The travel industry is very demanding as customers’ expectations rise continuously. It’s especially challenging now, as the global outbreak of the COVID-19 virus is having a significant impact on the businesses. In the following article, you’ll find out a few marketing ideas that can help you boost your performance.
First things first
Before you redesign your marketing strategy and try out new ideas for improvement, you need to evaluate your website and make sure it’s compliant with modern standards. Conduct a UX audit to find out if your website is useful and readable. Make sure that customers can easily find all of the important information on your website, especially those regarding COVID-19 updates.
Moreover, enable fast and resultful help – highlight contact information on the website and add a live chat to respond to customers’ inquiries immediately. Furthermore, you can add a pop-up to encourage visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. That way, they’re going to get access to first-hand information.
To find out more about website optimization – check out our article: The Beginner’s Guide to Website Optimization
Once your website is refined you’re set and ready to go forward with your marketing activities!
#1 Use conversational commerce
Chatbots can be extremely engaging and effective when it comes to customer service, marketing, and even sales. Via chatbots on your website or on Facebook Messenger, you can fast and easily interact with your potential and existing customers. Automating communication is beneficial for travelers as well as for businesses.
Setting up a bot is a piece of cake with dedicated tools such as Chatfuel. Remember to enable take over, so that users can talk to the real agent if a bot isn’t helpful.
Conversation commerce enables customers to book a flight, a room, or a whole trip during a conversation. You can implement a menu and your offer into a bot and make the process fast and engaging.
Read more on Conversational Commerce 101!
#2 Focus on local tourism
If you have such an option, redefine your offer to provide customers will more local tours and discover their countries. As COVID-19 introduces many limitations and travelers can feel insecure about their safety, we can predict the trends of more local travels comparing to the previous years.
Examples? Let’s say that you run a company in New Jersey – Commercial Truck Insurance NJ. You’ll probably concentrate on that area in your marketing activities first!
Promote less known places that can be attractive nowadays. Run ad campaigns tailored to locals and encourage them to visit the neighborhood. Show the beauty of nature around and find the advantages of the vicinity.
#3 User-generated content
Make the most of pictures, reviews, and comments that create other travelers. Show your potential customers what the trips to certain places look from the client’s perspective. Use the best reviews of your services on your social media as quotes. Such social proofs can increase trust and boost sales.
To encourage customers to publish their photos and review you can run social media contests or distribute promo codes.
Another idea is to cooperate with micro-influencers. They’re more local and can have a more engaged audience. For example, you can contact users with as little as 2K followers and offer them a discount on change for sharing Instagram Stories with the mention of your brand. Make it natural and trustworthy.
Then, you can collect all of those materials and assets within a digital asset management tool such as Filecamp and access them as you please.
#4 Retarget your ads
To decrease your campaigns’ CPC (cost per click) you should target your ads more precisely. One of the ways to achieve that goal is retargeting. Thanks to this method you can reach people that have already interacted with your brand in the past.
A real revolution for retargeting is RocketLink. It’s a URL shortened that enables adding retargeting pixels to the links. That way, you can share valuable content os social media and create custom (tailored) audiences based on the clicks.
For example, you can promote an article about the places worth visiting in Barcelona, and then retarget your ads regarding the trip to this city to people who clicked your link. As potential customers can be interested in choosing this destination, you can experience higher conversion.
#5 Start an affiliate program
Use the social proof phenomenon to promote your services. Organize an affiliate program to engage satisfied customers in promoting your offer. You can offer a discount for every referral that you get from your affiliate partners. This marketing method can help you build a strong community of satisfied users.
Use RocketLink to create referral links and track them on the dashboard. That way, you can easily control your program 😉
We hope that you can get inspired by our tips and update your marketing strategy. Don’t hesitate if you have any questions regarding RocketLink! We’re ready to help you boost performance 😉
