The Business Research Company has shown that the global camping and caravanning market hovered around the $44 billion mark in 2020, having increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.9% since 2015. Steady but not stellar growth you would agree. How things have changed though more recently with market growth accelerating to a CAGR of well over 6%, set to hit $60 billion come 2025. So, what’s happening out there?
The millennial population is really helping to drive the camping and caravanning market. Millennials (known as generation Y, those born between 1980 and 2004) are showing keen interest in camping, adventure activities and nature exploration. In some countries, over a third of all those camping are from this generation.
Like so many industries are finding, if innovation does not take place rapidly then many will be left behind or lose their businesses totally. Today’s campers expect far more than perhaps those 20 years ago did: think excellent wi-fi connectivity for one! Plus, how people are used to interacting has changed.
Old-fashioned one-way communication means have given way to the requirement for real conversations between suppliers and their clients or indeed potential clients. Young people in particular have become very familiar with chat apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Rakuten Viber and thus it makes sense that any organisation providing services to campers or caravaners engages with them using channels they are inherently familiar with.
E-mail has been around for such a long time and whilst it is tempting to reach for it as the vehicle to delivery much of your content, we’d recommend you think twice before doing so. How many people actually read all the email messages they receive? And even if they do, does this happen rapidly? So much research concludes that very little email is read with urgency by their recipients and that if 25% of people ever read your email content then you’re doing well. Email might be cheap but if conversion rates are super low then effective they are not. So, what should businesses REALLY be using? SMS text messaging is the answer.
SMS is a channel that people have been using for almost 30 years now, something that now 5 billion people globally have access too. A little-known fact is that there are now more active users of SMS than email, something that really needs to be leveraged to the full. And right now.
With so many personal freedoms being restored across the world, there is a huge appetite for people to start getting out and about into the great outdoors and exploring. This is exactly what the likes of camping is about and it’s up to providers to help restore confidence. To get people out of their own four walls, their homes. And SMS is the perfect medium for this.
Triple the read rates for email and you are not even knocking on the door of where that for SMS is. Think 98%. Yes, almost every successfully delivered SMS is actually read, the absolute majority within five minutes of them arriving. That is one powerful mobile engagement channel. So, whether you are trying to encourage previous clients to return sooner rather than later, confirm orders or reservations, manage situations where problems arise or practically anything else you can think of, then you can never go far wrong using text messaging.
We’ve been in the business of delivering organizations’ marketing, informative and transactional content around the world via SMS and chat app solutions for well over a decade now. This is what Intis Telecom focuses on. We make it genuinely easy for any organization to send its customers (or other stakeholders) content rapidly and accurately, allowing them to get on with doing what they do best – treating their customers, business partner and own personnel with exceptional care, as individuals.
