5 Winning Sales and Marketing Ideas for Your Travel Brand

Millions of people are looking at summer holidays as we come out of lockdown. A successful vaccination rollout means Brits are booking holidays again, and that’s great news for travel brands all over the country who are preparing for pent-up demand this summer.

But with increased demand comes more competition from other travel brands. Therefore, you need to be at the top of your game to meet customer demand and make sure they’re booking holidays with you.

How do you achieve that? By having a watertight sales and marketing strategy. Here are five winning marketing ideas to ensure your travel brand stands out heads and shoulders from the rest. 🙌

1) Have a presence on social media 🗨️

Social media is easily becoming one of the best ways to reach audiences, and travel brands have the advantage of using enticing holiday imagery to get people excited about vacations. Whether you’re on Instagram or Facebook, social media can help you reach your target audience with its 3.5bn-plus users.

You can use it to implement user-generated content campaigns, create paid ads (more on that in a bit) and offer your audience a direct line of communication. Brands that regularly interact with their followers on social media can build trust and create a better experience for their customers.

Think of it as the ultimate customer service tool, one where you can have fun but still provide a five-star service. The majority of brands already possess a strong social media presence, and you need to be on top of your social game to strike up a chord with your customers.

2) Create blog content 🖊️

Posting regular content is a great way to inform your audience and share valuable information. It also shows that you’re invested in your industry and want to give consumers all the latest information, whether it’s holiday tips or the latest travel news.

Aim to blog at least once or twice a week, as a regularly updated blog post will make your brand look like thought leaders in the industry. Then use social media and other platforms to promote your articles.

You can also mix up the type of content produced, implementing strategies that include regular blog posts, ebooks, and infographics. Try creating a monthly newsletter, too, and use it for summing up the content you’ve been working on for the month.

3) Offer a smoother checkout process 💳

Some aspects of marketing don’t need to focus solely on your brand. Actions can speak louder than words, and offering a better checkout process can help customers book with your brand. Buy now, pay later, for example, is a flexible finance option you can use at checkout to offer customers more ways to pay while boosting confidence.

Friction at checkout is one of the biggest barriers to entry for brands who want to increase the price of basket sizes. With alternative payment methods like buy now, pay later, travel brands can offer consumers more ways to pay for holidays, which are often costlier than everyday purchases.

Doing so will encourage more uptake on holiday purchases, with customers likely to spend that little bit extra booking their dream getaway. It makes the entire booking process more fluid while empowering holidaymakers to book with confidence, knowing they can pay back the cost in instalments.

4) Invest in pay per click advertising 🪧

Pay per click (PPC) advertising is becoming increasingly important, whether you’re trying to reach audiences on social media or get more attention on Google. PPC lets you bypass much of the work needed for organic ranking so you can appear at the top of search engines with your ads.

It’s measurable and trackable, which means you can gauge how well it’s performing and whether any tweaks are required. You’re also in charge of every aspect, meaning you can select the keywords and budgets to your liking.

PPC also works well across social media, as you can target timelines of people who are looking for holidays. It allows you to expand your reach further than your followers and create social media campaigns that get people to visit your travel website.

5) Embrace remarketing 🚀

Remarketing can help customers remember your brand. More often than not, people need to see an advert a few times before deciding to purchase with a company. And remarketing allows you to tag specific pages of your website, so they feature on people’s website visits.

Let’s say someone previously looked at your destination page. You can add a code to tag that page so the visitor will see your advertisement the next time they browse the internet, even if they’re not on your website.

Using brand marketing allows you to enjoy more brand exposure, higher conversion rates, better return on investment and streamlined audience targeting, all while being flexible with your budgets. The more you stay in your customers’ thoughts, the better the chances of them booking a holiday with you.

Market with the best of them

Marketing is an ongoing process, but remember the saying: out of sight, out of mind. You definitely want to be in your customers’ thoughts as we head into the boom period of holidays. And by implementing these marketing ideas, you can stay ahead of the competition and be the travel brand that matters to your audience.