Tips to Promote Your Travel Agency

The travel industry has gone through some huge changes in recent years. As so much research and booking are done online, travel agencies must engage customers with their website content and on social media, as well as in more traditional ways. ​

The industry is also extremely competitive. If you want to be noticed and reach your target audience you need a strategy. Here are some of the most effective ways to promote your travel agency:

Find or Refine Your Niche

Before the internet, travel agencies were usually fairly broad in scope. Someone would call or walk into the business and book any type of trip or vacation. In the digital age, however, travel has become far more specialized and segmented.

If you want to reach the right audience, you have to identify your niche. If you're having trouble attracting business, one reason might be that you're not sufficiently specialized. You might, of course, have multiple audiences but you should appeal to them separately by criteria such as:

• Destination. Do you specialize in a certain country, city, or region?

• Type of traveler. Are your customers primarily business travelers, adventure travelers, seniors, students, or another demographic?

• Budget. Do you cater to budget travelers, leisure travelers, or those somewhere in the middle?

• Interests or focus. Do you organize trips based on specific interests such as sports (or a particular sport), art, religion, or culture? For example, there are weight loss cruises, foodie and wine tours, and trips for people interested in history, literature, and many other specialties.

If you don't currently have a specialization you should consider finding one (or more than one) so you can create a more segmented marketing plan.

Make the Most of Social Media

Social media is crucial to promote any business nowadays. However, it's especially advantageous to connect with people on social media sites when you run a travel business. This is true for a number of reasons.

• Travel is an extremely visual business. Seeing photos of a skyline, mountain range, sunset, cruise ship, or elegant hotel room can give your followers the travel bug.

• People often plan trips spontaneously. Seeing a post or photo can spur the motivation to head somewhere for the weekend.

• Your potential customers may have questions about destinations or modes of travel. Answering queries can help you attract more business not only from those posting the questions but to everyone following the discussion.

• Aside from interacting directly with followers, you can learn a great deal through social listening. This includes following industry trends, discussions about travel, and even your competitors' pages.

• By posting engaging photos, videos, memes, and other content you can reach more people. Visual content is frequently shared on sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Be sure to focus on the social media platforms that your target audience uses most.

Reap the Benefits of a Host Agency

There are several advantages to working with a host agency.

• Tap into a successful business model that includes marketing tools, expert support, and access to educational resources.

• Earn higher commissions than you could by operating independently.

• Enjoy greater organization and efficiency. You can manage invoices from a single dashboard.

• If you're just starting out you'll have lower startup costs.

• Use the host's licensing and accreditations.

A host agency can save you time and simplify many areas of your business.

Offer Add-on Services and Packages

Everyone likes to save money when they travel. People also appreciate learning about events and services that they might not be familiar with. As a travel agent, you can offer more value by connecting your customers with local tours, city passes, favorable rates on car rentals, transfer services, and other benefits.

The more you can customize offers to the needs of your customers and seek unique services offered in different areas, the better. For example, in large cities with metro systems, travelers often like to get day or week public transportation passes. If there are popular museums, amusement parks, or other attractions see if you can arrange for discounted tickets.

Integrating with GDS systems makes it easy to locate such deals for your customers. You can also connect with local tour groups and business owners to provide your customers with deals and discounts.

Optimize Your Website

Even in the social media age, your website is still your digital storefront. This will often be the first impression potential customers get of your business. It's therefore essential to make sure it's engaging, informative, and user-friendly.

• Use high-quality images. Using engaging photos makes your site more appealing and whets people's appetite for travel. It's best to use original photos rather than stock photos that are found all over the internet.

• Be informative. This may sound obvious but make sure your website educates prospective customers about the destinations and trips you offer. Maps are always useful. Other information that travelers appreciate include transportation to and from airports, local attractions, packing tips, visa requirements, and any other particulars about a destination.

• Have a blog. Blogging is a powerful way to build credibility and make your website more SEO-friendly. Blog posts give you the opportunity to reach a wider audience by ranking for keywords that are relevant to your customers. For example, writing a post about "Zipline Tours in Costa Rica" or "The Best Restaurants in Austin, Texas" will help you attract readers who are searching for these places or activities.

• Connect to social media. Your website and social media pages should complement and link to each other. Make sure you have social media buttons on your website so visitors can easily follow you. Conversely, be sure to link to your web pages and blog posts in your tweets, Facebook posts, and other social media content.

Build an Email List

An email list lets you stay in touch with your customers and inform them about your latest offers. People who travel tend to do it regularly so it's important to do everything you can to attract repeat business.

• Stay in touch with customers during their trips as well as when they're at home. You can alert travelers to upgrades and extras along the way.

• Make sure your emails are mobile-friendly as this is how more and more people are opening their messages. Travelers will almost always be using mobile devices to access their email while away from home.

• Segment your email lists. Send information that's targeted to your audience.

• Provide informative content. If you want to retain your subscribers, you should do more than just send them promotional material. Turn it into a newsletter and highlight destinations, activities, and upcoming events.

• Use email to promote your other channels. Your email list is another way to send traffic to your website and social media pages. If you don't have enough content to create a long newsletter you can always just write a few lines and link to a blog post.

These are some proven strategies to help you promote your travel agency. To reach today's travelers, you need to be in tune with their needs. This includes reaching them on social media and on their mobile devices. You also need to provide them with information that helps them find good value as well as find the travel experiences that keep them coming back to you again and again.