Navya is the VP of Product at Peek and is responsible for continually elevating the experience that partners & customers have with our product. Navya studied Engineering at the University of Sheffield in the UK, going on to obtain a Master of Science at Stanford University and an MBA at NYU. Prior to Peek, she ran product at StyleSeat, the world’s largest marketplace for beauty services that has fueled over $3 billion in beauty services. She has also built large-scale products at Uber, Disney and Goldman Sachs.In this post, we ask Navya about her time working at Peek, and what exciting things she is working on this year with our product team.

How did you get involved in Engineering and Product Management? Was it always something you were interested in, or was there a catalyst that encouraged you into the industry?

Growing up, I always had an innate desire to help improve the lives of people - a service before self mentality. This stems, in part, from growing up in a community of doctors in India- actually both of my parents and my sister are doctors!I started programming when I was 15, after my dad bought us our first computer - and the rest is history. It was obvious to me that technology could improve our lives. I was intrigued with the hardware and software aspects of engineering. So, I pursued a degree in Electronic Engineering in the U.K. and then a Masters in Computer Science at Stanford University.Pursuing a technical career satisfied my intellectual curiosity, but I’m also very much a people person. I wanted a career that could combine those two different worlds - technical and anthropological. I realized that as an engineer, I missed the interactions with the customers who were using the products I was building. That desire to talk with customers and dig deeper into their pain points led me to the world of Product Management.

What do you like about working with the Tours and Activities industry?

I’ve spent the better part of a decade working for startups and have a tremendous amount of respect for entrepreneurs who work day in, day out to turn their company’s vision into a reality. The Tours and Activities industry is filled with thousands of entrepreneurs who are in this exact same boat, undergoing a similar journey. I get excited about solving problems for tours & activities operators through product innovations. I am passionate about driving product development at Peek. We play a part in helping operators achieve their visions and ambitions! By putting smarter technology in the hands of our operators, we are able to change their lives for the better. That brings immense joy to my work.Finally, learning has always been a big part of my life. Having been fortunate enough to have lived in Asia, Europe & North America, I love to learn more about new cultures. The Tours & Activities industry embraces people from different cultures every day by creating memorable experiences for everybody, all over the world!

What are your 3 favorite features that Peek Pro will launch in 2019?

I can’t play favorites, but I love to talk about the problems I’m really excited for the Peek team to solve this year for our operators.Our engineers have been working super hard on massive infrastructure upgrades over the last few months that will be all coming together in 2019. This means that we’re stronger than we have ever been to drive Peek Pro to the next level. We identified three core challenges that tours & activity operators face today that we are best positioned to address with our upgraded infrastructure. 1) Grow Revenue: We know from talking to operators that big or small, whether you’re a bike rental shop, run comedy tours, or a cat cafe: growing revenue is always a top priority. Which means it’s ours too. In 2019, we’ll be introducing new product innovations to our booking flow to further drive online conversions through partner websites. We’ll also be launching integrations with partners such as Groupon to drive more bookings at full-price for our partners. This will add to a large existing network that includes Peek.com, Reserve with Google, Yelp and more. 2) Save time: Time is money. Our operators save an average of 10 hours/week with our software: managing on-the-go with our mobile apps, getting fewer calls because of self-rescheduling options, and automating business systems through connections to 750+ online business tools. Over the last year, we’ve used direct operator feedback to completely rethink & further streamline our booking & payments flow on Peek Pro. The first release will allow operators to easily split payments among different customer payment options! This is just the beginning of other exciting improvements that will follow this year.3) Provide a great customer experience: We’re more than a booking software. Our philosophy is to holistically look at customer experience.We obsess about all the steps involved for customers: from researching the options on your website, to booking an activity, to having a great experience, and leaving with great memories to share with friends.Technology can empower operators to effortlessly deliver a 5-star experience to each customer, and I can’t wait for our new product innovations in 2019 that take this end-to-end experience to the next level.

What does it take to make a great product? How do you find ways to improve the Peek Pro software?

A great product is the result of a clear vision and a team that obsesses about solving real problems for customers. Peek Pro’s vision is to be the software of choice for Tour & Activity operators. We want to be the technology backbone of these operators so they can provide amazing experiences for their customers.Everyone at Peek gets excited about helping operators grow and change their lives for the better. Our product team regularly sit down with our customers to see how the product is used, and to better understand the problems that operators face on a daily basis. We are fortunate to have an operator base that provides valuable input to help shape the future of the product.I also read every single request that comes to improve the product from current and prospective customers. We then prioritize features that solve the biggest problems and create the highest positive impact for our customers. 2018 was a big year for Peek Pro with over 600 updates to the software! We’re super excited about all the new ways we’ll improve Peek Pro for our operators in 2019.

Partner visits are vital to improving our product and seeing it in action!

What do you enjoy most about working at Peek?

So many things! Here are my top three:The Mission: Our mission to connect the world through experiences inspires me. I’m passionate about building products that customers love. Being able to directly contribute to this mission by improving the Peek Pro software gets me excited to bring my best self to work every day!The Challenge: As the businesses of our operators grow, new opportunities come up to improve their lives. I get excited about solving new problems every day that directly help our operators. Never a dull moment!The Team: I am lucky to work with Peek’s team that is passionate, collaborative, hard-working, intellectually curious, caring and loves to have fun!

Peek Company Offsite 2018

Both the Tours and Activity space and the Tech Industry are male dominated. What has your experience been like as a female leader in your industry?

My mom started her career as a dentist in 1970s in India, at a time when dentistry was highly male-dominated. Seeing her thrive in the environment by focusing on her career aspirations and bring herself has always been a source of inspiration for me. When I started my career in engineering, I received this advice from my mom that still helps me to date: Be yourself and command respect. I genuinely believe that being authentic makes you a good leader. Not feeling the pressure to fit in means I can bring my whole self to work every day. I am not shy about my feminine interests. I openly talk about my lack of interest in male professional sports (!), and actively focus on self-reflection to stay authentic. It’s important to pick a work environment where authenticity is encouraged and you can fairly compete to rise in your career. As a female leader and a mom to my 2 year old daughter, I consider it my responsibility to help younger women in the industry. I am lucky to work at Peek, which is not only female founded but has a culture that promotes great workplace equality.

Peek ladies across our Utah, San Francisco, New York and Santiago offices!

Any words of motivation to end on?

“Do what you love, love what you do”Thanks Navya! Check out more content from our SheTalks series by clicking here!

Did you hear about Arival 2019? It was this year’s premier conference for tour & activity operators.We had a huge presence and loved meeting all of you who came. Here are our takeaways from some of the talks we attended:

Jason Hackett, Brier Katama: Marketing Foundations

‘Getting your website right is the single most important thing you can do for your business’Jason started with two key numbers:138: number of websites that your guest is going to see before they finish booking all their flights, hotels and activities.80% of your guests are still purchasing in-market. They will make their decision game day or game week.Jason ran marketing for two major tour & activity operators in New York before branching out to offer consulting with his firm, Brier Katama. He says there are three elements you need to get right before spending on marketing:

• Website (Desktop + Mobile)
• Email
• Booking Platform

We agree! And Peek can help you in the following ways:Website: Peek Pro has partnered with three companies who we recommend for website builds - TourismTiger, TomisTech and IwerxConnect. Don’t have the budget to afford a new website? We can set you up with a simple site for $200. Just email support@peek.com.Email: Collecting emails and making use of your customer list is vitally important for your success. That’s why we built an integration with Zapier so you can collect emails into your marketing software. Here’s how to set it up with Mailchimp.Booking Platform: if you don’t use Peek Pro yet, check it out.[caption id="attachment_15833" align="aligncenter" width="1792"]

All of our Growth Lab sessions were highly attended. In this picture, Kyle Davidson is giving a talk about how to grow more direct bookings. If you’d like to see this talk, Kyle is doing a repeat for Growvember on the 25th. More info.[/caption]

The Foundations of Your Marketing

Your website is where you begin and end every single piece of your digital marketing. It’s the biggest driver of SEO traffic and online bookings.But it doesn’t stop there. According to Jason, once the booking happens, many people believe that’s where marketing stops and the experience takes over. Done well, however, it never stops. After the experience, your customer will be the word of mouth champion for you. What can you do to help them go further?

• Send Photos for Them to Use: Within the Peek Pro app, you can take photos of your guests and automatically send those over. Ask your guests to upload these to social media and tag your accounts.
• Request Reviews from ALL Guests. Peek Pro’s Smart Reviews capability enables you to request reviews not just from the guest who made the booking - you can also request reviews from anyone who signs a waiver. This triples the amount of potential reviews you can get! More info about our Digital Waivers.

Building on Your Foundations

As you can see, Jason was on fire during this talk! Here are 5 further suggestions.

1. Every time you evaluate your website, do so on mobile. This is where most of your guests are headed, so this is where you should be focused.
2. Adjust your copy: remove fluffy adjectives - the guests care about the facts: What is it, Where is it, Who is it suited for, etc.
3. You simply must run PPC Ads. The first four Google listings are ads. On mobile, this takes up the whole screen, meaning you may not even show up when people Google for your business. At a minimum, buy this ad space so you come out number one. Check out what happens when you search for ‘Eureka Tower Tickets’: The Eureka tower website is nowhere to be seen.

1. Don’t be deceived by your Analytics and remember: behind every number is a human being with their own individual story and context. Collating things into data may illuminate, but it won't provide the whole picture. For example: mobile matters even more than you realize: bookings that are conducted on desktop, are often researched on phones.
2. Understand who your guests actually are. Hackett suggests surveying your guests, as asking them questions during check-out reduces conversions. Or does it? Peek Pro has launched a feature that enables you to delay any unnecessary questions until after the reservation is done. Learn more here.

[caption id="attachment_15837" align="aligncenter" width="676"]

Ruzwana Bashir, our CEO, sharing the truth on stage[/caption]

Lukas Hempel, BookingKit: Getting Your Pricing & Profits Right

In this quick talk, Lukas shared with us lessons about pricing and profit:

1. Everyone has something that they can upsell! Try to find three upsells for your business. Peek Pro users, that’s an easy one: have you tried selling Add-Ons or Bundles?
2. Charm pricing works. Something for $0.99 converts 1.6x better than $1.
3. Product vs. Price? What should you show first? The answer is simple: are you quality focused? Show the product first. Are you focused on being the most affordable? Show price, first!
4. The Rule of 100. This is for when you’re running a discount. If your price is under 100, show a % discount. If your price is over 100, show the actual $ amount discount. This way, it’s easier for customers to understand what the actual discount is.
5. Once someone is booked in, they become less price-sensitive. We will spend hours trying to get the best deal on a flight, sacrificing comfort and time to save $10. Then we get to the airport and spend $16 on a beer anyway! This means that your tour prices should be competitive, but your upsells when the customers are showing up can be priced higher providing you with a bigger overall margin.

That last point is particularly interesting, especially given that in Peek Pro you can customize your emails however you like to drive further revenue. If you’re a Peek Pro user, consider offering upsells in ALL your confirmation and reminder emails! We recommend sending an upsell email in the days prior to the activity to see if you can get your guests to book more than one activity.[caption id="attachment_15832" align="aligncenter" width="1792"]

We had a ton of fun meeting with existing Partners. Going to a conference soon? Reach out to us to set up a meeting.[/caption]

Akila McConnell (Unexpected Atlanta) & Lesli Peterson (Sunstone Digital Marketing): Email Marketing Insights

Akila is a well known tour operator, having presented at multiple events. She teamed up with Lesli Peterson, from Sunstone Digital Marketing, to share thoughts on online marketing.What worked for Akila in 2018?Expensive, but lots of conversions:

• TripAdvisor, OTAs
• Google Adwords
• Other Promo Codes

Inexpensive, but low conversions:

• Blogging/content/SEO
• Press Mentions
• Social Media (FB/Instagram)
• Networking and Festivals

There was only ONE marketing channel that was both inexpensive AND high converting: Email.

‘Email Marketing is your best bet!’

Email converts at a 4300% higher rate than social media. In fact, McKinsey & Co studied 72 million customers and found that conversion from social media traffic maxes out at 1.08%. Email, on the other hand, ended at 17.75% conversion in 2018. Take those figures with a grain of salt, of course, but they do point to a larger truth.The Mailchimp benchmark for open rate on newsletters is 20%. You target people based on specific action-based triggers to increase conversion rate.

4 Tactics to get started with Email Marketing

Step 1: Grow Your ListGet started:

• Get emails for all the people on your tourCapture the emails of people on your site

Level up:

• Use opt-in forms with a targeted lead magnetGet them to give you their email by offering something like a local guide for your tours (lead magnets increase opt-in rate by about 85%...!)Follow up with a welcome series immediatelySend them something letting them know about your personality and your brand of your business

Step 2: Personalize Your ContentGet started:

• Tag subscribers so you can keep track of what they’re buying

Level up:

• Auto tag customers with purchases, spend, browsing, custom fieldsAuto send campaigns based on this info

Step 3: Meet People in the MomentGet started:

• Market to upset, cross sell & build engagement between purchase and fulfillment
• 35% of Amazon sales come from cross sells and resales
• Existing customers are 60-70% more likely to sell

Level up:

• Build automations to manage this
• Implement browse-abandonment campaigns on your site
• Someone comes to your site and downloads your lead magnet. They'll often to go other parts of your site - it's possible to track the parts they're interested in and automatically send them more details about the pages they were visiting.

Step 4: Create Content that ConvertsGet started:

• Write specific call-to-actions in your subject line (this can increase open-rate by 100%)

Level up:

• Tell a story with your content (switching to story-based newsletter increased her open rate by 124%!)
• Personalize content using segmentation

They highly recommend Drip as their email marketing tool. You can connect your Peek Pro account to Drip using Zapier.So, that’s the wrap for this year. A special thanks goes to Matthew Osterhaus, our superstar Product Manager for attending many of these sessions and taking amazing notes.See you next year in Phoenix?One Last Thing:Peek Pro is running Growvember again, in 2019! By popular demand.It’s a series of online workshops available to anyone where we’ll share with you how to grow your business. It was a HUGE success in 2018.Get more info and grab your place here.

Growvember 2019

What a couple of days we’ve had! Thank you to everyone who participated – we can all agree that our eight incredible speakers provided us with some awesome insights.In case you missed any of the sessions, this is your one stop shop for all the resources you need to catch up and start applying the information to your business!

Recordings

Below you’ll find links to all 8 recordings for you to watch at your convenience:3 Keys That High Growth Companies Use to Succeed - Evan Tipton8 Steps to Building a Universally Accessible Website - Andrea LopezAutomating Your Operations for Explosive and Sustainable Growth - Allan Graves5 New Ways To Grow Your Business On Peek Pro - Matt OsterhausGrowing your Conversions Using Google Adwords & Call Tracking - Steven EdwardsSystems that Scale, Profitable Distribution and Driving More Sales - Josh Oakes & Kelsey TonnerMore Direct Bookings - How We Reduced Our Reliance On OTAs - Kyle Davidson

Avital Ungar has been leading food tours since starting Avital Tours in 2011. She has served as a judge at the International Chocolate Salon, the Best of the West Rib Competition, the Good Food Awards and has been featured on CNN, the Travel Channel, Travel+Leisure and more! In this post, Avital takes us through some of the ways in which tour operators can work to make their experiences truly stand out in a fast-growing, competitive industry. In the tours and activities space, it can be hard to stand out.You might be lucky enough to offer a totally unique and once-in-a-lifetime experience that can’t be found anywhere else in the market. But for many operators, you might be offering a similar activity, or hitting up the same spots, alongside many of your competitors in the area.If you run food tours, for example, it might be that you visit the same neighborhoods, or even some of the same restaurants, as other tour operators in the area. So — how do you create an experience that is truly unique for your guests? What can you do to differentiate yourself from the competition? For me, it has always been about the customer journey. Taking steps to differentiate our tours at every single stage of the experience, start to finish. In this post, I’ll lay out just a few ways in which you can achieve this, and create an experience that is totally unique to your business.

Remember that the experience begins as soon as the booking is made

Many operators tend to focus on the experience that they offer on the day of the tour or activity. It makes sense — it’s the most important part. But by doing so, you could be missing an opportunity to build up anticipation and hype for your tour. Why not set up automatic emails to be sent out before your tour or activity to really get your guests excited? This is not only a happy reminder of their upcoming trip, but a chance to offer some little tips and recommendations in the area. That way, you’re showing your customer that you’re thinking about them and enhancing their experience before they’ve even arrived for your tour!As an owner-operator, I understand that these details are often low priority as you juggle the day-to-day tasks of running a business. But, by investing a little time in emails like this, you help plant the seed of your incredible experience and create a relationship with your guest before you meet them! They won’t forget it.

VIP is what you make it

Everyone loves a little VIP treatment. For tour operators, offering exclusive access is a great way to set you apart from the rest. As a food tour, for us this could be meeting a chef or restaurant owner who can offer their story and a little something special. But what happens when the restaurant owner has to leave for an emergency dentist appointment? Things like this can happen all the time, so it’s important to manage the expectations of your guests when offering these exclusive experiences. VIP can definitely mean exclusive access, but it doesn’t have to. Consider the easiest way to make your experience special: service.Take hotels. Most offer the exact same service; there are only so many types of beds! The real difference for them however, lies in the service. What can you do to shine?Why not use custom questions in your booking flow to learn more about your guests ahead of time and provide great service right off the bat? We cater for all forms of dietary restrictions, but knowing this ahead of time means we can go the extra mile to provide great service and accommodate those guests.

Did you know that in Peek Pro, you can ask custom questions AFTER the guest has paid? This means you can collect relevant info without sacrificing conversions!

You can also offer discounts for repeat guests, and incentives for them to go back to the places or landmarks on your tour. This makes them feel like they’re getting a deal that’s not available to just anyone and helps your partners feel recognized for the value they bring.If it’s a special occasion, point it out. Have the group sing Happy Birthday to them. On Mother’s Day, hand out roses to all the moms on the tour. It’s minimal effort on your part, but it could make their day — and that happy atmosphere will also rub off on the other guests.

Being dedicated to incredible levels of service and VIP touches helps to give us a unique advantage in our niche

Your guides are your biggest asset

If guides are part of your business, use them wisely. They are a huge part of the uniqueness that you offer. In San Francisco, everybody wants to see the Golden Gate Bridge — but the stories they’ll hear along the way are what they’ll talk about when they tell their friends and family about their experience. That’s why I focus on hiring guides with strong presentation skills. I’m looking for people that I would want to go and get a beer with after the tour or talk to at a cocktail party — since they have no issues with being the center of attention! Depending on the style of your tour and balance and type of content you share, you might want to think about how guests interact with your guides. Do you want your guides to talk with the guests or at the guests?

My guides’ relationship with our guests is a top priority, always!

You should also think about how much content should come from management, versus the guide themselves. There is no right answer. It’s all about trade-offs. Find where your tour falls, and how relevant it is to have that spontaneity on your tour. Think about your guide turnover, and the type of people you generally hire. Remember that the more tailored the experience is to each guide, the more the experience will change if that guide moves on.Not everyone will have the capacity to create a whole tour themselves, or possess a deep, all-around knowledge of the area. But they will always have different interests that can add color to your experience. I suggest digging to find these and encouraging them to use them! Maybe you have a guide who’s an architecture buff, or has a strong understanding of the area’s LGBTQ scene. Use your guides’ personality and life experience to your advantage.

Know your brand — but don’t be afraid to shake it up

A brand is an evolution. It’s never static. When I started in the Mission District eight years ago, guests would be often be nervous to visit the area. To many it seemed dirty, unsafe, just on the wrong side of ‘quirky’. One of the values we offered was that we knew where to go. We offered a safe route into an unexplored area to show our guests the hidden gems.Now, eight years later, the Mission is totally different. Everybody knows about the food, they’ve already read up on the hotspots and many of the locales are well-known by tourists and locals alike. If I was still trying to lead the same tour I was a few years ago, there’s no way it would work. I have to evolve with my surroundings and adapt my tours to ensure they are always offering something unique.

A tour cannot be stagnant. You have to constantly be on the lookout for new and exciting opportunities the city has to offer, and mould you tours to fit the evolution of neighborhoods and towns.Which brings me to this: don’t be scared to kill an experience. I’ve built products that I thought were phenomenal. But sometimes, they don’t age as well as you’d like, or sadly, the market just isn’t there. I recommend specializing — focus on what you do well, and make it fantastic. You can’t be everything to everybody. The whole industry is moving that way, and that’s what will help you truly shine in your niche. Have you signed up for our SheTalks webinars yet, bringing you more exclusive tips and content? If not, sign up here! You can also check out all of our SheTalks content from the month of March by clicking here! And for more tour operator inspiration make sure you check out Avital’s website featuring her incredible food tours in San Francisco, New York City, and Los Angeles!

Social media marketing expert and founder of Amore Social, Samantha Hardcastle, is a sucker for a great story. She understands the power storytelling has on consumers. In this post, she offers some tips on how to leverage your social media platforms and promote your experiences in a way that engages and connects with readers. The result if done correctly: more sales for your tour business! Hit 'em with the goods, Samantha! Storytelling has been a buzzword in marketing for as long as marketing has been around. And rightly so: stories transport us and make us feel like we’re actually part of the experience. A participant, rather than a spectator. What better way to engage with your customer than to pull them into your experience, the very thing you’re selling?Storytelling evokes strong emotions within your customer, creating a deeper, more profitable bond. Narratives cut through this noisy online world like nothing else. That’s why you should start looking at social platforms like Instagram and Facebook as a micro-blogging platform to tell stories (visual and written). Don’t just use them to promote your experience.“But if I’m not constantly selling on social, I won’t get any customers” – right? Wrong!First, 92% of consumers want brands to make ads feel like a story. By giving people what they want, you’re already way ahead of the competition who is spamming them with boring or unwanted messaging.Second, emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as “highly satisfied” customers. By taking the time to tell stories and create connections with people on social media, you create more lucrative relationships!Stories carve the quickest path to the heart and the mind. Storytelling comes naturally to most people (we often do it without even realizing!). But it sometimes can be hard to wrap your head around in terms of your business. The good news is, you can keep it simple - and still get results.This checklist will help guide you towards better storytelling on social. Not EVERY post has to follow this formula, but the more you do, the more you’ll see results.

This is your starting point. Now let’s dive in to some of the strategic details of storytelling, so you can get the most out of it!

Create Flow with Purpose

Like all good stories, make sure there is a clear beginning, middle, and end. There are so many storytelling formulas to follow, that it can be overwhelming. Take some time to familiarize with all of the different formulas, but don’t overthink it or you’ll never get a message out.For social media, I find it’s easiest to take each story through this framework, and then fill in the rest of the details after:The Feelings You Want Your Reader to Have:Since people are prone to putting themselves into the stories they hear, then where is this story taking them? Does it align with their wants & needs? First Sentence Hook:Capture their attention and let them know that there’s a story coming. Aha Moment, Turning Point, or Takeaway:This will ensure that your story is always going somewhere. Don’t just post to post! What is the purpose of this story? In the example below, you can see how this comes together. We wanted the reader to feel sentimental and nostalgic:

You know when the water sparkles so bright, you start to wonder if there’s a million diamonds underneath the surface? That’s how the water was today, and, well, we jumped in and looked around. No diamonds. 😞 But from the way our guests were laughing, singing, and splashing around in the water, you’d think they had found their own sort of treasure!Are you ready for a sparkling sail with us?

Takeaway: Our boat tour and the closeness/memories it delivers are priceless (and possibly worth more than an ocean full of diamonds). Experiences bring us closer, help us develop better relationships and memories, and are worth more than tangible things that won’t really bring you happiness.It’s important to note that the image you choose should tell a story in its own right, enough so that it encourages people to stop scrolling and start reading. If your image isn’t enticing enough, you’ll never get people to the point of reading.BONUS TIP: Messages delivered as stories can be up to 22x more memorable than just facts, so find a way to turn your facts into stories.

Communicate Shared Values

As the leader of your organization, you have values. Your organization has values. And your customers have values. When you can clearly tell stories about these values that your customers resonate with, you are leading them through your funnel, establishing that ever-important Know, Like, & Trust factor.What is your organization’s “why”? What statement are you making that people will nod their heads to? Tell stories that embody this, rather than making statements. Example:

Statement: we keep it local & sustainable!Story: Meanwhile, down the road at the orchard, thousands of apples were being hand-picked for our first batch of applejack…

Evoke Emotion

When you show (through your stories) that your experience can lead a customer to their desired “after” state by making them feel that way NOW, it instills a sense of confidence in them. It says to them “I can trust this tour/activity to give me what I am looking for.”How can you use stories to evoke emotion? Share sincerely, be vulnerable and tell stories that allow you to laugh at yourself. Paint a vivid picture. Don’t shy away from tales of struggle, failure, and overcoming barriers. This is what it means to be authentic in today’s modern marketing world.Magazines have been doing this for decades, and they have taken to social media to extend their emotional storytelling. Look to tourism and travel magazines for inspiration. The more stories you read and hear, the better storyteller you can become!

Don’t Forget the Call to Action

While storytelling is powerful, a Call to Action (CTA) gives it a serious boost. There’s nothing wrong with “asking for the sale” if you’ve delivered an immense amount of value through your storytelling. By the time you’ve ‘warmed up’ by storytelling, they will be eager to get in on your experience.The next step you want your customers to take should never be a mystery. Show them how your experience results in a happy ending, and then tell them how they can take the steps to get there.

Embody Your Story

Great stories surprise and delight people. They are unique, unexpected, and should challenge our perceptions of reality in some way. Just like your experience. Does your current experience have all the makings of a memorable story? With twists and turns and moments of wonder? Make sure every story you tell matches up with the experience you deliver. The most common cause of bad review and unhappy customers is unmet expectations. If your story is epic, your experience should be just as epic (if not more!).And there we have it! Perfecting the art of storytelling won’t happen overnight, and every single post won’t have a killer story behind it. But just getting into a storytelling mindset instead of a selling mindset makes all the difference.Start looking at social media marketing as storytelling instead of promotion. The more you understand people and the feelings they want, the more you’ll be able to create irresistible on and offline experiences that draw people in.Check out Samantha's website, Amore Social, for more great marketing tips and tricks and to find out more about Samantha's awesome services. Have you signed up for our SheTalks webinars yet? Register for live links and recordings here!

Tourism Tim Warren is no stranger to helping tourism businesses succeed. The founder of Adventure Business Consultants and host of top industry podcast Travel Business Success, Tim and his team have helped thousands of private and public sector tourism & hospitality businesses start, grow, scale and exit profitably. In this post, he lets us in on a few key tips to help capture the attention of your website visitors - and give your sales a boost in the process.“If only I had a better search ranking, or more traffic to my website, I would surely be booking more trips.”If you’re a tour or activity operator, I’m guessing this thought has crossed your mind on more than one occasion. It’s natural to think that if your website is more visible, your traffic will increase, and your bookings will rise.The problem? This is a mostly false perception. It’s not to say that these things can’t ever give your business a boost. The issue is, things can get real expensive real fast when dealing with search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing. And the worst part? Many operators are not earning many leads and those all-important conversions from this form of investment. Okay, so where’s the good news? What should you be doing instead? Well, since it often seems like only the great Google Gods know what’s next in terms of changes to their search engine algorithms, here’s my recommendation:Focus on learning about the Profitable Powers of Conversion.In this post, I’ll be laying out some core tourism marketing principles that will help you more than triple your leads and bookings. All without ANY increase in ranking or traffic. By understanding and applying the following ideas, your tourism marketing efforts will yield a better return on investment -- one that you are in control of.

The Profitable Powers of Sales Conversion

Here’s a sad tourism website marketing fact.You’re probably missing out on 97% or more of potential leads that visit your tour or activity website. A huge percentage of operators websites worldwide, including many I have consulted with, suffer from this problem.Not sure if this is true for you?Check out your website visitor stats with Google Analytics. Take a look at your “Bounce Rate”. This is the percentage of people who visited your site, and left in less than 10 seconds. If over 60% or higher of your web visitors are leaving in less than 10 seconds, how can you possibly convince them to book with you?So, you need more time to show your customers how great your experiences are. But you also need to make sure you’re making those first 5-10 seconds count when someone enters your website. Before we talk about how to do that, let’s take a look at the possible results from making small, simple changes to your bounce and conversion rates. These three realistic examples show what it can do to your bookings - and profits:Graphic #1 represents a tour operator with 1,000 monthly website visitors and $500 revenue per booking. Just by lowering the bounce rate from 70% to 50% and increasing sales conversions from a conservative 1% to 2%, increases bookings and revenues 333%. These small improvements that I am going to show you - that you can do too - are worth an extra US$42,000 a year in this example.

Let’s look at two more scenarios to show you how you can increase bookings up to 500%.Graphic #2 represents an average Peek tour operator or attraction with 5,000 monthly website visitors and $85 revenue per booking. Again, by lowering the bounce rate from 70% to 50% and increasing sales conversions from 1% to 2%, bookings increase 333% with $35,700 in additional revenues. Pretty nice!

Graphic #3 represents the same Peek tour operator or attraction with 5,000 website visitors monthly, $85 revenue per booking. Again, we lowered the website bounce rate from 70% to 50%. But in example #3, we increased sales conversions from 1% to a still pretty conservative 3%. This same operator now sees bookings increase by 500% and a revenue boost of $61,200. Sweet!

These examples show that lowering your bounce rate and increasing your sales conversions means more profits for you. And best of all, this can actually be done while lowering your marketing costs.All this could mean a 233% - 500% increase in your revenues with 2 simple website improvements.

Successful Tourism Marketing Establishes Trust & Credibility Fast

Ok, so what are some of the ways in which we can lower that bounce rate and increase conversions?Based on a Nielsen study on effective advertising with over 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries, the #1 reason why a stranger might stay engaged in your tourism website, and decide you may be a good choice and want to book is – trust.Establishing this trust is called “social proof.”Remember your bounce rate from above? Well, it means you have less than 7 seconds to establish trust and credibility – especially on your tourism website. This is one of the most important lessons I have learned in 25+ years of helping tourism, travel & hospitality companies worldwide increase bookings, profits and business value. When you can communicate trust effectively and quickly, you will generate more leads and sales. Guaranteed.I’ve found that a key part of establishing social proof revolves around what I like to call “Credibility Statements”.Some of the things you need to communicate fast are your:

• Years of experience
• Number of happy guests
• Any special recognition or awards you have received
• High social media review ranking and any celebrity endorsements

Let’s take a look at some examples: On this website, Alaska Fishing Lodges, they have managed to convey their depth of experience, satisfied customers and third-party ranking all at the top of their page. This helps to draw the visitor in and immediately gives them credibility.

Why not include some impressive stats too? Customers will feel more at ease - and more confident about booking - if they know that this is an area in which you’re experienced and established.

Don’t forget to also convey this through your Google “snippet” (or meta description), which you can edit through sites like Wordpress.

I have also created a free 25 point tourism website marketing checklist to help you build more social proof, lower bounce rate and increase bookings. This quick and easy self-assessment will show you how your tourism website scores, whether or not you currently have a “tourism website that sells”, and what you can do to improve it.

Tap Into the Psychological Triggers That Create a “Tourism Website That Sells”

To achieve a Tourism Website That Sells you must tap into travel shoppers’ psychological triggers around trust. Remember, a large percentage of your website visitors may be leaving your site fast. That means you need to establish trust and clarity in what you do – FAST.You need to show visitors a few key things within the first 7 seconds of them entering your website. Here are the “Big Three” that you should make clear in this time window:

1. You are experienced.
2. You provide quality service.
3. Their safety is your #1 concern.

Of course, there are a number of ways to boost conversions on your website. A powerful online booking system is also key - particularly one that uses these proven principles within their system.The good news is that these ideas work across all of your tourism marketing - the benefits extending way beyond your website. These are proven, powerful principles and should be used EVERYWHERE.They are guaranteed to help you communicate trust fast and convert more strangers into prospects (and prospects into bookings). The cool thing is, these tips are simple and easy to implement. When you fully understand and apply the power of social proof in your tourism marketing, magic happens.I would love to hear from you and find out how you have or will integrate “Social Proof” into your tourism marketing and how you scored on the marketing assessment. Want to hear more great tips from Tourism Tim? Check out the recording of his most recent webinar with Peek, where he gave even more tips on how to increase your leads and conversions.You can also check out his online course, Tourism Marketing Success, for even more great insight into your tourism business.