For travel brands, increasing the value of every booking is key for long-term profitability.
Whilst encouraging more customers to book is important, driving up the value of those bookings – whether through upselling, cross-selling, or enticing customers to spend more – can significantly impact a travel brand’s bottom line.
This is where marketing automation plays a pivotal role.
By automating personalised, timely, and data-driven communications, travel brands can engage customers with targeted offers that elevate their overall spend, without the need for extensive manual efforts and follow-ups.
To get you started, here are six of our favourite ways marketing automation can help travel brands increase order value.
AI-driven personalisation
AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning enable travel brands to send hyper-personalised emails that are not only relevant but also designed to increase order value.
By analysing a customer’s historical data, such as their previous buying patterns, preferred destinations, and favourite travel services, AI can predict what high-value offers a customer is most likely to purchase.
For example, if a traveller frequently books 5-star hotels and luxury experiences, AI can automatically trigger email marketing featuring only premium options such as villa rentals, premium suites, or exclusive dining experiences.
The key to this approach is to avoid generic offers, and instead present high-end products tailored to individual preferences, which increases the likelihood of the customer opting for a more expensive option.
By integrating AI into marketing automation, travel brands can elevate personalisation to a new level, showing each customer only the most relevant, and higher-priced options.
Upselling premium trips and services
One of the most direct ways to increase order value is by offering customers premium versions of the trips or services they’ve already shown interest in.
With the use of marketing automation, travel brands can trigger upsell emails immediately after a booking is made. Making the most of the traveller’s engaged state to encourage them to splurge a little more.
For example, if a customer books a standard room at a hotel, an automated email can tempt them into upgrading to a premium suite, or booking in-room services.
Marketing automation also ensures these offers are sent at the most opportune moments, such as shortly after booking when the customer is excited about their trip. This approach helps convert basic bookings into higher-value purchases, without manual intervention from the marketing or sales teams.
Cross-selling add-on services
Beyond upselling to more premium options, travel brands can use marketing automation to cross-sell complementary services that increase overall order value.
For example, after a customer books a flight, automated email marketing can offer additional services such as hotel stays, car rentals, or travel insurance. Similarly, a hotel brand could send automated emails promoting spa treatments, dining experiences, or local tours before a guest’s arrival.
These cross-sell opportunities often involve products or services that the customer hasn’t considered, but that can easily enhance their trip, and increase the total value of their purchase.
And by automating these cross-sell offers alongside utilising dynamic content, travel brands can ensure that every booking is accompanied by targeted suggestions that boost revenue per customer.
Dynamic pricing to add urgency
Dynamic pricing strategies, where prices adjust based on demand, timing, or customer segmentation, can be integrated into email marketing campaigns with the use of marketing automation and dynamic content
Using this strategy, travel brands can send automated emails featuring real-time pricing updates, adding a sense of urgency and encouraging customers to act quickly on higher-priced services or experiences.
For example, an automated email could notify a customer that first-class seats on a flight are filling up and prices are expected to increase soon, creating urgency around purchasing a higher-priced option. Similarly, hotel brands can send emails promoting last-minute suite availability at a discounted rate, incentivising customers to upgrade.
By combining urgency and real-time price fluctuations, travel brands can nudge customers towards higher-value purchases, whether that’s a better seat on a flight, a more luxurious room, or an exclusive experience.
Limited-time upgrade offers
Scarcity is a powerful psychological trigger that can drive customers to act quickly, especially when it comes to premium services.
With this approach in mind, marketing automation can be used to send limited-time upgrade offers to customers who have already booked a basic option, encouraging them to enhance their experience before it’s too late.
For instance, a customer who has booked an economy flight could receive an automated email that offers a business class upgrade at a discounted rate, but only for the next 24 hours.
By adding scarcity to premium offerings, travel brands tap into the fear of missing out (FOMO), which can lead to higher conversion rates on higher-value services. This approach ensures that these time-sensitive offers are delivered at optimal times in the booking journey, maximising the chances that customers will spend more to upgrade their travel experience.
Loyalty program incentivisation
Many travel brands operate loyalty programs, and marketing automation can be used in conjunction with these to drive higher spend by highlighting how close customers are to earning rewards, or encouraging them to spend more for premium benefits.
For example, automated emails can be triggered to inform customers how much more they need to spend to achieve a higher loyalty tier, which often comes with exclusive perks such as free upgrades or priority services.
Similarly, loyalty members could receive automated emails promoting exclusive high-value packages or experiences that help them earn additional points, effectively encouraging them to book a more expensive option than previously considered.
Next steps
Increasing order value requires more than just good timing; it demands a strategic approach that leverages personalisation, pricing tactics, and urgency.
With the help of marketing automation, travel brands can implement a range of tactics which encourage customers to spend more, without the effort of manual follow-ups from sales and marketing teams.
By integrating these strategies into their email marketing campaigns, travel brands not only enhance the customer experience but also drive significant revenue growth, turning each booking into a higher-value transaction.
If this sounds like a strategy you would like to implement, then at Deployteq we can help. Not only do we boast an industry-leading marketing automation solution, but our team are also experts in travel marketing.
Get in touch now to start your journey.
