Charlie Kitcat
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I'm Charlie Kitcat
A travel ghostwriter filling trips for travel brands, with stories only they can tell.
That begins when your dream customer discovers your travel website. Sparks fly, matrimony is on the cards. Like Tom Cruise, you had them at hello.
But they had fourteen other tabs open. Fourteen other suitors vying for their hand with slicker chat-up lines than your "subscribe to our newsletter."
Only serendipity will bring them back, and not even Kate Beckinsale has the patience for that.
So, all you safari operators, boutique hotel owners, DMOs, tour companies. You build the kind of experiences your travellers talk about for years. But you'll never get your precious website visitors to the altar if you don't get their number on the first date.
They're already curious after reading your ghostwritten LinkedIn posts, tales of how your first trip to India inspired you to the start your business. Or how you crafted the dream safari itinerary for your just-married clients. Proof you're the one for them.
But after that, it's wise to move things onto the next stage. So I build suspiciously clever educational email courses, the kind that turn passive interest into customers excited to commit.
A free 5-day course listed on your site, in ads, on socials and even on your now-busy LinkedIn profile, teaching travellers something they'll never find on page two of Google. All designed to grab attention and build their excitement, before you walk them down the aisle.
In the first five days, the butterflies in their stomach are growing. By day six, they're yours. The follow-up travel newsletters we'll write together will only strengthen that bond.
Let's turn that first hello into a happily ever after.
Turning your curious browsers into dead-cert bookers
Travel bookers are a strange lot. They'll research 18-odd months in advance, poach itineraries from your site and inspiration from your socials. Then they'll skedaddle off, never to be seen again. After all, booking or enquiring NOW is a big ask. So be a lighthouse, guide the ships towards you.
So how do you transform traffic into those high-ticket bookings you so desperately desire? Well, with a little free value, a little nurture, and with a little staying top of mind. Like olives on the table at a Madrid tapas place.
The beauty of an educational email courses. All objections answered, all cards on the table. Basically everything you'd want your ideal customer to know in a week's worth of emails. By day five, they trust you and by day six, they're ready to book.
Clear as this lovely British Columbia lake.
Be the voice the industry travels to
You're running a travel business. Working out the complexities of LinkedIn sits somewhere below "answer that email from March" and "pick up the kids". Meanwhile the founders who do show up keep landing the press, speaking gigs and the partnerships everyone else is chasing.
And there's nothing more frustrating than someone you know taking all the credit, like the person who repeats your joke loudly then gets all the laughs.
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Here's the fix. I ghostwrite LinkedIn that sounds so much like you it borders on impersonation. It makes you the name people in your corner of travel actually trust, and quietly brings in leads while you get on with your busy day job.
A far smoother ride than this Gobi Desert camel, frankly. And I don't spit.
Postcards from here and there
It'd feel a little silly to just hand over a list of bylines from week-long getaways and call it proof. So here's a truer version. I love a holiday, but more than that, I adore getting under the skin of a place. That takes time, inquisitiveness, a lot of questions and the embrace of being a little uncomfortable. Patience too.
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Its a philosophy I employ for my ghostwriting work too. Fifty-odd countries under my belt (I'm a One Planet Journey Deep Travel Ambassador), articles in The Times, the Daily Mail and the i Paper. Four years in PR before that, learning to make a brand sound like a person instead of another boring press release.
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But the quality that matters most is the curiosity. I've been the jet-lagged traveller asking the silly questions, so I tend to know what readers want before they do. I dig for the answers because making the most of travel benefits me too, as well as your customers.
And unlike these octopus, nothing I write gets left hanging out to dry.