Jul 1, 2022

Covid-19 compelled industries to go entirely digital, which is now the new normal. While other businesses risk failing, those that made a swift switch survived. 

While it may take years for many people to recover, maintaining the status quo could prevent your business from progressing and adjusting to the present and future scenarios.

You can enable your travel businesses to achieve more significant sales with reduced overhead expenses by challenging the conventional way of working and defining new norms. When the time comes, make sure to be two steps ahead.

To achieve that, you might need to look at some of the digital tools at your disposal and position yourself to utilize them accordingly. 

These include incorporating online marketing methods and strategies that challenge the traditional outlooks. Below are five strategies to help you boost your travel sales in the post-pandemic period and beyond.

Search Engine Optimization 

If your company has a website, you should already optimize it for search engines. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the process of making your site more discoverable by search engines. 

When potential clients are looking for your items during the pandemic and post-epidemic period, they will tend to click on the first websites that appear on the search results.

It is thus more crucial than ever for your company to rank highly on search engines. Since you can't rely on consumers passing by your physical store during the epidemic, you'll need to make up for the decline in foot traffic online.

Figure 1 Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/online-marketing-internet-marketing-1246457/

During the pandemic, more individuals are shopping online than ever, and there are no signs that this tendency will reverse after the virus is gone. 

While SEO is a very complex subject with many facets and techniques, one of the most crucial things you should optimize for both during and after the outbreak is the speed at which your website takes to load.

Speeding up the loading of your website and pages means that customers will find it simpler to navigate your store and rapidly find the products they require. When ranking, Google takes loading times into account, meaning faster speeds can help you rank higher.

Cold calls 

Cold calling is the calling or visiting of prospects and pitching to them. It entails delivering information concerning your products and services in the hopes of converting these prospects into clients.

The most effective cold calling requires a marketer to contact warm leads or prospects. These are individuals with a higher likelihood of snapping up the products the marketer offers.

But how can you tell who your warm leads are? Identifying promising prospects can be tricky, especially for new business owners and novice marketers. 

However, with a professional sales development agency on your side, you are assured of a verified contact list for your cold calling campaign. 

The lists generated by a link-building professional consist of contacts of warm leads, thus making it easier for you to adopt a more targeted cold calling strategy.

Email marketing  

Closely connected to cold calling is email marketing; for travel companies, email marketing may involve the sending of informative information to prospects via email. 

While cold calling is primarily done through the phone, email marketing is confined to email messaging. However, unlike cold calls, email marketing covers existing clients and new prospects.

For past clients, email marketing gives you a platform to communicate any new offerings, discounts, and bonuses your company may have. 

For new prospects, it is necessary to have a verified email list to ensure that the people you target are likely to be interested in the solutions you offer. There are highly-skilled research teams that provide validated contact lists in this regard.

Due to the interactive nature of emails, this type of marketing also gives you an invaluable opportunity to get feedback from your prospects and clients regarding your offers.

You could also use the email strategy for past clients to request such feedback via a quick online questionnaire.

Digitization and data analytics 

Digitization is crucial for increasing the profitability of both domestic and international travel. 

You can begin by onboarding most of your offline processes online. That includes the collection of email contacts from those who interact with your business. 

Whenever your company executives attend networking meetings and conferences, or online visitors are on your site, request contacts of likely leads. One way to achieve this on your website is by encouraging visitors to join your mailing list.

Using data analytics, on the other hand, will help you know where to focus your efforts. 

Figure 2 Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/analysis-analytics-business-charts-1841158/

Data analytics is a digital tool that provides varied information concerning your online visitors and clients. It allows you to know your target markets’ tendencies and preferences.

Analytics such as those provided by Google promote efficiency and profitability for your company since you are armed with vital information to make more informed and strategic choices.

You may also consider outsourcing your marketing function and centralizing your customer, agent, and supplier communications, thus allowing you to concentrate on giving your visitors more value and distinctive experiences.

Contactless technology

Following the pandemic, most people are keen on adopting healthy lifestyles. Consequently, digital tools used in different industries have had to incorporate a ‘no-touch’ approach as much as possible.

For their health and safety, travelers will expect more excellent standards to safeguard their wellbeing. Your travel business must bear this in mind when structuring its approaches. 

For instance, we have seen an upsurge in mobile payments, and if your business is non-compliant in this regard, it may be time to consider incorporating such payment systems. 

Keyless hotel entrances, digital checkouts, and other contactless systems are other examples worth considering.