This article was updated on January 14, 2026 with an up-to-date FAQ section.
Today we look forward to another fantastic interview with SalesWings partner Robin, co-founder and CEO at AFDigital, a South-east Asia based Salesforce Multi-Cloud Partner with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore and the Philippines. Robin has in-depth experience implementing, running and optimizing dozens of Salesforce Marketing Cloud instances for companies like Malaysia Airlines, Samsonite, Traveloka, or Audi.
SalesWings: Great to have you today, Robin, let’s get started straight-away: what are some of the decisive travel industry characteristics from a marketing perspective? What makes it unique, and challenging? Both from a company perspective, and a buyer’s behavioral perspective.
Robin Leonard: I find the travel industry really interesting because customer behaviour is so diversely unique at an individual level, yet, somewhat predictable at a macro data level. Travel bookings are typically driven by 4 elements:
- socio-economic status
- place of residence
- seasonality
- holiday calendars
There is an overwhelming amount of travel data available for organisations to take advantage of; especially on social media, where people share their thoughts around travel inspiration, booking problems/success, travel moments, FOMO etc. Travel companies can track website and click behaviour to inform them of buyer preferences and interests. Consider a tour group company that gets customers from different countries: if they were to proactively market to each country, they would be wise to consider time of year for seasonalities, and tailoring the package to suit the language and travel expectations of the local market.
Most of the travel industry plan 5-10 years ahead to protect massive investments in fixed assets like airline fleets, ships, hotel accommodation etc. Their ability to plan accurately is limited to what is known today plus what we think could happen tomorrow. Take the airline industry: a business that invests $1b in airplanes needs to ensure they are efficiently utilised for the next X years to pay for that investment. Obviously it’s a lot harder than it looks, hence why these organisations are investing in smart technology that can help ensure assets are maximised.
The greatest implication with long term strategy in this environment is the rapid nature of technology change, Marketers need to be able to think long term with technology investment, but act in an iterative, agile way – always testing and learning. What’s working today may not work tomorrow.
SalesWings: Your team is helping travel companies ranging from airlines, airports, hospitality to tour operators to create customer journeys that drive revenues with Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Why Marketing Cloud?
Robin Leonard: We actually just fell into Salesforce Marketing Cloud, we started the business originally as an Integrated Marketing Agency with a focus on leveraging the latest technology to help our clients. Initially we made some plays into hologram events and guerilla marketing tactics, but eventually our wise Bitcoin Robot investor John Orrock suggested we look at Radian6 which had just been acquired by Salesforce.
This was the best decision we had ever made. Shortly after, Salesforce acquired ExactTarget followed by a string of others, that since have contributed to making Marketing Cloud #1 in omni-channel marketing automation for B2C and B2B. [For a Salesforce Marketing Cloud overview go here]
Because we have always been focused on marketing as a practice, we now find ourselves in a compelling position where we are one of a handful of partners in APAC that know how to both implement, and operate, a digital marketing strategy using Marketing Cloud. Marketing Cloud is a great fit for the travel sector because it serves B2B, B2C and B2B2C models which are all quickly merging into one global marketplace.
Travel organisations are shifting their strategy toward first party data capture. The objective is clearly understanding customer needs, and engaging with them personally and at scale with relevant offers and travel experiences.
This is what a tool like Marketing Cloud does for breakfast.
SalesWings: What customer journeys do you recommend any travel company should build within Journey Builder, and what are some of your favourite Marketing Cloud studios that you love to leverage?
Robin Leonard: For travel there are some obvious journeys I’d recommend to start with:
- Welcome Series
- Abandoned Cart
- Birthday/Anniversary Greeting
- Cross-Sell/Upsell Journey
- Pre-Experience Reminder
- Post-Experience Survey
- Service NPS
- Re-Engagement Journey
My personal favourite solution in Marketing Cloud is Social Studio because it’s super easy to use and ultra powerful. I also really love using Journey Builder to map my own journeys. If you had shown me this technology 10 years ago it would have blown my mind.
We’ve used Social Studio for all sorts of interesting use cases. One of my favourite examples was a social listening study we did in Malaysia on the concerns faced by pregnant women, and found all sorts of wonderful findings such as the concern mothers had over Zeke, to how there were trends in how mothers expressed their happiness and disatisfaction over their bodies at the same time. Another study – not related to travel but still intersting – looked at “Halal Beauty” and “K-Beauty”, to understand how it was impacting cosmetic trends across ASEAN countries. K-Beauty (Korean beauty) was found to be most influential in Thailand… Surprisingly or unsurprisingly – they love their K-Pop!
SalesWings: How important is it to leverage customer behavior in delivering personal customer journeys? What behaviors do you recommend to listen to, and what action should marketers from the travel industry take upon them?
Robin Leonard: Companies are evolving towards proactively listening to how groups take decisions. For instance, when groups are looking to book flights, there are multiple decision makers evolved. Companies should look for related signals on the website, and take immediate action at the sales level, while marketing omni-channel. We partner with SalesWings because is a great product that complements Salesforce Marketing Cloud with real-time lead activity tracking.
(interview continues below)
Another of my favourite tactics with Salesforce Marketing Cloud is to leverage both Advertising Studio and Social Studio together, to target social advertising based on keywords. For instance, we can serve an ad “Flights to India” to somebody that has just tweeted they are planning to fly to India. Highly contextual, highly relevant, and 100% automated, then if they show interest a human can start a social chat immediately.
I recommend marketers in the travel industry to focus on two things:
- Build as much 1st party data as possible
- Leverage that data to increase customer lifetime value
SalesWings: What role does lead scoring play for you around the orchestration of marketing and sales efforts? In business travel, for instance?
Robin Leonard: The hardest part about amassing so much 1st party data is knowing what to do with it. For us we leverage many tools and tactics to highlight the data that requires human action or even for a specific automation to be triggered. Lead scoring is a fantastic way to help teams prioritize both new B2B leads who are coming inbound, as well as understanding which leads from large existing marketing databases need to be re-surfaced to an outbound sales team.
Having access to technology that can enrich data with smart insights like grades, lead scores and tags, makes it a lot easier to visualise and trigger appropriate action. We use SalesWings to help us gather email and website tracking data in Salesforce CRM and enrich it with amazing insights that help our sales teams take action, and our marketing teams build segment, target and optimise experiences.
SalesWings: Thanks for sharing these amazing insights Rob! On a last note; what does Robin Leonard do after switching off his computer? Do you go to the beach to surf like a “good Australian”?
Robin Leonard: Hahaha no, I’m a Kiwi, and while I love the beach, my fair viking skin prevents me from enjoying it for too long. When I’m not plugged in, you can find me deep in the forest, alone and meditating. I used to love partying and be quite extroverted, nowadays I crave rivers, birds and the silence of the wind.
I’m also a huge fan of Yuval Noah Harrari who wrote Sapiens, Homo Deus and more recently 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. That has been a real game changer for me, I’ve always been highly curious about purpose, existence, consciousness and I feel like I’m clear on most of these points now-ish. Happiness is an illusion of our bodies.
Thanks for these incredible insights. Are there any blogs you’d recommend travel professionals subscribe to? And where and how can marketing professionals get in touch with you for advice and support?
Feel free to sign up to the AFDigital blog or follow me on LinkedIn, I write in both places from time to time.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I build omnichannel journeys in SFMC?
- How should I measure journey impact and ROI?
- What adaptations are required for marketing automation in a B2B2C context?
- In what way can I use lead scoring for business travel?
- Any advice for first-party data strategy setup in SFMC?
- Which journeys tend to move revenue fastest?
- What alternatives to Social Studio exist for social listening?
- How can I use advertising audiences in a compliant manner?
How do I build omnichannel journeys in SFMC?
Start with Journey Builder to orchestrate email, mobile, and ads from a single canvas, using behavioral triggers and data entry sources.
Map core lifecycle moments (welcome, browse/abandon, pre-trip, in-trip, and post-trip) then define goals, decision splits, and exit criteria. Ideally, you’ll connect Sales Cloud or Data Extensions for audience entry, and use re-entry rules to manage repeats for frequent travelers. Build modular content and test subject lines, send times, and channel mix. Finally, monitor Journey History to spot drop-offs and optimize.
Tip: standardize naming conventions and goal metrics before launch for easier reporting.
How should I measure journey impact and ROI?
Define journey-level goals, attribute revenue to assisted touches, and report by traveler segment, route, and partner to see true lifecycle impact.
Use Journey History and Einstein (or Intelligence) dashboards to track conversions, time-to-book, and ancillary attach. Compare test/control cohorts and incorporate media cost from your ad platforms for incrementality. You’ll want to share insights with revenue management to align fare strategy and promos with observed demand signals. For roadmap context on SFMC’s direction and features, review this expert perspective.
Tip: operationalize a monthly “journey review” with stakeholders to prioritize fixes.
What adaptations are required for marketing automation in a B2B2C context?
In B2B2C, you’ll design partner-aware journeys, segmenting by agency/OTA relationships while still personalizing communications for the end traveler.
Use account and contact attributes to route messages by partner tier, negotiated fare types, and service levels. Control branding with dynamic content and data filters, and use separate journeys for co-op campaigns versus direct channels. In order to avoid partner outreach and your direct journeys colliding, why not establish deduplication and preference-center rules. Define shared KPIs (booking value, ancillaries, and repeat rate) to evaluate partner performance.
Tip: create a shared playbook so partners understand targeting rules and creative specs.
In what way can I use lead scoring for business travel?
Use lead scoring to prioritize corporate accounts and travelers by intent signals, surfacing high-value opportunities to sales and account managers.
Combine web and email engagement, pricing lookups, route searches, and proposal requests into a score that reflects recency and fit. Alerts can be triggered for spikes in route interest or RFP activity, and sync scores to Sales Cloud for routing. Scores also help suppress low-intent contacts from expensive channels and re-engage dormant accounts. For a packaged approach aligned with SFMC and Salesforce CRM, review this practical framework.
Tip: start with thresholds that mirror your sales capacity, then adjust monthly.
Any advice for first-party data strategy setup in SFMC?
Prioritize consented first-party data collection, unified profiles, and clear activation rules that respect privacy and deliver measurable personalization.
Stand up a robust preference center, capture event-level behaviors (searches, cabin filters, ancillaries), and standardize keys across web, app, and POS. To model trip context and traveler status, use data views and Data Extensions, then activate with dynamic content and decision splits. Start with a few high-impact attributes (route affinity, party size, flexibility window) before expanding. Expect stronger retention and conversion from personalized offers.
Tip: document your “golden record” fields and governance early.
Which journeys tend to move revenue fastest?
Start with abandoned search/cart, price-watch, pre-departure upsell, and post-trip win-back—these reliably drive short-term bookings and ancillaries.
Abandoned flows recover intent with itinerary reminders and flexible-date suggestions; price-watch automations nudge when fares drop or inventory shifts. Pre-departure upsell (bags, seats, lounge, insurance) boosts margin, and win-back leverages recency and route affinity. You can also layer in birthday/anniversary moments and elite-status triggers for surprise-and-delight. Measure revenue attribution at journey- and activity-level to prove impact.
Tip: A/B test frequency caps and channel mix before scaling broadly.
What alternatives to Social Studio exist for social listening?
Since Social Studio retired in November 2024, many teams now pair Salesforce with Sprout Social for listening and engagement.
Use Sprout to monitor destination trends, disruptions, and service issues, then route cases to Service Cloud and audience tags to Marketing Cloud. When sentiment or keywords spike (e.g., “visa delays,” “airport closure”), journeys can be triggered related to those topics. Align governance so care responses, marketing replies, and partner communications are coordinated. Validate data retention and permissions during handoffs.
Tip: build saved searches for top routes and seasonal events to anticipate demand.
How can I use advertising audiences in a compliant manner?
Use Marketing Cloud Advertising to sync consented CRM audiences to platforms, suppress ineligible travelers, and automate campaign steps from journeys.
Activate lookalikes from high-value bookings, but always include compliance fields (consent status, region) and platform-specific restrictions. Lead Capture allows you to send form fills directly into Data Extensions, and orchestrate follow-ups within Journey Builder. Maintain audience freshness with nightly refreshes and strict retention windows for regulated markets.
Tip: create a compliance checklist per market before launching media.
About Robin Leonard and AFDigital
Robin, a proud Kiwi, is the CEO and Co-Founder of AFDigital, a Salesforce Consulting Partner.
Before starting the business in Manila in 2011, he had a background in Management Consulting, Business Analysis, and Agile Project Management, working for large organisations like IBM and Vodafone.
Robin has a passion for visualising the future and fitting technology dots together.
