In Conversation with Dr. Gregor Matjan, SalzburgerLand Tourismus GmbH
How can hoteliers make the most of data-driven marketing? Dr. Gregor Matjan from SalzburgerLand Tourismus provides exclusive insights into digital strategies that are shaping the tourism industry sustainably. Discover the role data plays in attracting guests.
<div class="article_quote"><div class="article_quote_contain"><div class="article_quote_quote">"We consistently pursue our strategies and are neither numbers-driven nor subject to short-term trends."</div><div class="article_quote_name u-text-style-main">Gregor Matjan</div></div></div>
Since April 2016, Dr. Gregor Matjan has been in charge of the digital media and online marketing department at SalzburgerLand Tourismus GmbH. Prior to this position, he worked in market and opinion research, online and mobile, as well as at KISKA (design agency) and Orderman (mobile bonus systems). Matjan talks to Joachim Leiter, Managing Director of ADDITIVE, about the SalzburgerLand brand, the relevance of video content and general trends and innovations in online marketing.
Markenwerte im Fokus
<h3 class="interview-question">Mr. Matjan, what makes the brand "SalzburgerLand" so authentic, unique and desirable?</h3>
The "SalzburgerLand" brand has certainly built up a great deal of trust among guests thanks to its continuity. The five core values virtuoso, invigorating, light, cultivated and inspiring characterize the brand appropriately. The adjective "virtuoso" describes the brand particularly well and conveys our quality standards very well. In all our activities, this quality standard is very important to us; we want to be just as "virtuosic" in our daily work.
<h3 class="interview-question">What is your job at SalzburgerLand Tourismus GmbH and how big is your team?</h3>
I am responsible for "Digital Media and Online Marketing", a total of seven people work in this area. We are mainly responsible for all internal digital platforms, cooperation with our technical partners, campaigns in online marketing and cooperation campaigns as well as consulting for our members. We see ourselves as a source of ideas and inspiration, passing on know-how to our members. We work closely with the Content & Information Management department, which takes care of content creation and daily communication with our guests on social media channels.
Die Online-Marketing-Strategie von SalzburgerLand
<h3 class="interview-question">In which areas of online marketing & online communication is SalzburgerLand Tourismus GmbH (mainly) active? With which budgets and focus (channels, formats, topics) in 2018?</h3>
We are currently focusing on four main areas:
- On the one hand, we are preparing all of our digital media content for future applications and technologies, structuring it uniformly according to "Schema.org" (note: uniform markup language for structuring content on websites) and making it available to tourism partners via open source. In the future, it will no longer be important to us where information is found and consumed, but that everyone can access the information they want, regardless of platform and user interface.
- Another focus is on moving images, as platforms such as YouTube and Facebook are becoming increasingly relevant in the inspiration phase of vacation decisions. Here we have already produced very good, high-quality and award-winning content. This success is due to the fact that we are in close contact with Google Ireland. This gives us first-hand knowledge and the opportunity to test beta features that are not yet publicly available.
- The third area of focus covers all online marketing campaigns and topics. We use all common platforms and channels such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, newsletter marketing and native advertising. It is important to us that we operate in the performance space and KPIs such as impressions have no meaning for us. Rather, it's about defining clear goals for our members, such as inquiries, content views, newsletter signups and catalog orders, and working toward those goals in a sustainable way.
- The fourth focus area is data analytics along the customer journey. Here we try to turn aggregated data sets into information and provide decision makers with all the important information specific to a project or campaign.
- The results of the marketing campaign at Stroblhof Resort
- 7 success factors for data-driven hotel marketing
- Specific tips on how to systematically generate revenue
- Make guest communication effective and predictable
- The results of the marketing campaign at Stroblhof Resort
- 7 success factors for data-driven hotel marketing
- Specific tips on how to systematically generate revenue
- Make guest communication effective and predictable
Content-Produktion bei SalzburgerLand
<h3 class="interview-question">Whether elaborate video content, SalzburgerLand Magazine, social media communication, #MyInstaWeekend or SalzburgerLand Discoverer: The topic of content production and distribution is very complex: Which approach and strategy (in-house, outsourcing) does SalzburgerLand Tourismus GmbH choose? What data and insights are used to make strategic decisions about content production?</h3>
Our approach is a combination of both strategies, in-house and outsourcing. While we do the strategic and conceptual work ourselves, we rely on a proven partner network for production. Fortunately, this approach allows us to keep production costs low and to invest many times that budget in distribution. The brand strategy and its overarching communication theme play an important role. For the next two years, this theme will be the forest. Although we try to back this up with statistics, we are not "numbers-driven".
Especially in the inspiration phase, it is important that we offer broad-based information and do not jump on short-term trends and evaluations of individual campaigns. We also need to have the courage to simply set campaign themes and stick to them.
<h3 class="interview-question">How do you manage the daily communication with users/guests on the different platforms?</h3>
Currently, this is done manually by our Information Management staff. We don't claim to comment on every post or interaction immediately, but we are in the process of implementing software to make it more efficient and structured.
<h3 class="interview-question">What KPIs do you use to measure and evaluate online communications, online marketing campaigns, and content quality?</h3>
As already mentioned, we do not measure impressions, but rather clicks, time spent, bounce rates, and on YouTube, click and play time. We pay special attention to the "cost per lead", i.e. the cost of a target completion such as the generation of an inquiry, newsletter subscription, brochure order, etc. ..... It is important for us to continuously optimize and follow our strategy, even if individual campaigns do not achieve the desired results.
<div class="article_quote"><div class="article_quote_contain"><div class="article_quote_quote">"Currently, we are working specifically on voice search and voice assistants, as well as data-driven marketing. We strongly believe in these two technological innovations and see great value in them."</div><div class="article_quote_name u-text-style-main">Gregor Matjan</div></div></div>
<h3 class="interview-question">Blockchain, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, chatbots, voice search & voice assistants, live content, and marketing automation will dominate the digital scene in 2018. To what extent are these new technologies already influencing digital media and online marketing at SalzburgerLand Tourismus GmbH?</h3>
SalzburgerLand Tourismus GmbH does not see itself as a first mover. We keep a close eye on all technological developments and jump on board as soon as we see a clear benefit for our guests and partners. Our strategy is to clearly define what we don't want to do, so that we don't get lost in the jungle of possibilities and waste valuable budgets. Right now, we are specifically looking at voice search & voice assistants and data-driven marketing. We strongly believe in both of these technological innovations and see great value in them.
<h3 class="interview-question">How do you encourage innovation in your team? What is SalzburgerLand Tourismus GmbH's strategy for keeping its finger on the pulse?</h3>
The simple solution is to select good, innovation-hungry employees who live and breathe digital issues outside of work. Of course, ideas must be given free rein and employees must not be hampered in their innovation by a corset of restrictions.
<h3 class="interview-question">Is there a personality from tourism, marketing or technology that you have always wanted to meet? Why and what would be your central question to this person?</h3>
Not such a simple question. Maybe it would be interesting to meet a man with an inventive spirit like Elon Musk. My question to Mr. Musk? I think I'd ask him what he smokes? (laughs) You can write that, too. A bit of fun is always welcome.
- The results of the marketing campaign at Stroblhof Resort
- 7 success factors for data-driven hotel marketing
- Specific tips on how to systematically generate revenue
- Make guest communication effective and predictable
