There’s been a healthy uptick in the number of global travelers around the world recently, meaning that travel franchises are well-positioned to take advantage of this opportunity.
But with most people doing searches for their next trip online, you’re faced with a lot of competition in terms of ranking on Google and beating the competition.
That’s why you need to implement the right travel franchise marketing strategies. A strategic marketing approach is critical for your business’ success. And it all starts with a travel agency marketing plan.
In this post, we delve into the details of what such a plan requires and focus on important strategies that can help your travel business attract more customers. Let’s take a closer look.
In this article:
Developing your travel franchise marketing plan
Franchise travel agency marketing should always start with a marketing plan. But how do you get started? We suggest starting with an approach that works backwards. For example, you’ll want to consider how many clients you want to attract within, say a one-year period.
Then, divide this number so that you get a per-month figure. Once you have your monthly target of customers to be acquired, consider how much you are willing to spend on customer acquisition for every new client. And only then should you think about your marketing plan.
In this plan, you should consider what travel niche you specialize in and what your target audience expects from your service. When studying your customers’ profile, bear in mind that there are various distinguishing characteristics for you to consider. Among these include the following:
- Demographic
- Geographic
- Behavioral
- Value-based
- Needs-based
- Technographic
- Psychographic
- Lifecycle change
When you have a target audience narrowed down, you can more easily pinpoint which services and destinations you can market to them and how to go about doing so. And if you’re all out of travel agency marketing ideas, the suggestions below will help you get started.
Digital marketing strategies for travel franchises
With major global populations being online today, it’s no secret that digital marketing is a winner in gaining prospective customers’ attention. But how exactly can you do this? There are a few proven approaches that work. We look at these in more detail below.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) should be an essential part of your marketing strategy. When people search for certain keywords online, you can use special software that goes into the backend of these searches and aggregates the results for you.
In such cases, you can figure out how difficult it is to rank for a given keyword or how much average traffic a particular keyword is getting per month. You want to target keywords with a low keyword difficulty and low competition. That’s why going for the highest search volume keywords is not always ideal.
It’s one way to see your rankings fall to the bottom, resulting in wasted resources and efforts. Travel agency SEO for franchises should then incorporate this research into actionable content strategies, be they for a webpage, a landing page, or blog content.
Another approach is to optimize your website content with accurate and relevant keywords and create local listings that are comprehensive and complete.
When you take advantage of Google’s “map pack”, you’re generating more organic traffic for your website and you can turn visitors into paying customers. However, you need accurate and consistent business name, address, and telephone number details, answered reviews (both positive and negative), and encourage your existing customers to leave ratings for your business.
Social media marketing for travel franchises
Once your organic content marketing strategy is in place, consider these tips for marketing your franchise on social media. The beauty of it all is that many social media channels can be used for free, thus not placing strain on your pocket. However, it does require effort and dedication to the cause. So, how do you get started?
First, look back at your target audience and determine which social media channels they can be found on. Then, create a calendar or a posting schedule for publishing your posts. Weekdays and outside of business hours are typically considered great times to post your social media content.
But what content should you publish? There are many ideas to choose from. You can choose to emphasize new, exotic destinations that you’re offering. You can also offer discounts, coupons, or flash sales. Sharing videos, images, or infographics is another great idea. Ultimately, you should encourage your audience to share your content and engage with it. But that’s not all.
Consider joining travel groups where you can also post your content and reshare other’s pictures or social media copy, especially if it aligns with your business goals. By resharing and engaging with others, you’re not doing a one-sided gig but are becoming a part of an online community where you can build trust and loyalty in your brand.
And if you want to boost your social media marketing for travel franchises, you can also purchase paid advertising space on these channels.
Content marketing for travel franchises
Content marketing for travel franchises, when done right, can act as a powerful tool to market your travel franchise business.
If you want to attract leads, you’ll want to create valuable content that includes blog posts, travel guides, and destination videos. Make sure that you follow SEO best practices mentioned above by naturally incorporating high-search-volume, low-competition keywords into your texts.
Email marketing for travel franchises
If you want tips on email marketing for travel franchises, you’re on the right track. That’s because email marketing is a truly powerful way of acquiring and retaining new customers. With email marketing, you need to add value at every interaction.
This means that you need to create engaging welcome, thank you, confirmation, and other emails that you send out. But how do you secure new leads? The answer lies in the form of lead magnets on your website where you offer some valuable content in exchange for your audience’s email addresses.
Once you have built up a sufficient list of email addresses, you can start sending targeted and segmented emails that are informative, entertaining, helpful, and actionable.
Leveraging the franchise network
As part of a travel franchise network, you’d be surprised at how powerful it can be in helping you acquire new customers. You can not only tap into the knowledge and resources (think marketing materials) of your franchisor but your franchisee network, too.
For example, you can explore opportunities to participate in co-branded marketing campaigns. Some travel franchise brands go above and beyond in offering their franchisees extensive marketing support in the form of marketing materials and dedicated business development managers.
These marketing experts work directly with you to help you promote your business and reach new clients faster and at affordable rates.
Local marketing strategies for travel franchises
Lastly, you can definitely tap into local marketing to attract nearby customers. What is local marketing? It involves marketing efforts that aim to address local searches when potential customers make “near me” or “in city” searches online.
Once the search begins, Google pulls information from its database to reveal the top three results in the form of a map pack. This “pack” shows a map of where your business is located.
Ultimately, this can facilitate greater walk-ins, especially if you have a physical office. Make sure your online presence is accurate and consistent. And another important thing: apart from encouraging reviews and ratings, be sure to answer them — both the positive and negative.
Other approaches you might consider when it comes to the importance of local marketing for franchisees include: community outreach, networking with local businesses, and participating in travel fairs.
Measuring and optimizing your marketing efforts
In order to know if you are increasing your sales, you need to monitor and measure your progress. Tracking key metrics should be an essential part of your strategy. Examples of these metrics include website traffic, lead generation, sales conversions, etc.
If you are ready to increase travel agency sales, then measuring must be something you put effort into on a regular and consistent basis.
Conclusion
If you feel that embarking on the road to marketing your travel franchise business is too daunting, you’re not alone. There is always help that you can count on, whether it’s with local, traditional, or digital marketing services.
The team at Franchise Fame is here to help you reach your customer acquisition and marketing goals, so don’t hesitate to reach out to us and we’ll gladly assist you.
