Before planning a trip, today’s travel enthusiasts check out every single detail of their destination on social media. They peruse multiple websites for tour activity suggestions and hotel reviews. This, combined with hundreds of travel companies creating innovative and unique travel solutions, makes it a tremendous struggle to come up with effective marketing strategies as a travel agency.
Marketing for a travel company can prove to be very difficult as a lot of rivals are competing to get tourists on board with their travel curations. How should you stay on top of your rivals in this seething competition, where every other travel agency is offering equally exciting and luxurious travel opportunities?
In this blog, we will explore some of the most effective ways to keep your travel company alive in the soaring competition, with the most relevant marketing strategies to keep modern audiences coming back to your company.
What Struggle Tour & Travel Companies Are Facing Nowadays.
More than any other industry, tour & travel companies are also facing lots of struggles for building their brands, attracting clients so and so forth. We know in the era of digitization, where every business is going online, they build their brands on digital platforms like social media channels, websites, applications, etc.
But some people with old mindsets are still following the traditional approach. They are still expecting that we will get a client or business through referral, friends, relatives, etc.
One famous quote: “If you are not changing with time, then you will stay behind.”
Therefore, if businesses are acquiring digital presence, then you should also go with the flow. Because 94% of people do research before taking any action, like planning for travel, searching for rooms & hotels. So, as we know, with the challenges of tour & travel companies now, our next step will be to get an idea of how to overcome these challenges and make your brands visible to the maximum people. The following are the steps. Please go ahead.
Effective Marketing Strategies for Tour and Travel Agencies
As already noted, there is no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy for travel agencies. However, a solid marketing strategy will need to blend various elements like social media, paid marketing, content marketing, and local SEO.
- Social media marketing for travel agencies: How to do it
The principal aim of travel marketing is to get your potential clients to visualize their dream vacation to create sufficient interest in their minds. What better than social media to appeal to the visual imagination?
Stick to regular posts on two or three platforms that you think suit your target audience best. For travel agencies, visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are the best. These allow you to reach a wide range of customers. They also let the beauty and adventure characteristic of travel destinations speak for themselves.
You can use videos to provide virtual tours, post travel tips, and host Q&A sessions on travel topics. You may engage your audience with polls and quizzes to learn about their travel preferences. It is also useful to leverage influencer collabs for broadening your reach. - Paid marketing
Pay-per-click advertising on search engines like Google can be very useful for travel agencies to gain wider reach. You need to just create a compelling ad with attractive destinations and catchy copy, supported with relevant keywords. Here are some tips to maximize your investment in paid marketing –
Narrow down your keywords: You can use tools like Semrush to narrow down keywords based on what your target audience is mostly searching for on the internet.
Decide on offers: What will you offer people who are clicking on your ad? Is it a discount or a free travel guide? Or, would it be a complementary consultation? Based on what you think would appeal most to your audience, you can make a selection.
Set a budget: When it comes to paid marketing, setting your budget according to your exact requirements is crucial. You can start by making small investments and then expand them as you begin to get an idea of what is working with your target audience. Monitor campaign performances: You should monitor how well your ads are performing on a regular basis, or at pre-fixed intervals, like 7 days or 1 month. - Creating locally focused content
Travel agencies may miss out on a big market if they do not work towards local campaigns. Nearly 46% of Google searches have local intent. Hence, while making your marketing strategy, you need to optimize your website content with local keywords and phrases. This will ensure visibility in local search results, attracting the gaze of travelers who want to visit specific destinations.
Once you have narrowed down a list of locally focused keywords, you can write blog posts that highlight specific travel destinations or events. This establishes the authority of your agency on the particular tour experience.
You should also set up or claim your Google Business profile listing, and others like Yelp, Bing Places, and NextDoor. This will make sure that people looking up travel-related information online can find the accurate details about your agency. - Using seasonal SEO
Seasonality plays a great role in the travel industry. As a travel agency, you should take stock of the seasonal travel traffic trends and model your SEO strategies accordingly. This entails creating content and keywords that resonate with particular travel trends or seasons, weather patterns, or popular holiday periods. You can also optimize content on your website by including specific keywords during peak travel periods. This will allow you to achieve higher rankings on particular seasons of travel. - Travel content marketing
Most travel enthusiasts in this tech-savvy age love to browse through travel-related content online. Posting regular blogs on unique destinations, offbeat tour plans, and trending travel spots allows you to attract potential customers to your website. Other than blogs, you can also make use of videos, podcasts, travel guides, and infographics to connect with an interested audience. This allows you to showcase your expertise, highlight unique experiences, and offer deep insight to your audience.
Conclusion
Marketing for a tour and travel company has become a game of innovation and precision amidst the raging competition among various agencies. Investing in seasonal SEO, selective campaigns for travelers of different ages and with different interests, and crafting a unique and visually appealing social media profile can distinguish your travel company from others.