Remington Begg
I love inbound marketing just as much as I love traveling to the Caribbean. After all, my Caribbean travel blog is what launched my career into inbound marketing land. Travel agencies and travel agents can harness the same modern online marketing techniques I used to reach passionate Caribbean travelers. It’s all about reaching the right people at the right time with the right content.
Inbound marketing revolves around valuable content, and as a travel agent you have a tremendous amount of content topics right at your finger tips. Use it to draw people to you. Everything from specific restaurants in Spain, river cruises in Germany, the best beaches in the USVI--the content possibilities are endless. Putting all this great content together with an effective social media strategy, offer giveaways, and action inducing emails will bring your travel agency new qualified leads without wasting tons of money on traditional advertising or pay per click campaigns.
So how exactly can inbound marketing turn your travel agency into a top performer and have you booking more client trips? Follow the steps below and you’ll have more and more clients thanking you for all the magical memories.
Step 1 - Define your marketing goals
This seems obvious, but it is amazing how overlooked this step is. Destinations and travel businesses need to identify quantifiable goals that are realistic and that have deadlines. This is how you’re going to measure the success of your inbound campaign.
- How much more traffic do you want funneled to your website?
- How many new leads a month would you like?
- How many leads does it take to gain a customer?
Figure out how much traffic the average blog post brings in and that will give you the number of blog posts you’ll need to write. Find out how much traffic equals a lead and that will give you a target for the amount of blog content you’ll need to create. It all comes down to sales numbers and the goals you set.
Step 2 - Develop a travel inbound marketing plan
With goals set, the next step is to develop a plan that identifies your target traveler, the content they will find valuable, the keywords they will search, and the way they will be nurture and convert customers. Lay out a calendar that focuses your efforts around a schedule of tasks so that each employee is responsible. Determine if your goals can a be accomplished by your in-house team or if will you need to outsource.
Step 3 - Drive more visitors to your website
By creating remarkable content that answers questions that travelers are asking and promoting it through social media and email, you’ll be able to increase the number visitors to your site. Think of your website visitors as the top of your sales funnel. What questions are they typing into search engines like Google? Create content that answers those questions. Do this consistently and your website will become a travel destination hub of valuable information. Who are these people going to book from, the agency that helped answer questions, or the agency that didn’t?
Step 4 - Convert website visitors to leads
This is the most important part of inbound marketing. It’s not enough to get more visitors to your agency's website; you need to convert those potential travelers into leads. Anyone who has exhibited at a travel trade show knows that it doesn’t matter how many brochures you hand out; it’s how many real leads and customers you end up with. The same is true for your website. It’s great that visitors find your site, but what are you offering that will motivate them to give you their email address or phone number? Don’t expect a simple contact form to do the trick. You need to give something away.
The law of reciprocity means that to get something you need to give something in return. This law is a core component of inbound marketing. You’ll need to develop free ebooks that give people a more in-depth look at a destination, or perhaps dining coupons at select restaurants. People will gladly give their name and email for valuable offers, turning them into a lead and positioning your agency as a thought leader.
Step 5 - Nurture leads and convert to travelers
Once you convert a website visitor to a lead (by getting their name, email address, travel destination), the sales process kicks in. If you’re a travel agency or agent, this is pretty straightforward. Provide content around more targeted context. Know everything you can about your leads and give them the information they need while explaining why they should trust their vacation experience to you.
Step 6 - Measure everything
The beauty of travel inbound marketing is that you can measure everything. You can track what blog entry or social media post created a lead and converted it to a traveler. Keep doing what works and change what doesn’t.
So if you are a travel agent or destination marketer reading this blog entry, congratulations! You just discovered the secret sauce of travel inbound marketing. Now it’s time to create a website that is designed to specifically funnel visitors in and convert them into leads. Turn your knowledge of destinations into a tool to get found and grow your agency.
If you need help or would like to learn more, please contact us for a free travel inbound marketing assessment or a website that is specifically designed to generate more travel leads and increase your sales.
