9 Tips to Be More Productive and Increase Sales as a Tour Operator

Strategies To Boost Tour Sales Performance

Now that we are out of the pandemic our lives and businesses are getting back to normal. Confined indoors for almost a year and a half, millions of people are about to head outdoors to places familiar and strange. This means it’s time for tour operators to deploy the right tour scheduling software and employ effective marketing techniques to lure those tourists.

Along with the right infrastructure, you also need proven marketing initiatives and productivity tools. To help you out, here are nine tips for tour operators to be more productive and increase sales.

Target your ideal customer

You should have a clear idea about your ideal customer. It could be singles, couples, families, or friends. Ideally, you should focus on one segment and tailor your offerings accordingly.

Once you define your customer, you can target them through digital marketing. Social media platforms will allow you to use demographics and behavioral filters to ensure that your campaign reaches the people you want it to.

Manage your time wisely

As a tour operator, you end up wearing many hats. You’re the chief revenue officer, head of marketing, product development head, and customer relationship officer, not to mention being in charge of the day-to-day management.

But you should ensure that you spend your time wisely. That means focusing on the larger objectives that can make a difference. You should block your time for these important tasks and not get bogged down by administrative chores.

Understand what customers value

What you believe is the star attraction of your tour may nor may not be what customers like about it. Therefore, it’s important to know what your customers value and then offer that through compelling proposals.

It’s also important to know what customers value in your category. If they don’t find what they expect, they will take to online review platforms and complain.

Use social media on a daily basis

All tour operators who do well have one thing in common: They regularly use social media. They use it daily to reach out to their target audiences and increase their brand awareness.

For this, you need to have a social media strategy. First of all, focus on a couple of platforms where your audience is most likely to be. Secondly, ensure that you share a variety of content, including text, videos, surveys, and limited-time offers.

Offer unique experiences

The way to stand out is by being unique. Or, more precisely, you need to create and offer a unique selling proposition. It need not be one but a series of experiences that set you apart from your competitors.

If you have trouble identifying it, you can ask your customers. Feedback forms may be cumbersome, but you can always reach out through email or use an online tool to understand what your customers like about your operation.

Use an online booking software

If you’ve got the right tour scheduling software, half your work is done. That’s because tour scheduling software will make it exceptionally easy for your customers to book their spots on the dates they choose without any assistance from management.

Streamlining the booking process will enhance the customer experience and lets you focus on other essential tasks.

Use offers and discounts

In a highly competitive industry, you need offers and discounts to attract customers. This means that your pricing should take into account the fact that there could be discounts later.

Instead of mere offers, you can also give bundled offers and discounts to repeat customers.

Strategic planning for productivity

You should constantly look for ways to improve productivity at a strategic level. To begin with, you should implement automation wherever possible, from online booking to digital marketing.

You should also identify the core areas that need your involvement and implement “deep work” techniques to focus exclusively on those.

Grow online with content marketing

To grow online, you need the right content. Importantly, you need content that adds value to your users’ lives. So, while your content marketing strategy should involve information about your operation, it shouldn’t be limited by that.

The focus should be to develop thought leadership and become an authority in your sphere.

In short

Just because people are geared to travel doesn’t mean all tour operators will benefit equally. There’s immense competition, and more firms are entering the industry to tap the potential. The ones who make the most out of this rush will be the ones who are prepared with the right tour scheduling software and marketing techniques.

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