It’s crucial to develop a robust strategy for selling your tours and activities. With this in mind, we’re delving into proven marketing and sales strategies to help your business thrive.
Promotions
Attracting new customers is harder than keeping new ones, as the old adage goes. One way to catch the eye of new customers is by offering a discount or promotion. These can take many forms. However, remember to include an expiry date on your offer to motivate the customer into purchasing quicker. You could even offer bigger price reductions to those who book earlier. When timed and priced right, offering discounts such as these can really give your sales a boost, especially if you have a newsletter designed to target your audience.
Additionally, promoting your special offers on social media is crucial, but again, be sure to look to target the right crowd beyond the people who follow you. Promote your discounted tours in Facebook groups where interest in them will be high for example and make sure to use the right hashtags on X/Twitter and Instagram. Just be careful not to overdo it – nobody likes a spammer!
Newsletter
As mentioned above, having a newsletter helps to target the right audience and increases traffic to your website. It is also necessary for maintaining relationships with your customer base. Before you send your newsletter out you should always ask yourself if it will stand out from the crowd. Lead your email with a subject line that will attract a broad range of your customers – something useful or informative, rather than just directly asking them to book a tour. “Our Tips for a Great Florida Vacation” works better than “Book Our Florida Tours!”, which is far less intriguing and targets only a ready-to-buy audience. So, as long as you have a well-maintained database of existing and/or potential customers then you should start mailing today.
Flexibility
Another option to consider is flexibity in payments.
Pricing your tours so customers can pay for it in installments or by credit could lead to move conversions. A full price tour up front can be a big commitment, especially in the current era where customers are extra worried about having to change their plans. Ultimately, the more flexibility and generosity you can show your customers in the short-term, the more likely you are to reap the benefits in the long-term.
Marketing Your USPs
If you’re not sure what your unique selling points are, take inspiration from your reviews on Tripadvisor or wherever you get your testimonials from. Ask your local community, other businesses and partners that work with you every day, too. Note down some of the most common adjectives and phrases used to describe you and your tours and then build USPs from there. By clearly communicating your USPs in your marketing, you will reflect the values and attributes of your tour operation which in turn helps to sell your tours more effectively.
Get Your Photo Selection Right
Photo selection in tourism marketing is an underrated skill and an area where many mistakes are made. Making sure you have the right photos displayed on your website, OOH advertising and your tour office/shop window can make a real difference to bringing in more customers. The majority of people looking for a tour to book will already know what their destination looks like so unless you have a specific unique and awe-inspiring photo of a landscape you feel is worth using, then focusing on photos where customers are simply looking happy on your tours or doing an activity that you offer is an effective way to generate buyer trust and motivation.
Upsell and Incentivise
Selling to customers who have already put their trust in you is a great way to add more revenue to your business. If a customer has already booked or is in the process of booking, look to maximise that sale by suggesting add-ons that you feel would make their experience more complete. Your online booking software has a huge part to play in making this work. Prompting customers to add a piece of equipment or an additional tour/service while they book can be an efficient and effective way of generating more sales.
Additionally, you can tempt customers to book more tours and activities with you on their vacation by having a reward scheme or offer in place that sees customers get more bang for their buck. If a customer is interested in booking a number of different tours and activities with you, have a system in place where they are offered add-ons at discounted rates or even another tour at a price unique to their level of buying/customer loyalty.
Improve Your Website
There are few things more essential to the success of your tour business than how you present your tour operation online. Having expertly-written, SEO-researched content as well as professional and smart design can make your site standout from your competitors. Remember to ensure your site is mobile friendly, optimization is key as we explored in a recent blog and we are experts in guaranteeing a mobile-friendly website with call to action buttons at the users’ fingertips. Here at Tourism Tiger we are specialists in tourism websites and via our experience, research and industry knowledge we can build your dream website.
Don’t hesitate to contact us today for your no-obligation quote.
[Updated April 2024]
