⚡ Why You Need Me on Your Travel Marketing Team

If you own or manage a traditional travel agency, you’re likely concerned about keeping your loyal clientele, and creating more bookings and clients via word of mouth. Travel is competitive and the market is aging, changing, and it has slowed which I’m sure you know much more about than I do.

Retaining customers and maintaining relationships today is really tough. You can do everything right and still lose them.

It’s like the economy, culture and time itself washes away everything secure and reliable. For traditional travel agencies, the shelf life of loyalty, performance, and connection is shrinking, hastened by growing enabled competitors.  But could it be, that all these new digital tools available are just another way traditional agencies can fortify loyalty?

And if your business and brand aren’t online and visible, will the genuine, trusted relationship be affected?  I believe so. Competitors are reaching them. They can reach and tempt your clients.

You Can Leverage AI Too

And the imposing AI travel technology tools and companies seem like a significant threat, creating a completely new travel booking and client relationship environment. Your fears are valid and the AI technology is moving faster all the time. It makes market entry much more accessible with plenty of new AI travel agencies and marketplaces popping across the world. In fact, the opportunity is so inviting and lucrative, that it could turn into a flood.

AI fulfills many demands including improved convenience, faster service, self-service/management, improved trip planning with much more responsiveness and selection. It’s being adapted to serve older travelers (improved accessibility) who to this point have avoided technology.

Hungry competitors are hoping to be better at the key things that make your travel agency great and make that offer they can’t refuse. Good digital marketing ensures they get the best service/advice/value because they have you. That’s the message.

Make Tech Make You More Important

However, not all travelers want technology tools. They don’t care about AI LLM GPTs or even AI trip booking automation. They’ve got enough on their plate and they want you and your advisors to manage all that. They enjoy collaborating with an expert on a location, building their itinerary confidently and fulfilling their joy of travel with your advisors.

They’re stressed and would enjoy working with someone who is on top of all that tech stuff, shielding them from the friction and fatigue. Your marketing communications will tell them you’re on top of digital travel to give them the confidence and support they need.   Now, they don’t need self-service technology.  Sure, this industry is going digital, from airports to hotels to transportation and tours. Being available on the phone from 9 to 5 only doesn’t seem reassuring to modern travelers though, who will expect communications/documents via smartphone app, direct texting or their laptop.

The angle here is that you really are climbing on top of technology and providing better service, while communicating that you are personally accessible, helpful, and make them feel confidence. It’s not about technology — it’s about your place in the travel relationship.  Digital travel marketing will help you achieve this.

I’m studying a wide range of travel agencies and one observation tells a lot about their future – they have minimal to no online presence and no online booking.  That means travelers (i.e., new travellers) can’t find them or see a booking process. Not being visible via Google or Bing means no easy leads and leaving the market to competitors. That leaves them with more funds and marketing power to make business really tough for you.

If your leads and customer base are eroding and you’re finding business generation tougher, this may be the issue. You can turn all of this around.

Travel Search is Strong as Ever!

What’s really positive however, is that Google and Bing search aren’t going to lose users. They’re being adapted and improved (Google AI mode and Microsoft CoPilot) to provide what users want.

What travelers really want is to know more, faster and arrive at a booking decision. Because their intent is to travel. Google search will always provide that — so they fulfill their key intent — to purchase.

• According to the 2024 Trends Global Survey, 80% of global travelers surveyed feel it’s important to be able to book their trips entirely online, with 86% of Millennials and 83% of Gen Z leading the charge.
• 76% of global travelers said they look for travel apps that reduce the friction and stress of travel. (Hilton)
• Last year, the top five resources used by travelers for travel guidance were: search engines (46%), travel review websites (36%), recommendations from family or friends (35%), hotel websites (31%) and OTAs (28%).  (Skift)
• Although mobile is involved somehow in around 60% of online travel traffic, desktop accounts for about 62% of sales which they use desktop to book (confidence, visuals and a keyboard). (SaleCycle)
• 80% of users booked with a single online travel agency (OTAs) in 2023, while 17% used just two OTAs.

A Few of the Usual Deficits of Traditional Travel Agency Websites:

According to my research, the issues are typical – the website is not an asset.

1. No real content strategy
2. Lack of relevant, engaging and persuasive content
3. Inappropriate tone of voice and style for the desired audience
4. Weak or no pillar content pieces that act as a key brand-building focus – where you want clients to have the best, clear and engaging moments
5. Non-optimized product pages with blah or baffing descriptions
6. Not enough product pages for all potential itineraries
7. Lack of fresh new blog posts
8. Few blogs on destinations and experiences that suit  the targeted audience
9. Lack of blogs focusing on important keywords on topics
10. Lack of analytics code and therefore no performance insight
11. 3^rd party content sites get the traffic and advantages (e.g. OTA’s, major suppliers)
12. No authority and reputation for travel keyword phrases – no ranking power
13. Professional SEO completely lacking

And that takes us to how I can help you. My services are affordable, in contrast to digital marketing agencies or hiring a marketing person internally. Those are high-priced alternatives.

Instead, an affordable, versatile marketer to get your project launched and rolling. Then you’ll discover what moves the sales needle and who to hire.

Having one reliable goto person to give you the confidence to look at your travel agency as sustainably profitable. It’s one professional you can rely on to tackle each and every challenge. We can get this done.

My Unique Value Proposition

Let’s bypass the usual theory and performance claims to hone-in on the actionable items that as a whole will help you excel and profit.

• Work with you/key staff to establish the right content/SEO goals with the right material to get desired results
• Substantially grow traveler traffic via Google and Bing search
• Compete effectively for the best sales converting keyword phrases, and for all relevant searches
• Use sophisticated content creation/copywriting that resonates to key elements of Google’s algorithm ensuring visitors find your site – phrasing, word meanings, user intent, and other sophisticated SEO techniques to shape and focus ranking power intensely.
• Develop a brand voice that gets your unique value proposition across clearly
• Researching to generate creative content pieces for visitor enjoyment and engagement as well – ensuring visitors stick around and build brand preference.
• Grow traffic specifically searching for local travel agencies and advisors (local maps)
• Turn your website into your top business asset
• Build greater awareness of your agency hence increase comfort and trust with with new prospects
• Built trust and authority of your agency, amplifying the reputations of your CEO, founders, managers, agents and advisors
• Improve the quality and effectiveness of your blog, product pages, trip descriptions, suggested tours and itineraries, and social media posts to make them compelling and enjoyable to boost your brand strength
• Collaborate with your agents/advisors on creative, destination/experience articles and getting them published by journalists and influencers
• Collaborate with your staff and provide my help with social media strategy
• Help optimize your PPC campaigns and manage them for you (free)
• Help you acquire the best analytics solution to capture the best customer behavior insights possible
• Help you grow your customer base and market share
• Build your brand reputation with topic themes whether for trip type, destinations, specific high-demand services, or customer service
• Grow your travel customer’s confidence in your brand
• Create low-cost exposure for your full range of trips and packages
• Support to promote your top trips/tours/packages (e.g., Mediterranean cruises, Mexico resorts, Asia vacations, diving vacations, ski vacations)
• Help you grow long-term value from email subscriptions and repeat sales
• Build connections with major travel publishers – articles, interviews, destination reports, collaboration to get placement and backlinks

Just on a practical basis, you can see how all of these working as one unit can be very powerful. With travelers conducting hundreds of billions of searches and being constantly online consuming content and connecting with travel companies, you need to be there, to be the best in your market.

I’m the most reliable, capable and affordable traveler generator available. I will understand the unique value you and your team provide and I want to help you get that branded message to them every second of the day.

Read some of my travel posts and you’ll see  I’m highly motivated, inspired and energetic, striving to help clients launch or turn their business around.

Reach me, Gord at 416 998 6246.