Increase Acquisition for Pickyourtrail

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Increase Acquisition for Pickyourtrail

Note: For the scope of this assignment -

We are limiting the user base to Indian geography only.
They have a B2B option as well for corporate, but we will stick to B2C as a core offering
They have now pivoted to international destinations only

What is Pickyourtrail?

Pickyoutrail is a online travel platform, which delivers customised packages and solutions for your travel, core offering on international travels.

Their annual revenue stands at around $15M

Lifetime revenue $1.2B and Profit $11.7M

What are they solving for?

Their focus is mainly for international travels.

Reducing time and effort with customisation 💎: With the growing need of users' having varied interests in travel, from type of activities to different food preferences, travellers are now looking for customisation at every point. With international travels being more complex in terms of other factors like internal travel, visa etc, users generally tend to invest more time with customisation which then becomes a hassle for users. Pickyourtrail, with their tech, will make it easier for you to figure out What activities to add, When to add, while keeping in mind your interests and sharing a plethora of options.
Their itineraries are known to be very well planned and easy to read. Surprisingly few users mentioned, that they 2/4 times they used Pickyourtrail, to just get the itenerary, so it eases their time and effort.
To put in simple manner - if a user is taking 5 hours to plan the whole trip, with Pickyourtrail it can reduce to 2-3 hours fulfilling all the needs of user and bringing flexibility in their travels.
Common localised challenges for International travels: For most destinations, users face localised issues with their booking activities, internal commute etc, Pickyourtrail provide you with hassle-free cabs services which makes the internal commute easier for users. Additionally, cab service also solves for if the users wants to travel from 1 city to another.

Marketing pitch

What are the current solutions and shortcomings in the market?

Time consuming: To an extent other apps like Traveltriangle, MMT customised packages and travel agents helps you with all customisations but it's extremely time consuming as it happens over call, whatsapp, email, and is a lot of to and fro which increases the time and effort. Traveltriangle connects you to travel agents which is the part of same loop. It is less automated and more manual.
Common localised challenges: Travel agents generally don't have enough local contacts of drivers, for activities or lack reliability and trust factor with them, at every destination. This could lead to a poor user experience, and lack of trust for users.
Less options: Travel agents have limited connects for stays and activities for most destinations, which leads to lesser options for users.

Founder's take

What is the core value proposition?

Customisation at your fingertips - Pickyourtrail tries to give you exactly what you want as an Itinerary. If you wish to make changes, you don't have to call up an agent, mail or WhatsApp anyone, you can simply do it in their app at first. You can speak to relationship managers, who are aware of the destination geographically, know your needs and advise you and moderate the itineraries for you. Drastically reducing your planning time by 60%
Brings in more options - Their customisation does not limit your options. Often travel agents and other platforms have tied up with fixed hotels or activities only, which limits your options.

On their user experience

What founder has to say about user experience

Assumption

Users have already signed up

ICP + JTBD

	Pranav (25, Working professional, Single)		Harsh (30-35, Working professional, Married)		Srihari (25-30, Founder & Working professional, Married)		Divya (25-30, Working professional, Single)
Questions	Decision maker	Influencer	Decision maker	Influencer	Decision maker	Influencer	Decision maker
Age	26		30-35		25-30		26-29
Gender	M	Friends (F,M)	M	F (Wife)	M	F (Wife)	F
Current city	Delhi		Bangalore		Bangalore		Bangalore
Income group	12-20L		50L+		30L-50L		12-20L
Martial status	Single		Married		Married		Single
Type of traveller (Decision making and preferences)	Planner and Explorer	Explorer	Planner and Explorer	Explorer	Planner and Relaxed traveller	Relaxed	Planner, Explorer and Relaxed traveller
Role in the buying process	Decision maker		Decision maker + Influencer (Partner plays a role in deciding certain aspects, joint decisions)		Decision maker		Decision maker
How frequent do you travel (Domestic:International Ratio)	2:1		2:1		2:2		4:1
How frequently is international	Once in 2 years		1-2 times a year		2-3 times a year 2:1 = Relax:Explore		Once in a year
Who do you travel with internationally	1. Friends 2. Family (Once in 2-3 years)		1. Couple 2. Family (Once in 2-3 years)		Couple		1. Family 2. Partner (Once in 2-3 years)
Charectristics in travel and general	Okay with experimenting with friends Value for money Party places	Exploring, Experimenting, Party places, Cafes	Value for money Transparent Budget travels 3 stars Planner and influencer both	Value for money Needs 24*7 Assistance User experience oriented	Reliability very imp Depends on the mood Not crowded Value for Money Non seasonal traveller	Loves relaxation Beaches	Self explorer likes watching YT vlogs and travel stuff in her freetime Particular about cleaniness Loves aesthetics
What are your go-to apps?	Google, YT, LinkedIn, Instagram, Finshots, WhatsApp		Instagram / YT, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, Strategy game, General news - Google, Inshorts, Trading & Investments zerodha,		LinkedIn, YT, Instagram, WhatsApp, Phonepe		Youtube, Instagram, Swiggy, Hotstar, Myntra, WhatsApp
How do you generally spend your weekends	Meeting friends, exploring restaurants / party places, Netflix and chill		Mix of exploring food places, meetups, hanging out family and friends		Movies		Great cafes - aesthetics Laundry, cleaning up room Grocery Meeting friends family Content - Netflix and Chill
Platforms preferred	Booking.com, PYT, Travel agents		Booking.com, PYT, MMT		Booking.com, MMT in india But for holidays - PYT, himself, to an extent local agents		Goibibo - flights Hotels - offline Twitter / YT - credibility No travel agents
When do you start planning for an international trip?	3-4 months prior could be 2 months prior in case of friends		3-4 months		3-4 months		3-4 months
Preferred destinations	Mix		Mix		Mix, but more of beach person		Prefers beach destinations
How long are your stays	8-10 days International		7-10 days		4-5 days for relaxing \| 7-10 days exploring		7-10 days
Primary factors for deciding a destination	1. Weather 2. Safer area 3. Indian restaurants - Veg 4. 4-5 destinations easy to cover in a cluster		1. Weather 2. Visa 3. Where you can explore		1. Weather 2. Flights & Connectivity 3. Not trending destinations 4. Depends on mood Relax vs Explore 2:1 ratio, will prefer islands in relax and trending places in Explore can be trend to an extent.		1. Longer stay, make most of time 2. Weather 3. Flights
Last time you planned an international trip, how did you start looking for destinations? Any resources used	1. Trending destinations, 2. Budgets 3. reccos from friends	1	1. Diversity to what travelled before 2. Influencers, Trends, personal preferences, reccos from friends, NO FOR BLOGS 3. Flights 4. May look for discounts		1. Depends on mood Relax vs Explore 2:1 ratio, will prefer islands in relax and trending places in Explore can be trend to an extent. 2. Naturistic, beach facing properties 3. Flights		1. Reccos, Budget, Beach places 2. Love travelling, exploring places 3. Flights
What's your travel inspiration?	Influencers - travel reccos on insta Reading blogs	1	Influencers, Trends, personal preferences, reccos from friends, NO FOR BLOGS		Not instagram influencers, Does not like to read quora w reviews Non trending Naturistic, beach facing properties Travel pages on Instagram Blogs with reccos		Travel content Youtube / Travel influencers Aesthetics, Cafes visually appealing Beaches
What’s your to-do list while you’re at that destination	Cover all the popular destinations What is not there in India Friends - Any restaurants, No time restrictions, Open to new things, Party places, explore new places	1	Culture & Heritage Nature & Adventure Vegan restaurants to mid priority		Exploring restaurants Depends on the mood Stay and chill Sometimes explore like Turkey, Azerbaijan Pretty much flexible		Spontaneous Less crowded Less touristy, Ok to explore but not too much Great cafes Beaches - whats the best place sunset
What kind of hotels do you prefer?	3 star, 5 star Friends - Airbnb, Hotels Family - Hotels	1	Airbnb - city dependent Hotels - 3 star property, ratings and reviews, Gmaps, Booking sites like Booking.com Hotels near location (Secondary)		1. 5 star hotels because of service quality (Loves W) 2. Reviews and ratings and also hospitality 3. Beach facing		1. Not fancy 2. Near / accessible beach 3. Google reviews / any other content 4. Long stays - cheaper price
What are some of the most annoying or time-consuming aspects of planning a trip for you?	Commute issues, finding veg friendly restaurants	1	Planning side - Budget, back and forth, comparison, Flights, activities Group planning - Back and forth, not a common loin aspect PYT No discounts at PYT		Time consuming and high effort		Trust with properties Commute
Is there anything that could make your travel easier for you? / Any issues faced during the travel which bothered you?	Commute issues, finding veg friendly restaurants	1	Commute Hotel service		Planning side - Needs a partial ownership which they dont find wit travel agents or MMT like platforms, where you can explore multiple options but also makes your life easy by giving you relevant and variety options, which you can validate online.		Commute
What's the average spend/night you prefer (can know from hotel pref)	5000-15000/night		8000-20000/night		15000-25000/night		5000-15000/night
What are your non-negotiables for the whole experience?	1. All services mainly hotel needs to be good 2. Smooth trip, hassle-free 3. Veg restaurants		1. Good service at hotels 2. Hassle-free experience 3. Assistance		1. Overall service 2. Food options - Authentic 3. Climate / Weather 4. Hassle-free experience		1. Great food 2. Cleaniness in hotel 3. Assistance 4. Medical
How did you come across PYT?	Online / Google		W-O-M		Online / Google		GX slack reccos / WOM, founder posted a tweet
How many times used	Once - Booking Rest - Inquiries > Like the itineraries		Once - europe, tried - 2nd time, found better option		Booked 2-3 times / Once in a year out of 2-3 international		Once
How frequently do you prefer PYT?	Once in 2 years		Once in 2 years		2-3 times a year		Once in 2 years
Destination travelled with PYT	Andaman		Europe		Azerbhaijan, Turkey		Maldives
What do you love about PYT?	You get all activities heavily customised good location of hotels for restaurants Trust factor because of presentation Good sales person		Customisation was easier than MMT / didnt do it personally as time crunch In terms of options** really matters You can add activities later Integrated with Trip advisor PYT also recommends activities on basis of prev travellers, which are populars, customise,		Customisation. I get to pick also and they plan also for me. Choices makes it different. Hand holding - comforting Also uses for inquiries - soft User trust mainly for holiday packages Value is added		Take care of everything Partial ownership Free upgrade - founder tweet
Did you face any issues with PYT	None as such		PYT - One event got cancelled - no refund, communication issues w driver and PYT, Customer support on chat - Not proactive, customer support changes, They push for other destinations / sell packages		Lack of assistance at every point, 24*7 assistance is a chat support which is of less help		None as such
How do you book activities / places?	Spontaneous		Mix - some prior and some spotaneous		Pre-planned		Spontaneous
How do you go about looking for stay / activities etc	PYT, Read up on blogs, reccos by influencers		PYT, Friends reccos, Klook		Klook / other platforms		Vlogs, Exploring on-the-go

Influencer Aspects

While we will have Decision maker and Influencer very clear here but in a few certain aspects Influencer creates a potential difference.

Questions	ICP 1 Pranav Influencer - Friends	ICP 2 Harsh Influencer - Wife	ICP 3 Srihari Influencer - Wife	ICP 4 Divya Influencer - Family
Gender	Friends (F,M)	F (Wife)	F (Wife)	Family (F,M) and Partner
Type of traveller (Decision making and preferences)	Explorer	Explorer	Relaxed	Relaxed and Explorer
Charectristics in travel and general	Exploring, Experimenting, Party places, Cafes	Value for money Needs 24*7 Assistance User experience oriented	Loves relaxation Beaches	Relaxation Not very specific with their needs
Last time you planned an international trip, how did you start looking for destinations? Any resources used	Travel influencers Reccos from friends family	Influencers, Reccos from friends and fam	Preferences of islands and beaches Property to an extent	Relaxation No specifics
What's your travel inspiration?	Bloggers, Influencers Reels, Aesthetic photos	Bloggers, Influencers Reels, Aesthetic photos	Non influencer reels	No specifics
What’s your to-do list while you’re at that destination	Cover all the popular destinations What is not there in India Friends - Any restaurants, No time restrictions, Open to new things, Party places, explore new places	1. Culture & Heritage 2. Nature & Adventure 3. Vegan restaurants to mid priority	1. Exploring restaurants 2. Depends on the mood 3. Stay and chill 4. Sometimes explore like Turkey, Azerbaijan 5. Pretty much flexible	Touristy places
What kind of hotels do you prefer?	3 star, 5 star Friends - Airbnb, Hotels Family - Hotels	Airbnb - city dependent Hotels - 3 star property, ratings and reviews, Gmaps, Booking sites like Booking.com Hotels near location (Secondary)	1. 5 star hotels because of service quality (Loves W) 2. Reviews and ratings and also hospitality 3. Beach facing	Trust with properties
What are some of the most annoying or time-consuming aspects of planning a trip for you?	Commute issues, finding veg friendly restaurants	Planning side - Budget, back and forth, comparison, Flights, activities Group planning - Back and forth, not a common loin aspect PYT No discounts at PYT	Time consuming and high effort	No specifics
Is there anything that could make your travel easier for you? / Any issues faced during the travel which bothered you?	Commute issues, finding veg friendly restaurants	Commute Hotel service	No specifics	No specifics

ICP Prioritisation

	Adoption curve	Frequency of use case	Appetite to pay	TAM	Distribution potential
ICP 1 Pranav (25, Working professional, Single)	High	Low	Low	Low	Medium
ICP 2 Harsh (30-35, Working professional, Married)	High	High	High	High	High
ICP 3 Srihari (25-30, Founder & Working professional, Married)	High	High	High	High	Medium
ICP 4 Divya (25-30, Working professional, Single)	High	Medium	Low	Medium	High
ICP 5 Siddharth (25-30, Working professional, Married)	Medium	Medium	Medium	High	Medium

On basis of above framework, we will narrow it down to 3 ICPs:

ICP 2 Harsh (30-35, Working professional, Married),ICP 3 Srihari (25-30, Founder & Working professional, Married), ICP 4 Divya (25-30, Working professional, Single).

TAM

TAM = $15.2B

SOM = $7.3B

Total Indian tourist international departures = 24M (a-b-c) Source

a.Total Indian travellers = 32M Source

b.Total student travellers = 6M

c. Total work travellers = 2M

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Middle class 25% - 6M

Upper Middle class 35% = 8M

Luxury class 40% = 10M

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Middle class - 59,94,758 with Visas

#of people with 1+ Visas = 5% 0.29M

#of people with US / UK Visas = 10% 0.6M

*Not considering people applying for a Visa first time as they would be super cautious and might not prefer much online platforms.

Upper middle class - 8M with Visas

#of people with 1+ Visas = 25% 2M

#of people with US / UK Visas = 40% 3M

Luxury class - 10M with Visas

#of people with 1+ Visas = 25% 2.5M

#of people with US / UK Visas = 60% 6M

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Middle class people with US / UK Visa travelling International = 10% 0.6M International Once in 2-3 years = 20% 0.5MInternational Once in a year = Very less to consider

International 2-3 times a year = Very less to consider

#of people with 1+ Visas = 5% 0.29M to travel international - Very less to consider

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Upper middle class - 3M with US / UK Visa travelling international

International Once in 2-3 years = 20% 0.6M

International Once in a year = 55% 1.5M

International 2-3 times a year = 25% 0.75M

Upper middle class - 2M with 1+ Visa travelling international

International Once in 2-3 years = 30% 0.6M

International Once in a year = 50% 1M

International 2-3 times a year = 20% 0.2M

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Luxury class with US / UK Visas 6M travelling international

International Once in 2-3 years = 15% 1M

International Once in a year = 30% 2M

International 2-3 times a year = 55% 3M

Luxury class with 1+ Visas 2.5M travelling international

International Once in 2-3 years = 20% 0.4M

International Once in a year = 45% 1M

International 2-3 times a year = 35% 0.6M

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	#of travellersonline userscustomisation (Non DIY, Non online tour package etc)	TAM (Online)	SOM
Middle class people with US / UK Visa travelling International (Once in 2-3 years)	0.5M20%20%	1L	0.2L
Upper middle class with US / UK Visa travelling international (International Once in 2-3 years)	0.6M60%70%	3.6L	2.5L
Upper middle class with US / UK Visa travelling international (International Once in a year)	1.5M60%60%	9L	5.4L
Upper middle class with US / UK Visa travelling international (2-3 times in a year)	0.75M60%40%	4.5L	2L
Upper middle class - with 1+ Visa travelling international (International Once in 2-3 years)	0.6M50%70%	3L	2L
Upper middle class - with 1+ Visa travelling international (International Once in a year)	1M50%60%	5L	3L
Upper middle class - with 1+ Visa travelling international (2-3 times in a year)	0.2M50%40%	1L	0.4L
Luxury class with US / UK Visas travelling international (International Once in 2-3 years)	1M40%50%	4L	2L
Luxury class with US / UK Visas travelling international (International Once in a year)	2M30%40%	6L	2.5L
Luxury class with US / UK Visas travelling international (International 2-3 times a year)	3M25%30%	7.5L	2L
Luxury class with 1+ Visas travelling international (International Once in 2-3 years)	0.4M40%50%	1.6L	0.8L
Luxury class with 1+ Visas travelling international (International Once in a year)	1M30%40%	3L	1L
Luxury class with 1+ Visas travelling international (International 2-3 times a year)	0.6M25%30%	1.5L	0.5L

TAM 50,70,000*$3000 = $15.2B

SOM 24,30,000*$3000 = $7.3B

Channel Analysis

A quick search on SimilarWeb and Semrush, shared interesting insights on Organic and Paid search for Pickyourtrail.

Organic Search Analysis

*Competitors selected are a Indian platforms - early scaling (Traveltriangle), early scaling online established offline (GTholidays), Mature scaling (MMT), Indirect Global competitor (Trip advisor) keeping in mind, Tripadvisor and Pickyourtrail solve for similar use case of searching and selecting activities.

Organic Search of Pickyourtrail is 46% whereas all competitors are at around 70%.

The website rank is at #1676 as compared to the competitors

Semrush monthly data shows

Bounce rate has been improving and next image shows the bounce rate is decently good as compared to competitors.
Visits have gone slightly up but unique visitors are slightly down.

Bounce rate better than competitors

SERP Analysis - Ranked in 1-10 is potentially good but being the rank #9 in travel industry which is extremely competitive might not be the great move.

Pickyourtrail has cracked and scaled Bali

BUT!!!

In their Keyword analysis, results show Pickyourtrail's keywords for Bali are mid-low ranked ones, which has reach of 1.4K, 1.3K

Maldives as well seems to be one of their best ones, as most of their reviews on app are of Maldives.

In their Keyword analysis, results show Pickyourtrail's keywords for Bali are low ranked ones, which has reach of 1.9K, 1.3K

In a nutshell

SERP is at good position of 1-10 but Pickyourtrail is ranked at #9, it is not great.
While the website performance might not be good, bounce rate is better than competitors.
Organic search is not as good as competitors potential reason could be mid-low ranked keywords.

Paid Search Analysis

Paid Search does not seem very common in the industry and might not be very lucrative.

Semrush results show Paid search is contributing to 5% of the traffic only and is stagnant through out the quarter.

As per the above Analysis, Organic search seems to be lucrative for us and Paid search does not seem to be given the competitive analysis as well.

Product Integrations: This could be a potential one with partnerships with Atlys but could be really time consuming. Scale could be great but risk could be high, as per few sources (Youtube videos and articles), the platforms tend to promote 'Guarenteed visa' which is not a correct way to look at Visa, due to security risks in the industry. Hence it does not seem to be like a potential partner. While we can have other partners, like Assembly, Nasher Miles, but we are not sure how impactful could it be.

Referral: As per Similarweb, this as been not utilized as a distribution channel. Significantly, it's not utilised by all competitors. This could potentially be because of higher conversion time and lower frequency in travel as an industry.

Content loops: Interestingly, Pickyourtrail has lately been very active on their Instagram in last 1 year, and would be great to experiment here. Essentially, they have interesting features launched on their app, which can be utilised to build content loops.

Channel Prioritisation Framework

Channel name	Cost	Flexibility	Effort	Lead time	Scale
Organic	Low	High	Low	Low	High
Content loops	Medium	Medium	Medium	Low	High
Referral	Low	Medium	Medium	High	Medium
Paid Ads	High	Medium	High	Low	Low
Product Integrations	High	Low	High	Medium	Medium

Moving ahead with Organic Search and Content loops

Organic Search

Following potential keyword in each category, and company is in a mid stage of early scaling, where they could have potentially tried out SEO as a strategy, I would focus on optimising keywords looking at the search volume, search result to click rate, potential sign ups.

Potential signups is keeping in mind, the keywords include Pickyourtrail's best-selling packages.

	Keywords	Search volume	Search result to click rate	Potential sign ups
Use case	Bali honeymoon packages	90K	High	High
	Maldives honeymoon packages	70K	High	High
Brand	Pickyourtrail chennai	2K	High	High
Competitor	Makemytrip	1.8M	Low	Low
	Makemytrip flights	1M	Low	Low
	Tripadvisor	1.3M	Low	Low
Use case topic	Bank holidays 2023	200K	Medium	Medium
	Places to visit in Bali	52K	High	High
	Things to do in Turkey	38K	High	High

Organic search keyword to optimise for - Bali honeymoon packages, Maldives honeymoon packages, Bank holidays in 2023. We can further optimise for Places to visit in Bali and Things to do in Turkey.

Content loop

Keeping our users in centre, users interests and what they love talking about has been around - Travel, Food, Aesthetics, Beaches, Cafes. Where will they consume this content and share it - Could possibly be Instagram and WhatsApp.

While our users spent time on various apps, these 4 apps - Instagram, Youtube, WhatsApp, Linkedin, potential distribution channels where they could possibly share such content could be Instagram and WhatsApp.

Pickyourtrail's interesting testimonial story feature ✨

Pickyourtrail has a very interesting way to show it's customer testimonials. Attention span of users have decreased due to Instagram reels and stories. Let's all agree, Customer testimonials could be a boring read. and that's why Pickyourtrail has built a feature to showcase customer testimonial in an interesting yet a beautiful way which shares memories of users in an aesthetic manner, appealing for others users in a story format

They have this similarly for showcasing their resorts in a story format (Refer 2nd image)

Now imagine, the users are generally in an exploratory mode while browsing on Pickyourtrail app. They are either exploring or aspiring to plan a trip or planning one. What if we show the users the beautiful spots of their dream destinations in form of stories, need to be very rare but yet beautiful and aesthetic photos, could be nature or any cafe there and show them a message - 'Wish you were here? Don't feel the FOMO alone, let your friends feel it with you, haha!' and showing a CTA to share on Instagram. They can share it on Instagram stories or Instagram Chat and caption can be 'Mentally, I'm here'

Whatsapp or Instagram?

Where your users spend time

Potential shares

(where can they potentially share this)

Distribution potential

Impact

Instagram

High

1. One is to many

2. One is to one

High

Medium