Travel Agency Branding

When it comes to travel agency branding, website design is the key. A well-designed website can help attract potential customers and give them the information they need to make a booking. It should be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and include all relevant information about the services the agency offers. To ensure success, the website should be optimized for both desktop and mobile devices, and include clear calls to action. Additionally, the website should be kept up to date with the latest industry trends and technology. With the right website design, tours and travel agencies can maximize their branding efforts and reach more customers.

Give a Message

The Importance of a Tourism Branding Strategy - Travel Agency Branding

Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) are online companies whose websites helps you to book travel related services. They resell trips, cars, flight tickets and vacation packages provided by others. Listing on OTAs is still a big marketing strategy for your tourism business, but it has certain drawbacks also. Your business gets absorbed by their brand identity. They will try to promote their brand and not yours. For example, a traveler who is using Trip advisor for travel services will come across Trip advisor brand throughout the website. Therefore, your tourism company will not be given much importance. People will remember the name of OTA and not your company. So, it is important to build your brand outside these websites. There are many reasons to do it, let’s see four main reasons:

1. Branding increases more conversions & enquiries

People will be more likely to use your service, when your company looks legitimate and professional. Branding gives voice to your business. It helps your business to stand out as a best option, also safe and unforgettable experience for the customers.

2. Branding improves recognition of your identity

Branding gives face to your business. People will not only remember your name but also your logo. People will instantly recognize your business when they see any ads or videos or while reading emails.

3. Branding makes you memorable in customer mind

Branding is not just logo and slogan. It’s more than that. Branding helps your customers to be loyal with your company. Not just for weeks, but people will remember your brand for a long time. Branding is an unforgettable experience that you create for your customers.

4. Branding increases your brand-value

Having a popular brand name will help your company to be the leader in your niche. It helps in the further expansion of your company. Consistency and building a stronger brand will help you to increase your brand equity. Brand equity is the value of brand name.Now let’s create a memorable travel brand.

How to Create a Memorable Travel Brand?

Branding must be given priority even if you have a well established company or if you are just starting your own company. Your tourism business will grow by early branding. Consider a particular niche instead of focusing on a large number of people. It will improve your online visibility and also give you a competitive edge.

These 6 steps will help you to build a brand identity.

1. Create a brand story

There is a back story in every business. A tourism business mostly starts from passion. It can be passion for adventure, the destination or the community.

Sharing your brand story will help your company to build trust, credibility and also principles to guide your business decisions. Think about why your company started, that is your brand story. It doesn’t have to long and perfect, brief is best. How did you start? , where did you get the idea from? , what inspired you? , how is your company different? , what makes your team outstanding? – add answers to these questions also with the brand story.

2. Identify your target audience

You can target a specific group of people by providing them with attractive offers as the preferences of the people may vary as per their needs. So it makes no sense if you have not researched about your target audience before going for branding. If you run a craft beer bike tour but your brand speaks more about DIY and suburban mothers there will be a problem connecting with the audience. You should consider certain things like who’s most likely book tour and activities, their age, where they are from etc. Create a strong brand identity and find out more about your target audience. Find out where they spend more time online and what they frequently search online.

3. Position your identity with your destination brand

Destination Management Companies (DMC’s) builds the destination brand. It is a unique travel experience based on everything a place offers. The aim of destination brand is to generate visitor interest. For example, people who travel to Ireland visit the Emerald isle for the pub culture, castle hopping and traditional folklore. ‘Tourism Ireland’ promotes it as a destination that will “fill your heart”. DSo people will expect heartwarming moments. This also provides hints about what they can expect from this trip. People will expect certain things from this trip because of destination brand.

They will plan things and book according to these expectations. If your company provides them what they are looking for and give them positive experience then it will help in the growth of you business also it will meet their perception about that destination also. You have to give priority to brand identity also, along with destination branding. Make a connection and between these two.

4. Workout your brand voice and tone

When you communicate with others, they will understand your personality, attitude and values. Likewise every message given by your company (online or offline) reveals your company’s mission and characteristics. This is brand voice of your company. Your brand voice must be the same across all social media channels. Then only it will be effective. Brand voice must be clear and distinctive. It helps in our interaction with the target audience and to have a good position in the market place.

If you have different brand voice in blog and other social medias people will not get an accurate picture of your business. Unlike brand voice, tone can be different according to the situation. It reflects your mood. Payment request can be serious and confirmation booking can be joyful. This creates an emotional impact on the reader (customer).

The company’s mission statement and values, current content, common themes, how your target audience communicates and destination branding will help you to figure out your brand voice and tone. Tone can be flexible but it should not go too far away from the brand voice. Describe brand voice in a content style guide with the dos and don’ts of writing accordingly.

5. Give your travel brand a makeover

A memorable logo, unique typography etc will provide a great first impression. Create a look for your tour and activity business. Visual elements also play an important role in brand identity. When we think about Google first thing that comes to our mind is their primary colors. Let’s look at an example from tourism industry. ‘Contiki’ stands out for young travelers with imagery that plays on the fear of missing out (FOMO).

There are 4 things your brand design needs to get noticed,

1. Logo

The logo of your company can be seen everywhere, whether on social media or promotional materials. It should simple, memorable, timeless and must match with your business mission. Logos can be logo mark or logotype.Z

2. Typography

Fonts also have personalities. Some represents maturity like Serif fonts, while some gives progressive vibe (Modern fonts). So select suitable fonts for your business. It influences how audience perceives your business.

3. Color palette

Colors can make your audience feel a certain way. Like fonts it has emotional impact on people: red-passion, green-natural, and blue-trust. Use the right mix of colors.

4. Imagery

Photos and videos show people the kind of experience you offer. It also inspires people and they also imagine having that experience. Use it wherever you can Brand images should have unity also. Use presets to promote uniformity.

6. Build consistency in your tour website

By visiting your website people get a clear picture about your business, about who you are, how you function etc. People visit your website to gather more information about your tours and activities. The website is like a digital store front, a face of your company. Maintain consistency in your website. No matter where people click on the website it should be similar. The look, voice, feels everything should resemble the other.

Here are some ways that will help to show off your brand on your website:

1. About us page

Create an about us page and share your brand story. Some people may want to know more about your business. They can visit the about us page. You can also give and outline about your core values and mission in this page.

2. Relevant Keywords

Know your target audience and find out what search queries they use frequently. Use these keywords throughout your page- page titles, headers, body text, meta-description, URLs.

3. Uniform design

Make your brand recognizable. Use same color palette imagery and fonts throughout the page. Keep the logo at the top right corner and also next to your URL, this will remind them that they are browsing.

4. Brand voice

Every content that you have written on your website must stick to your brand voice. A blog can be used to establish this further and whoever continues this should follow the same content style.

5. Customize booking process

It is best to use an online booking system that doesn’t lead to a separate page and also allows customization. People shouldn’t feel like they let the site when they go to book. Build your booking page the same way you did with the website.

Other Travel Agency Branding Ideas

Building your tour and activity business is not an easy task. You should put more effort into it to make it stronger. Here are 15 extra travel agency branding ideas:

Hire a professional photographer also.
Use Answer the public and Quora, Reditt etc to get relevant blog topic ideas.
Different slogs and tests that gives best results.
Guest posts to publications within the travel industry.
Make tour guides into brand ambassadors.
Allow your staff to take over the social media.
Reward your guests with discount codes.
Brand hashtag that people can use while posting about their experience with your company
Design template for email marketing that follows your brand design.
Customize brand voice for booking notifications.
Survey to find out what the guests think about your brand.

SkyBook Digital is a Digital Marketing company with expertise in Marketing for Travel & Tourism companies. For a free appointment to discuss your pain areas and for queries, do submit the form so that one of our representative will contact you.

Summary

Overall, there are many ways to use digital marketing in a tour and travel agency. By implementing these 15 digital marketing plans, businesses can reach a wide audience and make their services more visible. With the right combination of digital marketing tools, businesses can build a strong online presence and increase their customer base. With the power of digital marketing, tours, and travel agencies can make their services more accessible to potential customers and make their businesses grow. What digital marketing plans will you implement for your tours and travel agency?