We suddenly find ourselves in strange and incomprehensible times. The industry we love is one of those hardest hit by the pandemic, and people, who today might have been flying to a conference or convention, enjoying a family vacation, or planning their next one, instead face self-imposed quarantines or government mandated lockdowns. Travel is at a standstill. But, we are confident it will come back. We know that, and travel experts are agreed that when it does, travel advisors will be more relevant than ever before.
Professional advice and guidance will be essential – especially when making travel plans and decisions that may be complicated by safety and health concerns. However, we do know that until such time as people can travel they will plan and dream.
We also know then, as travel professionals, how important it is to maintain regular contact with these potential travellers – our valued customers – in order to help them dream and to maintain a crucial front of mind awareness.
This is where BranchUp comes in. BranchUp is a ‘turnkey’ marketing solution that works with a variety of travel suppliers curating rich content on behalf of travel professionals thus allowing them to focus on their clients, stay in contact and keep potential travellers dreaming about their next vacation.
Michael Drever, founder and CEO of BranchUp, is also the founder and past-CEO of CruiseShipCenters, which he began as a host travel agency way back in 1988, franchised throughout North America, and then sold to Expedia Inc. in 2012.
After taking a few years away from the business, Drever decided to return to his passion – helping travel advisors succeed.
So, whether advisors are retail, home-based, or are completely mobile, BranchUp works with them to help achieve success – it is, says Drever, “all about, empowering travel professionals and advisors alike”.
BranchUp launched in Canada in May 2015 and in the US in January 2019 with two different feeds to accommodate pricing/product/spelling differences. As of right now they have almost 7,800 agent subscribers in Canada and the USA
Essentially, the concept is simple. Creative director, Michelle Pinard, explained that leading travel supplier’s provide content and images for their campaigns. These are combined with daily ‘Inspirational’ posts (no supplier sponsorship) consist of visually beautiful and inspiring that highlight global and North American destinations.
“All posts are uploaded with EST times.” She said, “Travel agents have the ultimate control over all posts and management of their Facebook feeds. In the advisors’ private account, they have a preview of upcoming posts and have the ability to customize and edit all the messages, reschedule or delete upcoming posts.”
Now, in what would seem an inspired collaboration, BranchUp is partnering with the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies, (ACTA).
Marco Pozzobon, ACTA’s director, marketing, communications & partnerships says of the move, “BranchUp is a natural extension to ACTA’s social media strategy. Partnering with Branchup allows ACTA to increase the visibility of our Facebook posts that promote the value of using a Travel Agent to the consumer. By extending ACTA’s reach through BranchUp we are making our content available to more Canadian Travel Agents and in turn with more consumers.”
Chris Jones, director marketing for the Globus family of brands, who have been working with BranchUp since 2017, says, “Globus recognized that social media would be key to our marketing strategy and to this end have been working with BranchUp.
“We really love the ability to have our products reliably posted directly to travel agency and advisor Facebook feeds automatically. The analytics consistently show a higher than average rate of engagement by agent’s followers which offers Globus the unique opportunity to build rapport, generate leads and bookings.”
And the last word goes to travel advisor Sandy McClary of Travel By Sandy in Parksville, BC. McClary, who has 1,600 followers on her FaceBook page says, “Simply, I don’t have to think or find content. And recently there’s a more empathetic tone to the messaging and images in these COVIT days. I can edit and personalize or just leave it and trust that it’ll keep my FB page relevant and timely.”