Holiday Marketing Tips for Tour Operators

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Holiday Marketing tasks for tour operators

 

Make the busiest time of the year work to your advantage

 

November 1 – January 1 is usually the busiest time of year for any business, regardless of the industry.  It can be overwhelming to attempt to take advantage of all the opportunities the holiday season offers, but if you prepare, it is possible! These tips will help you make the most of the holiday shopping season.

Prepare For Battle

First and foremost, meet with your team in the fall to formulate your strategy.  Give yourself time to collaborate and put a plan in place.  As obvious as it sounds, promote your best products to your best customers.  You don’t need to cast a wide net when shopping is already on everyone’s mind.  Having said that, it could also be a good time to create one campaign to specifically target those who expressed interest (contact form, abandon cart, etc,) but did not complete a purchase.  Just don’t spend too much time/money on the new customer acquisition this time of year.

Get Your House In Order

Employee morale is an important part of productivity during anytime of the year, but especially around the holidays.  Be prepared to be busy.  Make sure you are well staffed with employees and tour guides that are ready to take on the challenge and keep a happy disposition in the face of stressed out customers.  Reduce stress with a holiday party or team building event.  Take photos of the company during a holiday party and turn it into a digital holiday card for your business/team.  Distribute it through email and social media as a thank you to your customers.  It’s supposed to be a fun time of year after all!

Spread The Love

Don’t put all of your efforts into just Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  The first two weeks of December are even busier.  At least 16% of Americans procrastinate buying Christmas gifts until the first 2 weeks of December.

Here are the Top 10 biggest ECommerce Shopping Days Of Last Year’s Holiday Season (ranked in order of highest revenue to lowest):

  1. Monday, Nov. 28 (Cyber Monday)
  2. Tuesday, Nov. 29 (Giving Tuesday)
  3. Friday, Nov. 25 Black Friday
  4. Friday, Dec. 9
  5. Monday, Dec. 12 (Green Monday)
  6. Monday, Dec. 5
  7. Thursday, Dec. 6
  8. Thursday, Dec. 8
  9. Wednesday, Dec. 7
  10. Tuesday, Dec. 13

Instead of having one-day sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, have a sale that spans the holiday season to add incentive to buy during these other busy shopping days.

 

Make All Online Presence Holly and Jolly

Add festive and fun imagery to your website and social media pages.  Refresh your slider images and make sure to include a call to action and highlight a holiday specific trip or sale.  You can also change the wording of your AdWords account to reflect the season (winter, holiday, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, etc).  

Social Media Content Ideas:

  1. Highlight a trip or service for each of the 12 days of Xmas.
  2. Highlight any holiday volunteer work relevant to your industry.
  3. Post blog content related to the holiday season AND your industry (yours or otherwise).

Post to your blog regularly over the holiday season. It can be difficult to prioritize writing content with all other extra tasks during the holidays, but strategic content during the holidays is very beneficial. It can call attention to why your product makes a great gift, and emphasize positive brand image right when individuals are ready to make a purchase decision.

Blogging/Content Ideas:

  1. Top Things to do This Holiday Season (relevant to your city).
  2. Top Gift Ideas for the Adventurous (Wife, Son, etc.).
  3. Top 10 Instagram Posts of the Year (relevant for your business, industry, or city).

Breathe and Recap

Last but certainly not least, track AND analyze the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.  Identify what worked and what didn’t so that you can do it bigger/better next year.

 Happy holidays![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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