Most travel agency owners live and breathe travel, but some leave marketing behind.
Marketing for travel agencies is complex, prices are generally low, competition is high and effort is key, so you probably prefer to get away on that trip you are trying to sell so hard.
Manage your website with new offers and content, have a booking engine, GDS, reviews, blogs, newsletters, and social networks at the beginning generates few results by making a hole in your pocket and removing the mood.
Before taking a step back, review your fundamentals, know the tools you have and their tactics to activate your marketing game.
Understand your customers
How can you implement a marketing strategy if you do not really understand your ideal customers?
Yes, getting geographic information is important, but the idea is to go beyond that, you must ask yourself what drives you to investigate, plan and reserve. What motivates them to travel? What frustrates them? Where do you find the information?
You can search for a free tool that can help you create your client's profile (buyer person). Define three main profiles and modify your website and marketing campaigns taking into account these profiles.
Observe your website
Your website should become the cornerstone of your marketing strategy, on the website, there are always points of improvement either in the conversion rates and in the user experience.
In general, we find elegant and contemporary web pages that may not be used to rank well in search engines, and while other web pages are poorly designed they are not easy to use.
What can you do to address this? Below I will give you some tips that you can use on your website.
Think receptively
Do not ignore mobile devices (tablets, smartphones) when building or redesigning your website, it is likely that 50% of your audience will browse your website from a mobile device, just imagine how frustrated they (customers) will feel to have to pinch and zoom in so you can see your web page well.
Track your visitors
Setting up and managing Google Analytics for your web page is vital. The data you will collect will tell you about the behavior of users such as how they found your site, which pages they visited, where they left, how long they stayed and much more. This information is invaluable so that you can guide your efforts in the commercial area, and remember that if you do not know the subject, you can go to an expert.
Simplify the design
The most successful online brands favor the minimum design which facilitates the search for information, your website must capture the essence of who you are and your brand and be easy to use (user experience) in addition to having enough content, and add strong calls to action to convert visits into sales.
Perform user tests, they are a good way to understand the experience, expectations, and frustrations that your client has when visiting your website.
Start the tests and be careful with the user experience
If the tests and your web page are what your customers expected, and you are converting visitors into sales, and you have already increased 5% in the conversion, you can keep repeating the same practices and you can find some tool to help you Improve the optimization and user experience of your website.
Circumscribe your marketing efforts to your website
Most of your information should be available on your site, therefore, do not waste ANY opportunity to generate traffic where you can track, monitor and always work to increase the potential customers.
Example: Let's say that you have sent a newsletter, you should only share a fragment to encourage readers to click and visit your site again. If you share the newsletter or any content on social networks you should apply the same.
Update regularly
Keep your content relevant and up-to-date, so that this drives your organic ranking in the search engines. Search engines love fresh content. Assign a member of your staff to keep updates on your website regularly.
Chatbots
My advice is to look for tools so you have an idea of how you can implement it and also discover how it works and can use it as a solution for your agency.
A chatbot is not a priority but you must take it into account.
Understand the micro-moments in travel
Your marketing strategy should take advantage of micro-moments, those moments when you DO SOMETHING, the moments when you are looking for your phone or another device to look, investigate, buy or discover something. These are the moments that shape your thinking and the moments when decisions are made.
I want to escape: dream moments
I want this trip to be perfect: planning moments
I want to reserve it: moments of reservation
I want to make the most of it: experience moments
Understand that these are critical moments in the customer journey (buyer journey) will help you to market and be present when your customer needs it most.
Graphic design
Yes, the design is your silent ambassador of the brand, you can provide energy to the staff, strategy, campaigns, and sales, but poor design can make everything fall apart.
If you still do not have a style for your brand (or it is outdated), call a professional, a good designer will work with you to create a style guide that links your brand. Talk to the designer about your brand and help them understand their ideal client. The different colors and styles will work for different clients.
Once you identify your brand identity, use it anywhere and anytime!
Social networks
Social media can be a profitable channel for travel agency marketing. Choosing the right platform is important, but using the right strategy is even more important. Carefully consider your objectives and your target market.
From my experience, Facebook continues to be one of the best social platforms for travel agencies and tour operators in terms of generating clicks on the website, you can work with personalized audiences, prompted publications, tests, and a little planning.
Facebook Insights will allow you to track, modify and manage your strategy according to your goals if you do not have time develop a social network strategy with an agency or a freelancer to maximize your investment.
Follow the most successful travel agencies on Facebook and you will learn from them!
Email Marketing
Your electronic mail base is one of the most valuable assets, the simple fact of adding a subscription form on your website is important because if a visitor leaves without registering, you may have lost a valuable advantage.
Encourage your offline database to subscribe to your newsletter by email and then implement a strategy to start communicating with them effectively. A good newsletter will generate traffic to your website and encourage actions on social networks and generate leads.
Pay attention to the design of the newsletter, if it generates or does not generate any response if it generates a negative response, then redesign a new bulletin, also take into account the frequency with which you plan to send emails and what type of content will be included.
Segment your database so that each reader receives content relevant to them, work your database and remember that these are customers who have chosen to know more about you, so make each email worthwhile.
Google Adwords and Retargeting (online advertising)
Traditional advertising on high-traffic sites can be expensive and click-through rates are low, but if you do it well, Google Adwords and Retargeting will provide you with a positive ROI. This is because you can target your ads to those who have shown interest and intent to buy your product.
Adwords is very competitive and difficult to use, what can happen is that you do not feel very comfortable when managing it, I advise you to seek professional help, otherwise, it could be a terribly expensive experiment.
Videos and travel go hand in hand, reading about travel destinations is one thing, but watching a video gives life and inspires the person to want to go to a destination. These days it is possible to produce a quality video at a low cost if you know where to look.
Set up a YouTube channel for your business, publish snippets of your itineraries, staff vacations, meetings, client testimonials, practical guides, destination reviews, that is, all the content that fits your objectives and your clients. Optimize your videos to keep people as long as possible by watching them.
I advise you that if you are incorporating YouTube videos on your website, avoid slowing down your page and generate a custom YouTube insertion code.
Blogs + Content Marketing = Share your knowledge
If you have a little time, involve your team members in the blog, your blog entries do not have to be long, but they should be VALUABLE and RELEVANT for your target clients, you can look for good examples of travel-related writing.
It is essential that the blog is part of your content marketing strategy. Understand the journey of your client and how you can use the content to help visitors to your website and also convert them into potential customers.
Reviews
One report shows that 81% of travelers consider travel reviews important and that 49% will not book anywhere without first reading the reviews.
You can increase sales and maximize revenue through travel reviews, but how? Make it easy for your customers to leave reviews on sites like Trip Advisor, Expedia, on your Google My Business page, social networks and on your website. Most importantly, do not forget to check and answer if the need arises.
Reviews can not only increase consumer confidence in your brand and products but user-generated content that can help improve your website's ranking and increase conversion rates
Take advantage of your suppliers
There is nothing new here, but how many of you are not using your suppliers to their full potential?
Make commercial agreements where you can encourage them to obtain exclusive ads for bookings made. Perhaps someone can provide accommodation for you to give to the subscribers of your newsletter.
Live broadcasts
Thanks to Periscope and Facebook Live, anyone with a smartphone can make a live video and become an announcer. Live broadcast is more powerful than video, because it opens communication and allows you to see and respond in real time.
An example of how you could use it is to make live broadcasts of any of your tours. Giving your followers access to the tour and really observe how it is and can ask questions.
If you have a tour on a cruise ship, you can chat with the cruise agency to schedule a live broadcast while touring the ship showing attractions and answering questions.
This adjusts to any event that you want to transmit to communicate with your customers live. Obviously, this article is just a brushstroke of everything you can achieve with Inbound Marketing.
If you want your travel agency or your tourism company to increase your sales, we made custom software to automate your agency to get a free online demo now...
Marketing for travel agencies is complex, prices are generally low, competition is high and effort is key, so you probably prefer to get away on that trip you are trying to sell so hard.
Manage your website with new offers and content, have a booking engine, GDS, reviews, blogs, newsletters, and social networks at the beginning generates few results by making a hole in your pocket and removing the mood.
Before taking a step back, review your fundamentals, know the tools you have and their tactics to activate your marketing game.
Understand your customers
How can you implement a marketing strategy if you do not really understand your ideal customers?
Yes, getting geographic information is important, but the idea is to go beyond that, you must ask yourself what drives you to investigate, plan and reserve. What motivates them to travel? What frustrates them? Where do you find the information?
You can search for a free tool that can help you create your client's profile (buyer person). Define three main profiles and modify your website and marketing campaigns taking into account these profiles.
Observe your website
Your website should become the cornerstone of your marketing strategy, on the website, there are always points of improvement either in the conversion rates and in the user experience.
In general, we find elegant and contemporary web pages that may not be used to rank well in search engines, and while other web pages are poorly designed they are not easy to use.
What can you do to address this? Below I will give you some tips that you can use on your website.
Think receptively
Do not ignore mobile devices (tablets, smartphones) when building or redesigning your website, it is likely that 50% of your audience will browse your website from a mobile device, just imagine how frustrated they (customers) will feel to have to pinch and zoom in so you can see your web page well.
Track your visitors
Setting up and managing Google Analytics for your web page is vital. The data you will collect will tell you about the behavior of users such as how they found your site, which pages they visited, where they left, how long they stayed and much more. This information is invaluable so that you can guide your efforts in the commercial area, and remember that if you do not know the subject, you can go to an expert.
Simplify the design
The most successful online brands favor the minimum design which facilitates the search for information, your website must capture the essence of who you are and your brand and be easy to use (user experience) in addition to having enough content, and add strong calls to action to convert visits into sales.
Perform user tests, they are a good way to understand the experience, expectations, and frustrations that your client has when visiting your website.
Start the tests and be careful with the user experience
If the tests and your web page are what your customers expected, and you are converting visitors into sales, and you have already increased 5% in the conversion, you can keep repeating the same practices and you can find some tool to help you Improve the optimization and user experience of your website.
Circumscribe your marketing efforts to your website
Most of your information should be available on your site, therefore, do not waste ANY opportunity to generate traffic where you can track, monitor and always work to increase the potential customers.
Example: Let's say that you have sent a newsletter, you should only share a fragment to encourage readers to click and visit your site again. If you share the newsletter or any content on social networks you should apply the same.
Update regularly
Keep your content relevant and up-to-date, so that this drives your organic ranking in the search engines. Search engines love fresh content. Assign a member of your staff to keep updates on your website regularly.
Chatbots
My advice is to look for tools so you have an idea of how you can implement it and also discover how it works and can use it as a solution for your agency.
A chatbot is not a priority but you must take it into account.
Understand the micro-moments in travel
Your marketing strategy should take advantage of micro-moments, those moments when you DO SOMETHING, the moments when you are looking for your phone or another device to look, investigate, buy or discover something. These are the moments that shape your thinking and the moments when decisions are made.
I want to escape: dream moments
I want this trip to be perfect: planning moments
I want to reserve it: moments of reservation
I want to make the most of it: experience moments
Understand that these are critical moments in the customer journey (buyer journey) will help you to market and be present when your customer needs it most.
Graphic design
Yes, the design is your silent ambassador of the brand, you can provide energy to the staff, strategy, campaigns, and sales, but poor design can make everything fall apart.
If you still do not have a style for your brand (or it is outdated), call a professional, a good designer will work with you to create a style guide that links your brand. Talk to the designer about your brand and help them understand their ideal client. The different colors and styles will work for different clients.
Once you identify your brand identity, use it anywhere and anytime!
Social networks
Social media can be a profitable channel for travel agency marketing. Choosing the right platform is important, but using the right strategy is even more important. Carefully consider your objectives and your target market.
From my experience, Facebook continues to be one of the best social platforms for travel agencies and tour operators in terms of generating clicks on the website, you can work with personalized audiences, prompted publications, tests, and a little planning.
Facebook Insights will allow you to track, modify and manage your strategy according to your goals if you do not have time develop a social network strategy with an agency or a freelancer to maximize your investment.
Follow the most successful travel agencies on Facebook and you will learn from them!
Email Marketing
Your electronic mail base is one of the most valuable assets, the simple fact of adding a subscription form on your website is important because if a visitor leaves without registering, you may have lost a valuable advantage.
Encourage your offline database to subscribe to your newsletter by email and then implement a strategy to start communicating with them effectively. A good newsletter will generate traffic to your website and encourage actions on social networks and generate leads.
Pay attention to the design of the newsletter, if it generates or does not generate any response if it generates a negative response, then redesign a new bulletin, also take into account the frequency with which you plan to send emails and what type of content will be included.
Segment your database so that each reader receives content relevant to them, work your database and remember that these are customers who have chosen to know more about you, so make each email worthwhile.
Google Adwords and Retargeting (online advertising)
Traditional advertising on high-traffic sites can be expensive and click-through rates are low, but if you do it well, Google Adwords and Retargeting will provide you with a positive ROI. This is because you can target your ads to those who have shown interest and intent to buy your product.
Adwords is very competitive and difficult to use, what can happen is that you do not feel very comfortable when managing it, I advise you to seek professional help, otherwise, it could be a terribly expensive experiment.
Videos and travel go hand in hand, reading about travel destinations is one thing, but watching a video gives life and inspires the person to want to go to a destination. These days it is possible to produce a quality video at a low cost if you know where to look.
Set up a YouTube channel for your business, publish snippets of your itineraries, staff vacations, meetings, client testimonials, practical guides, destination reviews, that is, all the content that fits your objectives and your clients. Optimize your videos to keep people as long as possible by watching them.
I advise you that if you are incorporating YouTube videos on your website, avoid slowing down your page and generate a custom YouTube insertion code.
Blogs + Content Marketing = Share your knowledge
If you have a little time, involve your team members in the blog, your blog entries do not have to be long, but they should be VALUABLE and RELEVANT for your target clients, you can look for good examples of travel-related writing.
It is essential that the blog is part of your content marketing strategy. Understand the journey of your client and how you can use the content to help visitors to your website and also convert them into potential customers.
Reviews
One report shows that 81% of travelers consider travel reviews important and that 49% will not book anywhere without first reading the reviews.
You can increase sales and maximize revenue through travel reviews, but how? Make it easy for your customers to leave reviews on sites like Trip Advisor, Expedia, on your Google My Business page, social networks and on your website. Most importantly, do not forget to check and answer if the need arises.
Reviews can not only increase consumer confidence in your brand and products but user-generated content that can help improve your website's ranking and increase conversion rates
Take advantage of your suppliers
There is nothing new here, but how many of you are not using your suppliers to their full potential?
Make commercial agreements where you can encourage them to obtain exclusive ads for bookings made. Perhaps someone can provide accommodation for you to give to the subscribers of your newsletter.
Live broadcasts
Thanks to Periscope and Facebook Live, anyone with a smartphone can make a live video and become an announcer. Live broadcast is more powerful than video, because it opens communication and allows you to see and respond in real time.
An example of how you could use it is to make live broadcasts of any of your tours. Giving your followers access to the tour and really observe how it is and can ask questions.
If you have a tour on a cruise ship, you can chat with the cruise agency to schedule a live broadcast while touring the ship showing attractions and answering questions.
This adjusts to any event that you want to transmit to communicate with your customers live. Obviously, this article is just a brushstroke of everything you can achieve with Inbound Marketing.
If you want your travel agency or your tourism company to increase your sales, we made custom software to automate your agency to get a free online demo now...
Comments
Post a Comment