How This Myanmar Travel Company Went From $0 To $1.5M Revenue In A Year

When you think of Myanmar, you probably don’t think of digital marketing. But the country is fast going online. In fact, Myanmar has over 39 million internet users, up from 2 million in 2014.combine it with National Emerging Tourism Your market is full of opportunities for travel companies.

One of the entrepreneurs capitalizing on this growth is Mike Than Tun Win, who is Flymya.comWin said he started the company because his business partners and friends had trouble planning a trip to Myanmar.

Win and Digital Marketing Consultant for the past year Melissa Lynngrew the business from zero to a $1.5 million revenue business.

Lim breaks down the company’s digital marketing strategy over the year and shares tips for potential travel entrepreneurs and marketers.

1-3 months: Invest in Google AdWords and flight search widgets

For the first three months of the campaign, the company invested $8,000 a month in Google AdWords.The team started with Research the most popular keywords related to domestic air tickets in Myanmar Google Trends.

Next, the team discovered the most popular destinations in Myanmar by asking their airline partners. Then they run ads for those keywords.

In the end, they came up with a list of 20 keywords and matched them with online data to see if they had high search volume. From a traveler’s perspective, the team is also important. So instead of searching for “flight bookings in Myanmar,” their target audience might search Google for: “Best places to travel in Myanmar.”

Google AdWords campaign results:

• 85% of the company’s sales come from paid search online traffic
• Web visits jumped from 700 to 23,000 in the first three months

During this time, the team also created a flight search widget on news sites Myanmar Business Today.

Results of flight search widget:

• 700 website visits from widgets
• 80 Corporate Booking Inquiries

Income generated during this period:

4-6 months: Create company Facebook page and ads

During this time, the team launched the company’s social media presence by creating a company Facebook page and advertising on the web with a monthly budget of $1,500.

Some of their most engaging Facebook posts have garnered over 1,000 shares and likes.

To increase the company’s following, the team ran giveaway contests for followers, including domestic air tickets and travel packages.

Results for Facebook Pages and Ads:

• Facebook followers grow to 100,000
• Social networking site visitors increased from 3,000 in Q1 to 15,000 in Q2
• Overall web traffic climbed to 39,000 unique visitors during this period

Additional income generated during the period:

7-9 months: Build a content marketing and SEO machine

To complement the company’s AdWords campaign and drive more traffic, the team started blogging about Myanmar Travel Tips and destination information related to Myanmar.

Results of Content Marketing and SEO:

• 60% of the company’s target keywords appear on the Google homepage
• Organic searches grew from 1,335 in Q2 to 2,392 in Q3
• During this period, website traffic soared to 61,800 unique visitors

Additional income generated during the period:

10-12 months: Attract popular travel bloggers

Now that the company has started to search and socialize, it’s time to hire influential travel bloggers like Southeast Asian backpacker. After contacting the site owner, the blogger wrote an informative article about Myanmar with a link to the Flymya site.

Results of Influencer Marketing:

• 1,200 referral traffic visits from backpackers in Southeast Asia
• During this period, web traffic grew to 72,000 unique visitors

During this time, the team also received coverage from one of the most popular tech media in Asia: Asia Techwhich brought 500 visitors to the company’s website.

Additional income generated during the period:

After a year of balanced digital marketing drives, the company generated $1.5 million in revenue and more than 195,800 website visitors. Total annual digital marketing budget? $100,000.

Lim’s Greatest Learnings and Tips for Travel Entrepreneurs

1. From day one to digital marketing, travel startups can be global.
2. High social traffic does not necessarily mean increased revenue. Generally, higher social traffic means higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates.
3. Traffic from paid search, organic search, and referrals has a much lower bounce rate and is considered premium traffic.

She also shares some advice on how travel entrepreneurs can accelerate digital marketing outcomes:

Google your product or service. The quickest way to reach your target audience with the least amount of time and effort, hire a travel blogger or news site (you find it on Google) to promote your site through sponsored content or ad banners on their site.