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 working prodigiously to enhance my own value proposition for my next client in the tour management sector. This is perhaps the most fascinating and engaging sector to work within with its exciting products, experiences, and lively customer base. It’s a massive market with diverse categories and niches.
If your agency or tour company is struggling amidst this wealth of opportunity, you might want to read my positive and confidence building blog posts. And take a look at my Linkedin profile and bio because I have my own wealth of skills and strategy which could grow your audience and increase bookings substantially.
It’s Competitive, but When you Establish Your Brand they Won’t Matter
The competition in the tour business space is intensifying, however, are many of them actually competitive? To win marketshare, you need to be clever, strategic, well-financed, and outright audacious. I really like audacity because it will make everything step in tune with the goal.
I’ve had many SMB clients without much of a hope up against big corporations with solid brands, but we made it work just through strategy and sheer audacity. You can compete with them on Google.
Empowering Means Making the Most of your Assets Via Strategy
In this post, we explore how tour businesses can build reach, make impact, become most significant, grow customer loyalty, and increase perpetual sales. Because once travelers build trust with us, they make us a permanent part of their travel lives — like we’re their best travel friend.
If you read my other posts, you’ll see I put an emphasis on powerful, market-leading branding – creating a brand that’s so unique, authentic, and satisfying, that it becomes like glue with travelers. Your brand could achieve this “only one for me” status. When you get that, the competition fades from view.
The end goal of empowerment is to unleash your enthusiasm, energy, confidence and skill.
You put together great itineraries and tours, but we need to reach more travelers to get those seats filled. Through travel marketing strategy and business development empowerment, all channels might start producing leads and we get your brand established.
Long term value (LTV) is where the real profit is. I want to take you there.
What are the Benefits to Keep Top of Mind?
- growth in bookings and upselling means you’re heading in the right direction
- growth in new product offerings (tours, travel management, consulting, merchandise)
- improved unique value proposition (personalized, significant, compelling, trusted, and helpful)
- improved engagement with prospects and growth in contacts (bigger customer database)
- improved conversion rates for tour bookings (improved promotional strategy to ensure your prospect takes action)
- scaling up for improved cost-effectiveness (bigger base of customers/products makes your business more viable)
- global reach (massive potential audience that needs some personalized content and messaging)
- increased sales revenue with more repeat customers (loyal customers connected via social, email, and promotions)
The Audacious Plan for Empowered Business
We all have powers but they’re often crippled by issues (lack of money, unclear UVP, poor understanding of market, poor strategy, no partnerships or allies, and time constraints).
But powering up could be simple.
It all starts with our clarity of value proposition (knowing exactly what your compelling offer is and how it fits with market demand). That’s a biggie as they say, because when your offer is unclear, it’s hard to know how to sell it.
24 Ways to Power Up Sales
- know what your market wants, what you can sell, and who you’re going to target.
- build your marketing/content strategy to focus on those highly selected audiences.
- make your marketing communications attractive from website to promotional graphics
- create a powerful, significant company brand that customers will trust
- assemble your compelling, high-value selection of travel products
- build a well-functioning and attractive website where customers are confident they can buy safely
- build a powerful digital marketing effort via great content, masterful SEO, engaging social media
- be generous and warm to your intended audience, both new and returning customers
- create some branded merchandise which create non-digital value and real-world engagement
- spend a lot of time promoting your business on the web and social media — inquire, connect, comment, compliment and share
- travel to your destinations to create your own compelling storylines and collect your customer’s storylines
- invest in your people to get them to commit fully to your venture (zero turnover and capturing all the value they can generate)
- connect with investors when you’re ready to grow
- focus on business development (creating partnerships with other travel firms to grow offerings and reach)
- advertise efficiently with intense focus on your specific, most highly valued customer audience
- adopt a powerful travel management software platform to increase management powers, cut costs and provide more digital services for your customers
- review all areas of your company and marketing and find ways to improve further
- draw reviews and feedback from customers to help you identify ways to improve
- find ways to empower your customers like you were their best friend
- create helpful content for customers such as a traveller’s guidebook
- draw on the thoughts and advice of your staff and contractors — get them wanting to help
- hire a digital nomad with exceptional writing skills who visit key locations on your product list
- be real and present in your blogs, social media and email releases (authenticity, personalization, engagement)
- work with your tour guides, DMO’s, and destination hotels to learn how to optimize your value offer to them
There’s more you can do of course, but wow, the above list should keep you busy!
If you’re a small travel company that could use someone versatile and productive in digital marketing and willing to commit to your business, then we should talk.
There’s no reason why your travel company/agency can’t be the next break-out business in your state or internationally.
All it takes is some audacity and ingenuity.
Contact Gord at 416 998 6246 to discuss your rising success.
* header banner graphic courtesy of wannapik.com/