With COVID-19 plaguing the world the economic status of most industries it is no wonder that businesses are finding it hard to grow in 2020.
One of the hardest hit industries this year is the travel and tourism industry. However, all hope is not lost and as the world slowly works around the Pandemic travel agencies can take this temporary stop in business to ensure their reach and authority grows online.
Now digital marketing strategy for travel agencies include all the tools and techniques of any other business but this year you can ensure maximum bang for your buck in terms of growth.
So here are some tips you can utilize in your digital marketing efforts in 2020 that will help you grow online.
Taking A Look At Who Your Customers Are (Again)
It’s been a long time since you took a look at your target audience. With the sudden change in the world, this would be a great time for you to look and recalibrate your target audience metrics. This way you would be able to determine the new personas for your target audiences.
So when you design a digital marketing strategy this year it will help you tailor it according to the needs of the 2020 audience. Make sure you dive into determining your new buyer personas now before making your second quarter digital marketing strategy for 2020.
Take A Look At Your Website (Again)
A successful business has an amazing website. A good website is the cornerstone of any high-performance digital marketing plan. Any good digital marketing agency will tell you that there is always room for improvement in conversion rates and user experience.
Make sure you check if your site is dated and if it doesn’t respond well to mobile devices. Check if your website is cluttered with useless content or is slow to load. Make sure to use tools like Google’s Test My Site tool to check the site’s speed.
With industry knowledge and the online landscape being everchanging ensuring a perfect website will require specific skillsets and continuous monitoring. However, if you maintain and remember a few key details then you will be all good. Here are some of the things your site should have.
Being Responsive: Mobile devices make up most of the time people spend online and you as a business should always focus on ensuring your site is perfectly mobile responsive.
At one time you can expect at least 50-60 percent of your site traffic from mobile devices so make sure the travel agency site is perfectly mobile responsive.
Tracking Visitors: Make sure all your channels and site is connected and set up with Google Analytics so that you can track the events happening within your site.
The data collected by Google Analytics will tell you all you need to know about user behavior. It should allow you to create the perfect plan for your digital marketing efforts.
Design Simplification: The revival of the minimalist trend in recent times has shifted the online landscape. People look for cleaner and much more minimalistic designs on websites nowadays and those websites that adopt a more simplistic design usually tend to see higher traffic numbers.
So in your next site update think about integrating new minimalist design elements, One way to incorporate the best design elements is to do some user testing and then choosing the ones with the most impressions garnered.
Focus On User Experience: User experience is a game-changer for most companies and in this downtime, you should look into your travel site to see how user friendly it is. So is your website garnering the traffic you want? Are more people clicking from one page to another? How long are the site sessions?
These are all good questions you should ask yourself and your team to see how user-friendly your site is. Think about the results of even a 5% increase in traffic and what it will do to your ranking and bottom line.
So focus on using the information you have to make sure you optimize your site to better perform on user experience metrics.
Content Is Still King: A good copy goes a long way and that is still true. Make sure your site’s content is optimized and when you create more content for social channels and such that they reflect your business’ unique brand.
Make sure your content creators are creating compelling content to keep the readers and viewers engaged.
Make Sure Everything Is Interconnected: All the information about travel and tourism should be on your site. Make sure that your website is poised to become a hub for all the pertinent information your audience needs.
Also, make sure that you inform your audience through your newsletter, linked sites, and your social channels and ensure that they know where to find it.
Looking & Understanding Micro-Moments
So micro-moments are those when there is a “do something” moment. This is the time when you want to watch, discover, research, or buy something. These moments are what shape your thinking and actions.
So for a travel company, micro-moments can be when their visitors have some specific thoughts. For travel shoppers, it can be categorized in the following ways:
- Dreaming moments: This is the moment when the visitor decides they want to travel somewhere.
- Planning moments: This is the moment where your visitor plans how the trip will be.
- Booking moments: This is the moment when your visitor decides he should book it.
- Experiencing moments: This where the visitor decides how the trip will go and what they want to do.
Understanding your audience’s needs must take precedence when you are creating a digital marketing strategy.
You and your team must ensure that you tend to each moment and encourage the visitor to partner with you in their endeavors.
Integrating Eye Catching Graphic Design
Good visuals are one of your greatest ally in ensuring a unique & lasting brand identity. If you still haven’t found your style yet then you should immediately sit down with your creative team to focus on your brand’s identity.
Working with a good designer will allow you to craft carefully cultivated graphical assets that will go a long way to ensure user engagement and interactions. In recent years travel agencies are getting more and more informed about color psychology.
Remember different colors evoke different emotions and connecting on an emotional level is the ultimate goal for you as a travel agency.
Be More Social
For travel agencies, there is nothing better than having fully optimized social media channels. With the right strategy and smart campaign set up, it can be an effective tool to grow your brand in the most cost-effective way possible.
Consider your targets and goals and create your social media strategy accordingly. Make sure you optimize all the major social outlets like:
Facebook: Facebook is the largest pool of potential audience for any and every business and you should make sure you take advantage of that with smart marketing campaigns.
Twitter: Twitter is the birthplace of trends. This means that a lot of traffic is there for you to take advantage of. So include Twitter in your digital marketing plans.
Instagram: Instagram has one of the largest audiences available and the users are one of the most engaging out of all other social media users. It is also a great branding platform so don’t miss out.
Pinterest: Pinterest drives a lot of traffic for businesses that can utilize its users. You need to make a smart marketing strategy around it to maximize the traffic from the platform.
Youtube: YouTube marketing or video marketing, in general, is a highly lucrative tool especially for travel agencies to utilize. Put together highlight reels from trips and turn them into great ad content.
Google My Business: You know that Google is the largest search network in the world but it is also one of the biggest sales platforms. GMB or Google My Business garners a lot of traffic and including it in your digital marketing efforts will go a long way to ensure growth.
There are some other social platforms you should take into consideration. However, those are the biggest social platforms that require the most attention. So make sure you include them all in your digital marketing strategy without fail.
Email Marketing Is Still Viable
You would think that after all this time email marketing would be redundant but it is still one of the most important tools in your marketing arsenal.
In a recent study, it is seen that email marketing still drives more conversions than social and search outlets. Ensure you gather leads and with time groom them to be your customer. And this is where email marketing shines.
It allows you to completely focus on each lead and tend to their needs making them feel special. With concentrated efforts that lead will turn into a paying customer and that’s why you should focus on email marketing and it should be a cornerstone of your digital marketing efforts.
Google Adwords & Remarketing Is A Must
You may have an idea about traditional banner advertising being an expensive endeavor with high costs and low click-through rates. However, that’s not the case. Done right Google Adwords and retargeting can ensure a high ROI on digital marketing strategy.
You can create a smart campaign set up that targets visitors who actively showed interest and intent to purchase. You should try working with an experienced digital marketing agency that can do it right and ensure a higher ROI and save your marketing budget.
Content Marketing Efforts Should Be At The Forefront
Now with lockdown protocols in place people are staying in so they are hungry for the content all the time. When devising your content marketing strategy make sure you take a deeper look into the customer journey.
When you understand your customer journey better you can ensure you create content that guides your visitors and helps your business convert more leads.
Your creative team is there and you should use them to create blogs, articles, infographics, and videos that encourage engagement. Remember travel and visual aids go hand in hand.
Get beautiful location pictures and scenic videos that you can use to populate your media channels.
Customer Feedback Options Are Vital
“Reputation is revenue” and the saying has never been more true. In a recent study, it showed that 81% of travelers find travel reviews important and 49% won’t book without reading any reviews.
So ensure that your customers can easily provide reviews and check-ins so that other potential clients can see how good your offers and products are.
Make sure that your customers can easily leave reviews in sites like Trip Advisor and Expedia, your Google My Business page, social networks.
Always remember to nurture reviews and respond accordingly to ensure that people understand that you care about customer satisfaction. It will help you grow your reputation as well.
Mobile Marketing Is A Priority
SMS at this day and age may seem outdated but it is highly penetrative and at a low cost to your agency or tour company. In a recent stud, it showed 96% of the SMS’ are read and most of them are usually read within the first 3 minutes of being delivered.
Along with that, you should look to incorporate new technologies like AR and VR. AR is a great opportunity for travel and tourism companies to ensure that you can expand the traveler experience and it will help you with your user engagement.
Consider Progressive Web App
Progressive web apps are the future. PWAs are websites that look like apps and feel like apps. These are much more convenient than apps in a way that they load fast, look sleek, and don’t require users to download an app.
One of the best features of PWAs is that they allow you to send push notifications to your visitors. They allow for easy operation and help with their marketing efforts.
This is why more and more businesses are building PWAs. So you can consider building progressive web apps for your business.
Generate Real-Buzz By Going Live
Live streaming is very popular and businesses are using it to garner interest and leads from all corners of the social media landscape. Before it was limited to only people with the right technology but with Facebook Live and Periscope people can download it on thor smartphones and start broadcasting.
Live streaming allows a more open line of communication and allows for real-time viewing and answers. You can use live sessions to showcase any tours and answer questions instantly to your visitors.
Keeping Chatbot Information Relevant
Chatbots are changing the way businesses are interacting with customers. They allow you to be always there for your customers and streamline the customer service section. Not only should you have a chatbot option for your Facebook page as well.
Make sure you fill it up with all the new information about the ongoing status of the company and when they can expect to travel and any other important information.
Cultivating Growth
Now we all know that things are a bit hard for the travel and tourism industry with travel restrictions all over the world. However, you have to understand that this is a temporary hindrance and soon everyone will be out and about.
This is the time that you cultivate your growth online discover new ideas, garner wide-spread interest, and generate leads so that you can harvest it once everything opens up. And we here at Freelancer’s Hub can help you with it.
Our innovative team ensures that we provide cost-effective digital marketing solutions to businesses that need sustainable growth that garners high ROI. So if you need any digital service then feel free to contact us. Until next time, see ya!