I’ve been running marketing for travel advisors for over six years. This article is the written version of the video above: the whole travel marketing funnel, what your clients are thinking at each stage, and the marketing that reaches them there.
What a Travel Marketing Funnel Actually Is
When I say funnel, I don’t mean a web funnel, the landing-page-and-form kind you may have heard about. I mean a go-to-market funnel. It’s the path a traveler takes from first thinking about a trip to handing someone a deposit.
It has three parts: top of funnel, middle of funnel and bottom of funnel, often shortened to TOFU, MOFU and BOFU. If you see those terms in marketing content, that’s all they mean.
The shape matters. There are far more people at the top than at the bottom. Lots of people are daydreaming about a trip; far fewer are ready to book one this month. That’s true for phones, for services and for travel: every sale starts with interest in a thing, moves to learning about that thing, and ends with deciding where to buy it.
The Three Stages, Using One Trip to Scotland
I’m passionate about Scotland, so I use it as the example in the video. Here’s the same traveler at each stage.
- Top of funnel: dreaming. They’re starting to think about Scotland. They see something on social media that grabs their attention and think, maybe I should go.
- Middle of funnel: planning. They know they want to go, maybe June 2028 for nine days. They’ve heard of Edinburgh Castle, they might want golf at St Andrews or a few whisky distilleries, but they don’t know the day-to-day. They’re asking: what are the good restaurants, what do I need to know, what am I missing?
- Bottom of funnel: booking. They know the dates, how many people are going and roughly where. They come to you and say: Scotland, June 2028, nine days, two people, Edinburgh and golf, can you help with the rest?
In practice the middle and bottom blend together. The point isn’t to sort every person perfectly. It’s to know what someone at each stage needs to hear from you, so you can show up as the expert at every step and they decide to book with you.
Why Meta Ads Reach People Ready to Book
I’m a big ads guy, specifically Meta (Facebook and Instagram). Meta is the most powerful advertising platform there has ever been, because it sees thousands of signals about every user. Someone clicks on Scotland content, looks at a Viking cruise around the British Isles, and suddenly their feed is full of Scotland and England. All of those signals tell Meta this person is close to buying.
That’s why ads mostly reach the bottom of the funnel. With ads you don’t need any brand presence: you call out a pain point, offer help, and give a next step. People book and become clients. But that pool is finite. To keep growing, you also need to be found by the much bigger groups at the top and middle.
Where Referrals Fit
Referrals are powerful because the trust has already been lent to you by someone the client trusts. But a referral doesn’t always arrive ready to book.
Sometimes a referral says, “So-and-so recommended you. I’m torn between Scotland, Japan and England. Which should I do?” That’s a top of funnel conversation. It isn’t a bad lead. They’re just starting at the top.
Most referrals land in the middle: “My best friend said you’re the Scotland expert. I know the dates. I have no idea what to do beyond golf and whisky. Can you help?” The referral is the push that takes them from planning to booking.
Top of Funnel: Get Found by Dreamers
Top of funnel marketing is the “wow” stage. Your tools here are short-form content, SEO and agentic engine optimization (being the answer when people search Google or ask an AI), and long-form content.
Short-form content
Short-form is king for getting your name out there. What performs right now is the day-in-the-life format: get ready with me for my trip to Scotland, come with me on my first day in Edinburgh. Show the breakfast, the coffee shop, the lunch spot, the cool thing you did, a little about the hotel.
The goal is for people to keep consuming your content until you’ve earned their trust. Sometimes one great video takes someone from dreaming to booking. More often, someone follows you for a year or two, and when the time comes they say, “I’ve been watching you for a while. Can you plan my trip?”
SEO, blogs and long-form
Blog articles in the traditional sense still work: here’s everything I did on my first day in Edinburgh, what it’s really like to visit. That content serves the dreamers and starts to educate the planners. Long-form “look how amazing Scotland is” video works too, but it takes much more production to do well.
Middle of Funnel: Build Trust With Planners
The middle of the funnel is about education, and it needs far less production than the wow content. Give your best tips. Some formats that work:
- Education-based short-form: “Three things I always tell my clients before they go to Scotland” or “Seven things I’ve learned from going to Scotland so many times.”
- Long-form with a proven title format: “I’ve been doing X for Y years, here’s that in Z minutes.” This video uses it. For a destination it could be “8 years of Scotland planning in 32 minutes.” It has worked well in the marketing space; it’s worth testing in travel.
- Email marketing, which is one of the most powerful ways to move people down the funnel.
- Lunch and learns and educational webinars.
Lunch and learns with your BDMs
Everything so far costs time, not money. Lunch and learns are different, and BDMs push them hard for a reason: the BDM pays for lunch, you bring your community, and together you sell the trip. Say you work with Kensington and your audience is interested in Scotland. You invite your newsletter subscribers and followers to a Scotland lunch and learn with Kensington. If you have more people online than locally, run it as an educational webinar instead.
Lead magnet, email list, webinar
Here’s how I’d fill that webinar, step by step:
- 1Create a lead magnet that solves one specific problem for free, for example the seven best whisky distilleries in Scotland and how to visit them.
- 2Post short-form about Scotland consistently for 30, 60 or even 90 days.
- 3End each video with a call to action like “Comment WHISKY and I’ll send you my top seven distilleries.”
- 4Connect a tool like ManyChat so every comment automatically collects an email and delivers the lead magnet.
- 5Invite that list to the educational webinar you’re running with your supplier partner.
- 6Close the webinar with a clear next step: book a call with your advisor, or here’s the price, put down a deposit.
Every step builds more trust. By the end, they’ve learned from you several times before you ever ask for the booking.
Bottom of Funnel: Call Out Your Ideal Client
Bottom of funnel people know they want to book. They’re shopping for the right provider. They may already know they want Scotland by land or by cruise, with Regent, Viking or Royal Caribbean, as a group, an FIT or a luxury trip. That’s why you segment, and call each audience out specifically.
Take group travel to Scotland for travelers 65 and older. Pick a supplier that fits, in the video I use Globus, hold space on their Scotland departure, and promote it. Or build it as an FIT. The ad itself can be this simple:
“Are you over 65 and interested in going to Scotland, but you definitely don’t want to travel alone? I’m a professional travel advisor who specializes in Scotland. I’ll pair you with a group that fits your age, your fitness level and the things you want to see. If you’re interested, click the link below and we’ll put everything together.”
It calls out one ideal client profile (ICP) inside the bottom of the funnel. That specificity is what makes it work.
Market Yourself, Not the Supplier
If you sell everything (ocean, river and land, groups, luxury and FIT, Carnival through Regent), you still need an angle. As advisors we solve a logistics problem, but content without specificity doesn’t land.
Reposting a supplier’s photo of an AmaWaterways ship on the Danube markets AmaWaterways, not you. People who don’t know, like or trust you yet, and haven’t been referred, don’t care about you yet. They care about what you can do for them. Showing your expertise is how you bring them through the funnel.
Where I’d Start if I Began Again
Think about the trip that made you want to become a travel advisor. For me it was planning a trip to Iceland. If I started over, I’d focus on Iceland first, then build funnels for my other passions later.
- Top of funnel: short-form and long-form videos and blog posts about my own Iceland trips.
- Middle of funnel: education on what people need to know before they go.
- Bottom of funnel: an overarching Iceland ad campaign with separate ads for each ideal client: Gen Z friends traveling together, millennial couples on a 10-year anniversary, multigenerational luxury travelers looking for spa retreats and unique experiences.
For each one, ask: what are they interested in (spas, hiking, wildlife, road trips), what problems might come up, and what can I teach them? Build that system once, then replicate it for everything you want to sell.
Will Lee
Co-founder & Marketing Strategist
Will builds the systems he writes about, then teaches them inside The Travel Agents Academy. Every play here was run on a real agency first.
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