Running a travel business can be a fun ride. Helping people explore new destinations, resorts, and exquisite scenery can be fulfilling. Most travel businesses, however, waste too much time and money on exorbitant marketing plans that drain their finances, leaving behind the scope of their development. Here are five ways to attract new customers without breaking the bank to combat that.
Establish yourself as an expert
Traveling is an experience that varies from person to person, and everyone wishes to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience when opting for a travel agency. Anyone can book a flight and a resort and have a holiday, but people resort to travel agencies because they can provide an unmatched experience, which is where you come in.
Even though this isn’t an obvious marketing tactic, establishing yourself as an expert in the market by focusing on less explored destinations or new luxury hotels can help you get a head start, irrespective of the competition.
When you offer something new and exciting, you instantly communicate to your audience that you know what you’re doing and can accommodate their varying needs. You can amplify this further by formulating strategic partnerships that benefit you through exclusive discounts, prices, packages, and other exclusive perks that can help elevate the travel packages you offer.
Suppose you can offer something unique (in pricing, destination, experience, or amenities). In that case, you can use that as a marketing tactic and see how people refer you left, right, and center.
Optimize Google My Business (GMB)
Google My Business is a free tool that offers many marketing benefits when you create a profile. Having a GMB profile can significantly boost your visibility, giving you a greater chance of booking new clients and growing your business on a budget.
Listing your agency on GMB will increase your visibility in local searches and your chances of attracting clients. Updating your GMB profile, sharing packages and details regularly, and receiving reviews from clients in real-time will also improve its efficiency.
An added advantage of having a GMB profile is that you can research and understand what your target audience looks for or searches for when looking for travel packages and/or destinations. Doing so allows you to curate better, tailored packages catering to your clientele’s varying needs.
Build an engaging social media presence
Social media marketing is on the rise nowadays for all the right reasons. It is free (almost), its reach is unmatched, and it can help you develop a trusted and credible image online, which can be crucial for growing your agency and having people trust you with their travel choices.
Aim to make your social media profile a hub for all travel-related queries, offering insights into the global travel market and creating reels around different travel destinations and what times are the best, as this type of content can help people make informed choices and is suitable for engagement and visibility.
Use your social media profile to share and collect as much social proof as possible. Share testimonials from satisfied clients, reels of your previous travel packages (if you have photos and videos), interviews of resort staff to add credibility, resort tours, and destination guides.
Also, remember to engage with your community, answer queries promptly, and respond to comments as best you can. Keep your profile polished and professional using PosterMyWall’s travel poster templates to create static images of different travel plans and destinations to manage your profile easily.
Harness the power of content marketing
Content is king in today’s market; no business can market its products/services without it. Don’t think of content as videos and pictures; content goes beyond the A/V segment.
Work towards creating high-quality visual content by creating reels and videos and sharing images of travel destinations on your roster.
You can even share different itineraries of packages to help others know what’s in store for them if they opt for the package. Additionally, work towards creating informative content surrounding budget-friendly travel tips, how to have a safe travel experience as a foreigner, destination guides, dos and don’ts of different locations, etc.
Besides this, aim to have a blog where you can share the same information in text format. A blog can be beneficial for promoting your agency, as you can incorporate keywords, allowing you to leverage SEO and boost visibility. Remember to repurpose your content and mix up formats to keep it entertaining and time-friendly.
Leverage your email list
Those who fail to understand their full potential consider emails outdated marketing tools. Unlike other marketing tools, email marketing is more direct and targeted. It lands directly in your target audience’s inbox and isn’t a hit or miss.
Work towards creating organic lead magnets, such as free travel guides, destination rosters, travel checklists, etc. Offering these for free can encourage people to sign up for your newsletter, giving you access to their emails.
Once your mailing list is sorted, you can use emails to send out newsletters that offer exclusive, email-only discounts, upcoming destinations and/or packages, last-minute deals, and any upcoming discounts or deals on packages to help keep everyone interested in your agency. You can streamline this process by automating your mailing procedure and setting different schedules for different types of newsletters to allow you to utilize your time efficiently.
With these budget-friendly tips, you’ll have queries flowing in quickly. Remember to create packages that ensure the safety and entertainment of your customers and ensure recurring business with them. Also, the better your packages are, the more likely they are to refer you to their circle, and no marketing tool is better than positive word-of-mouth. Good luck!
