Travel agents have been urged to invest in their websites and use email as a marketing channel to build their businesses post-pandemic.
Travel Marketing Services Steve Rushton told agents at The Co-operative Travel Consortium conference in Sicily: “Communication will be key to how you build your business post pandemic.”
Consortium members were advised to improve the content of their sites to say exactly “what they sell”, with examples of holidays and testimonials from past customers.
He said: “You do not do a good enough job of telling people why and how you do something. There is no excuse now for not having any testimonials on your website.”
He added: “There is no point doing social posts if your website looks rubbish, if it doesn’t say what it sells. Think about how you present yourself online. By ignoring content you are missing a trick.”
He argued email was the most successful way to market to customers, adding only 5% of followers see organic Facebook posts.
“Only 5% of followers will see your Facebook post but when we send an email it goes to 100% of inboxes and the open rate is between 30% and 50%. You are getting a much higher engagement rate than social media and it doesn’t really cost anything for you to do,” he added.