
29 Oct Why Travel Advisors Should Write a Blog?
Everyday business activity in travel agency rarely leaves travel advisors with extra time to write a travel blog. But if you think twice about your marketing plan and truly understand that blogging, as well as social media activity is very affordable and effective way of spreading word about your business you will lose any doubt that this is not worth your time. Efforts put in writing a few tips and tricks that you will continuously publish on your website blog can bring you more new clients that you think of, people simply trust more to those who can immediately help them with advice.
More blog posts more visitors
According to HubSpot, an online marketing platform, companies that blog get 55 percent more website visitors. More importantly, 57 percent of all businesses have acquired a new customer through their company blog.
This is for sure a good statistic that can motivate you to start a company blog, and if you are still asking yourself what will you write about, and make a deep thought about creating ideas and words, the first and the most important thing is to just start, and when you find yourself in front of the blank screen thing of all the questions that your clients ask on daily basis.
What will I write about?
Do I need travel insurance? What is the best far-away destination? For which countries I need vaccination and which don’t require? Where can I travel with small kids? What are the best family hotels? Why book first minute? In which case is it smart to wait for last minute offers?
Questions you get asked a lot are an excellent source of content for your blog. Spend a moment answering these questions and then with a little bit more accuracy try to describe it on your blog. People like to read travel advices and recommendations. They like to compare and are always in search for inspiration and stories that will make them feel good. If you continuously write about relevant topics that you get questioned, and publish stories that will bring person to your positive state of mind while visiting some destination there is no reason why you will not be recognized as a quality travel advisor, and get extra points on your travel agency image.
Bear in mind that there are a lot of people who don’t know anything about traveling or maybe they don’t know anything about destinations that you have visited. When you start to write a blog don’t analyze too much whether the topic you think of publishing is good enough or not, any advice, comparison or samples of itinerary, as well as live description of destination that you have in offer could be a great help for your potential client. A good source of ideas is also other travel agency blogs and travel bloggers sites. (Sonia Jones Travel, Budget Travel, best travel bloggers).
Destination blog posts
Blog posts about best destinations for some experience (possibilities are endless), post including vivid pictures, writing about the exciting things to do on destination including interesting and helpful tips, and different aspects of any destination (i.e. for pure relaxation opposite adventure style holiday) are a good concept for any destination blog post. It is important not to be exclusive if there is more holiday options. Always remember to connect your destination blog post with your travel agency program for that destination, and make a direct call to action or add button for “buy now” option.
There are many people who would like to plan a holiday but have no idea where to travel. Creating blog posts on different types of holidays, giving suggestions and lists on destination for winter beach holiday, popular city breaks regarding different seasons, ski holidays through different countries, family friendly vacations can make an easier way to recognize your travel packages, and motivate person to book with you.
Bullets and lists make it count
It should be no problem for the experienced agent to make a list of favorite things in a specific category. Whether its cruise ships, hotels and resorts or honeymoon destinations, make a list of your five favorites in any category related to travel. Now add one or two sentences to each favorite explaining why this specific item made the list. Add a photo for each piece, and your blog post is done. Design elements always count, as well as quality photographs.
Use press releases that back up your business story
Make a Google search for your topic of interest and add the words “press release” at the end. If you find a press release covering the subject you’re interested in, feel free to use or edit the content as you like, but always attribute the release back to its source.
Promo Offers from Suppliers
Posting about special offers and promotions from a preferred supplier can make a great invitation to your website and your agency. Sometimes the best marketing toolkit is to copy others when they have something catchy to say, and in that way attract attention to your services as well.
Promotion of your Blog
If you don’t say it is hard to believe that it will be heard. You can never have too much publicity for your blog or business. Don’t expect that only because you write a blog everybody will hear about it and come to read it, you will need some extra efforts in promoting your blog content. Today in the era of various social media channels it is easy to be present and to impose your story. The key factor is that you have to be constant, inspirational, and first of all have a dose of stubbornness that will not allow you to give up if positive publicity doesn’t come overnight, it never really does in the way you expect it. It’s very simple to register your new blog with blog directories; you just have to fill out forms on certain websites so that you can start to get noticed.
The best thing about blogs is that they will forever draw traffic to your site. They will attract new visitors who will not be here if there is not some specific blog post they liked or even better you will gain regular visitors that will keep up with your posts and finally give you trust when time for booking come.
Increase business with minimal budget
The best reason to blog is that this form of marketing requires minimal budget. These basic levels of blog platforms such as Word Press are free to use. Other platforms like this one also require no initial cash cost and are simple to set up. Sometimes, in the lack of time it is smart to hire a content writer to produce posts for your blog. If you do that try to look for freelancers that are experienced in travel and understand different aspects of the holiday as to be confident in telling the message you want to spread.