User-generated content has been an integral part of our decision making journey. Be it fashion brands, salons, restaurants, or travel booking agencies, 79% of people admit that their purchase decisions are highly impacted by user-generated content.
UGC plays an active role in the travel industry especially at times when the customer is searching for a perfect vacation plan and itinerary. In this blog, we have discussed what is the importance of user-generated content for travel industry and how it helps the travel industry to boost sales.
So, let's dive in.
THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF UGC FOR TRAVEL INDUSTRY
Talking specifically about the travel industry, it has bloomed in a tremendous way. But the matter of concern is that it’s challenging for the travel brands to spread their voice in this huge customer segment.
To have an impactful market reach, they need to humanize their brand and display the credibility of their services. To make this happen, travel brands should include UGC in their marketing strategy.
According to research, around 35% of millennials consider UGC before booking a hotel for a stay, and 86% of people get inspired by UGC and become interested in a particular location.
This statement is quite satisfying to understand the need of User-Generated content for travel industry. UGC is the most valuable content online and plays an important role in inspiring customers to plan their journeys and get their bookings confirmed.
Moreover, this UGC imparts the travel brands the marketing strategy that can earn them an enormous amount of sales.
But the question that arises is how to use this UGC to capture the attention of potential customers?
HOW TRAVEL BRANDS ARE LEVERAGING UGC To MOTIVATE PURCHASE DECISION
User-generated content is continuously unfolding the layers of the market and is knocking on the doors of the customer’s travel plans and desires.
Even the biggest of the travel brands are enriching their marketing strategies with this most authentic content to elevate their brand’s image and display the trustworthy experiences of past customers.
Here are some of the ways by which travel brands can use UGC to drive conversions.
1. Display reviews and feedback
Reviews and feedback are the words people say about their experience with the services of a brand or company. It is the same as word-of-mouth recommendations which have the power to shape the purchase decision of the customers.
It is no surprise to know that more than 95% of customers rely on these reviews before they make a booking. So why not display these authentic statements on the website.
Travel brands can embed these reviews on their website using a widget generator tool to showcase the reliability and credibility of their services.
2. Attractive visual hub on social media
Posting pictures of the vacations and the exciting experiences are trending among social media users. These beautiful and tempting images are enough to provoke a sense of desire among the followers.
These picture-perfect stories on social media are a boon for the travel industry. These images have the power to attract customers and capture their attention.
Taking this advantage into consideration, travel brands collect all this compelling user-generated content from the diverse social media platforms using Hashtags and create an exquisite feed called social media wall to display it to the customers.
And the best part is that these brands can aggregate this amazing social media wall on their website using social media aggregator tools, to enhance the authenticity of the website and increase the legitimacy of the marketing campaigns.
3. Captivating magazines ads and emailers
Travel brands can create impressively smashing brochures and emailers with authentic credentials to advertise for their services and travel plans. They can even include attractive offers and discounts that the customers can experience in their booking journey.
It will enhance customer interaction with the travel brand and will help the brand to boost its revenue and accelerate the booking process.
4. Never-ending marketing strategy
Using valuable user-generated content, travel brands can create a recurring marketing campaign that will provide continuous brand exposure and advertising to catch the attention of the customers.
This UGC can help the brands to run the exciting marketing campaign all through the season by creating hashtag campaigns. With this, you can ask your existing customers to post their experiences using specific hashtags and share their fun moments on social media.
These captured images can help brands boost their market presence and escalate their sales.
IMPORTANT WORDS
Brands leverage UGC to influence the purchase decision of the customers but sometimes forget to consider the privacy rights of the content creators. This lets the brands into a troublesome situation to deal with. For legal reasons, brands face penalties and sometimes even worse consequences.
To stay within the legal limits of the marketing ecosystem, it is important for the brands to take permission from the users before reusing their created content for the advertisement purpose.
Many UGC rights management tools can help the brands to acquire user’s consent rightfully and legally, so that travel brands can enjoy the efficacy of user-generated content.
Nicole is a passionate writer who loves to write about trends related to social media marketing, content marketing and digital marketing. She loves helping brands to harness the power of UGC rights management tools in actionable ways to tell more authentic and relevant stories to the world.