If you’re a travel agent with a bus tour to promote, you’re in luck! In this blog post, we’ll discuss some of the best marketing strategies for your bus tour. A bus tour is the bread and butter of tourism, but there’s plenty of competition. So how can you make sure your bus tour stands out from the rest? Of course, it’s easy to say that you need to stand out, but the tricky bit is how.
Every travel business is different, mainly because each caters to a unique target audience. Therefore, there’s no fixed route to make your bus tour the talk of the town. You need to experiment with a couple of tried and tested strategies to understand which ones best fit your business model.
Find out what your competitors are up to
The first step of marketing is to go out there and collect all the data points you need to make sure your marketing strategy is a success. That means you need to take a long, hard look at your competitors. For instance, if you’re advertising a city-wide tour in, let’s say, Istanbul, your competitors would be travel agents catering to the same market segment.
Ask yourself, what are they doing that’s working? How much are they spending on marketing? What strategies do they seem to be using the most? For example, are they using print media or relying on digital channels? By understanding what your competitors are up to, you can adapt and improve upon their strategies. You can also learn from their mistakes so that you don’t make the same ones.
Carve out a concrete plan of action
Once you have all the data points, it’s time to start putting together a plan. This is where you need to consider your budget, your target audience, and the resources you have at your disposal. For example, if you’re on a tight budget, print media might not be the best way to go. Alternatively, if you’re trying to reach out to a younger audience, Facebook ads might not be as effective as ads on Instagram and Pinterest.
The key is to make a plan that’s realistic, achievable, and precisely tailored to your audience. There’s no point in making a plan that you can’t stick to or one that doesn’t consider your limitations.
Social media is your best bet
Most marketing today is on social media. Do you know why? Because that’s where everyone is these days. If you’re not on social media, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to reach out to potential customers. Not only that, but social media is also relatively inexpensive, and it gives you the chance to connect with your audience on a more personal level.
There are many ways you can use social media for marketing your bus tour. For one, you can create a Facebook page for your tour and post regular updates. You can also run ads on Instagram and Twitter. And if you want to get really creative, you can even hold competitions and giveaways on social media.
The bottom line is that your socials should be loaded with fun-to-watch and exciting videos. Steer clear of writing walls of words and, instead, focus on creating content that’s easy on the eye and will stop scrollers in their tracks. You can use these travel poster templates if you’re out of ideas.
Influencers make the world go round
Another great way to market your bus tour is to use influencers. An influencer is someone with a large following on social media who can help promote your product or service. For example, let’s say you’re running a New York City bus tour. You could reach out to an influencer based in NYC who has a large following on social media. They would then promote your tour to their followers, which would help increase awareness and interest in your tour.
Of course, it’s essential to choose the right influencer for your target audience. For example, if you’re targeting a younger audience, you’ll want to select an influencer with a large following of young people. Additionally, it’s essential to ensure that the influencer is a good fit for your brand. For example, if you’re running a luxury bus tour, you’ll want to choose an influencer who has a luxurious lifestyle. Read more about Best Time to Travel to London, According to the Expert.
A final piece of advice
To advertise a service like a bus tour, which is usually targeted toward tourists, you’ll need to invest in video marketing heavily. Take classy snaps of tourists laughing and having a fun time on your bus, or capture some stunning drone shots with great camera angles.
Your video doesn’t have to be too long, but it should be interesting enough to capture someone’s attention. The best thing is that you don’t need a graphic designer or professional video maker for this because you can use this free online video creator and make a stunning video in a jiffy. And, of course, don’t forget to include a call-to-action at the end of your video so that people know how they can book a tour with you.
