Want to understand how to market a tour company effectively?
Connecting bike tour operators with cyclists looking for holidays is an essential part of what we do here at Epic Road Rides. However, once we’ve sent cyclists to you, how do you make sure they convert into valued guests? This needs you to have the right customer experience and marketing strategies in place.
Having worked with many bike tour operators over the years, we’ve rounded up the things we see our best performing clients offering cyclists as part of their marketing plans.
Read on to discover the most powerful tools you can use to enhance customer experience and increase your bookings.
How to market a tour company: Who are you?
1. Communicate your “why” and create USPs
The tourism industry is a crowded market, so it’s important it’s obvious who you are and what sets you apart from the competition
Why should a cyclist book with you? What makes you better than your competitors? It’s really important that you draw this out and help cyclists understand why you’re the people to trust their holiday to.
Do you have a unique story, or a unique reason for being that is relevant to the products you offer? Don’t be afraid to share it! This purpose for existence provides a strong emotional connection with potential new customers and helps to foster brand loyalty.
Crafting selling propositions that align with what you stand for help to deepen these connections and clearly communicates what you offer cyclists from the outset.
Top tip! Develop a consistent brand voice that you use across all your key channels, to help reinforce your USPs.
Example
SloWays specialise in self guided tours of the Via Francigena. Their ‘Why SloWays’ section is prominent on the homepage beneath the search bar, reinforcing their experience and expertise early on. This section links to a dedicated landing page which unpacks their key USPs.
2. Know your target market
Having a deep understanding of who your cycling holidays are designed for is essential
You don’t have to be a marketing expert to build out a detailed profile of your perfect customer. Simply talking to your guests, and understanding their values and motivations, will provide a huge amount of useful information.
Mapping out what you know about your guests can help you align your marketing offering and provide essential insight into new markets you may want to break into.
Top tip! Consider things like a cyclist’s goals and motivations, as well as their pain points. A road cyclist’s goals are much more likely to be fitness and challenge orientated compared with a more leisurely cyclist who is looking for a gentle holiday with plenty of sightseeing. What kind of content or landing pages could you create to help them tackle these pain points?
Example
France Bike Trips clearly identify the types of cycling they offer on their homepage and have created dedicated landing pages for these key target audiences, including MTB, backroad/ leisure cyclists and road. Each section comes with tailored imagery and information designed to appeal to these customers.
3. Optimise your website for the best user experience
Regularly reviewing your content is an important step to factor into your planning
Put yourself in the shoes of someone that knows nothing about you or what you offer.
Is the information on your site accurate and trustworthy? Is it descriptive enough? Does it answer a potential client’s questions? Is it easily navigable?
Visual elements can really lift pages with lots of detail. Maps are particularly engaging for cyclists and help to easily illustrate cycling routes. You can provide further inspiration and help encourage conversions by providing high quality images and videos that showcase your holidays.
Typos and grammatical errors can do a lot of damage to your credibility. Thoroughly proofread your webpages, especially ahead of any new promotions that could drive increased traffic to them.
Top tip! Consider how easy the information is to navigate and book. Take steps to make your customers’ lives easy. Digestible information that is easy to scroll can encourage a user to stay on the page longer, whilst a slick booking process will help to secure those all important sales. Don’t forget to consider how pages look on mobile devices, as well as desktop.
Example
Bike Tour Japan have highly visual and easy to navigate holiday pages that are both inspiring and detail rich. These pages include graphics, photo galleries and useful maps showing the trip routes and daily elevations. The written content is easy to digest and has clear buttons to encourage conversion.
How will you reach your target customers?
4. Choose your marketing channels and create a plan
For small businesses, focusing on one or two key channels will enable you to deliver your goals more effectively
Did you know it takes an average consumer around 30 touch points to decide to buy a holiday?!
This means it’s important to provide potential customers a presence across multiple platforms. However, if you’re a small business, it’s not realistic to be able to personally maintain a high quality presence on multiple channels simultaneously. So think about where your ideal customers hang out and focus your efforts there; also consider how you can gain presence in ways you don’t have to maintain yourself (i.e. press and media like Epic Road Rides!).
Once you have identified which channels you want to focus on (more on this below), make a plan to help you break down the tasks will enable you to structure your deliverables.
Regularly review your strategies and goals, taking time to check any data you have captured on platforms like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Double down on what’s working and adjust what’s not.
5. Identify your key terms and optimise your website for these
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is how you make your website visible online in SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages)
One of the key purposes of on page SEO is to enable your webpages to rank for the words and phrases cyclists use when researching a holiday. This, in turn, drives free, organic traffic.
Mapping out what your key terms are will be determined by what cycling holidays you offer and topics that your target audience may be searching for, for example ‘cycling holidays in Italy’, or ‘cycling in Mallorca’.
Top tip! You can use free tools like Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to identify potential terms and understand their average monthly search volume potential (the higher the volume the more likely they are to drive traffic, if they rank).
Be aware! Some key terms are extremely competitive and merely optimising pages for them won’t necessarily make you rank for that term. There are many other elements to SEO that need to be considered in all content, including technical SEO (how well your website is crawled and indexed) and off-page SEO (valuable backlinks to your page from other websites).
More information
This is a complex, multi faceted marketing strategy that can feel daunting to those with little previous experience in SEO. The good news is we specialise in developing SEO optimised articles for cycling tour operators as part of our services. More on that below.
6. Leverage social media marketing
Social media’s potential to reach cyclists is huge; it’s a great way to build brand awareness
Social media can provide you with increased brand recognition and brand loyalty. It can also be an excellent way to drive new traffic to your website. But managing social media channels is time consuming. What’s the trick to growing these channels and developing engaging content?
It may be no surprise that short form videos is a good place to start. Increasingly, it’s one of the top forms of marketing used and growing, according to the 2024 HubSpot State of Marketing Report. Our experience shows is that these posts typically tend to get greater reach than our static photo posts.
Social media also plays a crucial role in building relationships with your online community. Don’t forget to respond to any messages and think about how you word posts so that they encourage user engagement. Questions are always a good option.
Top tip! Don’t feel the need to produce highly polished content. Increasingly users on this platform are craving real and authentic content that is more relatable and helpful. Why not post a behind the scenes clip of one of your tours? Or share some expert tips?
Example
Elite Cycling training holidays have been developing fun reels using an Insta360 camera. These short videos provide immersive content that’s both fun and inspiring. We think they really bring the Costa Blanca cycling routes and scenery to life!
7. Invest in advertising
Investing in advertising can drive valuable conversions
Advertising comes in many forms, so here’s a quick breakdown for those unfamiliar…
PPC
PPS (or Pay-Per-Click) is where you pay to feature in Google search, drawing your site through to the top of search engine results pages. You pay every time a user clicks on your advert.
This is a popular form of digital advertising that enables you to target specific key terms and tailor the demographic to suit your target audience insights. It’s an effective way to quickly attract new customers to your website. These users are also typically ‘warmer’ and sit further down the funnel and closer to the point of purchase, so are more likely to convert.
The more competitive a term is, the more you pay per click. And this is the downside of PPC, as PPC advertising spend can be huge and dominated by the larger companies with a larger budget. This means it can be too expensive for tour operators with small budgets.
Social advertising
Social advertising refers to advertising on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. As with PPC, you can target specific demographics and interests. This makes social advertising a great way to increase brand awareness in front of a wider audience.
Advertising on social media is typically less expensive than PPC, but bear in mind you are reaching potential customers who are further up the funnel and therefore less likely to convert right away.
Adverts can be highly visual, featuring images and videos – so this is a great way to inspire audiences with some of your best content!
Digital PR
This form of advertising involves working with trusted external sources to promote your holidays for you.
Popular outlets in the travel industry include National Press and specialist magazines or websites (like us!) who already have access to a large number of your target audience.
PR provides visibility on popular platforms and when done digitally can drive measurable traffic to your website that you can then convert into bookings. The advantage of this over PPC is that it’s available for the long term and the pricing doesn’t fluctuate with demand. Just make sure you choose an organisation that is willing to bespoke your campaign, as well as optimise and track performance (which is what we do).
Trade shows
Trade shows are a good option for tour operators who want to reach the perfect guest in person, rather than digitally. However, trade shows can be expensive to attend and exhibit at (remember the cost of preparation and time out of the office, not just the fee for your booth!).
Before committing, it’s worth doing your research to find the best options to suit your business needs and goals.
How to get your target customers to buy from you?
8. Be responsive
If a potential client gets in touch (or is referred to you) answer their questions quickly and thoroughly
It sounds obvious, but not replying promptly or not answering questions fully, can really undermine a potential guest’s trust in you. It’s an obvious point, but it’s surprising how many times we see operators not replying the same working day, or even within 24 hours, to referrals we send them by email.
Being responsive when a client emails you is essential for building trust and maintaining strong relationships. Quick replies show that you value their time and concerns, and this can increase their confidence in your professionalism.
In a competitive market, responsiveness can set you apart by demonstrating your commitment and reliability. One operator told us that his guest told him they had sought six quotes before deciding to proceed with him! You can’t afford to be anything other than absolutely responsive and helpful.
9. Showcase customer reviews
Don’t underestimate the power of reviews!
There’s no better marketing for tour operators than real, honest feedback from previous customers.
Reviews can have a hugely influential impact on a user’s buying decision. How many times have you been swayed to buy an item (or not) based on feedback left by others who have tried and tested before you?
Not only do reviews provide trust and credibility to new customers, they also give you some great user generated content to promote on multiple channels, including the website and social media.
Top tip! Alongside collecting your own customer testimonials, you could consider encouraging guests to leave feedback on third party review platforms, such as Trip Advisor and Trust Pilot.
Example
Like many tour operators, Ride and Seek host some of their best guest testimonials prominently on their homepage as well as on trip pages. They also have a dedicated page ‘what our guests say’ that pulls all their reviews together at a glance, each accompanied by guest images. This provides a real sense of community and trust.
10. Use email marketing campaigns effectively
Email newsletters are a great way to regularly communicate to your engaged users
This is a good channel to warm up hotter leads and drive traffic to your key products and pages. Emails can cover a range of topics including sharing your upcoming cycling holidays, travel trends and any new offers.
Be aware! You only need to look at your inbox to see how many emails get sent each day. This is a popular form of marketing, so make sure you spend time crafting subject lines that stand out and include valuable content. This will help keep your open rate high and encourage more cyclists to your site.
Top tip! Consider a pop up on your website to easily highlight to your users that you use this channel. It’s a good way to quickly grow your database.
Example
Saddle Skedaddle have an email sign up pop up on their website that’s visually striking and simple to use. They segment their emails dependent on what sort of cycling you are interested in and send monthly ‘guaranteed departures’ emails to clearly highlight their last minute cycling holidays, creating a sense of urgency to book.
11. Special offers
Promotions and exclusive discounts have a number of benefits
The benefits of special offers include enticing first time customers to book, fostering brand loyalty with existing customers and creating a sense of urgency during key booking times.
Be aware! Be transparent and clearly communicate the terms and conditions of any offers. This will avoid any misunderstandings.
Top tip! You should be careful not to let your potential clients think you always offer sales so that they hold out for one. Working with a third party such as us can be one way to share offers and avoid this.
Example
Chile Rides worked with us on an article to host an exclusive offer for new customers who book their cycling services. This is only featured within the article hosted on our website.
12. Get someone else talking about you: work with us!
We’ll help you to reach more cyclists who want to travel by bike
Do you feel like you’re not reaching your perfect audience of engaged travel-loving cyclists?
Do you need to drive more bookings?
Let us help you.
Here at Epic Road Rides, we work with tour operators to develop detail rich articles that promote your cycling holidays and services.
These articles are thoroughly SEO optimised for key terms that have a proven track record of ranking in organic Google search. This means you’re able to get visibility at the top of the organic search results, driving visibility for your brand. The articles are also found by cyclists browsing our site, thanks to our thorough internal-linking strategy.
Within the article we create with you, we link to your site and regularly see 20% click-through rates to client sites. This strategy means we can send you a constant flow of qualified leads.
We also promote our content via our social media platforms and email, further extending the reach potential.
In short, we help you to share your holidays with a wider audience of cyclists that are actively planning to explore the world by bike.
Example
Take a look at some of the articles we’ve worked on with clients featured above:
- Guide to the Via Francigena cycle route with SloWays
- Shimanami Kaido cycling route with Bike Tour Japan
- Cycling the Route Des Grandes Alpes with France Bike Trips
- Q&A with EliteCycling
- Cycling the Camino de Santiago with Saddle Skedaddle
- Cycling in Chile with Chile Rides
More information
Need more information? Find out more on our work with us page.
Next steps…
We hope you’ve found this article useful to better understand key marketing strategies for tour operators.
Are you a bike tour operator and looking to boost your marketing efforts? Get in touch! We’re here to help you enhance your digital marketing activities, reach more cyclists and improve your conversion rates.
The contents of this website are provided for general information purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on it. You should carry out your own due diligence and risk assessments and take professional advice. Views expressed by interviewees or other users of this website do not necessarily represent our views. We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our website is accurate, complete or up to date. If you use any information or content on this website, download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through our website, it is entirely at your own discretion and risk. Epic Road Rides Ltd disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the information and content on this website. Find out more here.
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