Operators have several tools available to them to generate direct bookings, without spending big marketing dollars. Photos are a natural “word of mouth” candy, easy to share with friends and family. And along with that family referral, we know reviews are the second biggest driver for organic, or non-advertising driven, bookings.
PicThrive increased TripAdvisor reviews by 35% in one season for Royal Gorge Rafting & Zipline and helped Kaituna Cascades become the #1 ranked rafting operator on TripAdvisor in New Zealand.
As a sales and marketing platform for outdoor adventure operators, PicThrive works with family-owned tour operators to stretch their marketing dollars as far as they can.
“Operators looking to generate more bookings were the primary influencers for us developing more marketing tools and guest behavior tracking in our online marketing and sales platform,” said Keith Belovay, Co-founder and CTO.
We have the marketing opportunities broken down into three areas based on the guest experience: excited to share, happy to recommend and back for more.
Build up direct bookings when guests are excited to share
Encouraging guests to share is a quick way to build up your direct bookings. At the “excited to share” stage, guests are looking at their photos via the online gallery and they are ready to purchase. It’s at this moment they want more people to see the high quality images and video they’ve purchased. We make it easy for operators to convert bookings in two places at this stage — display and sharing.
Guests can share their souvenir digital files directly from a branded online guest gallery so the operator brand and url are now linked to that experience and everyone they share it with.
Since that sharing link also brings people to a custom online gallery, operators can take advantage of that moment by displaying ads offering coupons or special discounts to make a booking right then. Since it’s the operators property – part of their website and their brand – there’s no additional marketing spend AND it keeps the booking on a direct channel.
Free marketing when guests are happy to recommend
Happy customers are another great opportunity to generate direct bookings. Not only can you count on great travel experiences getting shared on social media, you can expect someone else will be influenced by that person sharing.
CNBC Travel recently reported that younger consumers are finding their travel inspiration from their favorite social platforms. A study of the big sites found 74.4 billion views for the hashtag “travel” on TikTok, and 624 million Instagram posts about travel. Source: CNBC.com
There’s a lot of proof of that activity among PicThrive operators as well. For those operators hosting online stores, we’re seeing 2 to 1 preference for TripAdvisor trip reviews, where guests write reviews and share their photos.
If you believe in your brand’s success, then you have every reason to make it easy for guests to tell people about their amazing rafting adventure by sharing the whole online album. And if you’re confident your guests leave happy, then you’ll benefit when you simplify how guests can go straight from your online albums to write a review on leading travel sites like TripAdvisor, Google Reviews and Yelp.
Digital reminders for ‘come back soon’ can guide prospects to book direct
Several of our operators use seasonal email coupons and automated integrations to drive return business.
We also created the “most referrals” report so operators can reward guests with the most word-of-mouth activity.
We’ve seen a few businesses offer an exclusive promotion or discount to their best customers – as a refer a friend discount and it’s only valid if they book direct. Makes sense to split the savings with customers instead of the OTAs.
Photos can help manage guest satisfaction
It’s also a great way to avoid a negative guest review. You can have a plan for when things with OTA bookings are out of your control. If you have a guest that expects you to correct an OTA mistake, if you have no photo sales plan, you’re giving up a chance to redeem your customer experience. Quickly comping photos automatically through an online system can convert a negative experience into a chance to improve customer satisfaction.
Offering a complimentary photo with a published price also gives operators options to recover from an unfortunate guest experience, like getting too wet. Having a recovery plan ensures you don’t lose money on refunding a ticket or comping an expensive retail item.
Guest Referrals are the key to more direct bookings
You should be able to anticipate your forecasted Direct bookings, and we’re here to make that happen. With more touchpoints for guests to promote your business, your referrals and your reach can expand.
Operators who take advantage of every opportunity for branding and sharing, are seeing the results.
It’s also a great way to avoid a negative guest review. You can have a plan for when things with OTA bookings are out of your control. If you have a guest that expects you to correct an OTA mistake, if you have no photo sales plan, you’re giving up a chance to redeem your customer experience. Quickly comping photos automatically through an online system can convert a negative experience into a chance to improve customer satisfaction.
Offering a complimentary photo with a published price also gives operators options to recover from an unfortunate guest experience, like getting too wet. Having a recovery plan ensures you don’t lose money on refunding a ticket or comping an expensive retail item.
Operators who take advantage of every opportunity for branding and sharing, are seeing the results. Schedule a demo with PicThrive to discuss how you could design a photo sales and marketing plan to generate more direct bookings for your adventure tour business.
[…] Offering options for customers to easily share photos IS photo marketing. Let happy guests do the work for your business. Here’s some additional tips to drive more direct bookings and avoid OTA fees. […]