As a travel professional, you likely know the sales process as well as you know your favorite destination.
The 7 steps of the sales process are probably carved in stone somewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ancient Romans carved each of the 7 steps into a hidden corner of the Colosseum that is yet to be discovered. The point is, these steps work!
But, how does social marketing figure into these 7 steps?
Advances in technology and social media is reshaping the way that travel professionals are using the sales process, especially step #1 – prospecting for leads. Let’s examine 4 social strategies for generating leads:
Let’s Chat! Let’s Get Social!
Building brand awareness and new relationships is easy when you’re able have live conversations. The magic happens when you take advantage of:
1. Twitter chats. A great way to start conversations and receive immediate feedback. Ensure your Twitter chat success by setting a specific date and time and marketing your chat in advance.
2. Live Broadcasts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat and YouTube are a great way to build your audience and your brand awareness. Again, market your live stream broadcast in advance to ensure a core audience. You’ll find new prospects as people tune in at random.
a. Don’t relish broadcasting live? Facebook Premiere videos let you reap the reward of increased viewership found on a live broadcast, but you don’t have to go live. You can create a video (and edit it) then schedule it as a Facebook Premiere. Your fans will get advance notice and will be able to interact as if it were a live broadcast.
Groups are Golden
3. LinkedIn Groups are an often over-looked source of conversations. Ask and/or answer questions and foster conversations.
4. Facebook Groups are popular with brand and relationship building professionals. Start your own group and/or participate in conversations in other groups. Consider joining groups that are relevant and related to your niche market.
a. Are you a cruise specialist? How about joining groups related to reasons people cruise; photography, culinary, adventure, dancing, etc.
b. Are you a Europe specialist? Consider joining groups related to history, religion, Game of Thrones, Outlander.
c. Participate in the group as an individual interested in these pursuits before you even consider mentioning your niche market specialty.
5. Poll Questions are an often overlooked conversation starter. Polls are available on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. SnapChat polling is available with the app Polly as well as a variety of Quiz apps.
While you may not know all the people who join these conversations, offering your lead magnet will help you collect valuable contact information from those who are interested in knowing you!
The Value of Video
Going live is a great way to start relationships. But remember video engagement can also revolve around pre-scheduled video posts and ads. Short videos that use humor are a powerful basis for a social ad or simply a social post. Here’s some video content ideas to get you started. Plus 31 more video content ideas.
Would you love to have your You-Tube video viewers join your conversations? You-Tube cards are a gold-mine! You can create a card and add a call to action to your video inspiring viewers to take the action you want.
Remember to maximize your You-Tube channel description by adding information and a link to your lead magnet.
Call to Action
Sometimes a slight nudge is all people need to reach out. Don’t ignore the opportunities to add call to action (CTA) buttons on:
- Your social ads. Choose from a variety of calls to action. Use dynamic ads and split testing to test which CTA will work best with your audience. Use your lead magnet as the basis of your social ad and watch your contact list grow!
- Your Facebook business page. Just below your cover image there’s an option to ‘Add a Button’. This is the perfect opportunity for a CTA.
- You-Tube cards give you the option to add a link. What a great way to present viewers your lead magnet.
- Live broadcasts. If you’re broadcasting live from your desktop using BeLive.tv you can add CTA’s within your live broadcast. (more about going live from your desktop) Conquer your opt-in list of new contacts by placing your CTA into your broadcast a couple of times.
- Tips to rock your live
Key Word Monitoring
Let’s say you want to meet people who are interested in cruising or Iceland or Milwaukee. Monitoring # (hashtags) on your social sites is crucial to join conversations, but can be time consuming. Check out social monitoring tools that automatically monitor your key words.
Generating leads is the foundation to building a successful business. Taking a bit of time each day to focus on prospecting is easy when you pick at least one of these tips and put it into play! Over time you’ll gain momentum and traction as your funnel fills with new leads.
Mark Twain said: The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Which 1 thing will you pick to do TODAY to get started?
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About Catherine Heeg
Catherine Heeg is a recognized social media trail blazer passionate about social media and marketing in the tourism and hospitality industry. She takes the mystery out of marketing!
She creates and delivers meaningful, dynamic workshops that meet your unique needs in the Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Industry.
Catherine and her team help travel, tourism and hospitality pros design and implement social media marketing strategies and tactics that drive traffic to their social and web sites. Learn more…
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