You may be wondering, "Why do I need a marketing plan?" It's the glue that connects your marketing efforts together, ensuring the right activity takes place at the right time, to the right audience, through the right channels.
These five steps will help you create a marketing plan for your travel business (trust us, it's worth the effort).
1. DEFINE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Start by understanding who is most likely to book travel through you. This is key to advertising more effectively, allocating resources to relevant consumers, solidifying your brand voice and developing messaging that resonates with your audience. Define traits like age, location, language, travel interests and so on to help you narrow down.
2. SET OBJECTIVES & IDENTIFY KEY METRICS
Determine your goals, then work backwards to identify what is needed to meet them. Be sure to outline these ahead of time and determine how much time and effort you'll need to commit to your marketing initiatives. Then identify performance indicators for your goals. Looking to drive brand awareness? Track client engagement with your content. Do you want users to take a certain action on your website? Keep an eye on conversions.
3. DEVELOP A CONTENT STRATEGY
PERSONALIZE YOUR CONTENT
Since YOU are your brand, creating a unique brand voice and persona helps your agency stand out in the marketplace. Staying authentic and being true to your brand will help to create real connections with your audience and showcase the value you provide.
USE SOCIAL MEDIA
Social channels can connect you to a wider group of people. You'll have access to a free platform for content, travel promotions and information sharing with your clients.
DON'T FORGET THE VISUALS
Nothing captures the essence of travel more than images and videos. Showcase dream-worthy destinations by sharing your product and destination specialties with attention-grabbing content.
4. IMPLEMENT YOUR PLAN
Now it's time to put everything in motion and see all your hard efforts at work. Creating a content calendar allows you to optimize this step. Don't forget to monitor audience engagement for questions or reactions – it's important to respond quickly in this digital age.
5. ANALYZE YOUR PERFORMANCE
No plan is worth having if the results aren't meeting your goals. Be sure to consistently analyze your performance metrics, then take action by making changes based on your data learnings to ensure your efforts are successful.
If you're ready to start your marketing journey, ask us about our Marketing Resource Center™. Accessible to Avoya Network™ members at no additional cost, this library provides access to social media images, email campaigns, direct mail templates and more. The best part? We're continuously adding assets to ensure you always have the best to choose from. Our latest update: custom branded assets, complete with your agency logo.
With a solid marketing plan in place, you'll be ready to reach new clients, and engage with current ones, to be even more successful in the new year.
