective in the areas like direct sales and customer segmentation.
Facebook is being used by around a billion users each day, is capable
of providing huge potential for the travel agents and travel agency
companies in term of providing a platform for marketing their
products and services to the global audience.
One
of the most common methods of making the users visit your new site is
through the process of search engine optimization or SEO. When an
agency that has being conducting offline business upgrades itself to
online, it will not be possible for them to make into the list of the
high search ranking for the next few months. This is because the top
slots of the search ranking are dominated by the large OTAs with big
SEO investment.
One
of the best methods for the offline travel agencies for acquiring new
customers is through the existing ones. This includes the process of
motivating the existing customers who are satisfied with your
service, to share their positive experience with their friends
through the most powerful marketing toll called “Word of Mouth”.
The meeting tool of Word-of-mouth has a new definition at present and
it is through social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Facebook integrated websites have lot many benefits, the foremost
being the procedures used by the travel business for maximizing gains
from the existing customer. One of the ways to do so is by rewarding
these customers for sharing your deals and promoting the deals on
Facebook. Implementing this procedure will eventually bring new
customers.
Majority
of the travel agents possess a business page on Facebook, or in case
you don’t have one you should open it immediately. Along with a
Facebook account, opening a Facebook booking portal that acts as a
mirror portal for Facebook is also necessary. This portal acts as the
mirror portal of the current Facebook, helping in selling flight,
hotel and packages. This also helps in significantly increasing the
look-to-book ration of your travel agency portal.
This
would be the best opportunity when you have a Facebook page with a
decent amount of fan base and most of the fans are your existing
customers. The travel industry is very competitive at present and
customer base is shaky for every company operating in the travel
business. This situation calls for providing your customers with a
strong reason to stay with you. The reason that could help in
retaining your customer may include providing better products,
providing more competitive pricing and providing superior service.
The other way of retaining the customer is rewarding them.
You
can use your Facebook page and business website for publishing deals.
In case your business website is integrated with your Facebook page,
it will enable your customers to share your products and deals with
their friend and in turn you can reward them. You can also
incentivize your current customers by allowing them to publish deals
once or twice a month on their Facebook wall.
The
whole idea of posting deals directly on the customer’s Facebook
wall is the opportunity that you get by enabling the view of your
deals by more number of people when compared to your own Facebook
page. Your deal reaches to the entire friend list of your customer
and in turn reaches out to more number of customers, and your
customers are the brand ambassadors for the reason behind bringing
more customers for your travel agency business.
One
more important point to keep in mind is that the deals that you
publish online should be deep-linked. Deep-links are hyperlinks on
the web that will take the users to the specific page on your website
in opposition to your homepage. By web we mean website, social media
or any other site. The benefit associated with deep linking is that
your customers sharing the deal on Facebook wall with their friends.
Their friends like the deals and clicking on the deals will take them
to the deal page, wherein they can book the deal instead of reaching
your home page and searching for the deal there.
Many
businesses make the mistake of posting their promotional offers on
social media, which directs the user to the home page of the travel
agency rather than directing to the specific page for purchasing the
deal. When a user click on the hyperlinked deal, it means that they
are interested to know about the specific deal and not any other
packages deal or entire product that the business is offering. The
users don’t prefer reaching your home page and searching for the
deal that has caught their attention on the Facebook. This also
provides the opportunity of cross-promotion, when the users enquire
about the interested deal. You can provide them information about
other similar deals and offers that you have in store.
One
concept that could lead to success is letting your customer reach the
page that they are interested in, rather than them landing in another
page and searching for the deal. When a user is unable to find the
deal or promotional offers that they want, they are likely to leave
the page which will lead to high bounce ranking and in-turn affect
your search engine ranking. Facebook integration is a way of
measuring of the success of the deal accurately. You get the
opportunity of knowing the number of times the deal was viewed, liked
and shared along with the persons associated with the action. For
every sale that you make, an additional reward could be given to the
current customer who referred the deal.
You
can choose different types of rewards. The rewards could be in the
form of special pricing, discounts or points. This would be a form of
incentive for the customers who are constantly sharing your deal and
bringing business for you. This is the best way of acquiring news
customers along with keeping your current customers happy, and all
this is possible without spending a penny.
The
next question that must be invading your mind is
“what happens when a visit doesn’t transform into a deal”?
I could relate this to the benefit of integrating with Facebook. When
a user clicks on the promotion and lands on the web page of the deal,
the user details gets captured by the software automatically and is
stored in the system as new customer along with their interest. These
customers get automatically signed in into the system with the help
of the Facebook credentials. They also receive an introductory email,
which welcomes to the website and in some cases there is a
promotional code for making their first purchase from the website.
The promo
code in travel software
is a form of cash discount that tricks the customers to make a
purchase from the website.
One
more advantage of capturing the customer data through Facebook is
about getting a deeper understanding of their preferences and
behavior. This understanding is of great help when it comes to
creation of marketing campaign for a particular target audience,
along with providing a better customer service. Facebook integration
with the business website is beneficial for the users as well, which
comes in the form of saving their precious time spent on filling the
registration form and remembering the login details.
The
benefits reveal the underestimating Facebook would be a big mistake,
which is considered to be the largest peer-peer connection network.
Majority of the people across the world is connected to their friends
and relatives through Facebook. There is no better way to make the
promotional material reach out to your friend and their friend and
their friend than Facebook. This means that through this marketing
strategy the travel agencies could reach out to the people whom they
would have never through of reaching out to across the globe.
The
reason behind Facebook and Twitter becoming so popular for marketing
is the promotion through these channels costing significantly less.
An interested piece of news content posted on the social media has
the capability of going viral within minutes, which is capable of
providing your business with excellent word-of-mouth publicity
without any cost. Along with this tracking the success of ROI of the
marketing campaign becomes much easier and is carried through online
channels like Facebook.
A
Facebook
integrated travel website
can bring about transformational change to your travel agency
business by driving user engagement, providing instant credibility
and providing your website with a true social outlook.
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