3 steps to effective tour operator brochure marketing

Updated February 2023 – As tour and activity operators, marketing and promoting your services are essential when looking to reach a wider audience. Brochures can be a great marketing tool for your tourism business. In fact, in our past surveys for the most effective booking channels for tour operators, brochures were cited as one of the most effective ways to get bookings and raise awareness.

In this article, we’ll go through the benefits of brochures and 3 effective steps in creating one.

Why are brochures important?

Brochures are beneficial for all tour and activity businesses. It’s a tangible form of marketing that your potential customers can always revert back to.

Your business needs printed sales literature for 2 reasons:

It makes you look professional

There’s the implication that a brochure makes your business legitimate, especially if you’re a tour operator. Only the best of the best will be able to afford that kind of marketing collateral.

It’s convenient for your customers

Most international travelers aren’t always connected to the internet when traveling. And if they are, it may only be in certain areas that offer wifi. By distributing brochures, busy travelers who have limited access to the internet can easily pick up your brochure and read it at their leisure.

How to leverage your brochure marketing

Creating a brochure may seem like a simple task, however, there are many factors that you should take into consideration before publishing it. Here are 3 steps to look over during the brochure creation process.

Step 1: Plan your brochure properly

Planning your brochure is a significant project because you want it to be relevant for years to come. It’s harder to chop and change printed materials compared to something that’s published online. Therefore, the information and details published in your brochures should be accurate and clear.

One thing you might want to consider is ensuring that all relevant stakeholders of your business are involved. You can create ground rules and make sure all parties are on the same page. It also gives your graphic designer a chance to learn who their point of contact should be to get things done.

Another factor to keep in mind when creating brochure marketing materials is to set clear objectives. This could include:

• Deciding what you’re offering your customers. It would be best to have a compelling offer, instead of just information about your tour or activity. This will prompt people to take action instead of leaving it for later. For example, you can offer a time-sensitive discount, a 2-for-1 offer, or a VIP pass.

• Tell your customers how they should redeem their offer. Ideally, this will be online through your booking system using a unique promo code.

• Set a measurable goal you’d like to achieve. How else will you measure the success of this particular campaign?

Once you’ve planned and sorted out the fine details, it’s time to finalize your brochure.

Step 2: Finalize your brochure

The second step after planning your brochure is you’ll need to finalize the content of your brochure. You’ll need to ensure it’s absolutely perfect to be distributed to the masses and any spelling and grammatical errors are adjusted accordingly.

Before finalizing the brochure, it’s important to ask yourself:

• Have we answered the most frequently asked questions?
• Do we have beautiful headlines and graphics?
• Have we put a brief summary of what to expect?
• Are there clear instructions on how to book?
• Have we given them a good reason to act now?
• Have we put our contact details?
• Have we stated our guarantee? This is especially important for weather-dependent businesses
• Is it easy to find the information I’m looking for in the brochure?

Remember that people buy with emotion but justify using logic. Make sure you trigger those emotional heartstrings while still mitigating any kind of barrier to buying from you by appealing to their logical side.

Step 3: Distribute your brochure in the right places

There’s no point going through all that hard work if no one is going to see it!

To make sure your brochure is accessible to your potential customers, you should:

Put it at your point of sale

It’s only natural to have it at your reception desk so that customers can grab it and it has their questions answered. Perfect for when things are hectic because your staff is busy trying to get everyone on tour.

Put it in hotel and hostel brochure racks and bulletin boards

You want travelers, and that’s where they reside. For people who plan out things to do once they arrive at their destination, it’s not uncommon for them to pick up a few brochures to see what’s available.

Put it in sales kits for your existing and potential agents 

Whether it’s an ITO, travel agency, or concierge, your sales kit should contain print marketing materials that they can use to sell your tours better. Make sure you have digital versions for online agents like OTAs.

Utilizing in-destination tools to your advantage

Once your brochures have been distributed accordingly, it’ll be a smart move to partner with other local tourism businesses in your area. Hotels, concierge services, travel agents, and even restaurants can all become your local partners. And now with the majority of these establishments providing digital services such as an in-destination tool, distributing your products is now a whole lot easier.

An in-destination tool is essentially a system that streamlines the processes of promoting and reselling your services at your partner’s venue. For example, you can partner with hotels to display your brochures at their reception and in every room. On that brochure, you can include a unique QR code that allows guests to book your services through the hotel’s portal. Once a booking is made via the unique affiliate code, payment, and commissions are automatically sorted.

Want to work with local hotels and accommodations in your area? Send your affiliate QR code with them in the Rezdy app and share ideas like these to improve the booking experience for yourself, for the accommodation, and most importantly for the guest.

Conclusion

For some, brochure marketing may seem like an outdated practice, but you’d be surprised at the efficacy it still holds in today’s tourism market. Brochures are tangible marketing material that everyone is familiar with. Not all travelers have easy online access, and some may actively seek brochures when looking for experiences to do while on a trip.

By ensuring that you follow these tips and steps to building your brochure, you’ll be creating effective brochures that will grab people’s attention, entice them to book, and remain relevant for the years to come.

Once you have your brochure marketing strategies in full swing, it’s important to provide your customers with a simple booking process. Utilizing an online booking system, such as Rezdy will ensure you capture customers efficiently. A tour operator reservation system streamlines the entire reservation process. Advanced features such as a real-time availability viewer, automatic guest communications, and the ability to accept online payments are just some of the features customers will expect during the booking process. With Rezdy, all these abilities are achievable. So, what are you waiting for?

Curious to see how an advanced reservation system like Rezdy can fit within your business? Start your FREE 21-day trial or book a demo with our team of experts.

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