Ezines.
Ezines.
EZINES!
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about how important ezines are for your travel business.
Sending out an ezine consistently keeps you top of mind with your prospects and clients, so they know exactly who to call when they’re ready to book their next vacation.
But. Sending out an ezine is only one part of the equation. Your travel business may sustain itself if you commit to the ezine, but it doesn’t mean you’ll grow.
To grow your travel business, you have to grow your ezine list of subscribers.
And to do that, you need an opt-in offer.
Also known as an IFO or lead magnet, an opt-in offer is a free piece of content that you advertise in exchange for someone’s email address. They enter their email address on your opt-in form, and when they hit “submit,” you send them the opt-in offer and add them to your ezine list. This is all done automatically (if you need a refresher on how opt-in offers work, go here).
So, yes, that means you need to develop juicy content to get new subscribers. Content that people will happily give up their email addresses to get (and in today’s age of endless spam, people don’t part with their email addresses easily).
There’s good news: You might already have the content you need to create a must-have opt-in offer. No need to start from scratch.
Here are 5 ways you can reuse existing content and turn it into opt-in offers to grow your list:
1. Bundle blog posts together: If you write an e-newsletter or post to your blog, chances are you revisit similar topics again and again. For example, maybe you’ve written four or five posts relating to traveling with kids. You can bundle your similar posts together and present them as an in-depth guide or e-book. All you would need to add is an intro and conclusion (don’t forget your call to action!).
2. Give a sneak peak with a sample itinerary: This is an especially good idea if you plan custom FITs. Take one of your best client itineraries, change out client names and details, and market it as an opt-in offer. If you’re afraid that people will take your itinerary and just book a trip themselves, then only share 3 days of the itinerary. This is a great way, though, to showcase your expertise and give prospects a “behind the scenes” look at what you do — which people love.
3. Collect your best tips: I’ve seen lots of travel agents include a section in their e-newsletters where they share a quick tip. Or maybe you’re sharing travel tips frequently on social media. Gather all those tips together — they’d make a compelling opt-in offer! Especially because people salivate over numbered lists. “20 Insider Travel Secrets from a Professional Travel Planner” <– that’s an enticing offer.
4. Create a trip review: A first-person account of a trip to a dreamy destination, complete with pics, could definitely work as an opt-in offer. If you’ve been posting to Instagram or Facebook while on a FAM or vacation, with juicy captions, convert those posts into a photo-heavy trip review.
5. Reuse your FB Live videos: Are you a FB Live devotee? Turn your videos into an opt-on offer! Just like the blog posts idea, you can bundle several videos together if they share a theme and turn them into a video series, sending one video via email per day. Bonus: You’ll stand out by offering something unique and visually interesting, instead of another pdf guide. One note on FB Live, though: If it’s really obvious that these are FB Live videos (i.e. you’re responding to comments live while you’re filming), you should mention in your email to subscribers where the videos come from.
See? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel — or spend a ton of time writing something new — to create an opt-in offer. Get creative with what you already have out there, and reuse, reuse, reuse. If a subscriber is new to your list, then they haven’t seen this content before!
[…] even spring off of my e-newsletter topics to create my opt-in offers (aka IFOs), expanding on something I first explored in my […]