In this lesson
A one-page marketing plan with one audience, one offer and a realistic weekly commitment.
A busy marketing calendar is not the same as a healthy sales pipeline. If you sell everything to everyone, every post, article and advert becomes harder to write. Start by choosing the kind of booking you want more of, and the traveller you are best placed to help.
You do not need to be on every platform. You need a route that brings suitable people to a useful page, then gives them a reason to enquire. The channel recommendations below are practical starting points, not guarantees of results.
Before you start
Who this suits
Every travel business, especially small teams tempted to try everything at once.
Have these ready
- Your recent enquiries and bookings, if available
- An honest estimate of your weekly marketing time
- Your typical booking contribution after direct costs
One campaign, one clear route
Keep the traveller’s next step clear from discovery to booking.
- 01ChooseOne traveller and problem
- 02AttractOne main traffic route
- 03HelpOne useful landing page
- 04Follow upAn owned enquiry
- 05LearnBookings and contribution
What this looks like in practice
Read the example, then use the numbered notes to see why each part is there.
A completed plan for a small cruise specialist
Fictional working example — one audience, one connected campaign
FIRST-CRUISE CAMPAIGN
1Help first-time cruisers make their next decision
Our audience is first-time cruisers comparing cabins, ships and itineraries. Sam owns this four-hour weekly plan, with the guide at example.com/first-cruise and Facebook as its supporting channel.
Review customer questions and suitable enquiries. Choose the one cabin or departure question the guide should answer next.
Improve the first-cruise guide, check the facts and submit a test enquiry through its form.
Write one helpful Facebook post from the guide and test the available link route. Set aside time for replies.
Review enquiry quality and plan the next action. Add no paid spend until the page, tracking and follow-up work.
- 1Make the audience recognisable
The headline names the customer and the decision, so the team knows what the campaign should achieve.
- 2Fill in the working decisions
The plan identifies a page, a supporting channel, an owner and four scheduled hours. It is specific enough to put in the diary.
- 3Set a review action
A weekly enquiry review gives the work a practical follow-through. It does not promise a volume of bookings.
Ship photograph in Brazil by Charles Assuncao / Unsplash. Photograph is illustrative, not a specific advertised trip.
Your step-by-step guide
Choose one valuable audience
Review recent bookings and enquiries. Which customers were a good fit for your knowledge, suppliers and service? Look for a shared need rather than a broad age bracket. For a new business, speak to potential customers and use the questions they ask as your starting evidence. Write down the trip, the problem and the reason you are qualified to help. Keep personal customer information out of public marketing plans.
Travel example
Illustrative focus: first-time cruise travellers who want help choosing a ship, cabin and itinerary, rather than “anyone who likes holidays”.Make the offer specific
An offer can be helpful advice, a carefully chosen holiday, a consultation or a useful comparison. It does not have to be a discount. Describe what the traveller gets, what they need to provide and what happens next. Check that you can supply what you promise. If your campaign features a particular sailing or holiday price, confirm availability and the full price before promoting it.
Travel example
“Tell us your dates and preferred departure port. We will help you narrow down suitable first-cruise options.”Work backwards from what a booking is worth
Use the money left after supplier and other direct booking costs, not the holiday selling price. Then allow for advertising, overheads and the profit you need to retain. If the figures are uncertain, label them as assumptions and update them when bookings mature. A large sale with very little contribution cannot support the same acquisition cost as a profitable specialist itinerary.
Travel example
Illustrative calculation: £300 contribution before marketing × 20% enquiry-to-booking rate = £60 break-even cost per enquiry before overheads. A target of £30 leaves more room for overheads and profit. Neither rate is an industry benchmark.Choose one main route and one supporting route
Match the channel to the buying situation. Search pages and search adverts can reach people already researching a trip. Useful video and social content can introduce ideas earlier. Email can bring interested people back when you have valid permission. Partnerships can connect you to a relevant existing audience. Choose the main route you can maintain, then one supporting route that reuses the same topic. Avoid opening six new accounts in the same week.
Travel example
A cruise specialist might start with a first-cruise guide, one useful Facebook post each week and a suitable local partnership.Budget for staff time as well as media
Non-paid traffic means you are not paying for each placement or click. It can still require writing, filming, design, software and follow-up time. Put these hours in the diary. For paid traffic, separate advertising spend from creative work, management fees and tools. Decide the total amount you can afford to test before launching. A channel you cannot respond to or maintain is not ready to scale. If you are on Travelgenix Ignite, Luna Marketing is included free for all Ignite clients. Review that existing access before buying additional marketing software. Ask the Travelgenix team about the options available in your account and build your working routine around what you have.
Travel example
Illustrative weekly allocation: 90 minutes improving a guide, 45 minutes adapting it for social, 30 minutes reviewing results and protected time for enquiries.Write a decision rule before you start
Choose a review date and define what would make you continue, change or stop. Fix broken forms, wrong targeting and misleading offers immediately. Give longer-term search work a sensible review period, watching indexing and relevant search visibility before expecting a predictable booking stream. For paid tests, set a spending ceiling and a review point based on your own economics. Do not move that ceiling just because a platform recommends more budget.
Record a baseline
Write down what is happening now: relevant website visits, genuine enquiries, quotes, bookings and contribution. If tracking is missing, make that your first task. Record the period used and the source of each number. Check seasonality: a January campaign and a quiet autumn week may behave differently. Your first goal is to learn which route attracts suitable customers, then repeat what the evidence supports.
A focused first-cruise campaign
Illustrative planning example for a small independent agency.
The agency chooses first-time cruisers because its advisors know the product well. It creates one page answering the cabin, dining and departure questions that repeatedly delay enquiries. Its weekly social post, partner event and newsletter all link to that page. Paid search is held until the form, enquiry ownership and measurement have been tested.
Our audience: [specific travellers] Their main question: [decision they need help with] Our offer: [useful next step] Destination page: [URL] Main channel: [one route] Supporting channel: [one route] Weekly time: [hours] Maximum test spend: [£] A qualified enquiry means: [criteria] Review date and decision rule: [date + keep/change/stop conditions]
Your action checklist
Ticked items are saved in this browser. Download your checklist to keep a separate copy.
Avoid these common mistakes
- Choosing a platform because a competitor uses it: check whether your customers and team suit it.
- Calling non-paid marketing free: count the hours and tools.
- Promising bookings before measuring your own results: start with a test.
Measure what matters
Qualified enquiries
Count genuine requests that fit your product, service area and realistic trip requirements.
Cost per qualified enquiry
Divide the agreed campaign costs by qualified enquiries from that campaign, using a consistent definition.
Contribution after marketing
Subtract campaign costs from the contribution of resulting bookings; allow time for the enquiries to convert.
Sources and updates
Reviewed 20 October 2026. These official resources support the platform and policy guidance in this lesson. Worked examples illustrate the method; they are not promises of results.