5 Marketing Trends For The SaaS Travel Industry In 2024
SaaS has been helping the travel industry thrive over the last few years, and 2024 is set to be no different. As many businesses have hope for this year to be a more productive one for travel, every effort is required from a marketing point of view, including leveraging the expertise of a reputable software development company.
There are some great marketing trends that the SaaS travel industry may find useful to utilize this year. In this article, you’ll learn some of the latest statistics for the travel sector in general and five marketing trends to know about as a business in the software development as a service market.
1. Travel Industry Statistics in 2024
It’s not been a great couple of years for the travel industry and due to COVID-19, the industry worldwide is expected to lose $810.7bn USD as a result of the pandemic.
Whilst it’s a lot of money, the travel industry, just like the hospitality industry, can bounce back. Many of us love to travel and the same goes for workers. A staggering 92% of business travelers find a better quality of life when traveling for work.
Traveling helps to connect businesses and individuals together on a personal level. Calls, emails, and video conferencing can only do so much. In 2024, businesses are looking to do more traveling, which means plenty of opportunities for SaaS companies that provide travel support for clients.
2. Who Are Some Great Providers For The SaaS Travel Industry?
There are some great providers within the SaaS industry that are worth knowing about.
2.1. TravelPerk
For corporate travel, TravelPerk is a great choice. They provide the world’s largest travel inventory, whether you’re after transport or accommodation for your employees.
Its easy-to-use intuitive design is why so many businesses opt to use this platform amongst other competitors. Described by TravelPerk themselves, they claim to be the best tool for corporate travel as an all-in-one solution. They’re a fantastic agency for corporate travel.
2.2. Netradyne
For some businesses, offering travel services means safety and professionalism are key. It’s not just about providing your clients with transport but delivering on safety when they’re in your care. Netradyne is great for offering driver safety monitoring solutions. Having an awereness of how yoour drivers are reacting and behaving on the road, can help keep your customers satisfied.
2.3. GetYourGuide
For those travelers looking to skip the queue or book activities in various locations across the world, GetYourGuide is a must-have in your SaaS tool kit. For most customers when traveling abroad, knowing what to book in order to see the sights or keep entertained can be difficult.
Having a booking engine that showcases all your options available to you, is a useful one and offers free cancellation policies up to 24 hours in advance. It offers plenty of flexibility for anyone looking to book excursions abroad or within their own country.
3. Five Marketing Trends For The SaaS Travel Industry
As a SaaS company, making use of marketing trends is extremely beneficial. Keeping your finger on the pulse of what’s trending can help you maximize your marketing efforts and to make that budget you have available, go further. With that being said, here are five marketing trends for the SaaS travel industry to adopt this year.
3.1. Offer A Personalized & Tailored Experience
It may require more legwork on your employees’ part, however, you can save a lot of resources if you’re doing everything you possibly can to hold onto existing customers. You can save yourself a lot of money and hassle by enhancing your current customer’s experience with your brand.
This is also a great method to help pull in new customers to your platform. When making comparisons with other competitors, they’re more likely to opt for those that provide a more tailored service. It makes them feel valued and not just another transaction.
Customers are willing to pay for it too, with 86% of buyers paying more for a great customer experience. If they’re willing to pay, then focus on offering them a personalized experience that starts when you market your product or service.
3.2. Make Your App Or Website Mobile Friendly
It’s obvious that many internet users are opting to use their mobile devices for navigating the web, over any other device.
An app or website that’s mobile-friendly is going to provide a better user experience for the customer. There’s nothing worse than having landed on a website or app that hasn’t been configured properly for mobile use.
With smartphone usage expected to rise, all SaaS companies operating within the travel sector should be highlighting the use of mobile-friendly products to their customers. Accessibility is a big one that is growing in its importance. A lot of sites and apps don’t have an access-friendly version available. This freezes out anyone with accessibility needs, which may be valuable customers for the business.
3.3. Encourage & Promote Customer Reviews & Feedback.
Not all businesses focus on their customer reviews or feedback, especially if it’s not that positive. However, it’s useful to encourage and promote customer reviews because many users online are looking at them.
They are often influenced by other people’s feedback, so even if it’s negative, you should be doing something about it. Nearly 95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase. That’s data that no business should be ignoring, particularly in the case where reviews aren’t all that gracious.
If you’re being seen to tackle those less than positive reviews, it’s going to change perceptions of the new customers who are assessing your business.
3.4. Utilize Social Media Influencers Within The Travel Industry
Collaborating with social media influencers and even businesses or individuals that would actively use your product is essential. Just like customers online are influenced by customer reviews, many also take the advice of social media influencers when it comes to making a purchase.
A lot of businesses have become trustworthy in their own right so as a travel product or service, it’s worthwhile partnering with both where possible. Many brands are leveraging social media influencers to advertise their business and so you may find it useful to include them in your marketing budget for 2024.
A top tip when it comes to collaborating with influencers is to ensure they’re the right fit for your brand. It’s a waste of your budget to pick those influencers who may look good at first glance but their engagement and reach are poor in comparison.
When doing your influencer outreach, assess their profile beyond just the amount of followers they have. Make sure their engagement is good and that they’ve got a good connection with many of their followers.
3.5. Push Your Sustainability & Concern For The Environment
It comes as no surprise that more of us are worried about the harm we’re doing to the environment. With 68% of millennials buying a product with social or environmental benefits in the last twelve months, the future generations are who you should be targeting.
If you’re not already, find ways that you can be more sustainable in your approach to the environment through tour products or the business. It may be that you actively promote and run initiatives that benefit the environment.
Telling your customers and the world about what positive impact you’re making is going to do wonders for your business. Look at how your business can be more sustainable as this alone can help to cut down costs and give you something to talk about online.
4. The Benefits To Following Marketing Trends
Following the latest marketing trends are a great way of keeping up to date with all the necessary changes and improvements you should make to your marketing strategy. There’s always room for improvement and the market is always changing.
4.1. They Keep Your Business Relevant
As well as being useful to everyone else, they keep your business relevant. When you’re making use of marketing trends, it keeps your business current and up to date with the rest of your competition.
4.2. It May Uncover A Gap In The Market
When it comes to marketing trends, adopting one of them might result in you uncovering a gap in the market that’s currently not being catered to. This can be great for expanding the business and an opportunity to boost your sales or awareness of the brand.
4.2. More Opportunities For Success
As mentioned above, the right marketing trends can help deliver more success for your business. These marketing trends are popular for a reason and as a business, it pays to be invested in what’s working for other companies within the SaaS travel industry.
If you’re a SaaS brand, then there are plenty of trends that you could pick up and run with to help your business succeed. Don’t forget to take a look at other SaaS travel brands that are making big movements within the industry. It’s a great way of finding some inspiration for your own business in 2024.