Successful travel professionals know marketing is an ongoing practice rather than a one-shot project. It becomes part of their daily routines. It develops into a habit. It's like brushing their teeth or fastening their seatbelt. They do it because they like the results.
But, how can you tell good travel marketing habits from hype, fluff, and froth? What are the key components of successful travel professionals' marketing practices? And, most importantly, how do you get started?
All this and more is the foundation of YOU! the Brand. and the focus of this post.
Valuing Accomplishment
The first step in building successful daily marketing habits is to prepare yourself to be ready to change your daily practices based on results. Too many travel marketers confuse activity with results or commotion with accomplishment. When you hear yourself saying, "I'm too busy to . . .," you should remind yourself to stop and look at the results you're achieving.
Successful travel marketers are never too busy to stop, check their results, make small adjustments, and move forward.
Become Known as a Travel Thought Leader
When airlines paid commissions, travel agents were reservation-makers. Back then travel agents had information about schedules, availability, and prices that travelers didn't have. Then came the Internet and on-line reservation-making Web sites. Travelers learned they could make their own reservations. They also found they enjoyed the do-it-yourself part of travel.
When travelers discovered they could make their own reservations, travel agents began transitioning into travel professionals who managed travelers' aspirations much like professional financial planners managed their clients' portfolios. There was no longer any value in making a reservation. Travelers could and wanted to do that themselves. The new value offered by travel professionals was delivered in the form of knowledge, experience, advice, and recommendations. Travelers were attracted to travel professionals who they perceived as travel thought leaders. Thought leaders are individuals or organizations who have a deep understanding of their business, the unique needs and wants of their customers, and their marketplace.
Successful travel marketers make sure they do something everyday to let their customers and prospects now they are travel industry thought leaders. YOU! the Brand. blogs give you a perfect platform to share your travel stories and showcase your travel knowledge and expertise. Best of all, you don't have to write every day. Professional YOU! the Brand. copywriters place 2 or 3 image-building posts every week on your blog which takes the pressure off you and lets your contribute when you have time and are motivated.
Sell Yourself First
When you look at the travel marketing landscape, you see specials, deals, sales, and last minute bargains. In general most of today's marketing strategies present product features at a low price. The only way to distinguish your product in this marketplace is to offer more features and a lower price than your competitors. Since travel professionals, in most instances, do not own the travel product's inventory, there is a price point limit. This gives the advantage to the travel service provider or supplier.
To combat product-price marketing, you need to promote something travel suppliers cannot offer. The solution is YOU!
YOU! are unique. Your travel experiences are different from everyone else and the way you apply those experiences to each of your customers is special.
A YOU! the Brand. blog gives you a method for your customers to learn about you, learn how you work, and begin to get to know you before you start discussing travel products and prices. When the traveler understands that you are part of the entire travel experience product features and price become secondary considerations.
Communicate Frequently Without Becoming Annoying
If you send your customers and prospects a weekly e-mail message about randomly selected travel products you might get lucky and hit one or two with the right product at the right price at the right time. Chances are, however, the majority of people are not interested in the product you're promoting or they can find it cheaper on someone's Web site. In this case, your weekly e-mails fill-up their In-box and become annoying spam rather than innovative travel ideas.
YOU! the Brand. blogs eliminate spam through a built-in Web subscription service called a "feed." This feed alerts your customers and prospects, through an icon in their Web browser, that something new has been posted on your blog. Interested customers and prospects can then visit your blog when it's convenient for them and their e-mail in-box remains empty.
You receive 3 to 4 contacts with your customers and prospects every week, but the contacts are completed on their timetable. The blog posts are also automatically archived so a visitor in October can easily retrieve a YOU! the Brand. blog post made months before that using a built-in category label.
This approach lets you use e-mail for what it does best -- communicate confirmation numbers, itineraries, and thank you notes.
It's All About the Experience!
When we travel we hear, taste, touch, see, and feel new surroundings. Travel is all about stimulating our five-senses. The travel stories we tell after we return home are about what we saw, what we ate and drank, how we felt the next morning, and the conversations we heard. We seldom tell stories about the color of the draperies in our hotel room of the color of the carpet in our cruise cabin.
Travel is all about the total sensory experience and less about the duration and cost of the trip. Marketing travel successfully means talking about the travel experience more and talking about the travel mechanics less. The good news is that most travel marketing is based on product and price trip mechanics, yet only 14% of travelers make buying decisions based on price.
YOU! the Brand. blogs set the table for you to share your travel stories about the people you've met, the sights you've seen, and the meals you've enjoyed. Blogs are personal and offer a great story telling environment.
Polish Your Brand
Good business is conducted on good personal relationships. Good personal relationships are based on consistency, openness, and honesty. Your brand is your promise of consistency, openness, and honesty to your market. Your brand represents you, flaws and all. It's what makes customers feel like they want to do business with you.
To be effective, Brands need to be regularly communicated. They need to be stated and restated. Most of all, they need to remain true to their initial promise to your customer.
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Posted by: lynne | October 12, 2006 at 11:15 PM