“When they zig, you zag.”
This is one of my favorite marketing mantras.
It’s simple — but brilliant.
And all it means is: When everyone else is doing the same thing — posting on FB, snapping pics on Instagram, maybe sending out a monthly e-newsletter — it pays to do something different.
You’ll stand out in a BIG way.
And you’ll have less competition as you do it!
So, in the interest of helping you ZAG, here are 5 travel agency marketing ideas that I see few — if any — travel agents actually using. They aren’t a secret, per se, but they certainly haven’t been embraced by the travel agent community at large yet. Pick just one and run with it:
1) FB Live:
Today, every travel agent has a T.V. studio at the tips of their fingers. It’s called FB Live. Facebook’s live streaming feature has basically revolutionized marketing for small business owners. Now, you can hop on FB Live to connect in real time to your ideal prospects. If you haven’t used FB Live yet, here are 3 ways travel agents specifically can be using the feature:
- When you’re at a vacation property, hop on FB Live to give your FB followers a tour
- Collect questions from your clients and answer them live on FB Live
- Go live when you need to address big travel news from a travel agents’ perspective (like passport changes, travel advisories, etc)
2) Podcasts:
Too nervous to go live on video? Ease into getting yourself out there by hopping on a podcast. You can start a podcast yourself, or pitch yourself to be a guest on existing podcasts. Plus, podcast listeners are generally more affluent, so this is a great tactic to use if you want to reach higher end prospects.
3) Quizzes:
Quizzes are an incredible tool to use to capture leads, both on your website and on social media. People love taking quizzes — especially about travel! For tips on how you can use quizzes for your travel biz, check out my blog on quizzes right here.
4) Guest posting:
Similar to pitching yourself to be on a podcast, you can pitch a guest post idea to a blogger and get your byline on their website. Bloggers often welcome guest posters because it helps them keep up with content demands. Guest posting and podcasting are great marketing tactics because they allow you to leverage somebody else’s larger audience to get your message out there!
5) Press Releases:
When’s the last time you engaged in some good ol’ PR? Travel agents tend to forget how important public relations can be for their business. But if you write an engaging press release and send it to the right media contacts (a.k.a. editors at online and print publications), you can create some awesome buzz for your biz! The two times I’ve sent out press releases in the past year, I scored interviews in Travel Weekly. Not sure when or why you’d send out a press release? I lay it all out in this blog post.
Have you tried any of the travel agency marketing ideas above? How did they work out for you? I’m always curious to know what’s working for travel agents today!
the info mentioned here was great, and again the main thought was to have a good use of these tools and how that can be done. This way there will be a lot of benefits enjoyed together. They should know that as well