What is the Best Marketing Strategy for a New Agent who has set Themselves up as an Independent Contractor?

Maria Carolina Rojas, CTC

Marketing strategies are the “key part” in your business plan where you create an outline for finding clients and customers for your business.

In order to perform a high-quality marketing as Independent Contractor, it will be of extraordinary importance to understand the concept of “Independent Contractor” definition:

An Independent Contractor is a natural person, business, or corporation that provides goods or services to another entity under terms specified in a contract or within a verbal agreement”. For more extensive details, you may consult the following link: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/independent-contractor.asp

In the travel agency and tourism sector, there has been an extraordinary boom in the last decade in the incorporation of independent contractors, as part of their business. Becoming an independent contractor offers the opportunity to work at your own pace, have more direct relationship with suppliers and could earn more income compared to working as an employee in a Travel Agency.

The challenge when someone starts working as an independent contractor is how to do marketing, how to get clients. Here is where having a good marketing strategy is a big piece on the equation.

Marketing your business to your clients is an important part of being a travel agent and an independent contractor.

To start you will need to create a plan, this would be your project, as a project you will need to add your goals and then the tasks that will help you achieve those goals. Remember always to be very specific in your task and to add a time frame for each one. Then add a time frame for your final goal.

After you finish creating your project, you will need to start your strategy to achieve your goals. I will try to bombard you with ideas that can maybe help you to reach your goal:

• • Create your 30 – second commercial, that one that you will use all the time when you see or talk to your friends, family, people that you would meet every day. That personal way where you can tell them about your plans, about what you are doing, about their need to call you when they are planning their next vacation.
  • Start creating a family and friends email list, tell them about giving you the opportunity to organize their next vacation, to look for a fantastic place, hotel or destination that will make their vacation a unique experience. Ask them to recommend you to their friends. Here is where your 30 second commercial that you were preparing will work in a fantastic way! Now, when you are sending an email, you will need to do it in a creative way. It is very important that in the subject you write something unique, personal, that will make the person want to open the email. Then, in a few words tell them about your project. Keep in mind that this email will help you test how you would make future emails when you are looking for clients or offering anything special to the ones that you will have.
  • Create a monthly newsletter using a platform like Mailchimp, where you can send a short email with promotions, information about trips, cruises, something new in the market, etc. It should be an engaging email, that will make your client curious about destinations or valuable tips for their next trip. Keep in mind that you need to be creative, so when the client receives the newsletter, he/she would like to open it and not to discard it. So, make the message personable, so the client sees that you are sending the email and not a robot!
  • Start a referral program, tell your clients and friends to keep you in mind when someone is talking about trips or vacation, you can even offer them a gift card for each referral if you think that will help, or when your client that referred you goes on their next vacation give them a WOW gift as a thanks, like a spa credit, bottle of wine and cheese, reservation to a dinner in a special place, etc.
  • Make a beautiful, not expensive give away gift to your clients with your information, so your business will become exposed each time that they use your gift.
  • Go to your local Travel Agency Association and join them. There you will learn about other offerings around the world and will have the opportunity to meet suppliers, learn about what they are offering, etc.
  • Use direct mail to send to your clients, newest research has found that people like to receive hand written notes, so you can use their birthdays, anniversaries or special events to share a special note from you.
  • Talk to a local hotel, tour operator, supplier and promote a dinner with your clients, wine and cheese, tea and fruits or anything to get together, so the client can enjoy a time with your suppliers, learn about destinations and will keep you in mind for their next trip.
  • Create a blog, use your knowledge about your trips, what you have read, what you have learned and write it! Use your favorite picture, make it short, interesting and unique. This will allow you to have stronger followers, strong community and if you mix it with social media, you will get a fantastic result! You can share it by email, post on your Instagram, Facebook or any other social media account. Remember that you are an expert, so share your knowledge.
  • Create your business card and have it at all times with you.
  • If you are creating a name for your company instead of having your personal name, start promoting your own brand, you will need to look for a name that could have your personality, so it will be a fresh, dynamic and unique, a name that will help the people to remember you. Emily Matras at Bonvivantcopy.com has a quiz that you can take with 5 questions that will help you define your own brand. You can take it at bonvivantcopy.com/personality-quiz.

Talking about social media, it is important to open a social media account. Just focus on one or two of them, so try all of them and the ones that you feel more comfortable are the ones that you will use. Try to post unique information, something that will engage your followers, look at pictures that you have from previous trips, people like to see places that you have been. They like to see you!

“If you don’t put it online, then it really doesn’t exist” (Derek Sivers)

“Social media is a huge influencer in making travel plans and decisions today” (Sara Lantto, digital marketing manager at Travel Leaders Network)

Here is a brief explanation of some of the social media sites that people use the most, try to find which one you identify yourself with and which one is considered the best option as a marketing strategy, here is few information about each one:

• • Instagram: is a free, online photo-video sharing application and social network platform. It’s a social media app that will allow users to share photos and videos from their lives, add captions, edit filters, engage with others, etc. Has become one of the rising starts of the social media. Each time more people are using Instagram. You can partner with influencers. Using hashtags (#) can increase your visibility. You can reach more people, know what people like. When you create you account remember that people want to see you, is OK to put beautiful pictures, but also people wants to see places where you have been, also pictures from your clients, picture of you going to a seminar or congress, so they will see that you take your business very seriously and you are learning each day more and more. In the study made by Statista as of May 2019, 33.8 % Instagram users were between 25-34 years old and the second largest group 24.2% was between the ages of 18 and 24.
  • Facebook: is a free platform. Its mission is “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together”. (Facebook Company Info.) The benefits are that you can increase your exposure to potential customers, gathering more leads, you can lower your marketing expenses, reach targeted audience. Increase your credibility and promotes your business by building long-term relationships with other users. Here as same as in Instagram is great to be personal, so it won’t look like a robotic Facebook just showing beautiful pictures, because if people want to look for beautiful and professional pictures they will go to National Geographic. With Facebook, beside posting pictures, videos, etc. you can learn about your friends, their business, etc. In a study made by Statista in 2018 the age range that use the most Facebook was between 25 to 35 years old.
  • Linkedin: this is a free platform that will allow you to connect with your professional network. It was built with the idea of connecting with other professionals as a social network. You can also have a membership at a monthly cost. Here you will create your professional profile and find friends, and people related with your network. You can post and share blogs, information related with your company, research companies, interviewers and recruiters. You can also join a LinkedIn group where you can share your knowledge with others. It is an important tool for your networking.

“… demographic information shows that around a quarter of Linkedin users are around ages of 18- 29, in recent research shows that 61% of the users are between 30 to 64 years old…” (live alumini)

“LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile apps” (Wikipedia)

• • Snapchat: it is a very intimate message application, so you will share your pictures or videos to someone and as soon as they see it, it would be deleted.

“… the big two groups that are using the application 78% in the United States are between the ages of 18-24, 60% between the ages of 25-35…” (study made for Statista)

“…Snapchat is a popular messaging app that lets users exchange pictures and videos (called snaps) that are meant to disappear after they’re viewed. It’s advertised as a “new type of camera” because the essential function is to take a picture or video, add filters, lenses or other effects and share them with friends…” (Phys.org)

• • YouTube: it is the most popular video sharing site at the moment. You can create a video and share this video in almost all the social media accounts that you may have. Anyone can see them unless you labeled it private. It is used to watch music videos, shows, how to do things, etc. So, it is perfect for your business to create a video about your trip, or promote a place that you will recommend, etc. It is also free, but if you want to get more of it you can pay a monthly fee. In almost all the statistics show that is a platform that all ages are using.
  • Pinterest: it is a social network that will aloud users to visually share images or videos. It is more focus on the person lifestyle allowing you to share your taste and interest with others. The people that use this application the most are between the ages of 18 -49 years old.
  • Twitter: Twitter is an American online microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”. You can use your twitter account to promote your business, YouTube videos, promotions, website, etc. Small business has been using Twitter to grow their business.

“… tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but on November 7, 2017, this limit was doubled to 280 for all languages except Chinese, Japanese, and Korean…” (Wikipedia)

“… 37% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18 -29 and 25 % 30 – 49 years old…” (By Statista)

It would be a plus, if you ask your customers if they can share with you their trip’s pictures or videos, so you can add them to your social media.

Now that we have talked about the most used social media platforms, we need to talk about your clients. You need to do a research of your clients, their age group, where they like to travel, how much do they spend in each trip, do they travel solo or as a family? Do they like spas, sporting events, concerts, what kind of hotels do they use?

Having this knowledge will help you share in your social media, email or any other way, the information that they will really look at and will like to use for their next trip.

Next, you need to look at your followers that you don’t know, how did they find you? , What made them ask for your services?

Millennials are different, they usually look at the last minute to book their trips, so maybe for your millennials the best market strategy will be to send them any last-minute great deal for a weekend or flight.

And finally, but not less important is for you to be prepare, to educate yourself, to specialize in something. Remember that you will need your clients to know that you are not just offering the best deal, but instead that you are the one that knows what you are offering. That is why creating your niche is a big plus. Now days, clients want someone that will be an expert, that will give them what they cannot find on the internet. They like a personalized itinerary, something unique just for them. Remember they need to know the value in using you!