We’re on the cusp of summer. You know the drill: it’s time for businesses in the travel industry to level up their travel packages for summer.
While it can be a complex process due to the highly competitive nature of the travel and tourism industry, it can be a highly profitable season for travel companies. After all, travel and tourism earned $185 billion worth of bookings in 2019. Now that the pandemic is mostly over, it’s a great opportunity to take advantage of all those revenge travelers.
This article will share some marketing strategies to help you make the most of this lucrative season. But before we get into them, it’s important to understand your target audience.
Understand Who Your Customers Are and What They Want
Knowing your ideal customer profile is the key to a successful sales cycle.
While most businesses focus on what value they can provide their customers, you can do a 180 on them and focus on what your customers can do for you.
- Can they bring in more business for you?
- Can they help spread the word about your business?
- Can they write a review or testimonial that will help you gain social proof?
Once you’re clear on their benefits, you can improve your products, offer discounts and packages, and develop strategies to promote products with better insight into how they’ll resonate with the masses. This will enhance response rates, optimize customer acquisition, and drive brand loyalty and profitability.
7 Winning Marketing Tips That Can Help You Attract More Customers
There are various strategies you can use to expand your audience. We’ve included our top ones below. Customize them for your business so you can use them to promote your summer travel packages.
1. Door-to-Door Marketing
Door-to-door marketing generates almost $30 billion in sales annually. So, if you’re trying to spread brand awareness, try your luck with door hanger advertising using one of these door hanger templates. They’re great ways to spread the word about your services and introduce your business to neighborhoods for enhanced reach.
Plus, because you typically hand-deliver them, they may give you opportunities to personally sell to your customers — and at minimal cost!
2. Leverage Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing is an old-school method that can help you reach new audiences. As 92% of consumers are more receptive to recommendations from people they know, it could work more effectively than other means of advertising.
If someone had a satisfying experience with your company, they’ll readily promote your services without any incentives. Of course, you can always offer incentives to increase the likelihood of being recommended.
3. Check Out Email Marketing
Email is nearly 40% more effective for acquiring customers, providing an average return on investment of $36 for every dollar spent. With such favorable numbers, email marketing should be a top choice for businesses in the travel industry.
It allows you to reach prospects and follow up with personalized messages so you remain top of mind.
Just ensure you don’t overdo it. Too many emails can turn off customers, leading to poor engagement, dismal open rates, and higher probabilities of being reported as spam.
4. Optimize Your Website and Make It Mobile-responsive
Seventy-six percent of consumers look at a brand’s online presence before visiting in-store.
So, if you truly want to sell travel packages, optimize your website, offer flexible payment options, and use storyselling in your content. You can also increase your credibility and brand awareness by publishing travel guides and blogs to engage and entice your audience with new travel destinations.
When it comes to making your website optimized for mobile phones, did you know that 48% of US smartphone users have shared that they’re comfortable planning their entire trip through their cell phones? In addition, mobile-optimized websites appear higher in search results. If those facts weren’t enough to convince you, consider that 20% of bookings were made on smartphones compared to the 2% that were made on computers.
5. Don’t Forget Social Media Marketing
More than half the world — a staggering 4.76 billion people — use social media.
So, if you’re trying to reach a broad audience, that’s where you need to be.
Set up a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and/or Snapchat page to be where your customers are. Post fun and relatable content to increase engagement.
For example, the reel feature on Instagram has 2 billion active users monthly, so it could help you reach a wider audience. Apart from that, reply to direct messages and comments, be transparent in your practices, and accept and implement feedback. These social media practices will help you stay active and accessible to your customers on various social platforms.
6. Build Social Proof Through Reviews
What kind of reviews you get and how you handle them speak a lot about how you’ll treat your customers.
Whether you’re a new or established business, ask guests to share their thoughts. They’re 3.6 times more likely to do so and 16% more likely to be “extremely” positive. As one in six customers reads reviews before making a purchase, this strategy could yield great results.
If you get any negative reviews, don’t feel miffed and remove them from your site. Sixty-two percent of consumers don’t like purchasing from companies that censor their reviews. Instead, practice damage control by saying something like, “Please contact our manager so we can rectify this immediately.”
7. Put up Posters
Twenty-four percent of people said they made a purchase after seeing a business poster.
So, if you’re trying to promote your summer travel packages, you can create eye-catching posters and put them up in public places with high visibility.
Instead of shelling out big bucks for designers, consider using travel poster templates from PosterMyWall to capture your audience’s attention. Also, make sure to add a CTA or call to action, as it has the power to prompt your target audience to do what you want them to.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, there are tons of strategies you can implement to promote your summer travel packages. But before you do, get to know your customers, what you can get out of them, and how you can appeal to their needs.
Once you know them, it will be much easier to choose and prioritize appropriate marketing tactics that will help you reach them and turn them into paying clients.
Resources:
- https://comboapp.com/tourism-marketing-agency/luxury-resort-marketing-strategies
- https://digitalscholar.in/digital-marketing-strategies-for-travel-agency/
- https://geo-viz.com/premium-articles/9-killer-marketing-ideas-to-promote-vacation-packages/
- https://khmtravel.com/travel-agent-resources/9-ways-market-travel-agency/
- https://pro.regiondo.com/blog/how-to-promote-tour-packages/
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/11-best-proven-digital-marketing-strategies-travel-business-kothari/
- https://www.peek.com/pro/marketing/9-effective-marketing-strategies-for-tour-and-activity-operators
- https://www.quantzig.com/blog/customer-profile/
- https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/04/19/travel-marketing-tips
- https://www.zilliondesigns.com/blog/digital-marketing-travel-business/