Covid 19 has turned the world upside down. Industries everywhere are struggling to find new ways to cope. Travel and tourism are arguably among the hardest hit with border closures, limited flights and country specific restrictions making an already complicated situation even worse.
However, just because people aren’t traveling right now does not mean that you can’t still get tourism webtraffic. In fact, as people become more and more frustrated with staying at home, there may be even more armchair travelers just itching to hit the road. If you can capture their imagination, you can turn that into travel webtraffic. Here’s how.
1. Be Aspirational
Now, more than ever, people are yearning to create new travel memories, and while most can’t do that just yet, they do want to be inspired. So turn your digital marketing into beautiful stories that describe once in a lifetime experiences. Instead of just talking about the destination, talk about the scents, sights and noises they can expect. Focus your readers’ attention on the way the warm water feels lapping at their toes, or how bumpy a camel ride really is.
We all want to escape right now, and if you can paint a picture about travel experiences, people will want to escape to your website, and that will mean travel webtraffic for your site.
2. Go Where Your Readers Are
Now, more than ever, digital marketing is the way to reach your customers. We’re all working and socializing from home more than ever, and that means more time on social media. Find the groups that they frequent online. Learn more about their hopes, dreams and fears, and share information without being salesy.
Social media has given us all the opportunity to really connect with our customers. So find the people who love to travel, and fuel their dreams.
3. Offer Flexible Deals
As we all navigate Covid 19, we all want to plan ahead as much as possible, but of course, right now, planning is a little harder than usual. So update your website to include flexible deals where people can choose payment plans, and have options to postpone or reschedule if necessary. People will be more likely to visit sites that offer these types of deals, and when they’re ready to take the plunge, they’ll remember your site.
4. Be Visual
Travel, like food and fashion, is all about imagery. We want to see gorgeous pictures of people, places, delicious dishes and fantastic experiences. We want to be able to picture them in our mind, and more importantly, to imagine ourselves experiencing them.
If you don’t already have a stock of gorgeous images of the destinations you promote, you need to sign up on a high quality stock image site, and get the best ones you can afford. If you don’t already have one, sign up for an Instagram account, and start posting pictures, along with thoughtful, idea inspiring captions and relevant hashtags.
5. Be Consistent
The worst thing you can do for any kind of digital marketing, including driving travel webtraffic, is to start strong and then let your presence fizzle out. A social media account that hasn’t had a post in months won’t inspire trust, and a blog that is stale and old won’t help you connect with readers or climb search engine rankings.
You don’t have to post multiple times a day, or even every day for that matter. But you do need to pick a posting schedule for all your marketing channels, commit to it, and then keep it up.
6. Partner Up
If you’re promoting a specific destination or destinations, there are probably a lot of companies there who want to reach out to the same people you want to connect with. Contact hotels, attractions and restaurants in the locations you promote, and find out if they want to collaborate in driving traffic to each other’s websites.
You could guest blog on each other’s sites, or simply mention each other on social channels. Creating and sharing relevant content on all of your websites, whether as a guest blogger or a host, can help all your rankings on search engines, and that can mean more organic tourism webtraffic for your site.
7. Tweak Your SEO
SEO is often one of those things that fall by the wayside while we’re busy being in business. While things are slow, it’s a great time to make sure your SEO is getting you all the travel webtraffic it could.
Check your keywords and metadata. Use online tools to measure your site speed, and tweak the user experience. Make sure that your URLs are search engine friendly, and if you haven’t already built quality links, consider adding your site to reputable directories and other sites that can increase your search engine visibility.
8. Run a Contest to Build Your List
Ask any digital marketer, and they will tell you that the real money is in the list. They mean your email list, and if you don’t already have one (or it’s a little empty) you can use this time to run a fantastic contest that requires email sign up.
Offer a fantastic discount on a future trip as the prize for your contest, and you will kill two birds with one stone – after all, if your winner gets 50% off the trip of a lifetime, they’ll be a lot more inclined to book that trip!
Covid 19 has made everything more complicated, more difficult and more confusing, for everyone. But we hope these eight tips will keep you inspired to keep promoting your travel site, and prove to you that there are still plenty of things you can do to drive more travel webtraffic to your site.
One day soon, suitcases will be packed again. Passports will be stamped again, and travelers will line up excitedly to board the next plane to paradise. Until that happens, keep focusing on building your online presence, and when we do all emerge the other side, you’ll be ready to take the number one spot in your tourism niche.