Case Study: How we Developed a Digital Marketing Strategy for a large OTA

Marketing Strategy for an Online Travel Agency - Allura Travel Marketing

About the client

Our client is a large OTA serving both the retail and corporate markets in India. Like every other travel company, they had suffered heavily as a result of the pandemic. However, as restrictions on Travel started to be lifted, they saw an opportunity to bounce back. While the recovery in corporate travel was extremely slow, B2C was picking up at a much faster pace, thanks to the pent up demand during the pandemic. Revenge travel was becoming a thing!

When the client approached us, their primary objective was to ramp up their B2C business. For this, they needed to double down on digital marketing to reach their target audience and capture rising demand for both domestic and international leisure travel.

They needed a digital marketing strategy to make that happen. 

However, when we conducted a preliminary investigation of their digital presence, we discovered several critical issues that needed to be addressed to enhance the client’s growth potential and market competitiveness. 

Issues & Challenges

These are some of the biggest issues we discovered during our preliminary digital marketing audit:

Mobile Responsiveness and Limited Packages

The client’s Holidays page was not mobile-friendly, hampering conversions considering most online traffic originates from mobile devices. Additionally, the page had far fewer holiday packages compared to other OTAs, offering visitors limited choice.

Poor SEO Performance

The client struggled with poor SEO performance, as it did not rank on the first 1-2 pages for several high-volume keywords. This led to missed opportunities in organic traffic generation. 

Lack of Dedicated Destination Pages

Their site lacked dedicated pages for popular destinations like Ladakh, Goa, Kerala, etc, making it challenging for users to find relevant travel packages for these high-demand destinations.

Missing Popular Searches Pages

There were no dedicated pages for popular search terms such as ‘Hotels in Goa,’ ‘Domestic flights in India,’ and ‘International flights from India,’ representing a big missed opportunity in terms of driving search traffic for these high volume queries.

Limited Homestay Inventory and Inactive Blog

Client had limited homestay listings and an inactive blog since 2018, missing massive opportunities for driving awareness and traffic, considering there was a rising demand for homestays after the pandemic. 

Low Social Media Engagement

The client struggled with low following and engagement on social media platforms, particularly Instagram. This was potentially because the content was overly promotional, focusing too much on the booking stage of the customer journey and little on inspiration and planning.

Unclear Brand Positioning

The client’s unique selling proposition and brand positioning were unclear on their website and other channels like social media and email, making it challenging to differentiate from competitors in what is already a tough category

Plan of Action we followed

To address these issues and help the client achieve its marketing objectives, we followed a three-phase approach: 

Phase 1: In-depth Marketing Audit

In this phase, we obtained access to all their digital analytics and conducted a much more extensive audit of their current marketing efforts. This included their website, PPC, SEO, social media, content marketing, email marketing and their brand. This helped us review their performance on key success metrics and measure their impact on leads and sales. 

Phase 2: Industry Analysis

With a health check done, the next step was to look at the business environment. We analyzed their industry landscape, including customer research, segmentation, market trends and competition. Using this research, we conducted a SWOT analysis to identify their biggest strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats.

Phase 3: Marketing Strategy

Based on our audit and analysis, we created a customized marketing strategy to bridge the gap between their current state and their desired goals. 

The Marketing Strategy we developed

Brand Positioning

  • We developed a new brand strategy, refining the brand story, positioning and messaging to highlight the client’s strengths across all channels/touchpoints.
  • We created a plan for improving user reviews and ratings for both the website and mobile app.
  • We also worked with the management to build a loyalty/rewards program using their superior wallet capabilities and brand tie-ups.

Website Optimization

  • We created a plan to optimize the site to provide visitors a frictionless search and booking experience on web and mobile that would ultimately help drive more leads and bookings. This included making holiday pages mobile-friendly
  • We created a list of landing pages to drive traffic from popular organic searches categorized by holiday packages, domestic flights, international flights, hotels, homestays etc
  • We also created a plan to add more rich content to their website, especially around holidays and homestays to drive more engagement and dwell time.

Improving search rankings and traffic

  • We created an SEO strategy to improve rankings for popular keywords, especially long-tail keywords that signal buying intent.
  • We developed plan to create a lot of content targeting searches for trending destinations like Kashmir, Ladakh, Andaman, Maldives, Bali, Dubai etc.
  • The SEO strategy also covered improving Local SEO (‘Near Me’ searches). This will be key as people were searching for weekend getaways, hotels and activities near their location

Optimizing PPC efforts

We reviewed and optimized their PPC strategy (Paid Search) to maximize Clickthrough Rate (CTR) + conversions and minimize Cost Per Click (CPL) , Cost Per Lead (CPL) for holiday packages. This was done by:

  • Optimizing ad copies and offers
  • Targeting trending destinations and search queries with the new landing pages (as mentioned under website optimization)
  • Retargeting website visitors, particularly those that abandoned bookings, with relevant display ads on third-party sites as well as on Facebook & Instagram
  • Create an experimental plan for YouTube ads, starting with a low budget.

Optimizing Blog and other Branded Content

As tourism was picking up pace, people were actively searching for information online. This included travel guidelines and news, health and safety, destination guides, budgetary planning, travel tips etc. We believed that the OTA could act as a valuable resource for consumers and increase search engine visibility for the company. Some of the activities covered were:

  • Creating a monthly calendar filled with at least 2-3 quality blog articles per week on trending destinations and search queries
  • Publishing weekly long-form videos (3-5 mins) on the YouTube channel for inspiration & planning, and repurposing those into short-form videos and reels on social accounts

Improving Email Marketing

  • We took their email to a more permission-based system through a built an opt-in email list via their website and blog to generate organic leads that could be nurtured for future bookings
  • We planned automated email sequences with relevant product offers based on subscribers’ interests and behavior as part of the email strategy
  • We also add a weekly newsletter to their email mix with latest trends, health and safety guidelines around COVID, plus travel ideas for inspiration and guidance

Levelling up Social Media

  • We amped up Instagram activity – Focusing on Travel inspiration & FOMO
  • The strategy included posting more reels, carousels, memes and stories relating to trending destinations and popular topics for increased reach, plus special offers to convert inspiration into interest and conversions
  • We optimized the use of hashtags (they were using only 2-3 hashtags per post which was not enough)
  • We also leveraged user-generated content, and running contests and influencer campaigns on IG and YT to amplify reach and engagement.

Result

By following this comprehensive plan, the client was able to improve its digital presence, drive more traffic, and convert visitors into leads and customers, ultimately realizing its goal of increased B2C business.

Schedule a consultation to discover how you can improve marketing results for your travel business.

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chintan

Chintan Goswami

With over 10 years of experience in marketing and a strong passion for travel, Chintan Goswami is the driving force behind Allura Travel Marketing.

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