7 Best ways for trekking agencies to utilize your off-season months

So the trekking peak seasons are coming to end, and like usual many of you are now thinking about how to spend the off-season months. We met a few of my clients with the same concerns. During these meetings, we came up with some interesting ideas on how to utilize the free time to work more effectively on your trekking websites and social media.

We have listed some of these ideas below.

1. Use of videos

Believe our words for this; videos are the next big thing on the trekking industry in Nepal. And it’s still completely new here. You have the opportunity to be one of the first-movers in this field.
There are many ways you can use videos for marketing:
– Vlogging (Video blogging)
– Use of small video clips in homepage or every package details in your website
– Collaborate with travel-bloggers to create awesome video content.

2. Blogging and Newsletter

we know you have been thinking a lot to start, or continue writing or assigning the blog posts to your content writer regularly throughout the year, but you cannot give enough time during the peak season months.

So we suggest you create as many blog posts as possible during these 3 months before next season. Which you can even schedule to be auto-posted during the season when you are busy.

Also how about starting a monthly newsletter with selected blog posts, travel news, your company happenings or anything witty and interesting.

3. Mini sites / Landing pages

Mini sites or landing pages for specific packages are one of many easy marketing ideas that no company in Nepal has done yet. So why not be one of the first few now?

Mini sites or landing pages are pages inside your website but the design is slightly different from the rest of the pages of your website. The design should be customized based on the content. For example, mini-sites can be created for:
– top 10 recommended trekking packages for 2018
– 5 variations of Everest base camp trek
– 5 popular Annapurna region treks
– 10 popular treks around Annapurna and Everest
– etc.

Or create a landing page specifically dedicated to only one region and include a piece of comprehensive detail information.
– Everest base camp trek
– Annapurna base camp trek
– Annapurna sanctuary trek
– Soft adventure in Nepal
– etc.

4. Showcase the trips you operated last season

Make a collection of photographs, videos, statistics, testimonials and other interesting events of all the trips you operated during the recent season. Create a large blog post with all of these details. Or you can even create a new section on the website called “Season updates” with subpages like “Update Sep-Nov 2017 / Update Mar-May 2017” etc. Or create a slideshow presentation. There are many ways to showcase them on your website.

This will help you to create real authentic and updated content on your website. Which will make your website lively and not outdated. This will also display that you are a real genuine company with happy clients.

5. Analyze the data and take actions accordingly

Check and analyze data; not only from your company but also from the complete trekking industry.

Analyze the important data like how many tourists have arrived in Nepal this last season, which nationality is increasing, People from which countries are doing more of which kind of holiday packages, which countries are decreasing, what are the price ranges, what new activities/packages are most popular, etc.

So that you can plan/experiment promoting your specific packages to specific audiences. Or you may find many interesting facts that you have never thought of.

For example, if many people age 20-25 from Australia are coming to Nepal of rafting, then you can focus on promoting rafting packages in the Australian youth audience.

6. Redesign/update your website

This is the time when you must work on your website. We’re not saying you should completely redesign your website every season. But here are some of the things you must AT LEAST do on your existing website:
– Add blog content.
– Replace old images/banners with fresh new ones.
– Check and update popular trekking packages. There is always something you can improvise, like add more information in detail day-to-day itinerary or add new add-on/extensions on existing trekking itinerary.
– Basic SEO optimizations.
– Check mobile versions.
– Redesign only the package-detail section
– Add/remove/edit the sections of the homepage, by analyzing the importance and usabilities.
– Or have a meeting with your webmaster to discuss the performance of the website.

7. Use social media more efficiently

Research and find out different ideas on how to handle your social media. What kind of different and engaging posts can you post on Facebook, Instagram, youtube, e-newsletter, etc? Study a bit or consult digital marketing experts. There are a lot of resources on the internet on how to use social media more effectively to help your business. Maybe start spending few hours of your week researching on this, because trust us, we haven’t seen any trekking agency using the full potential of social media’s power on creating a brand, engaging customers and converting sales.

It is so happy to know that finally there are also clients who are now more interested in investing in digital marketing campaigns rather than the traditional SEO campaigns

So all we want to say to you rising travel business owners is that, Don’t just follow what others are doing. Start researching what new marketing strategies you can work on. Because there are so many effective marketing methods that are not even started in Nepal. If you focus on right kind of online marketing strategies, you might be easily become one of the leader organizations in the industry.

If you want to discuss more on this, please feel free to contact us at
https://mokshastudio.com/contact-us