How to Market Your Travel Business to Young Adults

How to Market Your Travel Business to Young Adults

Any successful marketing strategy for tourism firms depends on how effectively they can communicate with the demographic they are targeting. What appeals to Baby Boomers entering their retirement years may not be as attractive to Gen Z youth straight out of high school, and vice versa. So what considerations should you make when marketing your travel business to people in their early twenties choosing their next travel destination? What are young people interested in, and how can you incorporate that data into your marketing strategy? Here is a brief introduction to the current trends, interests, and worldviews of young people who have just reached adulthood and some tips for effectively reaching them.

Keep Things Photogenic

In the age of social media, the competition to grab attention with attractive visual features has never been greater. This is especially true for travel destinations, many of which are booming in popularity due to their Instagram appeal. Simply relying on good copywriting is no longer enough to gain and retain customers. You need to impress the consumer with high-quality photos that capture the appeal of your destination if your strategy is going to succeed. Set up your own Instagram account and show off your great destinations for even more visual allure.

Transportation

Social awareness of global problems has increased rapidly due to a variety of factors, most notably the easy access to information via the internet. As an example, young adults are very aware of the hazards of global warming. These youngsters with a deep concern for the environment represent a massive market, and they may be interested in environmental travel and earth-friendly transportation options. Biking and rideshare options, especially with electric vehicles, are important to emphasize. In many locations, there are rental restrictions of vehicles for people in their early 20s. Make sure you can help your customers find a great way to get around.

Young People Do Not Own as Much

Studies have shown young adults own substantially less than older generations, and with the current trend of minimalist lifestyles promoted by influencers like Marie Kondo, many of them prefer to eschew materialism. They are more interested in experiences, and travel and tourism represent some of the most unique and life-changing experiences that can be had. When you sell more than just luxury, you can capture young people’s attention for your travel products. By tapping into the young adult travel market, you open your business up to new growth potential. Take these tips to heart, and your travel business is sure to expand its reach and customer base. Need a little extra help marketing your travel business? Feeling lost? Talk to our experts!
8 Tips to Make your Tourism Business Instagram-worthy

8 Tips to Make your Tourism Business Instagram-worthy

Instagram is unique from other platforms because it is highly visual, making it a great platform for tourism business or attractions. There are certain things that your business can do to make it more Instagram-worthy, and you will see more engagement! Read on to find out more!

Why Does Instagram Matter?

Instagram has over 700 million monthly users, 80% of those who follow a business on their account, meaning it’s time for your business to be on there. Instagram is also the perfect opportunity for your business to reach your audience on a more personal and transparent level!

Steps to Make your Business Insta-Worthy

Create a Business Profile

First things first – create a business profile instead of a personal account. Make sure to include your business’s name (duh), a category, and create a brief description using your keywords! Don’t forget your website and location.

Put Your Brand Personality In It

An Insta-worthy business is one that gets engagement (comments, likes, tagged in posts, etc). To do that, your business is going to need a personality! Think of it like speed dating – they stop by your profile, and if you don’t come off as interesting they never call back. So, before posting, ask yourself – what is our brand personality? Is it funny, snarky, relaxing? Whatever it is, make sure it is consistent across all of your platforms and that it’s noticeable! If you need an example of a feed with a clear brand personality look at Intrepid Travel! Their brand voice is about being adventurous, and their feed & captions reflect that.

Develop an Aesthetic

Developing an aesthetic means setting a visual standard for things you post, and it should reflect your brand personality. To develop an aesthetic, come up with a color palette that al of your posts will follow. You can also use photo planning apps such as Planoly to arrange your photos and see what looks good before posting onto Instagram.

Hashtags and Locations

Using hashtags and geo-tagging locations will allow your business to have a wider audience reach. Use hashtags and location tags in every post! This will help your Instagram page become more discoverable by users, and help you connect with relevant followers in new areas. To take it one step further, come up with your hashtag and encourage customers and followers to use it! This is also a strategy in encouraging user-generated content (Read more about UGC here & here), which will, in turn, get your business free content!

High-Quality Visuals

Instagram is a visual platform, meaning your posts need to be high-quality! To get high-quality photos and videos, think about lighting, clarity, backgrounds, etc. Check out our blog on how to take good photos to learn more. One way your tourism business or attraction can ensure quality photos is to create a photo booth, that way you can ensure good lighting and a nice background. Customers coming to your attraction will also be more inclined to take a photo and tag your account!

Diversify Content

Keep your content interesting! Don’t keep posting photos of a happy customer in front of your business/attraction, your followers will get bored and you will have a hard time getting engagement. Here are some ideas of content to add to your mix:

• Videos

• Behind the Scenes

• Employee/Tour Guide Features

• Candid photos

• Tutorials

• Tip of the Day

Engage with Customers

Your followers will be more likely to engage with you if you also engage with them! Engaging with customers can be as simple as commenting on a post they’ve tagged your business in or re-posting them. Also, if you are going to re-post a customer, make sure to tag them in your post to increase engagement!

Promote Your Business

You didn’t make a business Instagram profile just to scroll and have fun with it! Make sure that at the end of the day, you are promoting your business or attraction. However, make sure you don’t come off as too “salesy”, look for creative approaches such as giveaways, contests, discount codes and more. Also remember to include a call to action such as “Learn more”, “tap the link in our bio”, “book now” etc.

Instagram is an amazing platform for promoting your tourism business or attraction! Follow our 8 tips to make your business Insta-worthy, and you will see an increase in engagement. If you need assistance, don’t worry because that is what the AAMP Agency | Adventure & Activity Marketing Pros destination marketing experts are here for. Contact us today with your questions, and we’ll get back to you!

10 Things You Can Do To Get More Customers Through The Door

10 Things You Can Do To Get More Customers Through The Door

Where did they go?
Here are 10 things you can do to get more customers through the door.

Offer Free WiFi

In the age of everyone carrying a smart phone and people doing business everywhere you definitely want to be offering your guests free wifi. And if you’re using the Captini platform we can collect names, gender, birth dates, emails, and phone numbers just by having the customer connect.

Use Email & SMS Marketing

You need to start email marketing if you’re serious about getting customers in the door. You can easily start collecting emails and phone numbers using the Captini platform as well as on your website with an optin form. Offer something like a free appetizer or desert in exchange for their email address and phone number. Use these contacts for a newsletter promoting your new menu items, upcoming events and specials. Now don’t be annoying with it. An message once or twice a week will benefit your restaurant and get your customers back through the door.

Offer Birthday Gifts Via Email

With regards to email marketing, capture your customers birthdays when they connect to your wifi or opt-in to your website form and let them know that they will be receiving a special gift on their birthday. When it comes time, email your customers on their birthday with a special coupon for a free appetizer or dessert on the day of their birthday. Most people celebrate their birthday with a big group at dinner. Giving them an incentive to choose your restaurant on their special day can both increase your sales and introduce new people to your restaurant.

Keep A Smartphone In The Kitchen

Having a good smartphone in your kitchen at all times is worthy of your investment. And most people have an old iPhone or Android phone with a pretty good camera on it.  Have your chefs and staff upload pictures in real-time to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms easily and quickly. Customers want to see what’s happening right now, and they want to see pictures. Pictures are an easy source of content to post online to find new customers and get them engaged with your restaurant. This is probably one of the easiest yet most effective things you can do.

Be Active On Social Media

Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools for restaurant owners as its where your customers are hanging out. Your restaurant needs to be on your customers mind when they are thinking about where to eat. Social media allows you to engage with your customers to keep you on their mind and bring them into your restaurant.

Get To Know Your Regulars

It’s not always about finding new customers that haven’t been to your restaurant. It’s much easier to make more with what you have. Getting to know your regulars on a personal level can greatly benefit your business. By getting to know them you’ll be showing them that you truly do care about them and their experience at your restaurant. We make it easy using Captini VIP. We can notify you when on of your special or loyal customers comes back through the door to allow you to be able to interact and engage your customer. Keeping a customer loyal and getting them back in the door more often can be much more profitable than trying to find new customers.

Use Video To Tell Your Story

Video has a much higher engagement rate than your standard post or picture.  And most social platforms are now built around the idea of broadcasting video. Sooner than later the majority of the content on the internet will be video. There is simply no better option for you to get people excited about dining at your restaurant than with an enticing video. And now with platforms like Facebook and Instagram Live its very fast and easy to show off your brand.  Just make sure you have a plan and that you remember that you are representing your brand.

Optimize Your Website For Local Search

Everyone now uses the internet to search for where to eat out or order online from; and there are a lot of options to choose from. You need to optimize your restaurant for local search and make sure that your local listings are correct across the internet.  This might seem complicated and involved but many places offer this service (us included) for $30-100 a month depending on your needs. otherwise your restaurant’s website will be buried in the never ending list of competitors.

Offer Online Ordering

Who has time to eat out anymore? Unfortunately, not that many people. If your restaurant offers takeout or delivery then you should have an online ordering options on your website. People hate to make phone calls these days, everyone emails and texts. Not to mention answering the phone at your restaurant wastes your staffs valuable time. Make everyone happier by letting your customers order food directly from your website. Make the process even easier by accepting online payments. There are many quality platforms that offer online ordering, and many that integrate with numerous POS systems. We also are a big fan of the platforms like Grubhub, UberEats, and Postmates, just make sure that the costs and fee’s associated make sense for your business.

Get More Reviews

Getting more reviews is very important to being found nowadays.  People find the next place they will eat using platforms like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Google +.  So having as many quality reviews and the best ranking possible will majorly help in getting your brand exposure.  People trust reviews, and choosing a restaurant you’ve never been before for a special occasion is taking a big chance. The more reviews you have the more likely people will trust that they’re making a good decision by dining at your establishment, assuming you have mostly good reviews that is. Using the Captini platform you can easily prompt each and every guest to review you on TripAdvisor, as well as all the other major review sites.  This really helps in increasing brand exposure.