The tourism sector is one of the highly competitive sectors, considering the massive returns it generates. With this kind of competition, many companies are finding it hard to break into the tourism and travel market. Currently, there is only one way a company will get ahead of the competition; digital marketing.
Today, there is a new generation of travelers who no longer depend on travel agents’ services to help them determine the places they should visit. If you visit the web today, you can gather tons of information about destinations anywhere in the globe within a few minutes. How do you get started with digital marketing in Cyprus?
Top digital marketing tips for the tourism sector
Identify your potential customers
Start with evaluating the kind of services and products you offer to determine the kind of people you attract. Check if most of your products lean more on young couples, families, senior travelers or adventurers in general. If you, for example, identify that most of your products are tailored to seniors, then you should focus your digital marketing strategies on the targeted customers.
Leverage social media
Nowadays, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest help travelers find information about the destination they want to visit. You can easily find a good hotel with these platforms in your preferred destination and the fun activities you can engage in when you visit the place.
If you have a tourism or travel brand, you need to focus on having a sound social marketing campaign. Don’t just open social media accounts to post content for your audience to see. You should engage with your audience by eliciting discussions, responding to their questions, replying to their comments, and offering them the best customer care services.
If you want to stand out from the rest with social media, you should focus more on pictures and video content. The information carried by these forms of content will be easier to process than the content you may provide in text.
Know the devices your prospective customers use
A typical travelers’ buying process is usually conducted with several devices. For example, customers may use their mobile phones to search for destinations, tablets to compare prices, and personal computers to make the final purchase. This means that the content displayed in these devices should be highly customized to meet the devices’ needs, hence improving the overall user experience. In this regard, you need to make mobile-friendly content that is also related to the keywords that a potential customer may perform a search on.
Design simple travel apps
Introducing apps into the whole digital marketing mix is the only way of getting hold of millennial or young people in general. You should include basic information about your agency, including the form of accommodation near your establishment, the restaurant services available and the map or any form of physical location guidance to your establishment.
Work with influencers and affiliates
Nowadays, people are going for more reliable sources of information such as Vlogs, live reviews, and live streams before making a purchasing decision. As mentioned in the beginning, it is not business as usual, not only in the tourism and travel sector but also in other sectors. Working with influencers and affiliates will give your brand exposure. However, you should monitor the whole process to ensure that your brand name is not damaged instead.
Additional tip:
Along with these strategies, always listen to the voice of your customers. Keep in mind that they are the ones keeping you in business and hence take their opinions very seriously. Consider even publishing some of their reviews and comments to build trust with them, a factor that will positively affect subsequent visits or referrals.
How to do digital marketing properly
To build a successful digital marketing strategy, you should tap into the following three phases:
- Destination marketing- Here, you should focus on giving your guests the best experience without exposing them to so much hassle. A good example here is having a hotel in Cyprus, a perfect destination for people who want to enjoy both land and water activities. In this case, your digital marketing campaign should feature a well-detailed map of the island showing your hotel’s location.
- Â Booking- Provide a good booking option for all your guests. Make sure you include all the details that your customers need on arriving at the terminal. Most of your content marketing strategies should be used here.
- Â In-flight marketing- Considering that now travel companies are offering offline websites for travelers, you should engage your guests throughout the whole flight in a bid to enhancing their experience.
Digital marketing is here to revolutionize every sector and unless you want to remain behind as others advance, you should adopt some of these digital marketing strategies. The good thing with digital marketing in the tourism sector is that it benefits both parties.Â
The travelers can now find and book destinations easily while tourism and travel companies are receiving better returns due to this. Considering that technology and the digital world is still advancing, you can be assured that even better digital marketing solutions will come in the future.