Continuing a series of articles looking at digital marketing to Spanish-speaking audiences, today we take a look at El Corte Inglés from the travel and tourism sector.
Online advertising in Spain accounts for approximately 11% of the country’s total advertising pie. This increase has been boosted by Spain’s current economic crisis, which has had an especially strong effect on off-line advertising. As a result, the share of online advertising in Spain is much higher than that of online media in the U.S. Hispanic and Latin America markets, and the country’s digital marketing practices are now impacting these markets.
A significant number of SMEs and large Spanish companies are depending openly on online marketing, taking advantage of the boom in interactive media, blogs and social networks, keeping in mind the increasing trend in mobile marketing. In fact, companies are pursuing interesting digital marketing strategies, clearly integrating them into their overall plans.
Brand loyalty, and rapidly and effective promotional campaigns
In the travel and tourism sector, El Corte Inglés — through its Viajes El Corte Inglés — has also bet on developing local strategies for each market it has a presence in. The company has staff in Mexico, U.S., France and Portugal. Its main goal, according to company sources, is to further develop its website and add more offers, and at the same time "improve our service by offering greater quality and meeting all of our customers needs."
The company believes the web "allows us to reach new market niches, create brand loyalty among our customers and deliver our promotional campaigns more rapidly and effectively."
To that end, it has created a special web unit to "discover its possibilities and trends, and always be alert to new opportunities."
In terms of planning, the company uses various media depending on its strategy, target audience and message. Although it relies on search engine marketing (SEO and SEM), it also uses conventional campaigns with banners and other formats on segmented pages, email marketing pieces, and communication via social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, in addition to mobile marketing, where it has developed interesting initiatives.
At El Corte Inglés, the digital area also tends to draw a greater share of the company’s media mix, in both human and financial resources. E-commerce figures for El Corte Inglés have also been growing year after year, which is something that, according to company sources, has contributed to consolidate El Corte Inglés as the number one online distribution site in Spain.