Updated November 20, 2024
So, you’ve got the scoop on why building a travel agency email list is a must-do (if not, check out this post to catch up). Now it’s time for the fun part: how to actually do it!
Don’t worry, it doesn’t require a degree in marketing or hours of hair-pulling frustration.
In fact, it can be surprisingly simple with the right tools!
Grab your coffee (or cocktail) and let’s dive into the four essentials to kickstart your email marketing journey - without breaking a sweat.
1) An email marketing platform
An email marketing platform makes it easy to send emails to all or part of your email list. These services allow you to schedule your emails in advance, which helps with consistency, and should also allow you to tag or segment your subscriber list as you see appropriate.
There are plenty of options out there, from free to expensive. Our personal favorite is Kit (formerly ConvertKit). It’s what we use and what we recommend to travel agents and travel advisors who don’t currently use an email marketing service.
Other popular services include Flodesk, MailChimp, and ActiveCampaign, among others.
Whichever service you choose, make sure they are intuitive to you. It should be easy for you to create and send emails to your mailing list, manage your subscribers, and review data and analytics to see what’s working and what’s not.
In reality, if sending email through a marketing provider is a struggle, you won’t keep doing it. Take advantage of free trials that are offered by different services. An email marketing platform recommended by one travel agent as “the best thing since sliced bread” may not be the one that works for you to manage your travel agent mailing list.
Whatever you do, DON’T send your emails from your regular email account using the “bcc” line. That’s an easy way to get them marked as spam, and it will negatively impact the overall deliverability of all the email you send. If budget is an issue, use a provider that has a free plan and then upgrade when you’re able.
Just starting out? Kit has a free plan that lets you send email newsletters to up to 10,000 subscribers for free. It includes one basic automation (e.g. tags your subscribers and starts an email sequence) and one email sequence. And it includes unlimited landing pages, opt-in forms and email broadcasts.
Don’t worry, a marketing degree isn’t required! If this is all new to you, Kit has an amazing help site with step-by-step walkthroughs.
2) Permission
You must have people’s permission to send marketing emails to them. Spamming people is actually illegal, and can have negative repercussions for your business. At a minimum it will negatively impact your sender reputation and email deliverability.
Beyond that, you can find yourself running up against laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM, which you certainly don’t want to do.
Don’t purchase a travel agency email list thinking it's a shortcut to building your list. A good mailing list is never for sale. Since you haven’t asked the people on the mailing list for permission to email them, it's considered spam. All of those email addresses suddenly are no good and you've wasted money buying them.
Email marketing services have specific language in their terms and conditions to prohibit the use of purchased lists. If you use a purchased list, you’re in violation of those terms and your email marketing provider can close your account.
3) A website or landing page
You’ll need someplace for people to go to sign up for your email list. Whether it’s an embedded form or a pop-up on your website or a specific landing page, it has to live somewhere.
You can share your lead generator or opt-in on social media as another way to capture email addresses. Check out this post if you want to create your first lead generator.
Even if the majority of your volume is coming from social media, you need a place to send them to capture email addresses and get them added to your email database (i.e. your email marketing platform).
One of the things we like about Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is that you can create both forms and landing pages within your Kit account. If you have a custom website, you can integrate Kit forms into it. If you don’t have a full website yet, you can use a landing page or form while you get your website up and running.
4) An opt-in or lead generator
Someone who gives you their email address is giving you something valuable. They’re giving you direct access to their time and attention, and you need something to offer them in exchange.
Whether you call it a freebie, an opt-in, a lead gen, or something else, they all serve the same purpose. They provide something of value for a new subscriber who joins your mailing list.
You’ll want to make sure that your lead generator is something your ideal client will want. It can be a PDF download, like a guide to a specific location or a packing list. If you’ve been writing blogs or articles for a while and there’s one that resonated well with your audience, you can reformat it into a PDF and offer that.
Quizzes also make excellent opt-ins. Things like “Where to go for your next vacation” or “Discover your travel personality”. The quiz provides customized results based on their answers.
The important thing with quizzes is to make sure they’re short (4-7 questions) and entertaining or informative. The results should make sense based on their answers to the questions you ask.
Creating Content to Send to Your Travel Agency Email List
Now you may be thinking “Ok, I get that having a travel agent email list is important, but I don’t have time to send emails!”
Don’t worry, creating content to send to your travel agency mailing list doesn’t have to be time consuming! Here are 4 easy ways to generate ideas and actually write content that keeps your subscribers engaged.
1) Tap Into Your Travel Stories
You’re in the travel business! If you travel at all, you’ve got stories for days. Share the time you got lost in a busy market, discovered a great restaurant, or witnessed an amazing sunset. Your readers love hearing about your personal experiences. Weaving your stories into your content makes them feel connected to you.
Not a fan of storytelling? Share quick travel tips, packing hacks, new travel industry trends, or the top things to do in a specific destination. Your inbox goldmine is already in your memory bank. You just need to tap it!
2) Join a Membership
Memberships like content clubs or travel advisor networks often provide pre-written newsletters, destination guides, or promotional emails. They may even offer an email template to use when sending email marketing.
Full disclosure, I’m not a huge fan of memberships that provide generic content for you to sent to your travel agencies email list. They don’t know you, and they don’t know your clients. It’s easy to copy and paste verbatim content, but it likely won’t connect with your audience.
That said, content memberships can be great IF you personalize and tweak them to reflect your voice and brand. As long as you personalize them, and the content you’re receiving is actually good content (unfortunately many of them aren’t), then you have polished, professional emails without breaking a sweat. Work smarter, not harder, right?
3) Use AI to Help You Write
Notice I said help you write not write for you!
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can be like having a brainstorming buddy on speed dial. Stuck for ideas? Ask AI to come up with topics like “5 Dream Destinations for Foodies” or “The Ultimate Guide for Winter Escapes”.
Need help drafting? AI can create a first draft of that email about summer travel faster than you can say “vacation”. The more you can tell AI about what you’re looking for, the better results you’ll get.
Does your writing feel sluggish and slow? Feel like you need to go back to High School English? You’re probably using passive voice. You can ask AI to re-write your copy using active voice if you’re struggling.
Is AI generating really long, formulaic responses for you? Specify the number of sections you want and if it should include an introductory paragraph. The sky’s the limit on what you can ask.
But here’s the catch. Your audience doesn't want to hear from AI. They want to hear from YOU!
AI is a great tool to help brainstorm or write a first draft. It’s not a substitute for writing in your own voice for your specific audience. AI can be a fantastic time saver, but it’s not a replacement for doing the work.
4) Poll Your Audience for Inspiration
Why not ask your subscribers what they want to hear about? This doesn’t work as well if you have a super small audience. But if you have a bigger following on social media, using a simple Instagram poll in your stories could give you some great insight.
You don't need to create a massive email marketing campaign or a series of nurture emails to generate interest in your content. In fact, broadcast emails (i.e. not part of an email campaign) often will do better with your subscribers because the content is fresh and new.
When you know what your audience craves, creating content becomes a whole lot easier. Your emails become something they genuinely look forward to opening!
The bottom line
Building an email list isn’t difficult, but it does take time. The most frequent thing I hear from people who have waited to start building their list is “I wish I’d started sooner.”
While it can feel like one more thing you have to do, an email list will serve your business and is well worth the time and effort it takes to build and nurture it.
With these simple strategies, you’ll never be stuck starting a blank screen, wondering what to send to your list.
Start small, keep it fun, and remember - engaged readers can become loyal clients!
Comments