As you start planning for 2024, the question to ask yourself is: How will you create brand awareness for yourself as a travel agent and your agency? Specializing in a niche or destination can be rewarding and profitable, as long as you maintain your focus on your unique value proposition (UVP) that enhances your marketability.
Why would someone buy from you? Do you offer a level of expertise, experience, or service no one else can offer? Have you traveled to new or emerging destinations that can give you a competitive advantage? This is where your UVP becomes extremely important to your success and will help you earn more.
We often receive requests for more training on marketing and on using social media platforms and other tools. However, before you use these, we recommend that you look inward and develop your UVP. This Hot Tip is taken from our CTA® Marketing and Promoting Your Business module, filled with ideas and tips to help you create a marketing plan and a brand.
The CTA Certification program is included in The Travel Institute’s Season of Giving, with a tuition assistance of $110 until December 31. Make 2024 the year you add CTA to your brand and be included in the Certified Travel Agent Directory!
To help you create or enhance your brand, we have some guidelines and suggestions.
What Is a Brand?
Branding is defined as the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates a product or service from other similar products and services. Branding creates the face that you and/or your agency presents to the world.
Developing a unique brand can help you stand out from the competition. It’s more than a mere slogan. It’s a promise of service and delivery. Having a brand identity through which the traveling public can identify your company and distinguish your services from other travel brands is essential to your success.
An effective UVP communicates your unique ability to fill a void in the marketplace or to define why clients should select you.
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Use these as guidelines when creating your UVP:
- What things on your list are unique to you specifically? This may be tougher than you think. Are these things truly unique to you? Choose carefully.
- Which of these are most important to your clients?
- Which would be difficult for others in your industry to duplicate?
- Which can be easily communicated to potential clients?
Now that you have your list, you can narrow it down to the top three benefits for someone choosing to do business with your agency. This is your UVP.
Establish Your Brand
Your brand is the sum total of who you are and how you connect to your target market. A strong personal brand is a mix of reputation, attention, and execution. By identifying your UVP, you most likely discovered that YOU are the most strategic tool in your business toolbox. Your personal brand gives you the ability to stand out in a sea of similar products.
Picture this: You and 800 of your industry colleagues are at a consumer event. An announcement is made: “ONLY those with CTA Certification as part of their brand stand and hold their business card up.” The doors open, and consumers walk in… Who do you think they will go to? Remember, they don’t know if you have one year or 10 years of industry experience. They see only that you are a Certified Travel Associate and that you specialize in XYZ.
In essence, you are marketing yourself as something different from the rest of the pack. In short, your brand is YOU. Let it be your true north.
Start off the new year with a focus on building and marketing your UVP. Enroll in the CTA during our Season of Giving and save $110 on your tuition!
