The Best Marketing Advice for Travel Agents

There is a big marketing mistake that many small-business owners make this time of year and it can have a BIG effect on your revenue, bigger than you may realize.

In the last week, I’ve personally seen over a dozen people make this big marketing mistake, so I’m going to address it today and tell you how to fix it for next year.

If you want to make more money next year than you did this year, then start by fixing this one little mistake.

The one little mistake is: reaching out to your center of influence (COI) just once or twice a year.

In the past week, I have received several emails, primarily from realtors, that were “holiday cards” of sorts. I hadn’t heard from them in a very long time — seems like a year. The emails contained a generic holiday photo, with a generic holiday phrase, and contact information.

“Gee, thanks. You shouldn’t have.”

No, really, you shouldn’t have.

You are filling my inbox with generic, holiday messages that took you 15 minutes to create, after a whole year of radio silence.

I want to feel special, and you may think you are adding value to my life. But, actually, your rarefied card indicates that I’m NOT special to you and that you’re NOT adding value to my life. You’re just cluttering up my Inbox because you think you should at least say something once a year.

If you’re guilty of doing this, or something similar, here’s how to fix it:

Get in the spirit of giving value, and stay there.

Give regularly: Communicate with your COI often. Give the gift of communication once per month, at the minimum, ideally once per week.

Give gifts: Provide value. Give helpful tips & resources, interesting information & statistics, special discounts, and so on. Gifts give value.

Give yourself: Come on. Who wants to see a generic holiday photo with a generic message? Show me a photo of your family, or your staff, and say something funny, or heartfelt. Put some thought into it.

People want to do business with people that they know, like, and trust. People want to work with businesses that give value.

If you want more people to do business with you, give more people a chance to get to know you, to like you, and to trust you. Find ways to make their life better by providing them value. A gift gives value without asking for value in return.

In the end, you will get a lot in return.

 

Love & Success,

Heidi and Your Marketing Team

P.S.  I want to help you create a totally doable communication plan – FREE of charge.  I’m hosting a handful of webinars over the next week where I’ll walk you through how to grow your email list with IDEAL prospective clients and how to nurture them with an effective communication plan (a totally doable time-efficient plan!).  Register now here.