Have you been planning trips for your family and friends successfully? Are you an avid traveler and passionate about the subject? If you respond with a “yes” then it is high time that you start thinking of starting your own online travel agency business.
Travelling is a domain that shall never be out of fashion and there are various categories that need specialized service in the industry.
People are increasingly opting for online solutions for their traveling requirements and this could be your big chance to launch your own travel agency online business.
However, there are some tips that you need to keep in mind and focus on before you start planning for your own business. A comprehensive suggestion is presented below
Steps To Start Travel Agency Online
Step:1 Market research
Online travel business is flooded with immense competition from some of the most popular brands in the market. If you plan to open your own business then keep in mind the competition you have already in the domain.
You need to understand the market thoroughly in order to understand what exactly is in demand and how is the market leader performing and offering to the clients.
Your research will help in making a business plan that shall be the backbone of your online travel agency business.
#Bonus Tip: You can strengthen your presence with Different Social Media. Create business accounts and participate in the big social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest.
Step:2 Your Niche
Have you experienced one certain factor in all your traveling expeditions? While planning for your niche that one problem could be your key service to offer to the clients. You need to study all the operators thoroughly and find the gap in the market that shall be catered by your business.
You could take up location-specific traveling services or even specialized packages to cater to the clients. Adventure, exploration or couple up niches such as honeymoon and adventure in one single package and serve it to the clients.
Ideas such as these shall be new in the market and can rake in plenty of clients who look for such services but have no options from the market leaders.
Your service should be unique or else with such cutthroat competition in the market, people won’t have enough reasons to come to your online travel agency.
#Bonus Tip: Be Specific about your Niche. Prove your Speciality. Try top 10 lists, tip collections, best practices for your industry, etc. You can shared a bunch of creative content marketing ideas at your Blog.
Step:3 Opt for a Host agency
If you are starting fresh in the domain then opt to start your business under a host agency so that you can get your bookings and accommodations done easily through them.
On the other hand if you are an established travel business, you have the contacts and agents that are needed for bookings and hence can dive right into the market and plan your own online business without any support.
#Bonus Tip: Infographics are insanely powerful marketing tools. They’re visual eye candy, they’re easy to digest, and people love to share them. Start making Different Infographics like Places, Typewise, Budgetwise and share on the Different Platforms.
Step:4 Funding
In order to operate a business online, you need a substantial amount of funds. Get proper resources through which you can source the funds such as personal loans or angel investments.
You can also take money from your parents or friends and start the business and return them when you start earning profits.
If you are opting to take help from lenders then have a proper business plan ready which will be evaluated by them before they sanction the money for your business.
#Bonus Tip: You can meet your Potential Customer and Companies on Linkedin.LinkedIn is a major social media site that is often under-utilized. Don’t just add network connections and sign out – join groups, enter into dialogue with connections.
Step:5 Branding strategy
Firstly answer this simple question, what sets your business apart from others in the market? Your answer is the one and only reason why people will opt for your services in the first instance.
Make your brand logo that will be used in the website and other advertorial materials. The uniqueness of the logo shall intrigue people and help in making a brand identity for you.
The niche you services shall be highlighted in the logo you have to create an instant appeal among the consumer base.
#Bonus Tip: Start a Contest on Any Social media. You can start any Contest of Choosing and Voting contests get a ton of entries because they’re so easy to participate. You can Gift them and create the Buzz
Step:6 Pick a Responsive Website
Design your travel agency’s online business website in the most appealing way. Your website should have images of the exotic locations that you serve along with written content that pursue the website visitor to opt for traveling to that specific travel circuit.
The website should be light and should provide a pricing detail of the packages so that people have no confusion and second thoughts about the credibility of your online travel agency.
#Bonus Tip: Use Email Marketing and start targeting aspirant Travellers.Use tear cards, inserts, props and attention-getting envelopes to make an impact with your Target mailers.
Step:7 Marketing
Start with aggressive marketing of the business because of the fact that the domain is crowded with competition.
It will need immense effort from your marketing team to bring the brand to people’s attention and drive traffic to the website.
You should hire an SEO expert who will target keywords with blog posts and bring in traffic to the website. Engaging blog posts can impress a reader and direct him to make a travel plan with your online travel agency business.
#Bonus Tip: Seo Is not good but best. SEO is driven off of links from other websites to your website. By building more authoritative links back to your website, You can more visitors.
Step:8 Service quality
The hotels, cars and food that you have on offer for the clients must be of optimum quality so that the customers come back again to you for their next trip.
It is essential that people get premium services and also at prices that are competitive. This will allow you to grow substantially in the market and become popular.
The quality of service will help in retaining clients and the testimonials will spread positive word of mouth about the business.
#Bonus Tip: Start Affiliate or Referral Program, Offer existing customers a free product, a free month of service, or some other reward for referring new customers.
Step:9 Online promotions
Thoroughly use the various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to post engaging content and enhance the communication with clients.
Your professional conduct on the online mediums will pave the way for people to come and take travel packages and bookings from your online travel agency. Another medium of promotion is through emails.
You need to get a list of people who are interested in the domain and mail them engaging content along with a link to your website so that they can directly visit the homepage.
#Bonus Tip: Give more than that they Expected. People love free stuff, Love deals some more than others. The people who really love a good deal tend to frequent deal sites and forums.
Though the competition is huge if proper planning and strategic implementation is done then success is assured.
You need to keep working hard and be extremely professional in your domain so that you get enough profits that will allow the sustenance of the online business and also help you in making a proper living out of it. All the best!
Branding plays an important role in every business. Through many Techniques, you can make your business a brand. Online marketing has a very important role in making a Brand. Check such interesting strategies to implement for the branding of the Travel agency. Read more in the below infographic.
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Business, marketing, and blogging – these three words describe me the best. I am the founder of Burban Branding and Media, and a self-taught marketer with 10 years of experience. My passion lies in helping startups enhance their business through marketing, HR, leadership, and finance. I am on a mission to assist businesses in achieving their goals.