The buyer’s journey for cruise passengers is different from other retail and travel products. Why? Well, the decision process to purchase is relatively long because consumers have too many factors to consider: price, dates, weather, personal needs on the voyage, and so on.
What’s more, the customer experience is changing as people use the internet to plan and search for cruise vacations. According to Hosteltur, more than 30 million users search for topics related to travel on their smartphones each month. More and more people rely on social recommendations and reviews to make holiday choices, too.
It’s essential that your marketing strategy is responsive, optimized for mobile – and social. Thus, let’s take a look at some cruise advertisement examples to make your marketing strategy so!
Reach more prospective passengers with cruise ship advertisement on social media
What do you want to achieve with your social media strategy? We’re betting you’ll check most of the boxes on this list:
- increase followers
- get more comments
- get more likes
- promote a cruise, package holiday, or other product
- hear customer feedback
- encourage word-of-mouth marketing
- reward customer loyalty
… right? And that’s why social media giveaways have become so popular. With the correct planning and execution, a giveaway on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can help you towards all of these goals.
That being said, you have several options on how to run a giveaway, depending on your specific marketing objectives and KPIs.
Cruise ship advertisement: Comment-based giveaways on social media
First off, if you want to increase followers or engagement, then a simple comments contest is a good place to start. You can organize this on your Facebook page, Instagram profile, or even combine both.
Write a giveaway post with an enticing photo of blue seas and ships. Just make sure you include terms and conditions so that your contest is above-board.
There’s more to a comments contest than just engagement, of course. When you start the contest, you’ll have to ask people a question to get the comments started. So why not ask for customer feedback, and use your social media giveaway as market research?
Take the example above, from Jetline Cruise. They asked their Instagram followers to comment with their top three holiday essentials. Those comments provided useful information about customers’ preferences and priorities.
What’s more, the brand used the winners’ comments to select the prizes. Each winner won an item that they had mentioned in their comment! This is another way to make your giveaway really popular: let your customers choose the rewards they want.
Small rewards like this are also more affordable for brands. If you want to give away a bigger prize, then you can ask your followers for more effort or information in return.
Cruise advertisement examples: Entry form giveaways
Take this contest from Cruisefever, advertized on their Instagram photo. They gave away three-week-long cruises in the Caribbean – so because the prize was so large, they could ask users for more, like their contact details and personal information.
You can also use contests to tap into word-of-mouth marketing. As well as asking people to join your mailing list, why not set them a challenge? Take this recruiters contest, below. Every time a participant referred a friend to the contest, they won an extra entry in the prize draw.
Cruise advertisement examples: Photo contests for passengers
And finally, we come to the last goal on our list. What about rewarding loyal customers with an online contest?
If you already have a group of happy customers, then they will be a great source of reviews, recommendations, and user-generated content. And you can get the ball rolling with a photo contest. Simply ask people to share their best photos from your cruise – with a prize for the most popular snap.
Now for the cherry on top. Of course, not everyone can win your giveaway – but people have still gone to the effort of sharing their photos and contact details with you.
So if you really want to send all your customers away happy, try giving a surprise coupon or discount code to everyone who joins your contest. It’s an easy way to show all your followers that you appreciate them – and encourage repeat passengers. Any questions? Contact our customer support team via live-chat. We will be happy to help!
