8 Last-Minute Black Friday Marketing Strategies For Travel Businesses

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the most recognized shopping days of the year, and they’re just around the corner. Although they are hugely popular in retail, the travel industry has been increasingly active in marketing opportunities in the space too.

If you’re looking for ways to boost sales for your travel business, it can be worthwhile participating in these sale days. After all, Black Friday is anticipated to be the busiest shopping date of the year. 

For quick-fire ideas to reach your market, we’ve put together a list of Black Friday marketing strategies for travel businesses. 

Of course, you can extend these to Cyber Monday and the holidays in general as we enter the season. 

Black Friday Marketing Strategies For Travel Businesses

1. Position Offers Prominently On Your Website and Social Channels

Ensure that your audience has every opportunity to find out about your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Highlight the upcoming dates on your website and social media so that travelers are aware you are participating. 

It’s worth creating additional landing pages or social posts specifically for these so that the information is at the fore for anyone who looks you up online.

2. Create Attention-Grabbing Website Pop-Ups 

Website popups can be used for many purposes. Typically, you will see them used to collect email addresses and build email lists, reduce page and cart abandonment, and encourage some sort of call to action. 

When looking at Black Friday marketing strategies, you can place strategic pop-ups on your website and booking pages to create a sense of urgency and guide travelers to take specific actions. This could be to make a booking, go back to their shopping basket, or continue with checkout. 

You can also design the pop-ups to offer alternative booking dates and destinations, with a discount offer or Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale attached to them.

As a rule of thumb, pop-ups should be to the point and easy to read. Use a color palette that makes them stand out on your site and place them sparingly. Too many can become intrusive and annoying for the person browsing your site. 

3. Package In Extra Travel Benefits and Perks

Generally speaking, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are associated with discounted prices. However, an idea to catch travelers’ attention and get eyes on your product could be to add extra benefits to your offering. This adds value to your clients without forcing you to lower sometimes already tight margins.

By way of example, if you sell accommodation, you could offer free date changes. On tour packages, you could incentivize with a free activity for people who sign up a friend.

4. Add Your Own Meaning To The Idea Of Black Friday

It’s easy to get caught up in the competitiveness of this sales day and disappear into the sea of businesses vying for travelers’ attention. 

One way to truly stand out is to create your own meaning of the occasion and align it to your business values. 

For example, if you support eco-friendly initiatives, you can rename Cyber Monday to "Climate Monday". You can let your clients know that for every purchase made, you will donate a percentage of the profits to organizations working to combat climate change.

Once you have worked out how to align your business values with a catchy sales strategy, draw up a memorable marketing campaign to action on email or social media. 

5. Collaborate With Other Businesses

The saying goes: if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. 

What we’re getting at is, partnering with other businesses can prove to be an effective Black Friday marketing strategy. Together, you can package up a completely unique product that offers unbeatable value to travelers.  

Start by identifying companies that you already have relationships with. Reach out to find out if they’d be interested in working together. You could discuss putting out a limited edition travel package that includes elements from all of your offerings, and then market it within your relative networks. 

Naturally, this gives you greater reach as you put the package in front of each of your audiences.

6. Extend Your Sale Dates

You can extend your Black Friday sale beyond just the day to run before or after too. This will give your clients more opportunities to take advantage of your offering. 

An idea is to add an element of exclusivity to this, and only offer the extended sale to people who sign up. This way, you can build your email list at the same time. 

7. Lean In On The Element Of Surprise 

In the days leading up to your sale, do not reveal the complete details of the upcoming deals in your promotional material. 

Instead, drop hints and leave clues as to what your audience might expect. Let people know that you’re taking part in the day, and they can expect something exciting, giving them just enough information to pique their interest.

As you get closer to the sale date, keep dropping hints and building momentum so that interest stays high. Mystery and surprise are effective marketing strategies when applied correctly.

8. Streamline Your Booking Process

The final step is to ensure that travelers go through with booking their deals and are not met by a complicated reservations system. For this, we recommend signing up for a widely used and trusted booking and payment platform like WeTravel. 

Final Thoughts 

When planning your deals and Black Friday marketing strategy, think out the box to reach your clients in a unique and relatable way. 

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