Marketers looking to reach professionals in the travel and meeting planning sector are getting increasingly more sophisticated in their use of list segmentation and creative approaches.
“Marketers are becoming more savvy when it comes to targeting and list selection, going beyond just making blanket purchases of names of planners or selecting people in a particular state,” says Roberta Mueller, director of Internet production/corporate development, Northstar Travel Media, which recently formed a marketing partnership with MeritDirect.
The space is also getting more sophisticated creatively, she says, adding that marketers in the space are blending their online and offline collateral more with tactics like QR codes, social media and personalized landing pages. “It’s no longer just conference catalogs and blanket emails.”
Northstar’s B-to-B travel, hotel, business travel and meetings publications include Travel Weekly, HotelandTravelindex.com, Official Cruise Guide, Meetings & Conventions, Business Travel News, travel42, TravelAge West, Successful Meetings, PhoCusWright, Family Getaways, and Incentive Magazine, as well as the electronic directories Travel Weekly’s Hotel & Travel Index, Official Cruise Guide, and M&C Facilities Search.
Marketers outside the travel space—such as hospitals, universities, retailers like Staples and Home Depot, and catalogers like Harry & David—are also targeting professionals in the travel/meeting planning space, she adds.
“We’re also seeing an increase in expenditures from marketers in the incentive and motivational space, as well as high tech firms and chambers of commerce trying to encourage business travel and tourism and get people to hold conventions in their cities,” says Jeff Moriarty, vice president, data and media services, MeritDirect. “There are a lot of sales and marketing professionals you can reach on these files.”
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