Summer is over, and with it goes peak travel season. If you work in the travel industry or own/operate a travel agency, you already know that the rest of the year (at least through winter) is going to present challenges for you and your business. Most agencies plan for the slump and make enough money during peak travel times to stay in the black, but what if you could do better?
Today, I want to talk to you a little bit about using the off-season to your best advantage. Yes, you’ll still book lots of trips for people wanting to escape winter, but anyone with a family is far more likely to stay closer to home, what with school being in session and the never-ending responsibilities of family and career creating fewer opportunities to travel.
If you want to keep people’s focus on planning a getaway, the off-season presents numerous opportunities. Now is the time to use your best travel content marketing strategies to their full advantage. As the title of this post suggests, we’re going to focus primarily on blogging: what subjects to cover, when to post specific themes and subjects, and how to get people to take action and book.
What to Post
During the colder months, it’s time to start thinking about a few things when planning your blog. First, it is important to promote winter destinations. Skiing remains a perennial favorite pastime that many of your readers enjoy, along with other popular snow-related activities.
Next, you want to zero in on holiday travel. Encourage readers to book hotels instead of staying with relatives and offer suggestions for things to do in or near their destination cities. Lastly, think short trips and staycations. Let’s look at all three and get some of those creative juices flowing.
Winter Destinations
We mentioned skiing already, but there is much more to do in winter and plenty of places to do familiar things in new surroundings. Try posting about lesser-known ski areas or available attractions near major ski areas. The goal is to make people want to take a trip in the first place and offer them a new experience as well.
Use language that communicates ideas like comfort, warmth, family togetherness, and fun. The cold is only fun if it’s coupled with a fun activity, so you will need to really sell the experience without reminding people of sore throats and frozen noses. Words like warm, cozy, and inviting detract from the fact that the mercury is falling and motivates people to at least consider a cold-weather getaway.
Holiday Travel
There are a number of directions to go with this one. If your goal is to keep the messaging in your travel blog content strictly business, you can write on subjects like these:
• Packing for a Week at Your In-Laws’ House
• 5 Ways to Make The Holidays with Family Happier
• 6 Reasons Why You Should Book a Hotel for Thanksgiving
• 10 Ways to Save Money When Traveling for Christmas
• 5 New Year’s Resolutions for Fulfilling Your Travel Dreams in 2019
You can also get a little more creative with curated content. With a little digging, it is easy to find multiple forums and conversation threads on social media that deal with the horrors of staying with relatives for the holidays. You can collect some of these stories, present them in a humorous way, and conclude with a call to action to just book a hotel and spare the drama.
Short Trips and Staycations
Drive the idea of affordability and accessibility of wintertime activities in and near various destinations. This works for any region, whether it’s cold or warm. Try to steer clear of major tourist attractions since those places are bound to be busy year-round. Help people discover hidden gems closer to home that will provide a day or a weekend of fun without rubbing shoulders with too many tourists.
Post Scheduling
The key to successful travel content marketing is timing. You don’t want to create posts about Thanksgiving during the second week of November or Christmastime travel at the beginning of December. Give people time to consider their options and make plans. If you post too close to major off-season travel dates, you will miss out on bookings even if your content is stellar in its presentation.
That begs the question: How early is too early? That all depends on factors you already know well, including anticipated bookings for specific properties and attractions and how much response you expect to get to specific promotions and specials. If advance reduced booking rates expire on Dec. 10, give your readers at least a couple weeks’ notice about them. A month is even better.
As a rule, people become much more receptive to holiday content around Halloween. Content about travel in November should be delivered by then. By mid-November, the holidays are at the forefront of people’s minds, but many may still be undecided about traveling. For those people, it is important to steer them in the most favorable direction early, and six weeks out is about as close as you want to cut it.
Calls to Action
As I’ve stated many times in the past, people will rarely do anything without being told. Even if you write the best blog post on holiday travel, the reader is likely to simply walk away without contacting you if you don’t specifically tell them to do so. Never publish a blog post that is meant to increase bookings without a firm, precise call to action. Here are a few examples:
• “If you’re ready to book your dream ski weekend getaway, the time to act is now. Call or click to speak with one of our skilled representatives today.”
• “Call and book with us right now and save up to 40% on hotel, lift pass, and meal vouchers.”
• “Let us help you find the best rates for your winter weekend getaway. Call or click right now to speak with one of our talented customer care agents.”
All of the above will help you increase your bookings, but there is one thing that will help even more. Working with professional writers has several key advantages. If you are looking for high-quality content that is optimized for local searches, you want to work with a content creation company like Beez. We employ an impressive team of talented writers who are ready and waiting to help make your next blogging project a succes
