Experience based travel is increasingly becoming a mature market, with an estimated $40 billion value in Europe. At first, a travel agent could market basic experiences, whereas today we are experiencing a more complex consumer behavior, where aiming to a more interest-specific target becomes the best strategy to intercept a long tail market. In today’s article we are going to share with you one of the best ways to connect with your customers.
Buyer Personas: a great way to build and sell experiences
One of the most effective ways of connecting with your potential customers, whether they be new or returning customers, is to make use of “buyer personas.” A buyer persona is like a profile of one type of customer, a semi-fictional representation of the ideal customer, and you will more than like require several buyer personas. You can create your own buyer persona for your specific customers based on your data and feedback from customers. A buyer persona allows you to tailor blog content and aim it at the correct target customer. This is particularly beneficial when it comes to experience based travel, especially in a world with lots of competition and a need to stand out from the crowd of travel agents.
Buyer personas are based on things like: biographical information, demographics, shared characteristics, and personal preferences. A buyer persona identifies a specific group of people, potential customers, who like similar types of holiday experiences. Eventually you will create your own buyer persona according to your customer personalities and of course, what you offer. There are some standard buyer personas and these include: the escapist, the adventurer, the dreamer, the planner, and the learner. This list is by no means comprehensive, and serves only as an example. Buyer personas constructed by you, aimed at describing your particular target group will be more effective.
An example for experience based travel: the “Learner” persona
The learner persona refers to a tourist who wants to learn new things while on holiday. This could be how to do something, or of course, gaining information and insights into the places they visit. Learners are interested in history, geography, the arts, and, well everything really. A feature of the learner persona is that they research a lot before their trip, especially online. So, a learners experience based travel holiday begins before they even leave their house. While on holiday they are very interested in discovering new things, and often they follow this up once their holiday is over, and they continue researching once they get home. Being aware of this could allow follow up content targeted at them, to perhaps convince them that there is still lots more to learn, and that they need to go on another holiday with you. For example, maybe they are arts lovers
A second example for experience based travel: the “Adventurer” persona
Another well known buyer persona is “the adventurer.” This persona likes to experience new destinations, off the beaten track. They are thrill seekers who love the outdoors. We recommend considering using personas to target potential customers. And when it comes to adventurers, using video is a fantastic way to showcase your great experience based travel destinations and offers. More than learners, adventurers like to see the amazing views they will eventually be able to experience in person when they go there themselves in real life. Videos are a way of whetting the adventurer’s appetite for exploration, and convincing them to book that experience based trip. You can use your own videos, or videos from previous customers that you have gathered.
Creating your own personas and targeting them, along with using the right content format to attract them is the best two way of marketing and selling experience based travel. We here at Artès have a large selection of tour experiences so through us you will definitely be able to provide your customers with the experience they were looking for.