Part 2: Market Your Hosted Group, Find Travelers & Fill Your Waitlist
Marcie Muensterman
This week on the No BS Travel Advisor Podcast, Marcie Muensterman is back with Hosted & Escorted Groups Part 2, and this time she is digging into two of the biggest questions travel advisors have about creating their own group trips:
How the hell do you find the people who are actually going to come? And how do you market a hosted group enough to fill it?
Because blocking group space is the easy part.
Selling it is an entirely different story.
In this episode, Marcie talks about how to market a hosted group trip, build a group travel audience, create demand before you even have all of the trip details, determine whether your current network is large enough to support a group, and attract travelers who are actually aligned with YOU.
And yes, you're probably going to have to talk about your trip way more than you want to.
Marcie explains why you can't start marketing a hosted trip when the booking page opens. Your audience needs time to hear about the idea, imagine themselves there, watch your excitement build, ask questions, join the waitlist, and eventually decide that missing the trip would suck more than spending the money to go.
You'll also hear Marcie's take on:
- Why interest does NOT equal bookings
- How to market a hosted group before dates and pricing are finalized
- Why smaller groups can be incredibly profitable
- Why you shouldn't automatically block 20, 30, or 50 cabins
- How personal branding builds the trust required to sell group travel
- How to determine whether someone is actually a good fit for your trip
- Why your marketing should attract the right traveler AND repel the wrong one
- How to use intentional invitations instead of relying only on social media
- Why your favorite clients, friends, and referrals may be your first group travelers
- How to build a hosted group waitlist
- How to grow beyond friends and family
- Why education and generosity build authority
- How to create FOMO even if your first trip doesn't sell the way you expected
- Why getting 1% better consistently matters more than waiting until everything is perfect
And before getting into group marketing, Marcie shares a lesson from Jude's softball tournament about losing, resilience, competition, integrity, and learning how to get the fuck back up.
Because hosted groups aren't for advisors who expect everything to work the first time.
Neither is entrepreneurship.
Join Marcie's Free Facebook Groups
Maximize Your Escorted Groups Business
Hosted, escorted, and group travel sales and marketing specifically for travel advisors:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/maximizeyourescortedgroupsbusiness
Maximize Your Travel Agent Business
Join more than 16,000 travel advisors talking sales, marketing, profitability, business management, and building a sustainable travel business:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/maximizeyourtravelagentbusiness
Learn More About Marcie
Visit:
https://thetraveladvisormarcie.com
Use PODCAST11 to save on ALL courses except Lead the Manifest.
Keep an eye out for enrollment information for Lead the Manifest®, Marcie's hosted and escorted group travel framework for travel advisors who want a repeatable process for creating, marketing, filling, and operating their own travel-with-me group experiences.
Episode Chapters
00:00 – Hosted & Escorted Groups Part 2 + What's New
02:22 – What Softball Taught Me About Losing, Grit & Business
06:43 – You're Not Knocked Out Unless You Choose to Stay Down
10:27 – Get 1% Better Instead of Chasing Perfection
13:09 – Hosted Groups: Who Are You Selling This Trip To?
15:44 – Start Marketing Your Group Before You Have the Details
17:44 – You Have to Market Your Trip WAY More Than You Want To
19:42 – Start Smaller If Your Audience Isn't Ready for a Huge Group
23:07 – Interest Is Not the Same Thing as Someone Actually Booking
26:34 – How Do You Make Sure the Right People Join Your Group?
30:51 – Have One-on-One Conversations About the REAL Hesitation
31:36 – Your Marketing Should Also Repel the Wrong Traveler
34:29 – Intentional Invitations: Ask the People You Actually Want to Travel With
36:29 – Know the Aligned Traveler for Every Group You Sell
38:29 – How to Grow Beyond Friends and Family
41:23 – If Nobody Books, Go Anyway and Create the FOMO
42:43 – Lead the Manifest® + Final Advice for Hosted Group Success
Marcie answers these questions during this conversation:
- How do travel advisors find people for hosted group trips?
- How do I market a hosted group before I have the final price?
- How far in advance should I market a group trip?
- How many times should I promote my hosted group?
- How big does my audience need to be before I launch a group trip?
- Should a new travel advisor start with group travel?
- How many people should I start with for my first hosted trip?
- How do I know if my followers will actually book a group trip?
- How do I turn group-trip interest into deposits?
- How do I make sure the right people join my hosted trip?
- How do I prevent difficult travelers from joining my group?
- Should I personally invite clients to my hosted group?
- How do travel advisors grow beyond friends and family?
- Do I need a Facebook group to sell hosted travel?
- How do I build a waitlist for a hosted group?
- Can I market a group trip before I know the destination?
- Can a small hosted group still be profitable?
- What if nobody books my first hosted group?
- How does personal branding help travel advisors sell groups?
- What is the difference between someone interested in a trip and a qualified group traveler?
KEYWORDS: hosted group travel, hosted groups for travel advisors, escorted group travel, group travel marketing, how to fill a group trip, how to sell group travel, travel agent marketing, travel advisor marketing, travel advisor training, hosted travel groups, escorted tours, group travel sales, travel with me trip, how to find clients for travel business, how to grow a travel agency, travel agent sales, travel advisor business, group trip waitlist, personal branding travel advisor, ideal travel client, No BS Travel Advisor, Marcie Muensterman, Lead the Manifest
