This is a guest post written by Danielle Aniceto from Musement, one of our distribution partners based in Italy.
Reaching a new audience is no easy feat, especially when there are language barriers and cultural differences that good ol’ Google Translate cannot help with. This is where working with an online travel agent can give your company the edge it needs to successfully break into a new market… especially when they have a strong presence in the market you’re interested in.
Musement is a good example of this. We’re a travel company with the goal of becoming the ultimate travel companion, allowing travellers to book tickets for activities, iconic attractions and events worldwide.
With our headquarters in Milan, we maintain a strong presence in the Italian market, making us the perfect online marketplace for businesses to partner with if you’re interested in expanding into Southern Europe.
For companies who want to diversify their distribution channels by partnering with marketplaces like us, here are some tips we’ve learnt over the years
1. Who do you want to reach?
First and foremost, who do you want to sell your tours and activities to? And does the marketplace you want to work with help you reach those people?
For us, we believe our greatest asset is our ability to connect with a wide audience because of our genuine understanding of what modern travellers want. We’re then able to translate this knowledge into practical marketing efforts that will draw in the right customers for your products.
However, there needs to be an alignment between the customers we attract and the customers you hope to attract through our marketplace. Understanding the exact audience you want to reach ensures that both our expectations are aligned and that we’re providing your marketing team with the right assistance.
2. Who is your largest customer base?
Having insight into who currently uses your services provides you with crucial insight into the type of customers your brand actively attracts. Ask yourself, who is currently benefiting from using your service and what keeps them coming back for more?
For example, here at Musement we understand that there are many different traveller personas and each group comes with their own product preferences, such as families with young children, adventurous couples, singles or retirees. Each of these groups have different expectations from their travel experience and we strive to make those a reality.
Sharing this information is crucial when working with a marketplace as it gives us a better idea of how to position your products in our promotional efforts.
Download your free checklist to understand your customers better to deliver a stellar experience.
3. Adjust your tours and activities
After identifying the audience you want to reach and who your current customers are, you may want to consider adjusting your trip schedules and expanding your language availability. Can your new customers easily gain access to your products? Are they available in the correct language? Are you offering enough time slots for your products? Are the time slots convenient for your customers? If not, what changes need to be made to make your service more accessible?
To reach your target audience, you want to work with a platform that provides responsive services and flexible booking times in a variety of languages. You should also consider changing your product description and pictures of your trips to appeal to your specific audience. For example, when striving to reach a younger audience, your content should be written to reflect younger interests through a youthful voice.
Here’s an example of how your partnership with Musement would look like:
Imagine you’re a Spanish food tour provider based in Barcelona and you want to increase the number of Italians booking your tours.
When working with us, we automatically translate your product listings into Italian and our SEO team will work hard to make sure that your trips are visible on search engines. Should an Italian customer require further assistance, our Italian speaking customer care team will be there to help.
You can also share insights about your current customer base and we’d be more than happy to work with your marketing team to tweak the content and images of your product listings to attract more of these customers.
This takes us to the third step, adjusting your offer to attract an Italian audience. You could consider offering your most popular tours in Italian and also increase the tours available on weekends to appeal to a market that loves weekend getaways.
Connecting with Musement is really easy
With TrekkSoft's booking system, use our Channel Manager to seamlessly connect your inventory with online marketplaces like Musement and many more. Once you're set up, sync your availabilities across all your sales channels and link you front office with you back office so that everyone in your team is always updated.
Read more: An in-depth guide to our channel manager and how you can connect to online marketplaces
Learn more about the different marketplaces available today!
*Note: TrekkSoft does not have any influence over a marketplace's decision to accept or reject a supplier. We only offer an online solution to help you streamline and manage your bookings from multiple channels.
