Interview By: Andy Ogg, CTIE, Senior Editor – Travel Professional News
Interviewing: Mike Drever, President -BranchUp
First off, thank you very much for the time today and joining our fantastic Travel Professional NEWS readers!
With 2020 upon us, it’s a great time for Travel Professionals to revisit their business, processes and goals to ensure that 2020 is successful, can you share a bit about BranchUp and how it may be a tool that our readers can utilize?
As a content syndication service, BranchUp automatically publishes travel related Facebook posts and personalized landing pages, for our network of more than 3,000 Travel Advisor subscribers daily.
The posts are professionally designed and created and truly resonate with clients. This provides travel advisors valuable time to work with customers, versus searching for content and created ads for their social media platforms. The professional posts are scheduled daily and consist of inspiring content that highlights global and North American destinations with exceptional product offerings from your favorite travel suppliers.
As a lead generator, BranchUp ensures all links connect to the travel advisor so clients and Facebook friends can easily contact them via email, messenger or phone.
BranchUp is certified by Facebook as an official App.
How long has Branchup been assisting Travel Professionals?
BranchUp launched the beta-site in Canada in May of 2015 followed by the USA beta-site in January of 2018. We officially launched the application to the entire travel advisor community in January 2019, and currently have approximately 1,250 Canadian travel professionals and 1,825 American travel professionals using our complimentary services.
Can you share some of the content that is available for users of BranchUp? What suppliers are currently working with you?
We work with the leading travel companies to feature popular and exotic vacation, tour and cruise destinations. Travel advisors have the option to choose which suppliers they wish to include in their Facebook news feed.
BranchUp publishes Inspirational and Product posts daily, so you never have to worry about your Facebook Business Page being stagnant or outdated.
All posts are designed to inspire clients travel dreams and keep the advisor top of mind as their Travel Expert. Inspirational posts showcase wonderful destinations through stunning imagery while Product posts highlight special savings and other offers.
Is the feed customizable by a Travel Professional using BranchUp? If so, can you share how a user can accomplish that?
Travel Professionals have full control over all posts and management of their Facebook feeds. Advisors simply login to their private account at any time to view upcoming posts. Here they have the ability to customize the message, reschedule, or delete upcoming posts.
Social Media is a word that many either loathe or love. Can you share some of the success that BranchUp has brought it’s Travel Professional users?
To quote some of our users… “The BranchUp posts are a great addition to my Facebook feed. I have had several calls and inquiries, which lead to bookings”. “Amazing content. BranchUp continues to inspire us daily here at Vacations Couture! …Very professional and engaging experience. Must have partnership for Travel Agencies.”
The big question, how much does it cost for a Travel Professional to utilize this resourceful tool in their Travel Agency marketing?
BranchUp is free for Travel Advisors. There is no cost to sign up or fees of any kind to have this high-quality content automatically posted to their Facebook business page.
Is Branchup available for other social media outlets besides Facebook?
An Instagram connection is currently in development and we plan to build out additional platforms for all relevant social media outlets over time.
With the New Year upon us, can you share some of the plans and goals for BranchUp as we look forward?
BranchUp is all about “Empowering Travel Professionals and Advisors alike”!
We all know that Travel Advisors are more relevant today, than ever before, especially when it comes to customers making complicated travel decisions and bookings, such as Cruises and other leisure travel products. And we all know that it is very important, as a Travel Professional, to maintain contact with our valued customers on a regular basis in order to maintain front of mind awareness, in this noisy world that we live in. This can be difficult to do sometimes, and this is where BranchUp comes in!
BranchUp provides “turn key” marketing solutions so that the Travel Professional can spend their time selling, while we spend our time working with a variety of travel suppliers, curating rich content that will keep their customers dreaming about their next dream vacation and keep them in constant contact with their customers.
For our readers who are interested in learning more or signing up with Branchup, can you share the best place to reach out and connect with your team?
Agents can Login and Sign Up for Free at BranchUp.com or email support@branchup.com or call 1-833-272-6248.
Before we conclude, I personally want to thank you for your time and information shared today. We appreciate your involvement in our publication and look forward to speaking with you again soon!