Growth Marketing: Tourism industry's great ally

THE PROFILES OF GROWTH MARKETERS SHOULD INCLUDE SUCH QUALITIES AS CREATIVITY, AN ANALYTICAL MIND, THE KNOWLEDGE OF DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES AND SWIFT WORK METHODOLOGY

The growth of the digital world, the amount of data circulating on the network and the change of consumers are some of the factors that have transformed the marketing industry in recent years. That is why businesses need in their team profiles that are able to work on building sustainable, profitable, scalable and swift marketing strategies oriented to business growth.

Focusing on tourism, it seems to be starting on the road to recovery. To capture this opportunity, companies in the industry must adapt by being as flexible and fast as possible, using technology and real-time data to meet customer expectations with memorable experiences. To help with this, new methodologies have been gaining traction within organizations in recent years, such as Growth Hacking or Growth Marketing. Let's analyze their meaning.

Growth Hacking is born from the union of two terms: Growth, which is growth, virality..., and Hacking, from hacking or the ability to program creative solutions to solve problems. Its goal is to grow a business by focusing on the service experience of customers. The discipline seeks, with the minimum possible investment and effort, to quickly increase the volume of users, revenue, or impacts of a company.

Growth Hacking is, therefore, a methodology focused on analytics and experimentation with the aim of creating growth in a given metric. To do this, the principles of Lean Start up are applied to digital marketing. The mindset of experimentation is vital to address problems and opportunities, seeking creativity to adapt to the environment. All this, while taking advantage of the speed of digital media to learn, much faster, based on data.

The profiles in the company focused on Growth Hacking are Growth Hackers who combine marketing skills and technical product development. Under the premise of growth, they make agile decisions, optimize resources and rely on tools designed to grow the company.

AND HOW DID GROWTH MARKETING COME ABOUT?

As Growth Hacking evolved, it became clear that there were other ways to propose growth strategies, also based on experimentation and data, but implemented in all phases of the funnel or sales funnel, calling this new method Growth Marketing or growth marketing.

Therefore, it is said that growth marketing is a discipline that works with a more holistic vision of the company, more 360°, combining strategic brand marketing (positioning and brand differentiation) with tactical performance marketing (content marketing and paid acquisition).

Growth Marketers profiles must possess among their qualities creativity, analytical mindset, knowledge of digital marketing strategies and agile methodologies to develop hypotheses and apply experimentation, retention and scalability.

In addition, it is also important that they know what are the best factors to achieve virality in digital media, master A/B testing, the sales funnel, social networks and advanced use of new technologies or digital tools.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROWTH HACKING AND GROWTH MARKETING

Although the two disciplines share great similarities (seeking revenue growth, data analysis or experimentation) they also possess substantial differences.

While Growth Marketing covers the entire conversion funnel working from a broader perspective based on the company's history and values, Growth Hacking is associated with virality and growing a business by focusing on the customer service experience.

Growth marketing is a discipline that works with a more holistic view of the company, more 360°, combining brand marketing with tactical performance marketing

Another big difference is that Growth Hacking is not related to branding, as it seeks rapid growth, while Growth Marketing does have to do with brand marketing, and although both seek growth, the latter seeks it in a sustainable way.

HOW CAN GROWTH MARKETING HELP THE TOURISM SECTOR?

We are experiencing an opportunity for the Travel sector where those companies that put the customer and people at the center and use technology, data and Growth and sustainability methodologies as the pillars of their business will lead the transformation.

To do this, tourism companies need a greater and faster ability to adapt to the environment - the Internet - and to changes; to work experiments attacking a specific metric, generating micro improvements that can together produce exponential growth, and making the product or service more functional and suitable for the market. Some examples of strategies:

» Recruitment campaigns through big discounts or free units. This attracts many visits and viralization of the campaign, with a lower investment than a large campaign.

» Viral acquisition. This strategy consists of inciting users to share your products or services in exchange for a benefit.

» Giving more than what is expected, if we exceed the customer's expectations we get satisfied customers, who in addition viralize the action in their networks.

» Landing pages with countdown, encouraging the feeling of urgency, offering a special price, with a limited time of purchase and a reduced number of units available.

» DIY (handmade) campaigns convey personalization and connection. For example, a personalized welcome letter. Being a simple resource, it exceeds expectations and improves loyalty.

» Prizes on social networks based on interactions or listening to the opinion of the best users by giving them a prize.

» Fewer options, but much clearer when offering our products or services. Confusing the customer with millions of rates sometimes reduces the chances of a sale.

» Post-sales email asking them if everything has been to their liking, if we have met their expectations, and rewarding them with a discount if they repeat with us.

» Creation of valuable content. In addition to helping viralization and gaining the trust of your potential customers, it is important for organic positioning (SEO).

» Generate autoresponders to key actions such as abandoning the booking process or subscribing to a certain event.

In short, tourism companies, hand in hand with Growth Marketing, must work on analytics, testing, competitor analysis and the study of other success stories that can be replicable in their business, giving a twist to the conventional to make decisions based on data and optimize the metrics set as a goal. All this with the tools and technology at our disposal.

Businesses need teams capable of working on building sustainable, profitable, scalable and agile marketing strategies