How to Leverage Your Database & Sell More Travel
What drives sales in the travel industry? The undisputed answer is direct marketing. Whether that outreach to prospects and current clients is through social media, email, search engine ads, or direct mail, sales are prompted by marketing. And it all starts with a strong database, along with the knowledge of how to leverage it to increase revenues.
Studies show that, in order to make a sale, twelve or more customer touchpoints are typically necessary. A touchpoint is a social media post or ad, an email, a postcard in the mail, a phone call, a listing on a search engine results page, etc. And those efforts take a consistent and significant outlay of time, energy, and money. But most travel advisors are not experts in marketing, and they simply do not have the time for it. They are, instead, hard-wired to focus on the art of researching and arranging travel for their clients and building relationships with them.
This is where forward-thinking companies like BranchUp® come in, taking on a large portion of the marketing challenge, so advisors can dedicate themselves to the travel aspects of the sale. Here is how it works…
First social media posts
To begin with, BranchUp has developed a simple and cost-effective solution for travel advisors to manage their social media outreach. The experts at BranchUp curate and automatically post inspiring travel content from trusted travel suppliers daily on travel advisors’ Facebook business pages and LinkedIn accounts.
The system is easy and fast to use. Any travel advisor in the U.S. or Canada who has a Facebook business page can sign up. And the best part is that this service is free for advisors.
The company is currently in beta with LinkedIn and Instagram and reels will be coming soon. Reels will be accessible as a premium product with a nominal monthly fee, but Facebook posts will always be free. With these offerings, advisors have a suite of social media available to them. Travel advisors can learn more about the initiative here.
Then a digital consumer publication
Advisors who want to proceed to the next step in building out their marketing can take advantage of another of BranchUp’s no-cost-to-them programs. The company’s automated email marketing system creates additional touchpoints, pushing prospects and customers further down the sales funnel. Adding a digital consumer publication component to the social media campaign empowers advisors to further leverage their good-as-gold databases.
BranchUp works with top travel suppliers to create travel promotions and generate content for its professionally designed digital consumer publication. The publication is sent from the advisors’ accounts to their client lists, on their behalf, every two weeks. The distribution lists are always protected and owned by the advisor, not BranchUp.
Advisors upload their customer databases in their BranchUp account. The pre-designed digital consumer publication is then branded with the advisor’s name, so it appears that the advisor is sending it directly to their customers. Like the Facebook program, advisors can edit the publication to customize it by adding links and personal comments.
“We are at a critical time in our industry when it is imperative that the travel trade channel keep pace with the direct consumer channel,” explains Mike Drever, founder and CEO of BranchUp. “It’s just more efficient and profitable for everyone. But advisors need help, as they can no longer do everything. Our goal at Branchup is to provide a turnkey, digital marketing solution that delivers travel offers and information to the advisors’ consumer followers when and where they are!”
BranchUp’s digital marketing program keeps both travel advisors and suppliers top of mind, so travelers are more likely to think of them when it comes time to book their next adventure.
A large and growing reach
BranchUp has more than 40,000 travel advisors currently participating in its social media program – and they have 10 million followers (qualified travel consumers). This is highly competitive with the reach of all the major consumer travel magazines (including Travel & Leisure, Afar, Departures, Food and Wine, Hemisphere, National Geographic, Recommend, and AAA), which have a combined circulation of approximately 10 million.
Furthermore, about 6,000 advisors have also signed up for BranchUp’s digital consumer publication. So, the audience reach is large, and growing.
What’s more, the integrated social media and digital consumer publication programs give a one-two-three punch for participating suppliers and advisors. The brands are seen first on Facebook posts; then on landing pages, where prospects learn more about the promotions; and then they see the offer and brand again in the digital consumer publication.
A very important aspect of the program is that the call to action is always to the advisor directly.
By all accounts, BranchUp has ushered in a win-win-win situation. Travel advisors sell more travel; travelers are inspired by their new experiences; and travel suppliers increase revenues.
FROM THE SUPPLIER:
BranchUp provides curated lead-generation marketing for B2B2C applications. Through its proprietary software, the company currently supports more than 40,000 users. BranchUp works with cruise and vacation suppliers to drive business with personalized, turnkey social media marketing for travel advisors, so they can focus on product training, sales, and the client service side of the business. It only takes a couple of minutes for travel advisors to sign up here.
