The process of acquiring travel leads begins with lead generation. Lead generation involves marketing-related activities, or lead generators. At a basic level, traveler leads generation can be as simple as obtaining referrals from existing customers. Companies looking to quickly boost revenue, however, typically adopt other travel lead generation techniques. For example, they may purchase traveler lead lists from a lead generation company that maintains a database of business and consumer leads. Such lists may be used to conduct direct mail marketing, email marketing or telemarketing campaigns, all of which are forms of direct marketing.
Companies may also host or participate in business-to-business (B2c) events to generate travel leads. Examples of such event marketing activities include trade shows, webinars and lunch-and-learn meetings. The arrival of digital marketing opened a number of additional lead generation tools. In contrast to direct marketing techniques, digital marketing approaches, such as inbound marketing, focus on appealing to sales leads through company-generated online content. Inbound marketing content can include blog posts, videos, graphics and white papers. When creating and publishing inbound marketing content, companies may adopt a content marketing strategy to promote their brand.
Inbound marketing also encompasses mobile and social media marketing using online platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.