Your marketing strategy is a pivotal part of your tour and activity company. The only way to get customers to book your tours is to make them aware of what you have to offer.Marketing efforts, however, can be quite an investment. It costs money to advertise in the local papers, to create an SEO campaign online and to offer promotions and discounts to new customers. When you are defining your marketing strategy, you need to consider the return on investment, or ROI.What is return on investment (ROI)?By definition, your return on investment is the amount of money gained compared to the money that you invested in a given project. So, your marketing ROI is the amount of profits you earn after you invest in a particular marketing campaign. For example, if you spend $500 implementing a daily deal on a local site as part of your distribution strategy, and you bring in $1,500 in business, you have earned a $1,000 return on your investment. To put it simply, this would be a worthwhile investment and a positive marketing campaign.How can tour operators increase ROI?As a tour and activity operator, you should capitalize on your channel strategy in order to maximize your ROI. Here are a few tips:Utilize OTAs as part of your channel strategy in order to reach a larger, global audience, and minimize your own out-of-pocket marketing costs. When you partner with an OTA, you enjoy the benefits of their hospitality marketing campaigns. OTAs have access to targeted e-mail lists as well as an advanced network of industry professionals, and they will market your tours and activities for you. You can spend less money on local advertising, and put more of your resources toward growing your business and enhancing your products.Know the standard commission fees for the various agents, and implement those fees in your own business. Retail travel agents should earn 10%-20% commission off of your retail price, B2B travel wholesalers should earn 25%-30% commission off of your retail price, and ITOs also should earn 25%-30% off of your retail price.Invest in an online booking system that allows you to automate your channel strategy as well as your booking process. Rezdy is an online booking system that includes a marketplace, allowing you to easily relay real-time information about your tours and activities to all of your distributors. In addition, Rezdy offers an automated booking process that easily keeps track of the commission rates that you have set for the various types of travel agents who are reselling your tours and activities. Its real-time updates make it easy for you to accurately schedule tours and allocate the appropriate resources.When you maximize your ROI by minimizing your marketing costs and decreasing the amount of time you spend on paperwork, you will be able to grow your tour and activity company to the next level. Rezdy can help you accomplish all of these goals, and more. Begin your free trial of our online booking system today.