Updated January 18, 2024
Do you ever struggle with your travel marketing? Do you wonder what you should post on your travel agency social media accounts or website?
Coming up with new travel marketing content can be, quite frankly, exhausting. It takes time, energy, and creativity to come up with a consistent flow of great, engaging content.
Then you complete a supplier training, or attend a travel industry webinar, and you hear about the website, email, and social media marketing content that the supplier has available for you to use. Everything from website banners to photos and videos for your social media, all set up, ready and waiting for you.
You start looking through the content, and you quickly see a theme. From “Kids sail free!” to “Reduced deposit if you book now!” messages, it seems like so much of it is focused around travel deals.
Is there anything wrong with that? After all, who doesn’t like a good deal?
But the truth is, posting deals as a part of your travel marketing strategy can, in the long run, do you more harm than good.
The dilemma of promoting deals
Promoting deals can seem, at the outset, like such a simple way to get new clients. After all, you probably already get inquiries from potential travelers asking if you can get them a good deal, right?
But before you make those travel deals a key part of your travel marketing content, you need to stop and consider, long term, what you want your travel agency to be known for.
Do you want to be the quick, cheap, deal-finding travel agency, with clients who won’t hesitate to jump to another agency if that agent can save them $50 on their cruise?
Or do you want to be the advisor who always provides amazing value? You know, the travel advisor who gets upgrades and VIP treatment for their clients, and builds such a great customer experience and customer loyalty that your clients wouldn’t dream of going with another travel company just to save a few dollars.
The problem is, when you focus your travel marketing on promoting supplier deals, you accidentally communicate to potential travelers that your value is simply in saving them money.
You’re trying to compete with the big online travel agencies, travel brands like Expedia and Booking.com, whose value in the travel industry lies in their ability to just get the cheapest deal.
Plus, the more you throw around words like “deal”, “budget”, and “savings”, the more you’ll attract prospective customers who are only looking for those things.
If you’re spending all your time focusing on price, how will you ever find the clients who value your expertise as an advisor? You’ll be stuck competing to find $500 cruise fares for deal-searchers and tire kickers. That doesn’t sound like much fun to me!
The value-driven approach to travel marketing
Instead of focusing on deals, what if you took a different approach with your travel marketing strategy?
Don’t focus on the deals, budget getaways, or savings you can get for your potential customer.
Focus your marketing and brand strategy on the value you provide.
Can you get breakfast included at specific hotels and hotel brands? Focus on those hotels, when you know they’re a good fit for your client, and let them know what additional value you can provide to them.
My agency is part of a consortium that can get a lot of additional value from various travel industry partners. I can provide perks like free breakfast, food and beverage credits, upgrades, and things like that to my clients when I book with a partner hotel.
When I book one of those hotels, I let my client know I was able to secure them some additional amenities and tell them what those amenities are. My clients are delighted, and my agency looks like a rockstar!
This is especially true if you’re trying to attract luxury travelers. Luxury travelers aren’t focused on price. In fact, some have high enough budgets that it doesn’t matter what it costs. They desire it because it’s valuable.
The root of the word valuable is value. High value can come at a high price, but it’s worth the cost.
How do you provide value for your clients and customers? Does your value come from your years of knowledge, your innate ability to match the right client with the perfect experience, or the special access you have because of your relationship with the right tour operators and destination management companies?
Whatever that value is, highlight it. Your social media channels, website, and overall travel brand need to show your value, not the deals you can get.
That doesn't mean you can't ever use deals as part of your travel marketing. They can be a great way to close a sale!
But instead of filling your social media, travel agency website, and content marketing with the latest deals, be strategic.
If there's a great sale on Celebrity Cruises, and you have clients that you know love Celebrity or would be a great fit for the brand, create a specific travel marketing campaign geared just to those consumers. Tag them in your email management system, and send an email marketing campaign specifically to them.
A good digital marketing strategy isn't about posting deals everywhere you can. Being a good travel marketer is about matching the right deal with the right consumers at the right time.
When you combine the value you provide, the loyalty you build with a traveler, an amazing travel experience, and the right travel marketing efforts, it's magic.
The bottom line
If you want to build a travel agency that’s competing with the biggest online travel agencies on getting the absolute lowest price, that’s your decision. You can highlight your budget prices and deal in volume.
But if you want to build a travel company that thrives, building amazing travel experiences that bring in great commissions, you need a different tactic.
Focus on the value you bring, not on deals.
When your travel marketing focuses on the value you bring, you start to attract the people who want that value and are willing to pay what it’s worth.
Like this post? Check out our other travel marketing strategy posts!