It’s been three days of presentations on travel marketing—from defining your market to branding and using social media to creating raving fans—at the TravelPro Marketing Summit this week. And it’s no surprise that I’ve come away with a few good ideas I can’t wait to try out.
When experts talk about a subject they love, you can’t help but get excited. and this second online Travel Pro Summit is clearly a labor of love by travel advisor Tiffany Elberfeld and the speakers she recruited.
I’m inspired by Dana Zificsak’s presentation encouraging travel advisors (and travel writers like me, I assume) to go live on Facebook rather than just posting videos after the fact.
“When a client can see you and hear your enthusiasm, it brings them into your world and builds trust, gets more engagement and increases sales conversion,” she said. And best of all, “you don’t need fancy equipment. You just need to show up.”
On Facebook Live, you can broadcast in real-time and listeners can comment—and that conversation with your audience is the very essence of good marketing. People spend triple the number of minutes watching live videos, and comment 10 times as often. And the more comments you get, the more the algorithm shows your post to others.
Zificsak’s tips for livecasts:
*Focus on one message or topic, and stick to one platform if you are just getting started.
*Pick a topic that’s of interest to your core audience and that shows your expertise. You can share a story from a recent trip or fam, or news related to a destination or your niche. One of Elberfeld’s agents, for example, does a live Naptime News broadcast every Monday while her baby is sleeping.
*Declare your topic and a date and time and just go for it. You will never be 100% ready. It’s okay to be human. Come as you are. Just start.
*Use a hook and a call to action in the title and the caption. Our brains love numbers; try “The Three Best…” or “The Three Most Asked Questions about….” Or make the title a question. (Did you notice I tried that in my headline?)
Video Is Fine Too
Even if you’re not ready for livecasting, always think video as a marketing tool, says Angela Hughes of Trips & Ships Luxury Travel.
“If you show up on Instagram and Facebook every single day, I promise you’ll see results,” Hughes says. Video is super hot because it stays in the algorithm for a long time. And it doesn’t matter if you’re 55 years old and have four kids; no one cares what you look like. If you’re meeting with your Sandals BDM, make a video. If you’re at a resort, no one really cares what the bathroom looks like. Get in front of the camera and talk about your experience. Sell the feeling.
Share things with a carefully defined customer base. “Saying you are in the luxury niche is not good enough,” Hughes says. “I sell in the private equity space, the orthopedic space, the alumni space. Whom do you sell to?”
Try this bit of homework: Create a piece on your Canva account saying you’re open for 2025 bookings, and send it to 100 friends.
“Show up before they go looking, because they might not come looking for you,” Hughes says. “Get in front of them, let them know what you are doing, and keep reminding them over and over how you can solve their problems.”
Create Raving Fans
My favorite presentation was from Lary Neron, founder of Airfare Consultant—a business he started with the goal of never having to market at all. Instead, Neron went about building a customer base that loves him so much they market his services to their own friends and acquaintances for free.
“Having raving fans by default is easier and cheaper than always having to find new clients,” he said, “and this base of raving fans will generate referrals.”
Neron builds his base through exceptional service. He tracks flights and weather so he can anticipate delays and missed connections, and shares all information he can dig up about their flights and airports to make sure his clients’ air journeys are as seamless and stress-free as possible. Then he invests his marketing dollars directly in the client relationship.
“If we make a mistake, we pay out of pocket, and we always go above and beyond what is expected,” he said.
He is constantly on the lookout for low-hanging fruit with high perceived value to the customers. He emails them three or four hours before departure to tell them which terminal and which gate they will be departing; he searches constantly to see if a better seat has opened up; he sends them detailed information about how to move from one terminal to another when they change flight; he tells them where the nearest airport lounge is.
He also is big on gifting, not for birthdays or anniversaries but for unique and meaningful moments – “probably the thing that has the most impact and creates moments and experiences a client will talk about forever.” He has sent Cutco knives to a client who loves to cook—“Every time he cooks for people he tells his guests about me,” Neron says. And he sent a pair of socks with tacos all over them to one who loves tacos; now the client’s Facebook page is full of pictures of him biking in the socks Airfare Consultant got him, and raving about their service.
“Technology is important but what’s really impactful is the human things that connect us emotionally. Look through your workflows for little things you can leverage to showcase your value and increase your visibility to current and potential clients,” he says. “I guarantee you know a lot of little things you can do that you don’t currently because you don’t think they are important. But they are impactful to the client.”
In the end, he says, you can get leads by spending on marketing or by creating raving fans. “For us referrals are the best use of our time, efforts, skills, and money to get new clients.”
Looking beyond Facebook
While many travel advisors love Facebook, Rita Perez suggests that Linked In is “an amazing platform for finding leads and interacting with people who are not only ideal clients but also valuable for networking.”
Forget videos here, though; Linkedin is the home of long-form written content that shows off your knowledge, expertise and opinions. Think of it as going to a networking event,” she says. They want to hear your voice, so offer original content and meaningful insights.
Step up to contribute to collaborative articles, where LinkedIn members are encouraged to add their expertise to posted articles. Focus on the ones that relate to your specialty or niche, so you begin to stand out as an expert in that community.
Creating a Target Audience
Narrowing your audience to people with a given demographic and psychographic profile makes it easier to speak to their unique problems and gain their trust, says Jennifer Jacob, a former travel agency owner who transitioned to a host model in 2020. “We do best at things we love,” she said. “Sell what you are passionate about and charge more for your knowledge.”
But don’t forget to temper your passion with a dose of reality. Research the market and your existing client base to make sure that what you love is going to convert to sales, and those sales will be profitable. Success comes down to finding a combination of what your audience wants and what converts to sales.
Writing Copy that Stands Out
You’ll need more than videos to attract attention these days, agrees Emily Matras of Bon Vivant Copy. “It’s so easy to have a website – that’s the bare minimum, and even niches alone do not help you stand out anymore. So how can you get noticed by the people you want to get noticed by, and get them to remember you?”
In a sea of information, it’s meaningful words that stand out.
Matras suggests three steps:
- Take a stand. A travel advisor’s job isn’t just to inspire or influence – it’s to advise. So build your brand around your opinions. What are some common misconceptions your audience buys into? What property or destination has let you down? What’s something that has a lukewarm reputation that you loved? What pisses you off about the way your audience is being treated? You may ruffle some feathers—but you will come across as honest, and above all, as human. Humans have opinions; AI does not.
- Be entertaining. Copy that is funny or charming or really well written will keep eyes on your page. “Here’s to travel that dazzles you,” says the copy on one Facebook page Matras wrote, “to tailored vacations for travelers in search of the sublime. In this world, there are still ancient wonders that astound.” Before launching into the nitty gritty of things, take a little time to simply entertain your reader.
- Talk only to your audience and no one else. You don’t just want to be memorable; you want to be memorable to the right people. Talk in code, make inside jokes, and write in a way that only your audience will get. And don’t run your copy past your spouse or friends to see if they like it. Run it past your customers.
The Best Stories Come from Satisfied Customers
When it’s all said and done, don’t forget to help your customers provide testimonials, says Tiffany Elberfield. You don’t need an email describing what they thought of the resort; that’s really not helpful. Instead, ask them to share a problem or challenge they faced and the solution you provided. What challenge brought them to you, and how does life look now that it’s solved?
Then ask for permission to repeat their comments, and make it really clear that you will edit or shorten it before you share it. Then send it back to the client for final approval.
You also can gather positive thoughts that various clients have shared with you, and email to ask if it’s OK to share them. Send returning clients a simple survey that reviews your services—not a welcome-home message, but maybe a few weeks before they leave. Try to capture their thoughts and excitement right after working with you, when they are really excited about the adventure you have put together for them. Keep it quick and easy; ask if they will answer a few questions or share a few words about you and your business in a selfie video. Or capture content yourself – keep an eye out for emails or posts you can screenshot, and then ask their permission to share it.
The TravelPro Marketing Summit was still going on at press time and I’m sure there are plenty more ideas to try.
But I’m determined to try a live video on Facebook while I’m in Zion National Park this weekend! Hope you’ll tune in and let me know what you think.
Interested in hearing the presentations for yourself?
Visit https://www.travelprosummit.com.
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.