Travel agencies: Take advantage of New Year’s resolutions
Every year about this time people are doing their best to keep their New Year’s resolutions. Many resolutions are broken before the end of January, but others linger through the year. Fortunately for travel agencies, many different kinds of resolutions involve travel.
People want to get fit, volunteer more, “unplug” from their everyday life, spend more time with the family, or work on improving themselves any number of ways. For many of these, a trip would be the perfect opportunity to work on those resolutions.
As a travel agency, you can help them live up to their own expectations. But you need to get their attention first. But as January is nearing a close, you’ll want to get out in front of them quickly.
Since resolutions are very personal, you’ll also want to connect with people on a personal level. SMS messaging lets you speak to each individual about their goals for the year and how travel can help achieve them.
Here are two ideas for using SMS campaigns to connect with people interested in travel.
- Gather your list. If you don’t already have a list of people who’ve opted in to receive marketing messages, you can use a contest to gather opt ins. This can be done on your website, in your offices, or through regular printed advertising. The contest could be as simple as gathering mobile numbers and offering a chance to win something like a travel voucher. It could also be something more informative like a mini-survey where you ask 2-3 questions about their goals for the year. The benefit of a survey is you’ll be able to segment your list better for future offers. The survey could be implemented on your website, shared via social media, or by having people text you certain keywords. For example, ask people what their self-improvement goals are this year and let them use one of several keywords. For example: “UNPLUG”, “VOLUNTEER”, “GETFIT”.
- Send travel deals that fit the person’s goals. If you run an opt in campaign where you collect information about the people, you’ll be in a great position to target opportunities to each of them. Those that want to unplug can get offers for spa retreats in Bali. People who want to volunteer can be sent travel offers for Africa, South America or any place you can connect them with a charity organisation. You may also have this information on the people you’ve already helped in the past. In fact, you may have even more information on them. If so, you’re in a great position to really offer people what they want when it comes to travel. By sending them SMS messages you’ll be letting them know what opportunities are available in a more personal way than via post or email.
One of the best things about SMS messaging is how quickly you can get started using it. Even though the new year has started, you still have time to get your campaigns going while people are still thinking about their resolutions. We have options you can use to get started now, in just a few minutes.
Did you have a resolution to grow your business in 2015? SMS messaging can help you do that starting today, as many travel agencies have already discovered. Simply sign up for a free account, or you can connect with us via live chat, email or phone. We’d be happy to help you get started.
Related Articles
Travel Agents Should use SMS Messaging During the Off Season
Now that the peak travel season is over, how can travel agents stay top of mind in their customers? If you look around, you’ll notice everyone seems to have a mobile. That means SMS is the perfect way to reach them and make sure you’re not forgotten.
SMS Marketing for Car Hire Companies
Personalising Your SMS Marketing
Using people’s names in marketing is great. It does provide a certain level of personalisation that can get people more interested in what you’re sending them. Of course in text messaging, you don’t always have the room for a name, your message, and the required opt out information … usually there just isn’t enough room. So how can you make your marketing messages personal?
How The Tourism Industry can use SMS Marketing
Today we’re bringing our technology with us on our travels - using our smartphones to create a more personalised experience, one that points us towards tailor-made itineraries. This means those who promote certain sectors of the travel industry are in a strong position to have their SMS marketing campaigns favourably received.
Don’t Believe The Myth of The “Cashless Shopper”
Sometimes bloggers or journalists get a bit carried away. They see some data or fact, and run off to declare there’s a trend you need to know about. The latest one I’ve seen is all about how to reach the generation of “cashless shoppers”. The argument goes that you need to use SMS messaging to reach customers because they are all shopping online – where you obviously can’t pay in cash.
5 Ways the Travel Industry can Make Use of SMS Marketing
In order to appeal to new customers and interact with existing ones, businesses are always looking for new marketing methods. Whilst many companies are using traditional and online marketing techniques, these aren’t always effective. Email filtering, for example, means that many recipients may not even be aware that they’ve received contact from your company. As many email hosts provide in-built spam filters, it’s easy for email marketing content to be overlooked or ignored completely. SMS marketing, however, overcomes many of the obstacles associated with online and email marketing. Whilst potential customers may not see your company emails, SMS messages aren’t filtered in the same way. The delivery rate is, therefore, far higher for SMS messages in comparison to marketing emails.
SMS Marketing Ideas for Campsite and Touring Park Operators
Right now it is peak season for camping and caravan sites; it's the middle of summer and the school holidays have begun. Even the great British weather has been relatively kind this year so far. With what is the busiest time of the year for camping and caravanning parks, marketing strategies are often not priority, especially for the many small owner run businesses within the industry and those who are reliant on returning customers. SMS text message marketing, however, can benefit campsite and touring park operators by offering a simple, cost effective and time efficient way to reach both existing and new customers to promote your business by direct contact to their mobile phone. Read on for eight proven text message marketing and promotional ideas to help fill those final pitches.
Proof SMS Messaging Gets Results: Business Growth
Can something as simple as adding SMS messaging propel your business to higher levels than you thought possible? That’s what happened to these two companies. Read the last blog in the Results series to see what happened, and how you can start growing your business too.
3 Examples of Using SMS Messaging for Hotel Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Even great hotels sometimes have a mix up or some sort of problem that can affect a guest. And with social media and hotel review sites, chances are a disgruntled guest isn’t going to keep their complaints to themselves. Here are three examples of how to use SMS messaging to gauge customer satisfaction.
Travel Agencies Love SMS Messaging
For travel agencies, SMS messaging allows you to connect with travellers on a one-to-one, or one-to-many basis, yet still be personal. How can that be? People guard their mobile numbers and only share them with the people or businesses they really want to hear from. It's their personal number after all, and they won't hand it out to just anyone.