November 8, 2018

The impact of technology is evident in all industries, especially in the travel, tourism, and entertainment industries where digital transformation has changed the old order of things. Physical bookings are almost outdated. According to a survey by eMarketer, travel-based mobile booking apps were the 7th most downloaded applications and nearly 60 percent of mobile phone users prefer to use mobile apps for booking whenever they are planning their tours

How to Use Messaging Apps to Increase Bookings

Having a robust mobile marketing plan is essential for your business. With nearly 70 percent of today’s businesses integrating mobile messaging apps into their daily outreach, it’s crucial that you adopt mobile messaging applications to maintain a competitive edge. Some of the ways you can use mobile messaging applications to get more bookings is by:

Easy onboarding

The mobile messaging application you choose should provide your customers with a seamless onboarding experience to reduce abandonment rates. Using applications that are difficult for users to use – have complex features and too many signup steps will cause users to abandon them. According to Hubspot, effective onboarding increases the user lifetime value to over 500 percent.

Providing offers and incentives

To engage, retain, and encourage potential clients to contact you for your services, you should provide incentives through mobile messaging applications. Coupons, mobile-specific rewards, special promotions, specialized content access, and other offers will urge people to act quickly.

Reservation reminders and confirmations

Businesses that have functional reservation systems benefit tremendously due to the following reasons:

• Reservations greatly reduce waiting time.
• They boost customer loyalty.
• They increase the number of visitors to your business.
• Simplify managerial tasks.

According to Cision, millennials prefer speed and convenience when seeking services, and this explains why more than 2 billion messages are sent to customers by businesses on Facebook messenger alone. As a business owner, you are aware of the numerous benefits of having a solid reservation plan. You can make use of Facebook Messenger to make reservations.

Recent studies have revealed that nearly 70 percent of consumers prefer interacting with bots when communicating with different brands. Letting bots to do the work for you will not only lighten your load when communicating with people outside your business premises but also give you time to do other things instead of always checking your phone to take reservations.

Create engagement entities

These are representatives of your business, from your brand to your CEO, and even a mascot. While you don’t have to use the same entity across different platforms, consistency will make things simple. Additionally, relevancy is important when choosing a messaging application platform, and more importantly the type of people using the messaging application you choose. For instance, if your chief executive officer is known for using words of wisdom, they can be a good fit on messaging platforms like Twitter. Platforms like Instagram won’t get you as far as with words of wisdom as having amazing pictures. Therefore, to make your brand more engaging on Instagram, you should feature awesome images of your business.

Customer retention

Retaining your existing customers is important to your business. As a business owner, ensure that your mobile marketing strategy considers repeat clients. You can start by creating free WhatsApp broadcasts. Your customers want to feel like you know what they want. By creating segmented lists such as young adults, family, students, and couples, you will be able to target your message to the right audience.

Nearly 80 percent of smartphone users rely on messaging applications. If you don’t have a mobile marketing plan that includes messaging apps, then you’re falling behind your competition.