If you are a travel planner, marketing is by necessity your constant companion. Too often, however, travel professionals treat marketing like a hand tool that is pulled out of the box only when sales are “needed,” when business seems a little slow. But effective marketing is a mindset, a constant preoccupation for the successful travel professional intent on growing their business.
Marketing drives sales. The marketing you do today may not have an effect for weeks or even months. Business a bit quiet right now? Want this time next year to look better? It’s a good idea to begin marketing more thoughtfully and consistently. It is absolutely possible for you to enhance the arc of your travel practice by learning fundamental marketing strategies and tactics. However, the techniques you need to master are not “tricks” or clever negotiating.
Chances are if you lose a transactional sale to an agency down the street, it won’t be because the other agency knows more about Hawaii than you. It will be because the other agency knows more about marketing, sales and customer service than you.
In the marketing you do for your travel agency, your goal should be to correctly set the expectations of your client. When a client encounters your marketing efforts, be that in advertising, public relations or online, you should engage their attention in such a way they are preconditioned to your authentic personality and manner of doing business. Marketing drives sales, and there should be no disconnect between the messages clients receive through your marketing and the more personal encounters they have with you during the sales cycle.
One of the common misunderstandings about marketing is that it is all about hunting down and capturing prize clients. This notion results in frenzied marketing efforts designed to earn attention from travelers and prospective clients. However, sudden bursts of marketing activity are not as productive as more consistent and steady effort. Think relationships rather than transactions.
In its most simple form, marketing consists of generating new business and retaining existing clients. But it has been said marketing is more like farming than hunting. Prey that is hunted runs away. Consistent marketing efforts applied intelligently and in a steady manner pay off over time.
The first undertaking you have is a very personal commitment. You must take full responsibility for your success. The entire litany of other factors in the sales process, the economy, suppliers, time of year, technology, hurricanes, competition and even your clients must become secondary and even third tier factors in the evaluation of your performance. Ultimately everything comes down to you.
The prospect is both liberating and frightening.
Next week: Developing the Marketing Mindset
