When customers book online, the description you provide may be all they know about your tour or activity. Are your descriptions doing all they can to help you secure those bookings? Are they informing your guests of everything they need to know? You can write engaging, informative tour descriptions that will help increase your bookings — just follow these tips.
Picture Your Customer
You know your guests. What are they like? Who are they? Maybe they’re adventurous or curious. Maybe they’re looking for a relaxing day in town, or a climb up a strenuous mountain trail. Can you picture the sort of person that might be a typical guest?
Write your descriptions as though you’re writing for them.
You don’t need to convince the world to book your tours or activities. You need to convince your customers, past, present and future. You know what appeals to the people who book with you, so make sure you’re letting them know that’s exactly what you have to offer.
Ignite Their Imaginations
The practicalities of your tour or activity are important. Customers need to know what, when and where or they can’t make informed purchasing decisions. But the cold, hard facts of your events aren’t what drive them to book. To turn a page visit into a sale, you need to sell an experience.
That means building up a narrative in your guests’ minds. Picture your activity. Walk through it in your memory, or in reality if you can. Note the particularly gorgeous views, the most thrilling sensations. Think about the moments that spark the most joy for your guests. Put those on the page.
There’s a reason writing instructors’ first recommendations are always “show, don’t tell.” If you tell a customer “the ocean is beautiful,” they may note the information, but it won’t really reach them. If you instead offer them a dive into a “brisk, glittering sea, where you’ll brush by friendly fish and see first-hand the colors of the coral beneath the waves,” you’ll engage their senses and get them invested in the experience. You don’t need to get too lyrical or too wordy — but focus on creating a picture, not just putting down the facts.
Be Specific
Your tour description is the only thing that will let your guests know what to expect, so be specific. They need to know how long your tour is, where they can expect to stop, and what they can expect to do there. They need to know what they’ll learn from your class, or what they’ll experience during your activity.
Instead of saying, “We’ll run you through the basics of stand-up paddleboarding and then you’ll head out on the water,” explain that, “Our instructors will spend thirty minutes ensuring you know how to use our paddleboards safely, going over proper form, paddle techniques and ocean safety. Once you’re comfortable, they’ll accompany you out on the water for an hour of practicing the fundamentals.”
Those details will keep your customers’ expectations in line, and let them know exactly what they’re booking.
Don’t Obsess Over Keywords
You’ve undoubtedly heard that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important — after all, if people can’t find your activities, how can they book them? But optimizing keywords for search shouldn’t be your main focus when writing your tour descriptions.
If you use Rezgo, we’ve worked hard to ensure your inventory will be seen by Google, and Google’s increasingly advanced search algorithms can handle most of the rest. As long as you describe your tour clearly, you’ll show up when customers look for you. Specificity is key. If you offer a Barbados snorkeling tour and never use the phrase “Barbados snorkeling tour” in your inventory name or description, no one will find it. But if you clearly explain what your tour is and what customers can expect (turtles, sea life, shipwrecks, swimming in the sparkling blue ocean), you won’t need to worry about stuffing your content with keywords — you’ll be using them naturally.
If you want to go a step further, you can research the best keywords to use. Again, though, don’t prioritize filling your descriptions with search-engine friendly keywords at the cost of engaging, human-readable text.
Keep It Simple
It’s fine to get flowery in your tour description, but don’t go overboard when it comes to the specifics. Too much text can be confusing, and you need to communicate important details clearly. Bullet points can help. So can active, straightforward sentences. If you need some assistance, with spelling, grammar or sentence structure, check out our guide on writing tools.
When you’re creating a tour description, also note that Rezgo offers a number of fields, like Inclusions, Exclusions, Pick Up Location, and lots more. Make sure to put the right information in the right fields so your customers know where to look.
Just show your customers what to expect, give them the information they need in a clear, understandable format, and give Google a little nudge in your direction with relevant, natural keywords. Simple enough, but it will make all the difference when it comes to driving bookings online.
Written By | Nissa Campbell
