Earlier this week I had the chance to rub elbows with marketing executives during the Association of Travel Marketing Executives (ATME) Annual Travel Marketing Conference. The conference, held in Boston, covered topics ranging from innovation and the economy to social media and customer loyalty. Of course, the event was geared toward travel marketers, but many of the lessons are applicable to marketers in other industries.
Here’s a sample of some of the key takeaways that I think have broader applicability outside of the travel industry. (In the interest of grammar, I paraphrased these tweets from the event, rather than running them verbatim.)
- Look outside your business for innovation – Henry Harteveldt, Forrester (@hharteveldt)
- Don’t be afraid to fail – John Peter, Rand McNally (@johntpeters)
- Benchmark where you are today so that you know what good looks like – (@hharteveldt)
- Create a unified customer database – Shar VanBoskirk, Forrester (@sharvanboskirk)
- Give your customers options, but not free reign – (@sharvanboskirk)
- Be concise: marketers have less and less time to connect with consumers – (@hharteveldt)
- Don’t use Twitter as PR channel, use it to build customer relationships – Marty St. George, jetBlue Airways (@martysg)
- Use research as an aid to judgment, not a replacement for it – Paul Valerio, Method (@PaulCValerio)
- Talk to your customers in their own language – Bill Keen, IHG
- Learn the three R’s of loyalty are rewards, recognition and relevance
For me, the most notable trend highlighted during the event was that it is important for marketers to understand and embrace new marketing channels, but it is equally important to not forget or neglect fundamental marketing standards when executing campaigns and interacting with customers.
Did you attend ATME 2011? If so, what would you add to the above list?
