Written by Devin McKinney

We know the smart travel planners have all kinds of marketing tricks. I decided to pull together my 5 best marketing tricks successful travel planners use when they are starting out.

Network Network Network

When you are starting your new travel planning business getting your first few customers can make or break your business. Customer acquisition when you are a new company is very different from an established company. Later on you’ll be able to rely on lead generation techniques like sending email to your mailing list, pay-per-click, content marketing with social media and more. Those are all what I call medium or long term plays. You’re in luck, though, because you’re a travel planner and you know people.

 

Everyone in your network of friends, family, business associations, local neighborhood, they all want to get away on vacation. Your first customers will probably come from your network. Use it. Call people, email friends, send them to your web site (more below on that). Tell them what you’re doing, ask them if they want to be a guinea pig. Anything to plan a trip for a client. Even if you don’t make a lot of money on these first customers you will learn so much about how to make your business more efficient.

Image by freepik

 

Simple web site best web site

One of the other marketing tricks planners use is a simple web site. For a new company a web site is strictly to send leads, like a resume or a business card. You find your leads with some other activities like networking (see above :-)) Here is all you need for your single page web site:

• Your background and expertise
• The destination where you plan trips for
• Your process, how you’ll work with each customer to make a great trip
• Services and pricing so they know what they’re getting
• Some kind of short form where they tell you when they want to travel and what they want to do
• Contact information so they can email or call you

And that’s it. Add some social links and great photos of your destination, a nice photo of you with a big smile, and you’re done. Later on you can expand the site, but to start all you need is a single page with the sections I’ve outlined above.

There are a lot of easy-to-use platforms for building your first web site, even if you aren’t technical. Just Google “no code web design” and you’ll see many options like these:

• Strikingly
• Squarespace
• Tilda
• Duda
• WebFlow

Another trick, but one you shouldn’t use – don’t advertise (on Facebook or Google)

I’m including this because it is a common mistake new travel planning businesses make. People may tell you how successful they’ve been with Facebook, Google or LinkedIn ads. Well, it’s true that they can be very effective, but they are also costly and take months if not years to get right. It’s better to find your first customers with other faster methods and learn, then later use that learning to develop Facebook or Google ad campaigns, if you want, to grow your business.

Local sales can work

We’re all focused on the Internet for business these days. Well, it can be a great way to find business because your reach is so large. But really, you only need a handful of people to say yes during your first year and if you live in a community of people who have extra money to travel and don’t want to plan their own trips, you may be able to sell to people next door. One of the marketing tricks travel planners use is to be resourceful and use a local sales approach. Make sure you get your listing on Google Maps with a Google Business Profile!  Check out community events, newsletters, opportunities to speak or sponsor some local event. You never know, you might even meet some of your neighbors!

Blog early and often

One of the smartest marketing tricks planners use is blogging. When you start posting blogs you start showing up in Google and other search engines. Done correctly, it can be an incredibly effective way to get leads. It takes time, though. The sooner you start the sooner you benefit so posting a blog on your one page web site makes a lot of sense. It adds value on the site when you send your first leads there, and it starts building up your site’s SEO capabilities and makes it more and more likely that when people search for travel planners for your destination you’ll show up in the results. It’s not too much work and just a good idea to get going immediately.

Market efficiently

There are many things you can do to market your business but if you make sure to use the same marketing tricks travel planners use you are more likely to be successful fast. Make sure when you start that you are focusing on the activities with the biggest bang for your buck. Use the minimum amount of your precious time and get the maximum benefit. Go for the low hanging fruit and you will find your first few customers in no time!