Wondering how to promote your travel business website?
In previous blogs, I’ve mentioned that online marketing trends change quickly, as well as the demands of modern travelers. If you’re a tour business owner looking for a way to create and promote your travel business website, stick around and let’s go over the tips and tricks on how to design the best travel website.
Your website needs to stand out.
The first question is – what are the best ways to market a travel business?
With a quality, well-written and user-friendly website.
Even though there are many social media channels you can use to build brand awareness and promote your tour business, having an actual company website goes a long way. Even if you are a small tour operator, tour guide or you own a small travel agency, having your own domain builds trust.
Before you decide to create your travel business website, make sure you understand the broad picture of your company and what you want to do with it.
It might be best to get to know your biggest competitors and check out how they arranged and designed their website.
Here’s the thing—your travel website should contain relevant information about your tour business and other travel services you provide. You must create a need for people to explore your website further. That also doesn’t mean you get to cram it all up on one page. First decide what kind of message you want to send out and which exact services are you offering to your potential clients.
When deciding how to design your website, have in mind consistent branding as well as how people read online. This means that you should always use the same set of fonts, colors, and logos, for example. People read in an F, E, and Z pattern so you might want to have that in mind as well.
For instance, research the term knolling. It’s actually a process of arranging related objects in parallel or 90-degree angles as a method of organization.
Allow website visitors to scan your text. Write in a digestible way. So is to say that your copy must be explicit. Tailor your words.
Know exactly what the audience wants. In fact, that’s what’s SEO copywriting all about—delivering value to readers while meeting your strategic and tactical goals.
Additionally, make sure you’re near that sweet spot of 5th-grade reading level for general audiences.
“Good copy creates clarity in the world of short attention spans.”
You have to tell people exactly what you want them to do when they visit your site! Whether it’s to contact you for customized tours and activities, or to browse your website or to book a tour online right away.
Here’s a quick checklist:
Your goal should be to convert passive website visitors into active users which later on engage with your content and book your tours.
Look out for CTAs because they need to be relevant to your landing pages. For example, check whether all CTA buttons lead to the proper pages. You can’t have the “book now button” opening the latest eBook download form.
If you’re having a hard time picking out the right CTA words, consider words that provoke emotion as well as the ones that start with a strong command.
These days a lot of people book online via mobile devices. That’s why it’s very important that you’re website is responsive and mobile-friendly. And not to mention the fact that it needs to be indexed by search engines such as Google.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, your travelers should be able to find all the information they need about a service you’re offering. Go and check whether all of your pages, tours, and offers, as well as pictures and itineraries, are up to date. While you’re at it, make sure all of your contact forms work so clients can reach you.
Use the footer on your home page to provide links to your social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.
Should you start a company blog?
As a content writer with many years of experience in blogging, I have some bad news for you, I’m afraid. The market is overly saturated with all kinds of blogs, articles, and generally various content. We’re producing more content that people can physically digest.
However! All is not lost.
If you think you have the time to maintain a blog in order to build brand awareness, go for it!
It’s all about patience and investing time in researching topics that your target audience will be interested in. Nowadays, it’s much harder to create interesting blogs that people will actually engage with. For a travel blog to work, you need to back it up with social media.
Focus on consistently providing value for your clients.
Tell your story.
Prioritize content.
Talk to your audience.
Address them as if they were standing right in front of you.
Show people how your tours are different, why they are good and what your audience is missing out on if they don’t book a trip with you. If you do decide to attract potential customers to your company’s blog, research who you’re writing to and who’s your audience.
Apart from that, you have to keep up with the latest marketing trends, learn about SEO, keywords, social media, Google Analytics, etc.
Search engines care about content’s authority. You also have to keep in mind that longer content ranks better than short on search engines. So, if you can make your blog lenghtier, you can, at the same time increase, user’s time spend on the site. That way search engines know your content is trustworthy.
Hint: Once you create a successful blog, you might want to cash that in and join forces with a travel blogger.
Having an online booking system is an absolute must if you ever want to be near the competitive edge.
It’s an application that allows you to manage your bookings. With it, you are able to manage your important tour dates online, appointments, meetings, itineraries, and receipts.
That way you save yourself a lot of time and avoid a grueling and tedious task of doing everything manually.
Time, not money, is your most valuable asset. Remember that.
If you have your own website, you can add a “book now” button and transform your travel website into a key selling tool by enabling tourists to book your tours bookings 24/7.
The biggest advantage of online booking software is in the fact that they are displayed online, on a website in the form of a “book online” button. That way travelers can book at any time, as well as pay for their activity online. Clients don’t have to call or come to the office to make a reservation.
Every Tour Operator Should Know This About Online Booking
As the travel technology keeps coming up with new solutions every year, there are a lot of different booking systems on the market today.
That means you get a chance to choose between some of the best booking solutions out there. And, while the cost of implementing a booking system doesn’t come cheap, there are, of course, less expensive options out there. The only thing you need to really concern yourself is which system best fits your business needs. However, keep in mind that there are no flat free systems other than a few open sources.
If you have a bunch of happy and satisfied clients, ask them to leave a nice review on sites like TripAdvisor.
Also, you can ask some of them for their impression of your services and tours which you can later use in the form of a testimonial. Just make sure you have their permission to quote them on your homepage.
Especially if you’re run a travel business that’s a startup, you’ll need as much help as you can get. So why not connect with other people from your niche and travel industry to form long-lasting business partnerships?
Growing through word of mouth.
Are you having a hard time picking out the right marketplace for your tour operator business? Marketing places are becoming more popular and they are a great way to introduce your tour business to a much bigger audience.
It’s all about having an online presence. Nurture your business relationships, take care of your clients and their needs. Connect with them and let them get to know you and your tour business.
Here’s everything you need to know about online marketing and social media in travel and tourism:
Depending on how you handle this communication, you can learn a lot from your custo
mers as well as offer better service and tailor your product to fit your customers’ needs.
When someone goes on the Internet and searches, for example, for your tour guide business, travelers are interested in your website and social media posts. Through your Instagram profile, potential clients can see all those posts with fabulous pictures from your journeys and guided tours a few months back.
This allows people to get to know you and your business without even seeing you. They get to see what kind of tour business you run, how much time you devote to organizing tours, and also, they get to see other people’s comments—preferably, positive feedback from your clients.
It’s always about providing value for your clients.
If you organize magnificent tours, your treat your clients with respect and make them feel special while at the same time being able to focus on organizing other tours—then you have your work cut out for you.
I hope this blog post was helpful. Share it!
If I’ve, by any chance, missed a tactic you use to promote your travel business website, let me know in the comments section below.
ORIOLY
on June 19, 2018
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