All over the world, tourism companies plan their year around high season. In temperate zones such as North America, Europe, Australia and South America, high season for travel generally occurs during the summer, which is when tourism companies are competing to get more bookings.
But depending on your destination, travel seasons may vary – not just because of the geographic location, but because of the type of holiday destination it is. This is why it's important to focus on your marketing strategies all year round.
Regardless of where you are and how much time you have left until high season, we've got you covered. Check out what you're able to do today to kick-start your marketing efforts.
6 months remaining: Take advantage of the time you have to work on something brilliant.
Take advantage of the ample amount of time you have until the high season arrives to work on marketing strategies that take a while to gain momentum.
- Get on review platforms: If your business is not yet on TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google, or other similar platforms, this is definitely the first step you should take. Having a platform where customers can share reviews about your tours or activities can help you attract new customers through word of mouth marketing. With these 6 months, build up your online reputation by asking recent customers for reviews or even sending out an email to customers from last season. Remember: keep it friendly, try to remind them why your tour is worth 5 stars, and include a link to all of your relevant online profiles.
- Create a website: Having a website with your own domain name, detailed information of your products and prices, and engaging photos of your services will draw the attention of your target audience and differentiate your company from your competitors. With TrekkSoft’s website builder you can easily build a website from scratch and allow customers to book your tours and activities online.
- Create useful content: There are many reasons why your tour or activity website needs a blog, and one of them is so you can be found online when travellers are researching their next vacation. If they find content from your company that's useful and educational, they are more likely to be interested in your company for future holidays. This means it's time to start publishing content that boosts your position in Google searches. If you don't know where to start, download our free Writing Handbook for Tour & Activity Providers.
3 months remaining: Just in time to improve your strategies, let's get going!
By this time, some tourists will already know where they want to go next season and are beginning to search for specific services, places and prices. This is the perfect time for you to amp up your marketing strategies and drive bookings.
- Accept online bookings: Tourists usually search for destinations and services online, so if your company accepts online bookings and payments, it will be easier to them to contract your service. TrekkSoft’s booking system lets you manage your bookings, view upcoming tours and activities, keep your customers up-to-date with automated confirmation emails, and more.
- Accept payments easily: For international tourists, the ability to make secure international payments can be a real game-changer. Your company looks professional and customers can easily pay you with peace of mind. With TrekkSoft’s Payment Gateway, your company will be prepared to accept online payments from all over the world at the best possible rates. It's also easy to integrate external payment gateways (such as PayPal) with your TrekkSoft website.
- Review your website: Make sure that your website is optimized to suit the season. Update photos and prices, and highlight the information and services you think are most important. Also, check whether your website content is following SEO rules, which is really important to make your website more noticeable on Google. If you need some help with SEO, download our Ultimate SEO Guide for Tour & Activity Companies.
1 month remaining: Hurry up with these short-term strategies.
If there's only one month left until high season, you need to act fast. Luckily, digital marketing provides us with great tools and strategies that can yield immediate impact.
- Focus on social media: The main social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram offer practical and fast ways to promote your services. On Facebook, for example, you can create paid campaigns and even use some advanced Facebook marketing techniques to improve your sales.
- AdWords campaigns: Search engine advertising such as AdWords is also a fast way to spread word about your company's services. This platform allows you to show ads to potential customers who are searching for products you sell through Google. With some tips for your AdWords strategies you can start as soon as possible.
Already in high season? Take this opportunity to strengthen your company's reputation.
If you are already in high season, do not worry: you can enjoy this time as an opportunity to try out new materials and ways to promote your business, thus strengthening your company's reputation for next season.
- Take photos and videos: Once you are in high season, take great photos of your tour or activity and produce videos to promote your business for this season and next.
- Ask for customers' opinion: As often said, customers' reviews are extremely important for promoting your business and getting new customers. Take the opportunity to ask them to share their experiences on your website, social media channels or other online review platforms and you'll reap the benefits.
To help you cover all your bases when preparing for high season, we've created a free 25-step checklist of the most important tasks to tick off your list. Enjoy!
Your solution all year
TrekkSoft’s software is your solution to start marketing your activity business like a professional anywhere, any time. On one platform you are able to create a website, manage your bookings, accept online booking and payments, and count on a powerful set of marketing and SEO tools to promote your services and reach more people.
