Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 132 - Growth Tactics for Travel Advisors
Transcript
- Rachel K: It's day 132 of the Travel Agency in a Year podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K. Travel advisor also got some people on my teams, know, that fun stuff. And I help other travel advisors. That's community over competition. Head over to elevatewithrachaelkay.com. If you're like, bitch, I don't know you, it's fine. You don't have to know me. Thanks for coming back, for those of who have returned. The last few episodes have been, I feel like, entertaining for me at least. Today's episode is the travel, the TA's growth tactics. I cannot get rid of this cough. It's been months, it's fine. So growth tactics, we talked a little bit about visibility assessment yesterday. Well, that's what the episode was about. Today's episode is like growth tactics based on how you want to increase your visibility. And you're just like, but Rachel, I don't know what to do. Thanks for having me think about this yesterday. Now I don't know tactics that I can implement to get the goals that I want. So. First and foremost, we're gonna talk about follower growth. Remember, it is a vanity metric. However, there's often a strong correlation between increase in followers and increase in business. For me specifically, I learned every 10 followers I gained would be one more wedding from that platform. I feel like I say platform weird, platform. Like, what is that? Platform, platform. Anyway, so there is a strong correlation. There is not necessarily causation. However, you should probably want to have some followers. You don't have to have thousands or millions. It's tactics to grow your following, if that's your goal, based on your visibility assessment. These are 2026 kind of trends that are plat, um, content creators are noticing, increase following. Number one, save worthy content. I know if I save or share, ⁓ so my like Do Me Scroll-E platform is YouTube Shorts when I'm like, ⁓ I need a break, let's stress myself out with short form video content. That'll be a break. For me, it's YouTube shorts. I've left all Meta stuff. didn't really, like I started Meta again when I became a travel advisor. I'd already shut it down in like 2015. I was like, this is not for me. And I was like, still not for me. And then the whole TikTok oracle craziness in January 25, I was like, I'm not accepting. this weird gaslighting manipulation tactics of like, we're going away forever, but we're back, we saved it. So I just left everything. Like the main platforms and YouTube Shorts is what I use for content. And I'm getting to a point here people, I know if I share a piece of content, cause my son is also only on YouTube, or the chaps nat. I'm gonna forever laugh about that. Anyway, so I will share videos with him. I also will save videos and put on my watch later playlist because it's like, ⁓ this creator makes a very interesting point. I can spin this for travel advisors and help them, or they have a really good resource, like a book or something to listen to that could help travel advisors. That's a lot of the stuff that I save. Sometimes it's like easy workouts, know, that kind of stuff. Sometimes it's like easy dinners. whatever and I put it in my watch later because I'm like I don't want anyone knowing what I'm saving because I'm weird so I had noticed actually just a few days ago before I wrote this episode out I saved ⁓ here's what it was I sent, it was a couple things that happened in one little session. So I sent my son, there was this Bruce Lee video, like Bruce Lee blowing out a whole row of candles with a kick, but he stops the kick short and he doesn't even touch the candles, and like using his finger to like break all these bricks, like all this content from like the 70s, whatever. of amazing things he did on talk shows. And I was like, this is awesome. And my son would appreciate this. So I shared it and then moved on with my life. And I got more of the same exact content. Another one I saved. Gosh, I can't remember what the video was. But it was nothing. I can't remember what the video was. was nothing I'd ever seen before. And it was like a creator I had never seen before. And I was like, ⁓ this is interesting. I'm going to save this for later. And both of those were feeding me the same creator. The algorithm was like, ⁓ this is what you want to see right now. Here's more of their stuff. So this is why you want to create save-worthy content. Don't strive for perfection. Let's get out of the optimization trap. your hook needs to draw them in, right, the first one to two seconds. And then the body of the content needs to be so valuable to your ICA that they're like, I need to save this for later. Like there's a high chance of that occurring. When that happens, from what I found at least on YouTube, And I've noticed that with YouTube, like just watching the longer form videos, because I love to just like put on like a play of a podcast on my TV and just be like, no, I to do, and like do housework and stuff. But it will feed more of that creator's stuff in my feed. So that's an easy way to boost yourself in the algorithm. And you are being shown to that person that already likes your content, so they're more likely to follow you. Well, that took three minutes to say. Number two, clear topics. If you are a travel advisor that's fine with having multiple niches, there's nothing wrong with that. You can specialize in multiple types of travel. However, you want to have very clearly defined topics in your content strategy. Think of this as like, The people that do affiliate links kind of thing, they're going to focus on maybe hair for one entire quarter. they'll have their brand deals, so on and so forth. And then maybe they're going to do tech of some kind. Or maybe they do something in the home, like kitchen gadgets for an entire quarter. And then bed linens, I don't know. I don't know what affiliate people do, clearly. However. I think it would be wise to look at some of those creators and see are they consistently posting about specific hair products for like two weeks or a month or a quarter. I don't know. I don't follow those people. Maybe you don't either. But it would be good to look into because that would help you if you are doing multiple niches, why it's important to focus on only one for like 60 pieces of content, like once a day for two months or 90 pieces once a day for three months, to make sure to that audience that is clear that this is what you specialize in, even if you specialize in multiple things. ⁓ Excuse me. It used to be very popular when I started... social media marketing in the travel industry to have Destination Wedding Wednesday. It's Wedding Wednesday. ⁓ And if you do weddings and you do all sorts of different types of travel, I'm not sure if that really builds trust with your audience anymore. Like it used to be, ⁓ I look at me, I do all these things, right? Like I can do this and I can do this and I can do this. And I just remember that like DW Wednesday on all the content calendars that like suppliers would produce and be like, here, you can use this in your business to make it easier. But I don't know if that would be really appealing. Like if you, I have no social media except this podcast right now. But if you like found my profile and I was all about travel one day and then I was about real estate coaching the other day and then I was about financial investment coaching another day. you'd probably get confused. Yes, they're all kinda like business-y related, but you'd be like, I don't trust this bitch. She seems like a charlatan, she's doing too much, right? So it might be the same thing if you were doing multiple niches and you do like, honeymoons one day and then adventure travel the next day. Be very clear and focus on the topic. Number three, conversational keywords in your captions, not just the hashtags. I think I mentioned this a little bit yesterday. So descriptions can be much, much longer, especially with video content. I've been seeing a lot of like... Which some people complain in the comments, like, why do I gotta tap on the description? Like, how lazy are you, first of all? Like, how lazy are you that you can't tap the description to read it? I don't wanna read! But then they want the captions like across the screen the entire time too because they're like, I don't know what's going on. Anyway, that's just my weird observation. However, I have noticed a lot of creators. who are, I wouldn't say huge creators, probably like mid to big. Like they probably make seven figures close to it annually, ⁓ but they're not like the creators going to the creative award shows or getting invited to Coachella or anything like that. But they will post just B-roll of them doing something. and then it'll have a down arrow emoji. I almost said icon because I'm old. Down arrow emoji and then it'll say read description and then you click on the description and it'll just be like like the first part will be like seven tips for whatever and then the description will be all seven tips with a paragraph. Prefacing here's why you need to understand these tips and they will explain the tips fairly well in depth And then they will have the hashtags and maybe even a link for more information So that is something you should consider Cross posting so if your main hub is Tick-tock you can cross post to YouTube If you want to stay on TikTok, when people on YouTube watching the shorts or Instagram reels or whatever, leave that watermark on or whatever or mention like this is on TikTok or whatever. So they'll be like, oh, that person's on TikTok. I wonder what else they have over there. And then maybe if they have an account, go over there. You can cross post between platforms like that. Engage with your audience and in general if you want your content to be pushed out to more people act like you're a part of the community instead of just being like look at my stuff me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me I'm really bad about doing that because I'm working on this podcast so I'm like I can't socialize with anybody ⁓ But engaging in the comments, like replying to comments when you can, when people comment on your stuff, as well as anyone posting anything about your niche, engage in the comments. Help boost them. It shows you're not just in it for you. Okay, so those are follow list tactics. ⁓ gosh, I'm already 13 minutes in. Email list growth. Do you have a tool or a calculator on your site that can help your clients with their trip that you specialize in? You could show them this tool and be like, can get access to this tool, just give me your email. You could also have, Exclusive discounts, hand over your email to get free private transfers or something. I don't know, that seems like a lot. But, whatever. ⁓ Gate your content. Gate your best, best, best, best, best content. And this is gonna be like templates, tools, and very in-depth guides. Gate it, like a lead magnet. Give me your email, I'll give you this tool. But here's a little taste for now. You can have sign up forms on every single page. I hate pop-ups and if I am your ICA, I would be like, abort, I don't like this website when pop-ups come up all the time. I'm like, who decided? I'm in the middle of reading this very informative blog and then it's like, pops up. I don't like the pop-up. Especially the ones that are like. when you're in the middle of reading a really good article and then it just like blocks the entire screen and you're like I just lost my space in reading now I'm mad now I gotta find the X to close this window because sometimes it's teeny tiny and hidden or it's a tiny little close But you can have sign up forms embedded in various sections on your website. It could be in the margins, it could be in the header, could be in the footer. If you are doing it like in the header or footer, you wanna have it kinda like be a contrasting color from the rest of your page to make it kinda pop if you really wanna like push it. and you need to have a compelling headline for it. Like sign up for, or no, five tips to planning your honeymoon. That's just something easy. But you know what I mean, like the best five tips to plan the most unforgettable honeymoon or whatever. The most unforgettable trip of your life. And then have a little boopy pop box. You can also place it in your testimonials if it's like a lead magnet. related to the testimonials you have listed on your page underneath and right above you'd be like probably underneath if it's like a side scroll of testimonial carousel type thing you could put Get our DW or destination wedding planning guide here get our ultimate cruise planning guide here right underneath the testimonial of Samuel R. saying, XYZ travel planned the most unforgettable river cruise experience of my life. They handled the pre and post day and every little detail and I felt like a king. Then right underneath it, the ultimate river cruise planning guide. Boop, put the email in there. Make it easier, email only converts the highest. When you have any kind of form, sign up form, to get the emails, email only has the highest conversion. Nobody wants to give out their email, their name, their date of birth, their last four, their social, their phone number, their, where do you want to go? Just, if it's something you're trying to just build your email list, just ask for the email. That stuff you can put on the consultation. Probably not last four or social. or date of birth, that would be like, date of birth I don't use until the actual client personal information form. ⁓ say upgrade blog? Shoot. Okay, you can upgrade your blog. So like content gatekeeping and you can embed in blog posts these lead magnets or you can be like have like a simpler form of the blog post and be like for more in depth. Go here. Okay, reach. How do you increase your reach? As of 2024, storytelling is the best. I remember this one time. Actually, one of my highest performing webinar signups for, well was back to a toolbox, was when I went in with the premise of nightmare, the worst destination weddings I dealt with, and hearing all the bad. We had so many people sign up for that one. And a really high open rate, because the subject line was like. Ugh, destination weddings suck. These are the worst ones I've ever experienced. Join the webinar. And that was like the goal of the webinar. However, the guests on there didn't seem to understand it and really just wanted to sell themselves. And I was like, well, this is a bust. It's fine. But it was supposed to be like, you need to have these protections in place in your business. These are the mistakes that I made. I never got sued. And also, I could probably have been. I don't know. I don't know if I could have been sued or not. Sometimes it was things that I didn't have in place or it was things that I've always had in place but a lot of advisors I had mentored had no idea they needed to have it in place. I'm like, you kidding me? So I was telling like the worst wedding experiences I had to showcase the importance of having strong TNCs ⁓ and how some of them I've had to modify a little bit down the road. Okay, storytelling though. Storytelling, you could talk about your, I mean, don't really talk about your own travel experiences unless it's really, really compelling, story. Like the first time that I went to Italy, I remember I didn't plan X, and Z and I tried to DIY it without a travel advisor and it went horribly wrong for me and here's why. Or you could talk about like, you could have clients do a quick video of storytelling of what it was like working with you. ⁓ I love the short form video content where it's like people just play random characters and play out stories in their workplace and they'll have like a towel on their head to represent, now I'm a different person. Like I love that stuff, it's hilarious. Add more personalization to your ID. Ideal client avatar like make sure you're actually speaking to them not at them Hmm. You see the difference there? ⁓ At them would just be like just do it my way and that's the way and you better be careful because if you don't work with me, you're gonna get it kind of attitude. Or like this is what I've got, this is what I do, this is how I help you but like speaking to them, you're personalizing it because you're bringing up their problems and their pain points. ⁓ Maybe, maybe if you want to expand your reach, find an influencer that has a similar audience as yours and be like, hey, you want to partner up? That could be a nightmare. I have never tried it. I've heard some success with travel advisors. I feel like I would end up with like the most narcissistic influencer somehow. It would just be like the worst thing ever. So I'm just like, ⁓ I'm not gonna do that. Oh, here's my statistic I tried to quote the other day. Video, video content. Video is 82 % of all internet traffic. You've got to have some video content. People don't like to read so much. Some people are leaning more that way. But people want video footage. Preferably not AI-generated video footage. Okay, now. to grow an engagement. Say you've got decent following, but you don't get so many likes, comments, shares, which I don't really know if you need if you are doing fine with lead generation. But if that is your goal, if you're like, need engagement to increase my lead generation. What are your call to actions? How many CTAs do you have? Do you have them in every post? Maybe start adding them. That's point number one. Storytelling, Controversial stories, controversial opinions get people to comment. It really riles people up or they're like, ⁓ I'm so glad somebody else could say it. And it drives engagement, which boosts you in the algorithm. It's a tactic. It's... It's definitely a tactic. It can have an authentic voice and it is certainly a tactic and an attempt to get and show up in everyone's face. And it's a very good one. ⁓ Along with controversial stories, controversial opinions, opinions that are against the status quo, ⁓ I know one of my best, sadly, best performing pieces of content, I was like, I'm going to do this. I just, I think I used a Mariah Carey sound. Clearly this is old. But I mentioned people bitching about destination weddings when you're dropping $30,000 to get married in a barn. And that's just like the text on the screen. Oh, it's thank you for coming to my Ted Talk was the sound that I used. And that got a lot of engagement, they're like, you don't know how much my Yes, I do. I know people who are like, could get married locally and DIY everything for five bucks and they're like, we still spent 30 grand. And it was not a great wedding. It was fun, but it was like lot of money for a party. So that was like, that's an example of something you can do in the travel industry. I have said also, because I did a lot of finest and excellence weddings probably these last two or three years that I was doing. Two years? I think I started booking them regularly. Nope, I started booking them regularly in 22, but I liked them so much that I kept going and booking them more and more. The fact that I would just post on social media and be like, hey, I'm like one of six travel advisors who doesn't hate on excellence and finest. If you need a wedding, I've done weddings there. I know how they work, and I'm not gonna say they're bad to travel advisors, because they aren't. I don't understand how that even got spread in the first place, because they've never been bad to work with. ⁓ Anyway. But that got me just having that content and then I would do more pieces of content. Here's what it's like getting married at this excellence or finest property. I got so much business because they're like, you are literally the only travel advisor on social media who doesn't bash this brand when we do a consultation and we love this brand. So that's like another thing you could do, like a controversial opinion that is of your opinion, but it doesn't go with the status quo in the industry. Okay, video series. Here's another, like a video series gets more engagement. Lives or pop-up type meetings, like in-person pop-up meetings. ⁓ Especially lives or like the pop-up meetings like, in three days I'm gonna be at this place, come meet up with me. That drives the FOMO, which we all know a lot of us suffer from the FOMO. A video series. can be like, I think I mentioned this the other one, do like a whole resort tour and then just do a video series and be like, hey, follow me, which is engagement, or comment what you'd like to see next in this series. That was another thing that I had done when I was doing the potato on a plate filter. And I would just be like, comment where you wanna get married and if I've done a wedding there, I'll tell you how much it sucks or is amazing. You know what I mean? and then I would get more engagement just by having that call to action. You can also show genuine moments of you working behind the scenes, even if it's like you sit in the office here. Celebrate your client's successes. If they send photos, you can do like a carousel post with like how much fun they have. Give permission. You could do that. And remember, as we close out this episode, show gratitude in what you do, in everything you're doing, and do it with joy, even if you're facing setbacks temporarily, and you're like, I'm not getting the growth that I want. Whatever tactic that you liked from here, that you're like, I wanna implement this or tweak this part of my process to do this, do it with joy, do it with gratitude. Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful day and come on by tomorrow.