Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 191 - Why Storytelling works for travel advisors
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome back to the Travel Agency in a Year podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Kay. ⁓ it's gonna be a great day. Why does it have to rhyme with my last initial? Today is day one ninety-one, and we're gonna be talking about storytelling in marketing. And I know this has been like trending probably the last three or four years. If you've been paying attention when you're like doing your old doomie scrolly, like most of us do, there's almost always a story in their marketing. In fact, some of my colleagues on the course side just had this realization at the beginning of 2022. And they're like, I should probably do more stellar storytelling. And I'm like, yes. Why do we want to talk about that? It's a really good way to connect with your audience. So this episode is all about why storytelling matters in marketing. So I need to start off with a confession though. ⁓ My marketing originally, way, way back in the day, wasn't anything to do with storytelling. It was all about information, like itinerary highlights, or I did a lot of destination weddings, so like my early, early TikToks were like there was no story behind them. It was just like here's how much a wedding would cost here, and here's this, and da da da and there was like no brand voice developed. It was just me being like, ⁓ you want to get married here? Or you wanna do this? And ⁓ it was useful, but it was also really forgettable. And it was completely interchangeable with any other travel advisor posting the same niche, right? So Let's talk about why storytelling works, how to find your own, and how to use it without feeling forced or performative. So your brain, our brains, per psychology and marketing research. People are dramatically more likely to remember information when it's delivered inside of a story than as a standalone fact. This has been studied for decades, and statistics alone are like are persuasive in the moment and they fade fast though. Like it's hard for you to remember fifty percent of whatever happens unless there's a story behind it, right? A story wrapped around those same statistics sticks. And this is why, like, I mean, I could go back into anthropology side of things. We've always been storytellers. Like, throughout history, when we didn't have not everyone was literate, not everyone, had the money until like the printing press came out to even afford written stuff even if they were literate. So storytelling has always been the way. Okay? But here's why it matters sp that for you specifically. Like a rando traveler scrolling through their feed sees dozens of accounts posting book now for your Black Friday sales or book now for early bird pricing and get on this cruise and get this onboard credit. None of it sticks. They don't remember who is telling them that. They just hear about it. And sometimes I do have clients who will come to me and want a vacation, they'll be like, I saw something somewhere where there was something about a sale at this place. And I'll be like, I'll look into it, but they don't remember where it came from. Okay? Because none of it sticks. But if you have a story, like a client told me, they almost didn't book this trip because of their fear of hurricanes or their fear of traveling to the destination, whatever reason, because of X reason. And here's what changed her mind. And we ended up planning an amazing honeymoon and da da da da da and then you can throw in the statistics about whatever that X reason is, the fear that that client had. That activates a completely different part of how you process information. So let me reframe it, because you're like what? Now Imagine if you will, you are just a regular person, not a travel advisor scrolling along, and you think in your brain, I need a vacation, and your phone somehow picks up that information and starts pushing ads out for a vacation to you. And one ad or something in the algorithm is just a travel advisor that's like, hey, you can get fifty dollars off this trip if you book in the next week. And you're like, ⁓ that's cool. And then you scroll, scroll, scroll. And then there's another post that's like, last week, one of my clients told me they were terrified to go to Mexico, Cancun, because they were afraid of getting kidnapped by the cartel. Here's what changed her mind. I told her to go to travel.state.gov. We went there together. We were on a Zoom call. And I showed her the travel advisory as a level two. P.S. This is all made up information. I don't know what level it's at, but we're just gonna say it's level two. It's only at a level two. It is perfectly safe to travel to Cancun. Not only that, the property that I suggested for her is upscale and gated with security all around. And so we ended up getting her and her fiance a private plunge pool ocean front suite in Playa del Carmen. I'm just And they are now preparing for an amazing honeymoon experience. Like they're gonna remember that more, and they're gonna remember, ⁓ travel.state.gov website, like the US Department State travel site, you know. They're gonna remember that, and they're gonna remember that you provided that information, and they're gonna remember how you helped that client more than the other person who was like, book now for $50 off, okay? ⁓ So we don't just read it, we don't just hear information. We experience it alongside the person telling it. So Let's talk about big brands and how they've been doing storytelling forever. And we're gonna start off with Coca-Cola. You do not have to have Coca-Cola's marketing budget. And you can learn from what they've spent proving. Okay? Coca-Cola isn't primarily just like weird sugar water for the better part of god- I don't even, maybe a century or more. I don't know. They've sold a specific feeling. Togetherness. Share a Coke. You know, if you like see the 20 ounces like in the gas station or whatever, it's like share a Coke with and it's got someone's name and you look for your own name and you're like, that's me. Or that's my spouse or that's my sibling's name. Holidays. Family. Their most famous campaigns rarely even led with their product. They led with a story that you're invited into, and the product is almost incidental. Like one that comes to mind for me in my childhood is the polar bears at Christmas time. Dra like sharing a Coke and they had the glass bottle. And they'd just be like, ⁓ enjoying the northern lights or whatever. And I just remember the polar bears being like, ⁓ we're together. Let's share a Coke. ⁓ Nike doesn't sell shoes with spec sheets. They sell the story of like the underdog and the comeback and the athlete that nobody believed in. And you can like I don't know Jordan's whole story, but I know in college they were like, nah, solid, maybe he's alright. You know what I mean? He was kind of an underdog. Airbnb didn't grow. By advertising exact square footage. They grew the story of belonging anywhere, built entirely around the feeling of being welcome into someone's life for a few days. And yeah, we all know it's not that anymore with Airbnb. OG Airbnb was you were in someone's house in a guest bedroom. Now people are building houses specifically to be a quote unquote real estate investor, Airbnb. I'm not gonna fight about that. Right now, I'm a little annoyed by it, but we don't need to get into that right now. So, none of these brands are ever really describing their product. They're describing an experience and a feeling, and they let their audience insert themselves into it. So that's what you're doing too. You're not selling flights. You're not selling hotel nights. You're selling a feeling. And this is what a lot of when I first started in travel, I remember hearing, and I think I've mentioned this in other episodes. I record so much content, I don't know where it's at. It could be in a course somewhere. Annie Hoodle, BDMs would be like, you've got to paint the picture. And I'm like, what do you mean? It's selling the feeling. So the story is simply the vehicle that gets people there. Okay? Again, you don't need a massive marketing budget. Does it help? Absolutely. But you don't need massive marketing budget to use this principle. You need to shift the default question that you ask before you post anything from what information do I want to share to what story makes this information land? So instead of like Bali is still beautiful in shoulder season. Well, what is shoulder season? Most people don't even know what that is. You could say I had a client who almost skipped out on Bali because of the rainy season warnings online. Here's what we found instead. And then you can go into the story of like technically they were in shoulder season. If you don't know what shoulder season is, this is the time between rainy season and high season. You can often get the best deals with some mildly higher chance of inclement weather. Whatever. It's the same information, but entire different level of stickiness because they can picture themselves as the client. So we're gonna talk about this over the next few episodes because if you don't know by now, a lot of this travel agency in your podcast kind of coincides with the Success Circle program that we have over at elevatewithrachelk dot com. So it's kind of like supplemental to it, but also like free if you're like, I don't want to make an investment, some free info. So we're going to be talking about the storytelling with your brand over the next few episodes. We're going to talk about like your founder's story, your brand story, different ways storytelling can connect you to leads and potential clients and your current clients throughout their entire journey with you. So We're gonna get into more examples tomorrow and a simple framework for spotting opportunities in your own day-to-day life. I know you're probably like, I have the most boring life ever. No, there's a story somewhere. There's always a story. Okay. This is day 191 of the Travel Agent City New Year podcast. I will see you tomorrow. Have a great day.