Here's the last in my series in online marketing trends and how they relate to adventure/active travel companies. I've talked about email, social media, mobile and content creation. That last area is something I'll be focusing on in the coming weeks, as beginning to learn from Copyblogger, hands down the best content marketing resource around.
Admittedly, I saved my least-understood topic for last. I think of the phrase Big Data, and I envision this tidal wave of numbers barreling toward businesses, flooding and overwhelming them with statistic and information that they can't possibly all use. But it's certainly important to know what this all means. especially in terms of your adventure travel business. Now I'm not saying you'll have to jump in to the deep end of the Big Data swimming pool here. Just start to gain some awareness of its implications.
This report from Amadeus, the travel technology company known for their global distribution system (GDS), speaking specifically about Big Data and the travel industry. Some of the the implications mentioned, as written by Harvard Business School professor Thomas Davenport, include:
- better decision support
- new products and services
- better customer relationships
- cheaper and faster data processing.
Wouldn't all business want that?
The report goes on to say that only a few companies are even attempting to use Big Data. Companies need to arise to the challenges it presents, perhaps by:
- creating an integrated data source
- working in a hybrid technological environment
- overcoming a data skils shortage
- maintaining a competitive advantage.
What this all means for your adventure travel company is this: Experts in big data will soon be developing sources in which these numbers can be used to make smarter decisions about marketing your business. Your marketing staff should have, at the very least, a working familiarity with what these figures mean to make those good choices with your advertising dollars. What is takes is continued education and training to optimize all of the information, or relying on advertising and marketing professionals to help you navigate through it all.
Because more baby boomers and Gen Xers want to stay active as they age, they'll want to go on more vacations that have an active or adventure component to them. This is good news for your business, because more data will indicate this trend. So understand the numbers that Big Data presents can spell out a more focused direction for your advertising...and more revenue generated for your business.