If you just stepped into the tourism bandwagon and have kick-started with an official website for your travel agency, you must have noticed that the most challenging part of starting a business is generating customers. With its rising demand and manifold arenas, travelling has proved itself to be a profitable career. But with almost every other travel agency offering similar packages and services, wonder how you can make your business stand out?
The simple answer would be a top-notch marketing strategy. But truth be told, even that can be super complicated to decipher. Questions like ‘Should I focus more on social media marketing or offline marketing?’ or ‘What platforms should I use for higher reach?’ can be overwhelming. This is precisely what we are here for. We will help you discover the five best platforms you can use for your travel agency ads to help boost your business.
Top Platforms to Run Travel Agency Ads
Simply put, a consistent social media presence is one of the most effective ways to ensure you remain familiar with your audience or potential clients. However, is that enough? Or can you do a little more than just maintain an attractive and engaging Instagram feed? Keep scrolling to discover some of the best ways to run your travel agency ads that will certainly increase your reach and generate some serious customers.
Offline Platforms
First and foremost, we must mention the good ol’ offline strategies that have survived the test of time. Although the internet has taken over the world, recent studies have found that about 71% of people still check out billboards. So, let us find some of the offline platforms that can be used for running travel agency ads.
1. Billboards Travel Agency Ads
Sure the internet rules almost everything we do today, but that neither stopped companies from using billboards for advertisement nor stopped passers-by from glancing at it. Billboards can be massive and vivid, making them natural eye-catchers, meaning more people are familiar with your travel agency business.
2. Magazine Travel Agency Ads
Magazines, as a form of media, will forever continue to rule our hearts, making them an excellent platform for running your travel agency ads. They also give you enough room to discuss your services in detail.
3. Newspaper Travel Agency Ads
Newspapers will always remain a classic for advertisements. Almost every household receives a newspaper first thing in the morning, making this media an excellent platform for your travel agency ads.
4. Sponsorship
One of the best ways to reach out to a larger crowd is by sponsoring events or organisations. Sponsoring events that are related to travelling can help attract potential customers towards your travel agency.
Traditional Marketing Platforms
The onset of the internet era brought mind blowing opportunities for businesses to help them reach out to customers. Before social media was turned into a marketing place, it was through platforms like email and websites that businesses would generate new customers. And believe us, these platforms still remain strongholds for marketing strategies. They can also be beneficial for running your travel agency ads.
1. Email Marketing
Throughout the history of marketing, email marketing has proved itself to be a powerful marketing tool wherein the customers who sign in to your mailing list are regularly updated about the latest offers, discounts, etc.
2. Website Marketing
In today’s world, people inevitably turn towards search engines to find answers regarding everything. Now imagine if your travel agency website is the first thing to show up on their search results. Well, that is the power of search engine optimization (SEO).
3. Affiliate Links
Of all that is known, there is nothing better than motivating someone else and having them promote your business. Affiliate marketing can allow your travel agency to reach a wider range of potential customers. So, how does it work? In simple terms, affiliates will be offered commissions or discounts every time your travel agency gains a new customer through their affiliate link.
Social Media Platforms
Moving on to the actual game changers in the marketing world – social media. Recent years have proven social media as a revolutionary marketing tool that has helped even small businesses reach out to their target customer goals. What is best about social media is it allows you to customise the demography and location of targeted audiences for your travel agency ads.
Social media has also birthed a new trend of marketing, termed ‘influencer marketing’, where you basically find influencers that match your company’s interest and have decent engagement. You then sponsor their content, which in return helps you reach your target audience. Let us now check out some of the most popular social media platforms to help you run effective travel agency ads.
1. Facebook
Stating facts, Facebook hosts more than billions of users, making it a go-to platform for advertisers. This is one of the platforms where you can never go wrong while reaching out to your choice of potential targeted customers for your travel agency ads.
2. Instagram
Being one of the most popular picture-sharing social media platforms, Instagram is a great tool for attracting customers by maintaining an active social media account.
Instagram also allows you to access something called ‘sponsored posts’ on Instagram. These are the kind of advertising posts that are paid for by business owners with the goal of reaching a wider audience. There are two ways to do so: create a post and pay Instagram to customise your audiences or pay influencers to create a post advertising your product.
3. Youtube
Of course, we all anticipated Youtube coming right up on our list. As weird as it might sound to a few of you, there are still people out there with zero social media accounts. And because almost the entire world uses Youtube, it is an excellent marketing platform for running your travel agency ads. Youtube ads allow you to reach out to people with similar interests easily.
Another way of advertising your product on Youtube is by sponsoring Youtubers with remarkable engagement and subscribers on their channel.
Apart from these social media platforms, other popular platforms like Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok can also be efficacious in attracting new customers towards your travel agency.
Out-of-Box Platforms
Nothing can beat an out-of-the-box marketing strategy. Anyone can run a social media or newspaper ad, but thinking up something that makes you and your travel agency stand out will draw traffic to your website. Let us now check out some unique ways you can apply to run your travel agency ads.
1. Nonprofit Marketing
Nonprofit marketing is a good ol’ subtle marketing strategy that exposes your travel agency to your targeted audience. One of the ways to use nonprofit marketing for your travel agency ads is by initiating a charity campaign.
2. Host Pop-Up Events
Another effective way to get the word out is by hosting pop-up events to help the public become familiar with your travel agency. You can also invest a little more and have a local, popular influencer come in as a guest, which will naturally make the audience build trust towards your business.
3. Website Blogs
The only tool in marketing that, if used right, can be undefeatable is search engine optimization (SEO), and one way to use that to increase traffic is by writing relevant travelling blogs. This way, anyone searching for any travelling suggestion or tip will be led to your website, helping your website be exposed to potential customers.
CRM Platforms
An all-in-one marketing platform, CRM or Customer Relation Management platforms are currently in high demand in the tourism industry. Because marketing can sometimes get a little messy, marketers generally opt for CRM platforms that help in the organisation of client data and keeps track of the progress of each generated lead. There are tons of CRM platforms out there, but we will only be taking examples of some of the most popular ones.
1. HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the most popular CRM platforms that one might come across. HubSpot allows you to link your Facebook ads, Google ads, etc. and helps you track it all through just one dashboard. This makes the advertisement of your travel agency convenient, organised, and time-saving.
2. Zoho
Much like HubSpot, Zoho also allows you to connect your travel agency ad account to Zoho Social. Zoho also helps in monitoring generated leads in real-time. This CRM platform is best if your travel agency has a remote or hybrid team.
3. Salesforce
Best for small businesses, Salesforce allows you to personalise customer experiences by integrating digital advertising with marketing and CRM data.
Transform Your Travel Agency Business With The Right Marketing Platform
Being wise and smart about choosing the right marketing platform for running your travel agency ads is a prerequisite. We hope our elaborate list of different platforms for effective marketing has helped you narrow down to the platform of your choice according to the needs of your travel agency. However, remember that when it comes to advertising and grabbing the right audience, consistency is the key. So, be consistent, work hard, and we wish you all the best!
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