Deciding to become a travel agent is an exciting step for everyone choosing to work in the travel industry. It comes with multiple perks that few sectors offer – most notably the chance to travel to exotic destinations at lower rates.
If you are someone who is considering taking the leap and choosing to work in the travel industry as a travel agent, one of the very first and most important questions you’ll be asking is: how to get clients as a travel agent.
At The Travel Franchise, we empower our travel agents with multiple approaches and strategies for getting travel clients to help you build a client base as a travel agent. Below, we explore a few of these to help you on your journey. Let’s take a closer look at how travel agents get clients.
Leveraging Your Personal Network
Starting out in travel can seem like a daunting experience. Especially when you have yet to build up a bank of clients. However, one of the very first things you should consider is reaching out to and leveraging the power of your personal network. That’s why one of our travel agent tips for starting out is to consider approaching friends and family.
Start with friends and family
Leveraging your personal network for your travel business is a great starting point for any travel agent. Consider sharing with your inner circle the fact that you’ve become a travel agent and showcase some of your exclusive and affordable travel packages.
Even if your friends and family do not intend to travel just yet, the chances are high that they will plan on doing so at some point in the future and they’ll be happy to contact you. Alternatively, they can recommend your services within their own networks, enabling you to get travel clients from friends and family through recommendations.
The most important thing is to start. Spreading the word about your travel business means you’re more likely to attract customers than by not sharing your services with anyone and hoping for the best.
The Power of Word of Mouth
The power of word of mouth marketing for travel agents should not be underestimated. Once you have a few clients for whom you’ve arranged amazing travel experiences and holidays, the chances are they’ll be happy to recommend your services to others.
For this to happen, you should encourage them to either spread the word about you or leave positive reviews on your website, Google, Trustpilot and other review sites so that others can see them. You can also encourage them to tag you in Facebook posts to boost visibility and engagement. Sometimes, people need a bit of nudging but the right kind of encouragement can be a big motivator. This is where referral programmes come into play.
Encouraging client referrals
Referral programmes are a way to incentivise current clients to spread the word about your services while rewarding them for doing so. For example, by encouraging client referrals for travel agents, you can offer them greater discounts on future trips or give them excellent deals on holidays to thank them for the new clients they’ve referred to you.
These are just two of the ways in terms of how travel agents get referrals although you can be highly creative and offer them other enticing options to stimulate them to refer you to others in their network.
Creating incentives for referrals
If you are wondering how to create referral programmes for travel agencies, we at The Travel Franchise are experts in the field through our Partners in Travel (PIT) referral programme.
Unique to us, you may be wondering how does Partners in Travel work. Essentially, we offer referral incentives for travel clients, which may include schools, sports clubs, businesses, charities and other groups.
They can either get a percentage of the commission from the sale of a holiday or they can pass this on to their referrals and thereby give them a discount. These incentive ideas for travel agent referrals are highly effective and can attract more clients your way.
Effective Use of Social Media
Undoubtedly, social media can serve as a powerful (and affordable) platform for promoting your travel services. It requires being active on social media platforms, posting consistently and engaging with followers.
Being active on social media platforms
If you want to know how to use social media for your travel business, you first need to know who your target market is and what platforms they use. Business travellers are often found on LinkedIn. Young holidaymakers who are, for example, looking at skiing holidays, adventure trips or wanting to organise hen or stag dos, are more likely to use Instagram.
Meanwhile, honeymoon trips and family holidays are often searched for on Facebook. Therefore, the best social media platforms for travel agents will greatly depend on who you are catering to. In terms of social media tips for travel agents, it’s highly recommended that once you find a platform, you create an attractive profile and business page.
Posting consistently and engaging with followers
Once you’ve created your page or business account, you need to follow a consistent posting strategy for travel agents. Make sure you use appealing images that attract your audience’s attention and follow a regular posting schedule.
However, you should not leave things to chance. This is why engaging with followers on social media is so important. You need to spark and contribute to conversations, showcasing how you can help your clients find the perfect holiday.
In addition to this, you may wish to work with a brand ambassador or an influencer who can spread the word about your services to their networks, thereby attracting more clients your way. Social media engagement for a travel business is an integral part of getting more clients.
Encourage local businesses or individuals with a large number of followers to tag you in their own posts – this instantly raises your profile and potentially the number of your own followers.
Email Marketing Strategies
Email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to attract clients and keep them informed about new and exciting travel deals. To leverage the power of email marketing, you need to focus on building and using your email list and creating engaging content.
Building and utilising an email list
Email marketing for travel agents often begins by creating a lead magnet to your website. This can be any form of valuable content that your audience can download or access in exchange for sharing their email address.
For example, you might want to create a list of your Top 10 Must-See Destinations of the Year, or recommend Five Most Romantic Honeymoon Itineraries.
Once you’ve collected a number of these email addresses, you can begin to approach your audience through targeted, automated emails. In such cases, having the right email marketing software is a great way to get started in terms of how to build an email list for a travel business.
That’s because it enables you to segment your audience, depending on where in their travel research or planning journey they may be. Ultimately, building effective email campaigns for travel agents starts with the right tools and technology in place while offering content that is of value to your audience.
Creating engaging email content
If you are curious about how to write travel emails that convert, you will need to create outstanding emails. Key components of a successful email campaign include:
- A strong subject line
- Short yet informative content
- Stunning visuals
- A clear call to action (CTA)
Once the foundation for your email is created, you may want to consider some effective email content ideas for travel agents. You can use your email platform to create emails that introduce new and special upcoming travel deals, information about exotic destinations or even create engaging travel email newsletters that are both informative and add value to your audience by giving them exclusive information and deals that others don’t have access to.
Maintaining a Professional Website
Having a travel website for your travel business is essential in our digitally-driven world. A website can be likened to having an attractive storefront that is not only visually appealing but easy to navigate, helpful, informative and well-designed. Let’s take a look at what goes into maintaining a professional website.
Showcasing your expertise and services
Creating your travel website is an important part of attracting new clients. It enables you to showcase your travel services online. If you are wondering how to design a travel agent website, it usually requires getting assistance from a professional web designer. However, some franchises, such as The Travel Franchise, create and maintain one for you, taking all the effort out of the equation. Some of the most essential elements of a travel website include having a clear logo, adding informative content that’s short and to the point, having clear CTAs, beautiful images and an easy-to-navigate interface.
Creating landing pages and lead generation forms
Creating landing pages for travel agents is a must. These pages are where your customers “land” after they’ve clicked on a CTA button to discover more about a deal or to book a holiday. Landing pages need to be informative, easy to navigate and to the point with a strong CTA that enables them to take the intended action, be it booking a trip or finding out more about a certain deal you’re offering.
Ultimately, landing pages are the pages that clients are brought to once they’ve filled out a lead generation form. And for those among you wondering how to create travel lead generation forms, these are integrations with your website.
Here, clients enter some basic details about themselves and this information is then pulled into a database that connects the lead generation form to your website. It helps in two ways. Your clients get help with their travel research and planning progress. Meanwhile, you as a travel agent can segment your client list to offer more targeted travel solutions.
If all this sounds too complicated to manage, there’s a much easier way with The Travel Franchise. You not only get a personal marketing website, you also get all the marketing materials you need to get started and much more.
Another awesome feature is the WOW app. This app directs customers to their travel agents by sending notifications of amazing offers and deals directly to their smartphones, making the process smooth and easy for customers and travel agents alike.
Utilising Local Networking and Business Groups
Networking is another highly effective way to attract clients to your travel business. There are several options you might consider under this umbrella term.
Joining local business networks and chambers of commerce
Local networking for travel agents involves joining local business networks and chambers of commerce. An excellent example is Business Networking International (BNI), which is not only a favourite option among travel agents but also a platform that works really well for them.
Such business groups for travel agents offer the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals, get referrals or meet new clients. In addition to this, you can also join local chambers of commerce. These organisations have frequent meet-ups that can expose you and your business to a wider audience and potential clientele.
Attending networking events and trade shows
Apart from joining local business networks and chambers of commerce, you can also attend various networking events for travel agents. These are some of the best ways for building local connections as a travel agent. Travel trade shows in the UK bring prospective clients and professionals together, creating a platform for enhanced collaboration, networking and future partnerships.
Specialising in a Niche
Specialising in a travel niche area is another excellent way to not only become an expert in your field but also to offer specialist travel services and destinations that your customers will love.
Choosing and marketing your travel niche
Choosing a travel niche means exploring your strengths and interests. Say, for example, that you would like to specialise as a travel agent in cruising. This means that these trips will be your primary focus and as you continue working within this field, you will be able to find more great offers and opportunities for your clients.
By specialising in a niche, you will be able to create more targeted marketing campaigns and your knowledge will increase, making you a helpful go-to source for all things related to cruise.
Marketing travel niches and really focusing on a specific group of travellers means you’ll be better able to cater to their unique needs as opposed to feeling thinly spread out, much like a Jack of all trades instead of a master of one.
Establishing yourself as an expert in your niche
The more you know about your niche, the faster you’ll become an expert travel agent. And the more expertise and knowledge you have, the more helpful and valuable your service will be to your customers. If you want to know how to market niche travel services, it all starts with building credibility in travel niches.
Wondering how to do so? For starters, you can attend relevant public events. As an example, many travel agents who specialise in honeymoons abroad exhibit at wedding fairs in order to meet potential customers.
Secondly, you can create a document full of valuable information that prospective customers can download about your specific niche as a way of capturing their information, feeding it to your database and then using it for other marketing purposes to attract new clients.
Advanced Marketing Strategies
Having covered some of the most important strategies for attracting new clients, there are also two important advanced marketing strategies worth considering. These include using search engine optimization (SEO) as well as paid advertising as options.
Using SEO to attract clients
SEO website optimisation for travel agents involves optimising your website so that it is found high in search engine results pages (SERPs). This necessarily involves doing keyword research and incorporating high-search-volume, low competition keywords in your website’s content.
You can also create valuable blog content that also includes such keywords to help you rank higher. It has been shown that higher Google rankings, for example, can drive more traffic to your website.
And the more informative content you have that’s backed by sound keyword research, the better chances you have to attract leads and convert them into paying customers. These SEO tips for travel agents focus on how to optimise a travel website for search engines.
Ultimately, these SEO strategies for travel businesses are an advanced marketing strategy that can help you gain more online visibility, visitors and traffic to your travel website, making sure you remain competitive in your industry.
Running paid advertising campaigns
Paid advertising campaigns can be a highly effective strategy for attracting new clients. For those among you who want to know how to run travel ad campaigns, these adverts are placed strategically on various websites and SERPs. They get high levels of visibility and are best implemented in conjunction with an organic marketing approach, such as SEO.
Paid advertising for travel agents necessitates having a budget for placing your ads. The budget will depend on how much you are willing to spend on a cost-per-click basis. It will also depend on the advertising platform you choose to work with.
One of the best advertising platforms for travel agents is Google Ads. However, remember that it is a competitive space and will require a financial investment in order for you to see real results.
Conclusion: Continual Learning and Adaptation
The world of travel is constantly evolving so you’ll need to keep up with travel industry trends if you want to be successful in this field. Research and Google terms such as continuous improvement for travel agents to ensure you stay ahead of competitors or consider joining a company that does this for you.
Travel franchises such as The Travel Franchise offer comprehensive training for people new to travel, continuous support and further training on how to find customers.
