A new UK online travel survey: search and the brand fickle customer
January 11, 2008
News of a survey by comScore and Google UK looking at the buying and searching habits of online UK travellers. Of course, relying on Google for data on the importance of search is a bit like asking the Japanese whaling fleet to count the population of minkes (”lots! you wouldn’t believe it!”) but the survey still rewards study by any travel business concerned with persuading online customers to find them, trust them and particularly sign along the dotted line.
There are all sorts of gems in the report, such as the news that before Mr or Mrs UK Online Holidaymaker commits their credit card, they make 12 travel related searches, visit 22 websites and take 29 days to make up their mind. One observation I would draw from that would be the importance of building relationships with your online customers to keep them coming back during those 29 days. Google U.K.’s Robin Frewer talks about travel searchers becoming more brand fickle and the best way to avoid rejection in sales is to make the customer like you.
Of course, you can’t deny the importance of good ranking for general search terms:
The fact that users are using more generic search queries gives ample opportunity for brands to attract new customers - and brands that are not present during these searches are missing out on sales
But as customers whittle away and become more specific in their wishes, it also pays to cover as many long-tail queries as possible. My own experience is that there is no better way of doing this in the travel business than with a relevant and well-written blog in your marketing mix.
[From comScore and Google U.K. Reveal Importance of Search Engines]
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2 Responses to “A new UK online travel survey: search and the brand fickle customer”
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i know i’m on paternity leave for a few weeks, but what’s the new bit in this story?
we wrote about it in December, when Google originally released it.
http://travolution.co.uk/Articles/2007/12/11/11...
travelmole wrote about it today, too!
maybe they didn’t get enough coverage the first time around!
klm, ed, travo
i know i’m on paternity leave for a few weeks, but what’s the new bit in this story?
we wrote about it in December, when Google originally released it.
http://travolution.co.uk/Articles/2007/12/11/1186/Google+study+highlights+travel+buyer+behaviour.html
travelmole wrote about it today, too!
maybe they didn’t get enough coverage the first time around!
klm, ed, travo