Laurie Beckmann, CTC
Welcome to the world of Travel. As an independent contractor, you are a small business. Just like any business you must get the word out to potential clients. They need to know that you exist and how to find you for your business to succeed and grow.
1) Web presence:
If your host does not offer a website than you must have one. Not only does it give you a place to define and build your brand, it also creates a sense of legitimacy. Most consumers expect companies to have a website. It is the first place for you to share your information and why you are the perfect Travel Planner for them. This is no longer a daunting task. You do not have to be a tech wizard or spend thousands or even hundreds of dollars to make this happen. Check out sites such as Wix.com for their amazing templates and they can be free to just a nominal fee per year. There you can create an email address that is tied with your business name, again creating a more professional image and sense of credibility and stability.
Your website will become a perfect landing page for sharing specials, preferred travel partners and travel tips. There can be a section where you share your own travel experiences and your past client’s reviews and raves. It is where your clients will go to learn more about you and your business and with the correct SEO’S and other search words, they may find your business as well. Millennials and Boomers alike have become dependent on the web – they will search you as well as the travel options you are offering. Be prepared – your clients may be more knowledgeable than you about a tour, cruise or resort – You need to reassure them that partnering with a travel professional is to their advantage and that you are ultimately the expert and have their best interest as your priority.
2) Family and Friends:
Do not discount the value of family and friends. “The most credible form of advertising comes straight from the people we know and trust. Eighty-three percent of online respondents in 60 countries say they trust the recommendations of friends and family, according to the Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Report released today”
People will do business with people they trust and know; many decisions are still about relationships.
3) Brand and Niche:
It is hard to be the expert in everything so begin with your passion in building your Niche. Do you wish to specialize in Honeymoons and Destination Weddings? Are Family Vacations your passion or you are an avid Cruiser. This will help identify the market you would like to reach and where to reach them. If Romance and Honeymoon travel is your passion, you may be focusing on your newly engaged couples and have a soft and romantic look to your brand while embracing corporate and incentive travel may have a more class look and focusing on corporate events and linked accounts. Disney is your passion so your look will be focusing on families and your clients may be found at your local school events and youth sports fields.
4) Networking:
“In the world of networking you don’t start selling until you have established a “sharing” relationship. Be a giver. Serve others, and wait for the referrals, introductions, and other opportunities to come later. Don’t try to sell at a networking event! It hinders your ability to build relationships. Invest in the relationship first. Sell later.” [1]
It is great to join your local Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, however, if you do not go into it with the correct mindset it may be a waste of time. People like to do business with people they have a relationship with. Building that relationship will also create a client for life. The easiest travel clients you will have are your repeat clients. Those relationships create your long-term success and then their referrals are almost already sold on your services. The Business and Professional Associations may be where you also getting leads for corporate and incentive travel. Networking can also happen at Church, your gym, local PTA and just about anywhere you are. Volunteer with your favorite Charity event. There you will be working for a good cause as well as creating a larger networking group for your travel business. Many of the network opportunities will cost you nothing but time and it takes time to build great relationships and those relationships will be the back bone of your business.
5) Trade shows:
Participating in local Trade shows can be the perfect avenue for you to gain targeted travel sales.
In Choosing which Trade Shows to participate in, begin by thinking of what travel you are looking to market. Honeymoons and Destination Wedding Clients can be easily found at your local Bridal Shows. The majority of these are held in January and February following some of the highest engagement periods of the year (Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve & Valentine’s Day) These may be small events held in local hotel banquet rooms to very large annual events at your local convention center. To find the promoters of the shows, check out your community’s local website page under events. Your community website and your local newspaper will most likely have a wedding section to use as a resource. The Bridal Show listings will have the Where, When and Who to reach out to so that you may ask for the Vendor information.
Family travel is more what you are trying to sell, than consider the local craft shows, school PTA events, local YMCA and other community organizations that are catering to the travelers that you are seeking. These events can be found online on your community websites, local newspapers and school newsletters.
Trade shows geared towards Seniors and Boomers are also growing around the country and can be perfect for your river cruise, luxury travel and longer travel market. Fitness and Wellness travel is another rapidly growing trend, check your online community for Women’s Night Out, Fitness Night, Golf Expo etc.
Once you have Located a few Trade Shows that may be targeting your client and have reached out to the promoters, a few details to look at before deciding to sign on the bottom line:
How much is the Booth? (be prepared to pay $50 – to $500 to thousands depending on the size of the show and the audience) The most expensive shows are not always the best for your clients. Sometimes the larger more expensive shows are so large, you never get a chance to connect with the attendees. Think Quality over Quantity.
How large is your booth? Is there enough space to show your display create your brand? (8 x 10 to 8 x 12 can be a very standard size)
What are they supplying? (Often it is a 6- or 8-foot table and 2 chairs – but do not assume – be sure to ask.
Do you have a good location? What else do you need to supply? (Some extra items will also be signage, banners, table coverings, giving out any customized swag or bags. You want to add your entire overhead and cost into the day to figure out if this has the potential of a good profit for you including any extra help you may need to man your booth.
Where are they advertising? What is the expected number of attendees? Has this promoter held the show in the past to have a track record of a successful attendance? These factors can help you decide if this is the right show for you.
Trade shows can be an amazing and profitable way to get your name in front of hundreds of potential clients in a very short time. Ask if they put the participating vendors on their website and if so, can it link to your website. Do they provide a copy of the registration list after the show? You will want some sort of sign in at your booth, whether raffling an item, asking attendees if they are interested in attending a specific travel night, possibly a gift certificate towards a vacation. The most important part of all tradeshows is the follow up, and without some sort of way to collect interested client’s information, there is not potential way to follow up. Many businesses that have poor luck at trade shows drop the ball on the follow up, no different than forgetting that important step in your sales process of following up with your clients when they return home from a trip. The other big mistake is not having every piece of collateral you are handing out in your booth tagged with your label. When the attendees get home with their bags from all the booths, and finally go back through the brochures they collected, they need to be able to reach back out to you. Never, Never, Never let collateral out of your hands at a Trade show or anywhere without your contact information on it.
6) Travel Nights:
This is a great event to host after participating in a Trade Show. With your new list and do not forget to invite your existing list of clients, family and friends think about hosting a night of Travel. This can be on a specific destination – (Alaska would be an example) – it can be a specific mode of transportation or partner –such as a cruise night, or a river cruise night. Maybe your Host Agency has a special group blocked out or a Tour they are promoting. Check if your library has a community room you can reserve or consider a private room in a restaurant or hotel depending on the expected number of attendees. Thinking of an event catering more to senior citizens? Consider the community room at a senior living center – Family Alaska Cruise, possibly your library or YMCA has a community room, Caribbean night – how about a pool area of a local hotel?
Reach out to your preferred Suppliers, BDM’s are often available to speak and participate. They may also have the power to offer a special booking incentive that has no additional cost to you but encourages booking in a timely manner. This is not only a great way to bring like-minded travelers together and to pitch to them at the same time, but it also begins to position you in the community as the Expert. Do not hesitate to include past clients that have already been on that specific trip or area, not only may they wish to return and bring friends, they also become some of your pied pipers in the audience and can share their experience and therefore endorsing you, your event and your chose of destination or supplier. You will find them selling for you – The easiest sales are the word of mouth referrals.
7) Business Partnering:
What better place to have your Honeymoon and Destination Wedding brochures than your local bridal shop or jewelry store? Do not hesitate to reach out to your wedding professionals and venues for partnering with your information. Many venues as well as jewelry shops have brochures, they give out that may have the ability for you to take a small business add out in or have a section of their store that they allow other businesses to supply helpful information to the prospective couples. They may allow you to put a drawing box in their shop offering a winner a spa certificate with their honeymoon booking or a gift certificate or other booking incentive you think of.
River Cruises sponsoring a special wine cruise, consider your local wine shop – if they are large enough, even a great location for a river cruise night. The owner may even consider hosting a wine tasting pairing to your river cruise itinerary. It becomes a win win for both of you and again you are creating a way for like-minded travelers to learn together. Maybe they will allow you to put a raffle box with your cards and the drawing is a bottle of wine of the month – that way you are purchasing wine from them and still building your email list.
Promoting a Golf group for an all-inclusive with a great golf course – than consider your local Golf Course and pro shop, even sponsor and hole in one. Not sure how to sponsor a hole in one, the insurance companies that insure them are professionals at it and walk you step by step through the process – they even supply the signage and your Pros at the Golf Course know exactly what to do with it. Get the course to allow you to put up a small table at the event with your collateral and brochures to go along with the signage on the course.
Reach out to your local Dive Shops for putting Dive Groups together, Your local Yoga studio for a fitness cruise, maybe your local high-end kitchen store for flyers on one the higher end Cruises with the Test Kitchens or favorite chef cruise.
Think of your local Pizza shop allowing you to put flyers in their delivery or a box with your cards at the local dry cleaner. Do not ask to put your cards and flyers anywhere without also asking what you can do for them. Business partner and Business to Business must always be a two-way street.
The great thing about Travelers is that they are everywhere. Think about your ideal client and then where do they go, shop and mingle. That is where to find them. Get out of the office and mix, mingle and be seen.
8) Social Media:
Social media is a given. Spend time where your clients are. Consider your market and what they follow, If the majority of your market is 40’s + than Facebook is probably still a better media than Instagram. However, with Hootsuite and other programs you can program content to post in more than one location. Keep your posts relevant and timely. Consider a subscription to Travel and Leisure, Travel Weekly and other Travel magazines that will be able to provide great content to share if writing is not your forte.
There are programs available to Travel Agents such as Passportonline offering to post to your social media accounts regularly for a small monthly fee. They keep the content timely, interesting and engaging. Use that as a fall back, the best content is the original content you write, if you are using the industry articles consider creating comments in your share that encourage engagement and further interest. Be sure to share information more than Selling. One rule of thumb is 70-20-10 rule: 70% of your posts coming from your personal travel, relevant tips, survey questions and local news, 20% from other businesses, their events, sales and shares and 10% promoting your specials, discounts, new lines and promotions. [2]
You are looking to engage your client’s interest, position yourself as an expert and keep your name in their minds for when they are ready to travel. Just as in person to person networking, you are looking to build relationships. Do not have every post about selling or the next special. You will lose your clients interest. Post visual content. Video and photos will have some of the highest shares and engagement.
How often to post, there seems to be as many experts and articles as there are answers. The consistent answer is to be consistent, focus on Quality over Quantity. 2x a day and about 10 x a week seem to be the average.
Social Media is ever changing, and you must embrace it. It is one of the easiest and most affordable medias for you to develop, grow and maintain your relationship with your clients.
In closing, you have taken the leap to Independent Contractor. This is an exciting chapter to starting your own business and like any business you need clients to buy what you are selling. Clients cannot buy from you if they do not know, who you are and what you are selling.
Your website will be a great landing location for them to learn more about you and what you sell. It will also be a great tool for educating them on why you are the perfect person to be buying from. Giving your business cards out to family and friends as well as trade shows will let you define your brand and drive clients to your website to learn more. Choosing the right Trade Show to participate in, the best business to strategically partner with and the Travel events to host will help to drive your targeted clients to you as well as help set you up as the local expert. The email lists that will be collected to use for your email marketing will allow you to share directed and pertinent marketing to your clients in a timely fashion and Social media will keep them engaged and interested in what you have to say as well as what you are doing so that you are the person they contact when they are ready to travel and the name they give out to their family and friends.
Happy Selling and Happy Traveling
RESOURCES:
[1] Glen Smith Executive Coaching
[2] Lindsay Kolowich, Hubspot, How to use Facebook for Business: 13 Essential Tips
