PR can easily help travel agencies to reach a new audience, create new opportunities, and find new clients. But this is the case only in the event that you use the right strategies. You cannot run any regular public relations campaign and expect to reap benefits.
If your goal is to promote travel agencies, here is how you can use PR to your advantage.
Carefully Choose Journalists And Experts
You want to create a list of journalists and experts who cover the agency’s travel specialty. Most agencies try to get backlinks and coverage with general travel tips. This can be a mistake since when you go too wide in your promotion, you reach too many individuals. It is much better to be targeted with all your campaigns. For instance, when your specialty is destination weddings, find sites and newspapers that frequently publish information about such events. This would be much more effective than going general.
Develop Yourself As An Expert
It is very important to create content that is about the expertise you have, not about the brand. Start to chronicle trips hosted, plans, and executed. When you put the experience of the clients center stage, it is so much easier to attract new ones in the future.
Forget About Press Releases
It is a shame to see how many travel agencies still think that press releases help them. In reality, a press release is meant to showcase the launch of a new business, some sort of innovation, or a new product. When you just write press releases about the travel business, which is what often happens with agencies, you just waste time and money. The press release ends up lost and might not even get published.
Create Strong Pitches
For every single expertise area the business has and for all hot topics, you need solid pitches. To build a strong pitch, you have to focus on these components:
- Introduction – This usually includes why the contact is made.
- Who you are – A clear definition of why your travel agency or your content is a very good source.
- Thoughts – They need to be articulated properly, including what can be offered on the trending topic.
- Close – This should include contact details and relevant social media handles.
You should also be aware of the various possible types of pitches. Some of the popular ones are breaking news, HARO leverage, predictions, insights, knowledge, and myth-busting. With all of these, it is very important to be a big thought leader in the industry. Do not act like a follower. Act like a true specialist.
Carefully Choose What Articles You Write
Last but not least, you have to be very careful with what articles you write. You simply cannot write everything that everyone talks about. It would be so much better to just find a more controversial topic, one in which the audience is split in opinions. This can get so much more traction than the general articles.
Also, make sure that you focus on benefits, not on negatives. Nobody wants to read those.