Shawna Levet5 Day Marketing Challenge for Travel Agents
Do you ever feel like your business is in a bit of a slump? This often happens for travel advisors right around this time of year. Fall for travel advisors is that in-between season where your summer trips have ended, but next year’s bookings have not quite started picking up like they do around the beginning of the year. If you haven’t read our post on what to do during a slow season, start there! It might be a good time for you to head to a travel conference or take a trip yourself.
But if you already know that you want to give your marketing strategy some attention, here’s an easy 5 Day Marketing Challenge for Travel Agents. The best part is — you can do as much or as little each day as you need!
A fair warning for you: this post is PACKED with additional resources for you to save and read through. Before you get started, grab yourself a cup of coffee and find yourself a comfortable place to sit. We hope the tips and links provided will help you dig into your marketing strategy!
Three challenge levels to choose from:
For each daily challenge, we have 3 levels for you to choose from, based on how much time you have to invest. Choose based on your own needs for each area of your marketing. Here’s a quick guide:
⭐ Challenge will take 30 minutes to complete.
⭐⭐ Challenge will take 60 minutes to complete.
⭐⭐⭐ 2+ hours are needed for this challenge.
If you can get a few of these things in order before the end of the year, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running when the New Year arrives.
Are you ready?
5 Day Marketing Challenge for Travel Agents
Day 1 – Update your website and blog
In the good ol’ days of the travel industry, most travel agencies were storefront. Today, most travel packages are handled online and over the phone. So your website (and your blog, if you have one), is kind of like your “front desk.” It’s a first impression of your company, so to speak. What will a new client think when they first find your website? Is it clear what services you offer? Is your “travel niche” obvious without doing a lot of digging? Can users navigate it easily? Is it visually appealing? Your website should help attract potential clients who would benefit from your service. Here are some steps towards improving your website:
⭐ Review every page of your website to make sure info is accurate and up-to-date.
⭐⭐ Review every page of your website to make sure info is accurate and up-to-date. Find a way to freshen up your website with a new theme, new pictures, or another feature that may help prospective clients such as an F.A.Q. page.
⭐⭐⭐ Review every page of your website to make sure info is accurate and up-to-date. Choose one new, big project to start on your website such as adding a blog, or improving your SEO. SEO is a powerful way to attract new leads. In order to do this correctly, it is important to spend some time learning about SEO — or you can hire an outside expert to assist!
Additional resources:
➡️ 8 Reasons You Need to Start a Travel Blog
➡️ 15 Ways to Fix Your Website Immediately
Day 2 – Review your Facebook strategy
The key to success on Facebook is high quality visuals and helpful information. This is especially important in the travel industry because your clients come to your page looking for one of two things: inspiration or answers. Chances are good that you’ve been on Facebook for a while. The important thing here is to clean up your page and make it as professional as possible:
⭐ Create a Facebook page for your brand that is separate from your personal profile.
⭐⭐ Update your Facebook page to reflect what is displayed on your website. Check your contact information, address, and hours of operation. Refresh, if needed, with a new profile picture and cover image.
⭐⭐⭐ Take a look at your posts for the past 6 months and determine which ones drive engagement and which do not. Readjust your Facebook strategy to focus on posting things that inspire your followers to interact.
Additional Resources:
➡️ Outsmart the Facebook Algorithm for Your Small Business
➡️ How to Create Shareable Content for Your Travel Agency
Day 3 – Focus on Instagram
If you’re trying to grow your travel business, you’ll want to start directing more time and attention to Instagram. Instagram’s powerful search features and reliance on “related content” makes it easy for potential clients to find you… if you know how to play the game!
⭐ Update your profile picture and bio with a high quality photo and information that makes it clear what you offer. Delete personal photos that are unrelated to your brand.
⭐⭐ Create story highlights to save stories that are useful or inspiring for future clients to see. You can create highlight covers here — be sure they fit with your branding!
⭐⭐⭐ Take some time to plan out an instagram strategy. How many followers do you want to gain over the course of the next week or month? What kind of content, hashtags, and interaction will you use to gain high-quality leads? Hint: Look at some of the top competitors in your niche to see what might be working for them!
Additional Resources:
➡️ How to Utilize Instagram for Your Travel Agency
➡️ Top 5 Ways to Use Social Media
Day 4 – Calendar and platform management
⭐ Sign up for a platform management service. Use this tool to schedule posts in advance rather than spur of the moment. This will eventually save you a lot of time!
⭐⭐ Sign up for a platform management service. Choose one day per week to publish consistent content. This could be something like a Travel Tip Tuesday post or sharing a weekly photo from your clients (with their permission, of course). Schedule this content for the next 4 weeks.
⭐⭐⭐ Sign up for a platform management service. Create a plan to post to your social media platforms 3-5 times per week. Consistent posting may take a lot of work, but it is one of the surest ways to increase your following. You can simplify by dedicating certain days of the week to specific content. For example: Mondays for travel inspiration. Tuesdays for travel tips. Fridays for fun questions like, “Would you rather go to the beach or mountains?”
Additional resources:
➡️ Top Ways to Improve Your Email Campaigns
Day 5 – Track and measure growth
There’s not much benefit in putting lots of effort into improving your marketing if you don’t track your results. Marketing is not a perfect science — what works for another brand might not work for you. In order to spend your time and energy well, you’ll want to find a way to measure your success. Here is how you can get started tracking and measuring your growth:
⭐ Start monitoring your website traffic. The best way to do this is with Google analytics. Find out how people are coming to your site, what they look at when they get there and how long they stay.
⭐⭐ Monitor your website traffic using Google analytics. Check on your Facebook and Instagram insights as well. Plan to do a month review of each piece of content you create to determine the reach and find out what works well for your brand.
⭐⭐⭐ Monitor your website with Google analytics and check your Facebook and Instagram insights to track your social media metrics. Create a tracking system to measure reach, impressions, and conversions for each marketing tool you use. Here are some ideas to get your started on creating a report!
Did you complete the 5 day marketing challenge for travel agents?
Did you complete the 5 day marketing challenge? If so, we would love to hear what you gained! Even if you took a few baby steps, the important thing in marketing is to keep moving forward. Once you’ve completed the 30 minute challenges, come back to the 1 and 2 hour challenges when you have more time. No matter how big a brand becomes, marketing is ever-changing and there is always room to improve!
