Travel Marketing 101: How To Grow Your Business
Reading time: 12 minutes 30 seconds.
When you’re running a business, the seemingly infinite number of marketing channels can be quite intimidating.
But with a good strategy and the right knowledge, promoting your brand can be simple – even fun.
In this guide, I’ll break down the basics of travel marketing in 2021, provide actionable tips for getting it right, and help you plan a marketing strategy that will grow your business.
Let’s jump in.
Contents:
An overview of travel marketing in 2021
The six different types of travel marketing
Why you need a marketing strategy
How to grow a business with travel marketing
Social media marketing tips
Email marketing tips
Content marketing tips
Native advertising tips
Offline marketing tips
Word of mouth marketing tips
Final thoughts for travel marketers
The Current State of Travel Marketing in 2021
The current demand for travel marketing is perhaps the greatest it’s been in modern history.
Travel companies and travellers alike are desperate to make up for lost vacation time. And a number of new circumstances are forcing us to take a different view on how we promote tourism.
Though many of us are dying to get back out there, safety, security, and sustainability can mean the difference between booking flights and staying home.
As such, it’s essential that travel workers put an extra ounce of effort into this year’s marketing strategies.
Let’s take a look at some of the easiest ways you can do just that.
6 key elements of modern travel marketing
In this article, we’ll be looking at six different types of travel marketing that you can implement to help grow your business.
You may have noticed that digital marketing is not featured in the above graphic. Since “digital” is such a sweeping term, I’ve dissected it into four separate parts – email, social, content, and native ads.
We’ll also look at two forms of non-digital marketing that are too often overlooked by travel marketers in 2021.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the different travel marketing categories we’ll be looking at today:
Social Media Marketing
53.6% of people (4.2 billion earthlings) are active users of social media.
Compare that to a measly 920 million in 2010.
Okay, maybe 920 million wasn’t measly. But it also wasn’t half the world’s population.
As social channels have evolved and proliferated, so too has the value of social media marketing.
Travel brands can no longer afford to be absent from social media, especially given how hand-in-hand travelling and posting photos go together. But growing your business through sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest isn’t just about promoting ads.
Just as important are presenting a strong brand personality and connecting with your customers in the places they hang out.
Email Marketing
Though many mistakenly believe email to be outdated, it’s been proven to be one of the most effective forms of marketing for decades. And it’s here to stay.
On average, email marketing drives an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, according to a study by Litmus.
Growing your travel business through email series’, e-newsletters, and email feedback correspondence is one of the surest ways to boost your success in 2021.
Content Marketing
Content marketing – acquiring leads and raising brand awareness through published content – is considered by many to be the present and future of marketing.
In fact, an infographic from Semrush suggests 84% of companies currently have a content marketing strategy in place.
In the end, it all comes down to trust and authority.
Brands that consistently publish high-quality, valuable content tailored to a specific audience are naturally the ones that same audience will turn to when they’re in need of a product or service.
Whether it’s podcasts, videos, blogs, guides, or reports – if you can prove you know what you’re talking about, customers will be more interested in what you’re selling.
Native Advertising
Native advertising, sometimes called “sponsored content”, is a type of advertising that matches the style and nature of the platform it exists on.
In other words, native ads look and behave just like the other content around them.
Some examples of native advertising are:
Google PPC ads
Sponsored articles
Sidebar recommendations
Promoted product listings
Banner ads
While technically a form of content marketing, the key difference between native advertising and organic content marketing is that you have to pay to put native ads out there.
One of the biggest (and most controversial) advantages of native advertising is that it looks just like organic content, the main difference usually being a tiny “sponsored” tag somewhere above or below it.
While some consider the subtlety of native advertising a form of trickery, there’s no doubting that it still works.
Offline Marketing
In recent years, digital marketing has somewhat taken over the business world.
As a result, offline marketing has been greatly neglected.
This is a mistake many modern brands are making.A good marketing strategy is typically one that is dynamic and versatile, built for both the online and offline world.
Some common and effective forms of offline marketing include:
Direct mail
Networking
Public seminars
Print advertising
Trade shows / special industry events
Poster ads
Cold calling
Despite the success of digital campaigns, your travel business can still greatly benefit from a physical presence in the real world.
Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth will forever be one of the most trusted forms of brand marketing.
Think about it; how much easier is it to believe in a company's value and integrity when it comes from a friend, rather than straight from the company themselves?
The mistake too many travel brands make is thinking they have no control over what people say about them. Conversely, they’re the main catalyst for word of mouth.
Positive customer feedback, good reviews, and unsolicited recommendations are the direct result of excellent service and strong customer relations.
Improve the way you treat your customers and you’ll increase the amount of good things being said about you. It’s that simple.
Why your travel brand needs a marketing strategy
Every travel business that hopes to grow needs a marketing strategy, regardless of its size.
Without one, your sales and brand awareness are more than likely to plateau, if not completely crash.
Here are the main benefits of a travel marketing strategy:
It informs your target audience of your product and how it can serve them.
It informs you of what your customers are looking for.
It creates a timeline that’s easy to follow
It forces you to stick to a budget and protects your cash flow.
It gives you a better chance against your competition.
It generates leads and builds reputation.
It gives you something to test and sharpen.
It establishes your brand as a real business.
It’s directly responsible for the growth and development of your company.
Your travel marketing strategy should outline your company values and goals, the methods you’ll use to achieve them, who your target audience are, where you’ll position your brand in the marketplace, and create a timeline for making all these things happen.
Never leave brand awareness and growth up to chance; invest in a travel marketing strategy as soon as possible.
Tips and Strategies for Growing Your Travel Business
All right, so we’ve covered the different types of marketing and why developing a strategy is essential for your growth.
In this section, I’m going to blast your brain with seriously actionable tips for each of the six categories I mentioned earlier. This is some comprehensive stuff.
You might want to print the following out and stick it to your wall. Heck, get it printed onto your bedsheets if you like.
These are the tips that will take your travel brand to the next level.
Okay, enough chatter. Let’s dive right in.
Social Media Marketing
Long gone are the days where social media management was something you left to one of your interns to keep them occupied.
Developing an effective social media marketing campaign that will grow your business begins with the foundations.
Start by employing an experienced and competent Social Media Manager. Having an amateur run your social channels can often do more harm than good for your brand image.
If business is booming, give your SMM a say in who else you should employ to help you achieve your social media goals.
You’d be amazed at how many people believe they’re qualified to run a Facebook business page just because they’ve had a personal account for 12 years.
Next, set your social media budget (including ad space and wages) and come up with achievable goals that match this number.
Finally, develop a plan and timeline that will make sure you reach those goals.
Your social media marketing strategy should include:
What type of content you’re going to post.
When you’re going to post.
How often you’ll post.
Which channels you’ll be most present on.
The tone and style of your posts.
How you’ll manage customer feedback and responses.
If you take the time to employ the right people and lay down the right foundations, you’ll never find yourself stressing out about the running of your social pages.
And once you’ve taken the right steps to get set up, all that’s left to do is be consistent.
Email Marketing
In case you haven’t seen them yet, I’ve published entire blogs on useful email marketing tips for travel brands and how to create a successful travel e-newsletter.
If you’re short on time, here are some of the key takeaways for growing your travel business through email marketing:
Avoid spam filters by encouraging recipients to respond directly, making it easy for them to unsubscribe, and excluding spammy-sounding subject lines.
Use a lead magnet and dedicated landing page to attract new customers and acquire email addresses to add to your list.
Use conversational language (no technical jargon) that addresses only one person.
Give valuable, relevant content that will inspire the reader.
Always include a CTA that drives traffic back to your landing page / website.
Incorporate user-generated content into your email newsletters.
Tell readers about any updates with the brand: new hires, the latest blog, special offers, etc.
Don’t make every email a “sales” email.
Always be testing different elements in your emails such as subject lines, CTAs, and delivery times.
Optimise your emails for mobile devices.
Use segmentation to create super relevant emails for specific users.
When it comes to strategising, it’s a great idea to have a strong outline of when and to whom you’ll be sending emails. You should also know, roughly, what they will be about.
Take the time to create an email marketing strategy, including topics, frequency, and delivery times.
That way, when it comes time to write the emails, you’ll know exactly what you’re writing and when you need it done by.
Content Marketing
In the realm of content marketing, the key is evolution.
Staying on top of current trends and being prepared to adjust your marketing strategy accordingly is essential to online travel marketing.
Here are some of the latest travel marketing trends in 2021 to bring up in your next strategy meeting:
Virtual experiences
Health and safety
Empathy and humanity
Flexible bookings
But it’s not just travel-related trends you need to be aware of.
In the broader landscape of general content marketing, it pays to stay up to date with what users are looking for, how search engines are refining their ranking parameters, and where your audience is hanging out online.
Video content – vlogs, webinars, podcasts, product demos – has been on the rise for a while now, as you may have noticed.
86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 74% of marketers believe video content has a better ROI than static imagery. There’s never been a better time to start promoting your travel brand with video.
As for SEO, the team at Google continues to make updates to their results criteria that’s centred around user-intent. This means that pumping your blogs full of long-tail keywords is no longer good enough.
You need to go beyond the keywords and ask yourself, “What do users want to know when they search these terms?”
The answer = the central topic for your blogs.
Native Advertising
The success of a native advertising campaign relies largely upon being in the right place at the right time.
And as with every type of travel marketing strategy, it all comes back to knowing how your target audience behaves and what they’re interested in.
When it comes to media buying, here are some key aspects to consider:
What are your ideal buyers searching for?
Where are your competitors using native advertising?
How much of your budget have you set aside for native ads?
Which websites are most popular with your ideal buyers?
Where would a native ad for your product or service appear the most natural?
As demonstrated, there are a lot of things to take into account when strategising a native ads campaign. The most important being “Will this make more money than it costs?”
Use practical tools and hire professional help for managing the variables of native advertising such as keyword research, market research, advertising copywriting, and media buying.
There’s no point wasting cash on ads that are in the wrong place, or won’t even be seen at all.
Offline Marketing
While digital may have the advantage of modernity, offline marketing can give clever marketers an enormous amount of room for creativity.
Of course, there are fundamental and less-interesting forms of offline marketing such as business cards, billboard ads, radio spots, and seminars. They all still work pretty well, too.
But if you’ve got a strong creative team and a decent budget for offline ads, here’s where you can really get your brand noticed.
To get you inspired, I’ve put together a list of possible outside-the-box offline marketing techniques you might consider trying:
Dish out some free travel merch with your website address or brand name all over it – passport holders, travel pillows, earplugs… whatever you can think of.
Paint the town red with… company stickers.
Set up an interactive display at your local mall. Take photos of people enjoying your display and offer to send them the snaps in exchange for their email address.
Hire a hot air balloon and float a banner ad over the heads of dozens of curious spectators.
Do something absolutely ludicrous (but still mostly legal) to make it onto the news.
My point is, offline advertising needn’t be restricted to print ads and direct mail. There’s a whole world out there – use it!
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Improving your word-of-mouth marketing is a matter of boosting customer satisfaction, and there are many ways you can do this.
To name but a few:
Always describe your products/services accurately on your website.
Deal with customer complaints promptly and professionally.
Treat your customers with respect.
Take steps to boost UX on your website and in your marketing campaigns.
Make note of common issues or problems your customers are having and then fix them, permanently.
Go above and beyond the call of duty.
Inject as much value into the lives of your customers as possible.
Frequently offer previous customers special discounts and offers.
Sometimes the actions of a brand can have an even greater effect on their customers than the products themselves.
Consider this question: “What can I do that will inspire my customers to tell all of their friends and family about us?”
Word-of-mouth marketing doesn’t have to be a passive thing, either.
In fact, it shouldn’t be.
You can get your shining reviews straight from the customer’s mouth, and then transfer those reviews onto your website in the form of testimonials, case studies, and video content.
A great way to do this is to actually ask your customers how they feel about your product and your service. Send out a survey, or email them requesting to do a live interview.
By obtaining real life stories and confessions about your brand, you’ll be arming yourself with a powerful supply of social proof ammo that can be repurposed time and time again.
Final Thoughts and Advice
I’ve come up with six different directions for travel marketing in 2021; you can probably think of more.
The purpose of this guide is not to overwhelm you with ideas, but to demonstrate just how many ways there are to grow your business.
Hopefully you feel inspired and prepared to give a few of them a try.
In summary, there are a few takeaways that apply irrespective of which type of marketing strategy you’re building.
Here they are:
Learn as much as you can about your audience and tailor your campaigns to their unique behaviours, desires, and interests.
Find what works for your brand and don’t be afraid to try different tactics until you do.
Research, trial, test, repeat.
The world is always changing; stay on top of current trends so you don’t get left behind.
Hire the right people for the right job.
Make plans, set goals, and stay consistent.
That’s been my little piece of self-marketing for today. If you’d like to hire me as a copywriter or digital marketing consultant, here’s the link.
Au Revoir!
