Why not Have a Dedicated, Active Brand Ambassador? One of the most common issues with digital marketing campaigns is how stiff, impersonal, and forgettable they can feel. While they’re designed to meet advertiser needs, many fail to create the kind of compelling connection that resonates with travel consumetrs. Instead of leaving a lasting impression, the…
Get Your Guide’s Fall 2024 Travel Experience Report Smart travel business owners and marketers should get access to insight travel market research. It drives smarter business decisions so you’ve got the right presence for your brand for the exact audience you need. Bold, confident, profitable decisions are driven by real data and insights. A healthy…
Best Travel and Tourism Research Websites The success of your marketing and advertising campaigns is highly dependent on good customer research. Without it, you’re kind of flailing in the dark. In this post, I introduce 7 helpful sources of travel market research for tour companies, DMOs, and travel agencies. General market research might be reassuring…
Why You Should Hire a Travel Content Strategist Your segment of the travel industry has become lucrative in the last few years. There are opportunities to grow and profit. However, your brand and company need to stand out and be presented as the only travel company travelers will need or want. Great content strategy comes to…
Travel to Boston, Massachusetts Travelers from across North America, Europe and Asia travel to Boston to experience the history of the United States. There is no better city to revel and be immersed in America’s history to really understand what Boston represents to the New England area. There are exquisite art galleries, impressive museums, churches,…
Grow Your Travel Business Online Hundreds and hundreds of travel companies focus on their local audiences, usually in their city. If that’s your agency, why do you limit your business, revenues and ability to flourish and stay viable? Travel businesses that focus on growth aren’t facetious. Growth delivers many benefits including stability, increasing pay for…
Getting Deep Insights into Your Targeted Travelers As you know, your target travel customer has unique wants in their travel experience. Which means, they intend to buy the trip, accommodations and tours that fit the travel adventure they visualize in their minds. Knowing what the customer intends to do, is the subject of predictive analytics,…
Explore the Incredible Colorado Rocky Mountains My last visit to Denver and the Colorado Rocky Mountains was an exhilarating trip. I discovered it’s a different experience than Banff National Park and Glacier National Park. There’s much more to do, more interesting unique towns, and lots more for adventurers. If you’re struggling trying to decide your…
Visiting Yosemite Park in Picturesque California Yosemite Park in the California Sierra Mountain range is one of the world’s most spectacular scenes. And if the natural beauty of the the Golden State isn’t enough for one vacation, Yosemite National Park takes the nature experience to its pinnacle. Soaring mountains, massive sheer rock cliffs, towering trees,…
Making Impact on Your Visitors is High Priority For a decade now, marketers have been focusing more on the visitor experience and user engagement. Yet the first part of experience and engagement is the impact your content and brand makes on visitors. You may have some great product shots, a nice-looking webpage, and a couple…
What are Today’s Travel Business Challenges? What challenges is your travel business facing today? Knowing them is critical for continued success against growing competition, who are also studying your target customer. The travel industry is changing, especially with the market aging or seeing more young people who love technology and online marketing. Let’s take a…
The Essence of Stellar Travel Content What is the essence of stellar, emotionally engaging, confidence building and activating content for travel companies? Is it beautiful visuals of exotic locales and accommodations? How about riveting storytelling and tour videos? Or is it just content that’s relevant to readers. Exceptional content has a richness that generates powerful…
Improving Your Agency Tours and Packages The tour and travel package sector has been strong for two years now. Travel agencies are doing well. Competition however is increasing as eager entrepreneurs sense the opportunity. However, as the competition for travelers increases and as old sightseeing tours become too mundane for repeat travel buyers, your agency…
Reaching Babyboomers and Senior Aged Travelers A statistical fact that might shock many today, is not only the size of the senior population in America and globally, it’s how many are traveling. By 2050, seniors 60+ will comprise nearly a quarter of the global population. In contrast to Gen Z’s and Millennials who are unfortunately…
Mapping Out a Path to Market Your Skills Who cares about progressive travel marketing skills today? Travel business clients might appreciate outstanding skills they can leverage to achieve their marketing goals. Can one skilled, versatile marketer make a difference? You have to believe you can. Our big challenge for marketing our skills might be problem…
Blogs Drive Engagement, Leads & Revenue Why would a blog be the core of your content strategy? It’s because blogs speak directly to your customers on the issues most immediate and important to them. Blogs are more authentic, trusted, and engaged with. They’re fresh with helpful info, insights, resources, and experience. Visitors may spend…
Putting the Wind in Your Sales Is your travel company floundering a little as 2024 progresses? It seems travelers have pulled back spending a little of late however, Expedia’s CEO believes the upcoming holiday travel season should be better. Maybe this is the time to rejig your ship, pop up the sails and set…
Hiring Smartly for a Digital Travel Marketing Role As a travel agency owner, DMO CEO, hotel owner, tour operator or SaaS travel software entrepreneur, you’re tasked with the challenge of hiring the right marketing people. Can a single person have real impact on a small travel company? Is that realistic given you’ve already set sail…
How to Build Your Content Marketing Strategy In the travel sector, content is vitally important. It is the medium of their pre-purchase experience. If travelers aren’t investigating or booking, then your current content strategy isn’t working. It’s time for a change! Building the Travel Experience They Yearn to Have Travel is visual, immersive, personal and…
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness Have you wondered how a small travel company could ever compete with the big travel portals and brand names online? It is a challenge for sure, but still doable. I’ve been competing against Goliath companies for 26 years now and even today, there’s a chance to win. Google’s ranking algorithm…
Tips to Modernize your Travel Business There isn’t a person alive who doesn’t rest on their laurels. It’s human nature to rely on our strengths, expertise and experience. You’ve likely developed some excellent capacities that power your agency. Unfortunately, at some point, our strengths can become our biggest weakness. Because such rallying around our strengths…
Travel USA! This year’s travel market outlook revealed that many travelers prefer to visit the good old USA rather than venture out into increasingly hostile and overcrowded international travel destinations. Travel research company Phocuswright reports that the US is now the largest travel market in the world. Travel is booming and contributing a great deal…
The Rise of Influencers in Travel Marketing Travel marketing companies have a challenge today. If they’re unable to draw enough qualified traffic and convert them to customers, then it could be the consumer market has changed. And keeping clients relevant, visible, and generating leads is becoming more difficult. With SMBs web traffic and social media…
6 Unique Groups of Travelers 1.3 billion lucky people today enjoy the amazing benefits of enriched travel experiences. The quality, access and variety of travel options possible is creating a different view of traveler’s personalities, wants, and buying behavior. Because very unique experiences are available to everyone of any age, background, or sex —…
DIY Low Risk, High Return Marketing Test Project If you’ve avoided digital marketing, it’s understandable given how competitive and challenging the channel is. There’s the risk, the investment, the time and expertise, and confidence needed too! But any challenge can be conquered with faith, determination and strategy. The first part of the strategy is to…
Travel Business Startups There are plenty of good reasons to launch a travel business startup including profit opportunity, new directions, and just being in a business you’ll really love and meeting people engaged in life. A travel agency, tour operator marketplace, or travel software provider might be one of the most investible business opportunities of…
Pay Per Click Campaigns for Travel Businesses Travel businesses rely heavily on pay per click campaigns and paid social boosting to reach targeted travel consumers. It’s hard to beat the placement and reach of online advertising. It’s extremely fast and powerful, yet it’s competitive. The required minimum bids will shock you. Before you spend…
Attack Your Competitor’s Strengths A commencement speech from Roger Federer at Dartmouth College recently, offered one really important tip for entrepreneurs and future CEOs in the audience. He spoke about his challenges in becoming the greatest tennis player of all time. He mentioned having to work hard and shore up his weaknesses, become disciplined, managing…
Advanced Content Strategy: Power in the Creative Mix Every travel agency owner, travel management software manager, and tour company CEO has to decide what their blog content theme will be. Because a company blog creates the lion’s share (up to 90%) of web traffic. Which means content choices will decide how much traffic, rankings, impact…
Why Banff Alberta Has to be on Your Trip List Having lived in Calgary, Alberta for 10 years, and continuing to visit when I can, I can recommend Banff as an epic vacation adventure. Banff is more than just mountain tops although that’s often enough for siteseeing visitors here. You’ve been captivated by the images…
The Power of New Ideas How would you win a best design competition at the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival? Would you show up with the usual round balloon with a different color scheme? Or would you brainstorm a brilliant unique design that evokes their imagination and resonates with balloon festival spirit? Would you have…
Tour Radar – Innovation in Business Tour marketplaces are big business. Very lucrative but challenging to make successful. In this post, you’ll discover one firm which was spawned in the booming travel sector, innovated and grown, learned from their mistakes, upgraded their sales channels, and adapted their business model to fit the actual, real, not…
What Makes the Top Tour Companies the Best? If you’re investigating the opportunity of investing in tour companies or to launch one yourself, you’ll want to take a closer look at the top market leaders and comprehend deeply why they are successful. The best have the most inbound traffic, are marketing-driven, offer high-quality tour…
How to Change Travel Consumer’s Minds Tourists and travelers of all kinds have particular tastes and preferences. Sometimes strong, sometimes not. How profitable would it be to change travel consumer’s minds about their loyalties, tour choices and destinations? These are well targeted, influential, and loyal customers to your customer list. Such insight in…
Top 21 Challenges of SMB Travel Companies If you’re a travel entrepreneur planning and launching a startup travel agency, travel SaaS management software product, tour operator, or a tour marketplace, you’re into an exciting project, perhaps more joyful and fulfilling than any other industry. However, as you know, the market poses some significant challenges…
Selling Your Tours more Effectively After you’ve built a massive source of traffic and presented a compelling, significant trusted brand, and perked up tourists’ interest, you have the final challenge of selling your tours. If your tour involves riding camels in 120-degree desert heat, you’re going to need to be really good at tour…
Travel for Health and Healing It might be said that all travel companies are actually in the business of selling the joy of travel. Because joy is a powerful motive. It is the the single, primary emotion travelers experience before they purchase. Their real intent is to feel this thing called joy during their trip,…
SEO & Content Strategy Can Deliver Great Results Travel agencies, Tour Companies and travel management software firms can easily double/triple bookings and build a solid loyal customer base. However, if their website traffic is weak and poor quality, it will be tough to squeeze revenue out of that small funnel. Sometimes, you need a wide…
What Makes your Audience Click? What really excites your customers? What does your target audience really want? There likely aren’t more important questions to ask because you can only sell what they want. If you crack these tough questions right, you’re liable to make a big impact on them and open up a big sales pipeline….
Market Leader is the Best Positioning When business owners think about the phrase “market leader,” they often envision everyone but themselves. Many North American business entrepreneurs are too modest, not realizing that they could actually become the market leader in their sector. And those who lead the market last longer — and earn more profit….
Why Do People Travel? Travel agencies and tour company managers should really dig down to discover the real reasons people travel. And travel marketers and tour company owners must be experts in the needs and motivations of travelers. Your customer’s wishes are the source of your revenues. Because, the answers for travelling are uniquely personal,…
Empower Your Creative Content Team The travel agency CEO, DMO manager, or tour business owner is the key source of business success. Your understanding, strategy and decisions determine what your creative team believes, does and will achieve. I’m not the ultimate expert on travel business success, but I still want to give you a…
The Power of Iconic Brand Symbols If you’re not up on branding or impressed that brands have any power, you might want to take another look at it. Because a brand is your biggest asset once you build it. Brands have many dimensions, promises, value points, and touchpoints with travel consumers. And your travel content…
Empowering your Tour Business The travel trend is certain. Tours are in big demand and tour companies are becoming much more profitable. Of course, we’re assuming tour company owners are marketing strongly and getting the reach, impact and engagement needed to build an audience that trusts their brand, people and services. On that note, I’m…
Travel Forecast 2024 2024 is shaping up to be a fantastic year for US domestic and international travel. Americans will spend $28.4 Billion this year. Enjoy more stats below. Travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, and travel software companies alike will enjoy a good year. Although, everyone is waiting for interest rates to drop, it won’t…
Innovative Travel Marketing Channels After you’ve built the core of your marketing strategy with authentic organic content, SEO, and social postings, there are some additional channels you can leverage to promote your brand, build leads and grow revenue. In fact, the great content we’ll create is amplified significantly through them. These channels discussed below open…
Improve Your Travel Lead Conversions and Grow Bookings/Sales Today’s post is likely the most important reading of all. We’re exploring how to increase bookings and revenue from all the traffic you generate through content marketing and PPC advertising. Wouldn’t it be nice to double or triple those bookings/subscriptions? My experience with clients is they need…
Building Trust in Travel Web Marketing Trust is a big factor in business. From job interviews to lending to word of mouth, trust is an important consideration in everything we do. Even when travel consumers like what you offer, trustworthiness is a decision that will come into play, especially in the moment just before they…
What is the Essence of a Great Travel Article? That is the question to ask or you’ll never create one. And the answer might surprise you because it has to achieve a lot, and can’t just “read nice.” We know travel content is the most lively, inspiring, and personal type of content. So the bar…
What Makes a Great Travel Experience? Why do people leave the comfort of their homes to spend a lot of money, interact with strangers, to see and do things they’ve never done before? And what about you personally? What experience do you you feel is essential to any long journey you might take this year?…
Adventure Travel, Tours, Experiences and Thrills The adventure travel market is exploding in opportunities, services, hosts and places to visit and it’s so easy to book a trip. Many travel adventure consumers are jumping in to create new, more fulfilling travel experiences. And while we think of adventure travel as appealing to only thrill seekers…
Google Travel – Explore Flights, Hotels, Destinations You’re likely using several major travel portals to plan and book your travel reservations, from flights to hotels to tours. You might find better vacation satisfaction by using a more generalized travel tool early in your exploration. While Expedia, Hotels.com, Cheapflights, Booking.com, and Travelocity get all the ink,…
Being There on the Traveler’s Path to Purchase I was very intrigued 9 years ago when Google Think teamed up with Luth Research ZQ Intelligence™ to study in-depth, the customer journey online – the path to consumer fulfillment. Because most marketers lacked the data and acumen (and still do) to understand the customer buying journey,…
Easily Save for Your Next Vacation Are you dreaming of traveling this year? Many are as 2024 is expected to be another busy year for the sector. However, you’re well aware of how expensive travel can be. It’s why so many people abandon plans to visit their favorite country or city and enjoy a great…
Best SaaS Travel Management Software Platforms Personal and business travel will continue to grow in 2024 and through the next 10 years. Opportunities abound for agencies, tour operators, and destination management companies, so serve up a variety of solutions to travel-hungry consumers and business travelers. From Bleisure vacations to eco-tours and corporate team meetings, there…
Travel Content is Your Customer’s Pre-Travel Experience Hundreds of millions of travelers will be envisioning and hoping for their own significant vacation adventures in 2024. Isn’t the most enjoyable part of travel where people dream about destinations and how they anticipate the fun, adventure, stimulation of the journey and the destination? They’re visualizing the sights,…
SEO/Content Strategy for the Travel Management Sector The global travel management sector is being powered up through unexpectedly high consumer and business travel demand. And the revenge travel movement is just a transition to a permanently mobile population who long to escape the confines of their local environment. Travel is more than an elixir for…
Best Travel Destinations for Next Year We’re almost through the 2024 travel season and on into a new year of adventures and experiences. Revenge travel isn’t over. An awakening 2025 economy will greet yet another wave of eager travelers whether for business travel or leisure. The coming holiday season should keep travel business owners happy. …
Travel Marketing Software Do large travel companies have better, more knowledgable, creative, inspired and capable marketing talent than small firms? Or do they have bigger budgets, more contributors and helpful software? Many small travel companies manage their marketing themselves creating content with a strategy and using a big portion of their budget for pay per…
Top 65 Immersive and Awesome Travel Experiences Across the World to Enjoy in 2024 Looking for an exceptional travel experience, perhaps one specially designed for you? Satisfy your deepest travel cravings many ways on this planet, and why shouldn’t the best be served up just for you? Time to give your travel imagination some room…