Talking is not dead. In fact the rapid proliferation of mobile devices means that people are calling more than ever before, but is your travel brand ready to answer? Pamela Whitby reports

If you thought mobile search was the beginning of the end of talking, think again. In fact, according to independent market researcher BIA Kelsey in 2016, 70 billion calls will originate from a mobile search. Further proof comes from Google, which finds that one of the most popular actions from a local search is a call. “In the US, many of our clients are seeing unexpected activity to their call centres from mobile search,” says John Busby, senior vice-president at Marchex, a mobile marketing solution that puts the humble telephone call at the centre of its business strategy.

In fact, the rapid adoption of smartphones has made it entirely natural for consumers to conduct a local on-the-move search for a hotel, or rental and in some cases even airline travel. “This is not only natural consumer behaviour, it is also changing consumer behaviour because it’s so convenient,” says Busby.

That search is happening more and more is something that EyeforTravel research– the result of 30+ industry interviews, surveys of 2,000 executives and 20,000 consumers - backs up. It shows that in the year to July 2013, 37% of consumers worldwide accessed the Internet for travel purposes via their smartphone. It also found, however, that travel transactions via mobile are still relatively low (around 10%), possibly because many are higher value than typical retail purchases. So when people find what they are looking for and want to book they still want a human connection. “Interestingly our data shows that this is even true for young people,” argues Busby, who says he wrongly held the view that the youth would rather text than call. 

For Busby, it is incredibly important for travel brands to understand that people more often than not do their local research on a mobile, they may then want to fill out an online form, but more often than not they still want to talk to a person. “We place media on a brand’s behalf and only change them when they deliver a successful phone call about a reservation,” says Busby, who explains that what marketers need to know is that with mobile search there are a “significant” number of accidental phone calls. According to Busby, where Marchex differs is that it has an analytics platform that allows them to analyse each individual phone call and tie it back to a particular marketing tactic. This way brands know what works, but they also know what doesn’t work. “It is really important to be able to measure which phone calls are true calls of consumer intent and which are not,” he says.

Marchex owns more than 2 million individual phone numbers and uses unique call tracking numbers in each advertising campaign to reveal which campaigns are working.

A case study: How driving calls to drive bookings works for IHG

Intercontinental Hotels Group has more guest rooms than any company in the world. To help fill these rooms it worked with Marchex on a pay-for-call advertising campaign across over 100 media sources, including mobile carrier voice search, mobile apps online and mobile directories, and emerging mobile media sources. IHG has found that direct, personal conversations can lead to higher value bookings, as agents are trained to influence the purchase process. All this is done through a call centre where agents are trained to convert incoming calls. For Busby, it’s really important that the Marchex Call Marketplace ensures that IHG is only paying for calls that meet certain quality parameters, excluding spam, misdials and customer service calls. Through using this performance-based pay-for-call advertising network, IHG has seen improved nightly bookings.

Key results from the 2012 campaign:

·         Inbound calls account for one in five reservations

·         Average conversion rates to complete stays of 11%, higher than that achieved with other media sources (this reached 20% in September 2012)

·         Return on investment outperforms target by 40%

Marchex was a recent sponsor of EyeforTravel’s recent Travel Distribution Summit, North America which took place in Chicago on September 23-24. Click here to find out more about the EyeforTravel Mobile & Social in Travel Distribution Report, 2013.