Why a Marketing Agency Can’t Guarantee Bookings – The Digital Tourism Show #217

Why a Marketing Agency Can’t Guarantee Bookings – The Digital Tourism Show #217

Chris debunks some myths and tells some home truths about working with a marketing agency.

Some of you may be wondering why I’ve written this article. As the owner of a tourism marketing agency, and as someone who has worked in the industry for 26 years, you may think this is business suicide. Personally, I think that what I am about to disclose needs to be said. There is often very little open discussion about using marketing agencies and many tour operators and suppliers are regularly misled about what they can expect when working with an agency. I want to cut through the silence and offer my [admittedly biased] perspective on the situation. This blog is relevant to anyone working in the tour and activity industry, but it’s particularly relevant to anyone considering entering into a relationship with a new agency.

So, why can’t a marketing agency guarantee you bookings?

Well, it’s simple… a marketing agency has no control over your sales team, which booking system you use, or how well you run and manage your tours. In some instances, a marketing agency has little to do with the purchase journey of your website. Even your marketing budget plays a part. But even with all this, agencies do get the flack when things go wrong and no bookings come in.

A marketing agency’s job is to help promote your business to the right audience, providing a tour company with more sales opportunities. Agencies like mine are there to provide you with leads… not sales. As a byproduct of these leads yes, you will of course gain sales and bookings from it, which is great, but that is ultimately up to your own sales processes. Although a marketing agency can help you create processes and materials to make your sales process better, ultimately it is down to how you interact with your customers.

There are many reasons why a visitor to your website might not convert: the booking platform you use may be slow, clunky or it may not work on mobile properly. You can’t expect to get many bookings if it is hard for your customers to buy from you. Reviews are also another huge factor. We have had businesses approach us looking for an increase in bookings but their reviews are so bad that no one would consider buying from them. What they really need is a brand reputation management strategy and a business coach to help them improve their customer service. A digital marketing agency can do its best SEO and PPC work on a company like this, but it’s unlikely to become truly successful without high-quality reviews — this is just the way tours and activities work.

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