In the traditional scheme of things, marketing was one of the biggest hurdles that most startups faced. That was primarily due to the hefty costs that conventional marketing methods demanded.
Today, thanks to the growth and adoption of the digital space, new businesses can now employ highly effective marketing strategies at a fraction of the cost traditionally associated with such campaigns.
Additionally, today’s digital marketing methods offer an expanded reach that often proved difficult traditionally.
In this breakdown, we look at the different ways that new travel startups can optimize their online presence to meet their marketing needs.
We will also discuss how you can employ these methods and the advantages that each strategy brings to the table.
As we shall see, most of these strategies are easy to set up and access through mobile gadgets. Additionally, you can easily monitor their performance in real-time and tweak them as need be.
Table of Contents
Website
For most clients today, product research begins online. Therefore, it pays to have a welcoming and informative website at your disposal.
A professional website can be designed to suit your business offerings, detailing your products, contacts, and address.
The website helps you funnel your online clients to your physical shop to make their purchases.
Alternatively, you could also offer an online shop to compliment your physical shop. Either way, the website is an excellent place to let even the most remote clients know about your business.
One of the ways you can make the site attractive to visitors is by having great visuals and images, and informative content.
That includes compelling pictures of some of the attractions that your company offers in its itineraries.
Further, having a dedicated blog to answer the most frequently asked questions also helps direct online traffic to your website. That should include informative content on the attractions available and the best times to visit each.
Social media
Social media is yet another way to funnel your online leads and convert them into sales.
You can achieve this by establishing consistent social media accounts or handles for your enterprise throughout all the social media handles.
Choose your preferred social media platforms by bearing in mind the niche market your
If, for instance, you are targeting the corporate crowd and business travellers, it is ideal to ensure your presence is felt on LinkedIn. Millennials and young crowds, on the other hand, can be easily reached through Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.
These social media accounts provide an efficient way for your business to disburse information on offers and promos. They provide a more extensive reach rather than relying on a website alone.
You could also consider enlisting the help of social media influencers, who would be instrumental in spreading the word to their followers.
Here, it is also critical to consider your target audience and ensure that the influencer you pick has a following of such an audience.
Content creation
Having relevant content on your website means providing your prospects with engaging and informative material regarding your products.
That includes publishing helpful articles on topical subjects that your clients may be interested in within your business area.
As a travel company startup, these articles may revolve around subjects such as what trips your travel agency offers, travel destinations you cover, what visitors can hope to see there, and any other interesting facts about the area.
However, besides making sure that the content is relevant, you need to make it search engine optimized.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) employs various practices to ensure that your content ranks highly on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
SEO is vital in ensuring that your website appears among the first batch of results of popular search engines, thus guaranteeing you greater visibility for your business.
Some of the methods used to optimize web content include using relevant keywords in the article, having content that is always up to date, and easily accessible across all devices, including mobile ones.
Email marketing
Email marketing is an evergreen marketing strategy that incorporates traditional cold calling tactics and takes them a notch higher.
It involves enlisting the help of an Email Services Provider who provides verified email contacts of valuable leads within your niche market.
However, unlike the old methods of cold calling, email marketing allows you to target the key decision-makers within your target market, thus heightening your chances of turning such leads into sales.
For those in the travel and tours industry, such email lists could include high net worth individuals who might be keen on sampling a luxury safari to Africa.
It might also include corporate managers who are likely to be interested in organizing a team-building excursion for their valued employees.
The point here is the provision of dependable email lists of valuable leads within your area of specialization.
Chatbots and other forms of automation
A chatbot is a computer application devised to mimic a natural person and render responses to customer queries.
Its operation revolves around addressing customers’ frequently asked questions regarding a business’ products or services.
It is a virtual assistant that brands deploy on their social media applications as a tool to promptly and accurately resolve customer queries.
As a marketing tool, chatbots help businesses nurture leads and boost customer engagement, all while providing timely responses to the client.
Since it is automated, it also saves the company from costs traditionally associated with hiring a customer care representative.
Further, bots allow you to quickly analyze your customer behaviour and needs due to their data harnessing capabilities.
Within the travel and hospitality industry, you can use bots to help clients find a suitable travel destination depending on the season they wish to travel and the sights they hope to see.
