The Travel Professional’s Guide To

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The Travel Professional’s Guide to Attraction Marketing

Steve Crowhurst, CTC

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The Travel Professional’s Guide to Attraction Marketing © 2016 Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise whatsoever without written permission or authorization through payment of a Permission to Copy fee (except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews) . For information please contact SMP Training Co. steve@sellingtravel.net or call 250-760-0893 Protected by the Canadian Copyright Act. For general information on SMP publications and services please email: steve@sellingtravel.net Illustrations by Steve Crowhurst.

Limit of liability/disclaimer of warranty: SMP Training Co., publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation, warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher and author is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising here from. The fact that an organisation or website is referred to in this work as a citation and / or potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information, the organisation or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

THE TRAVEL AGENT’S STORE COACHING PROGRAM

To help you get the maximum benefit from your purchase The Travel Agent’s Store offers a free coaching session with the author of the e-Guide. The coaching sessions last for up to one-hour and are conducted via Skype. Once you have read through and studied this eGuide jot down any questions, challenges you have, then email to steve@sellingtravel.net to arrange a coaching date and time.

Be sure to take advantage of this offer!

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PAGE TOPIC

4 Introduction

5 Spam Laws - Review

7 5 Tips for Sending International Emails in 2016

8 Window & Website Banners

10 Video is Better Than text

11 What’s The Attraction?

13 List Your Travel ‘Tractions

14 The Physical YOU

17 Where Does the OLD or NEW YOU Fit?

18 Find One Image You Can Use for Most Occasions

19 The Map of Your Travels

20 Validations

21 Who To Attract?

23 Promoting Your Best Feature / Service

24 Attraction Marketing Tips, Tools & Techniques

Animoto P:24 Pinterest P: 30

Blogs / Blogging P: 25 Podcasts P: 31

Consumer Events P: 25 Talk / Trade Shows P: 32

E-Magazines P: 26 Travelogues P: 32

E-mail P: 27 Twitter P: 33

Facebook P: 28 Video P: 33

Imagery P: 29 Website P: 34

34 Managing Your Social Media Choices

35 Local Store Marketing

Off-Line and Traditional P: 35 Hair Salons P: 38

Book Stores P: 35 Hospitals P: 38

Dentist’s Doctors’ Offices P: 36 Laundromats P: 38

Department Stores P: 37 Luggage Stores P: 38

Fashion Stores P: 37 Movie Theatres P: 39

Fast Food Outlets P: 37 Outdoor Clothing Stores P: 39

Grocery Stores P: 38

40 About The Author

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Introduction Attracting new customers to do business with you is getting tougher each day, and that’s not going to change too much in the near future, however you can increase your chances of winning new clients by learning how to attract the people that are actually travelling. Despite the world wide terror campaigns and the home-grown violence, there still millions of people who intend to travel somewhere. These are the prospects you need to attract and as you can image, they all have choices and they range from you, to your competition to booking online. If you follow the rules of attraction, chances are you will gain new clients and also retain your existing client base. The term Attraction Marketing also refers to your existing clients. In this case it refers to promoting your products in such a way that your existing clients are nudged to book with you versus not travelling this year. You could approach the concept of Attraction Marketing based on the laws of attraction which refer to “like attracts like” – some people will meet and not get along until the moment they find out they both like dogs, or travel, or have been to the same school, or have a mixed-race marriage, or have an account with Instagram. Whatever the sameness is, it creates a “Hey, they’re just like me!” response and the attraction has started. In the world of marketing, you’ll need to project yourself and your business in a certain way that attracts the clients you wish to sell to. No use sending your promotional materials to low income areas if you are selling luxury cruises. At the same time, promoting low cost trips to a wealthy neighborhood may not deliver an ROI. Attracting Perfect Clients is a well-known book. In it, the authors suggest completing an analysis of the clients who are great to deal with, pay on time, ask the right questions and value your expertise. Determine their personalities, needs and wants and profile them – THEN, start marketing to attract more clients like the ones you like to deal with. Attraction Marketing requires that you tidy up your words, phrases, your website and yourself, so that everything about your agency is attractive to the client base you serve and the new clients you wish to attract. In this eGuide we start with a review of the Anti-Spam laws that can cause a new travel agent a challenge when attempting to attract new clients. Reason for the hassle is simple: today, in most countries you must have a person’s permission to contact them electronically, by phone, fax, email, and in print via snail mail. If you are ready, let’s attract some new business. Best regards Steve Crowhurst.

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Use the real estate you have access to and by that I mean your agency window and your website home-page. Here’s a banner you’ll want to create and post.

We are CASL / CAN=SPAM compliant! Your email is safe with us.

Have you heard

of Anti-Spam Laws?

Not knowing could

prevent you from

getting the best

travel deals.

Call us now and we’ll

tell you what you

have to do. CLICK NOW AND

SAIL AWAY!

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The answer to this question is an easy one. It’s YOU! Yes, it IS all about you. Finally you say! But there’s more. The attraction is most certainly YOU, and that includes what you are saying, doing and the personality you are projecting. If you are projecting a negative vibe, then you will not attract the clients you would like to sell to. If someone is attracted to the negative vibe, then that will tell you something about their personality. Perhaps not the client profile you were wanting. This works both ways of course…

This may sound simple but the main focus of your Attraction Marketing campaign and overall activities must start with you and as I have written many times, that means YOU must get comfortable talking about yourself and showcasing your travels. Something I call your travel provenance. It must all come bundled with a smile.

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From Generic to Niche Whatever you are known for, or just getting into is the key story you will be telling and building your attraction marketing plan around – e.g., your travel credentials. As a generic all-purpose travel agent you will be challenged to stand out from the crowd if you stick to marketing product and destinations. The key for you is as stated, is to push market yourself, your travel passions and you other skills and talents. Find something about yourself that’s attractive such as showcasing the instrument play, your volunteer work, that you are interested in old coins etc. As a niche travel agent you will have a focus for all your attraction marketing ideas. Your niche could range from food to football or from China to California. Each niche offers you a dedicated line of approach.

Keypoint: when it comes to personal information do NOT post it. Keep your online information business related and focused on yourself. No need to mention your spouse/partners name, or your kids names, or anything else that is personal. Focus purely on the business of travel and your travel career.

List your personal attractions here: What is it about you that people are attracted to? Think hard.

If you are not sure, ask your clients, friends and if you dare, your family!

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Are you ready to take the stage and put yourself out there in terms of using yourself as the core component for your attraction marketing campaign? If not, we need a serious chat.

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From my workshops I know for sure that some travel agents are reluctant to put their face in print or stand on stage and present to a room full of potential clients. Stage fright and fear of public speaking are a well-known challenge for most people. The answer is simply to practice. There is no magic to being a successful speaker / presenter other than practice. Okay, a little personality and humour can go a long way, too… so that’s something else to work on if you feel your personality is not as lively as it should be. If you need something to read on the topic, check out my eGuide shown here. It’s available from The Travel Institute. I Don’t Like The Way I Look Some travel agents tell me they do not feel they are physically attractive, for whatever reasons, that’s how they feel and that’s who they see in the mirror every morning and that’s why, many agents will not appear in photographs or videos. So if that’s you, then we need to change the movie that’s playing in your head. We need to download a new version, a new update! First things first, and you know this, you are UNIQUE. There is only one of you in the entire world. That’s it. Right there you are ahead of the game. Next… a psychological makeover might be what you need in terms of how you think about yourself, the family baggage, the younger days baggage and then there’s the makeover that refers to “looks” meaning hair style, clothing, and for my female TAs, could be make up, could be colour of clothes etc. For the guys, hey, a good looking suit can go a long way when doing a photo shoot. Even if you dress in shorts and a grunge t-shirt when leading an adventurous group, the business suit is always the attire when you wish to showcase yourself. Business attire - it works for both male and female TAs. However, that said, it is always nice to see you kitted out in the clothes that help you enjoy your niche market. Go for both sides of you. But…I Don’t Like The Way I Look! Okay, if that’s a phrase you use often you are allowed to say it once more and then that’s it. From this moment on, you love how you look and you are going to do what you have to do in order to love yourself some more. Lose weight, gain weight, grow your hair, cut it, dump the lime green pant suit for a dark blue skirt and white blouse, continue wearing those shorts, but hey, wash the things okay! Take on a “like me” coach and or personal trainer. What am I saying? I’m saying turn yourself, your physical self into a photo opportunity. This has nothing to do with being fake or being something you’re not. It’s the same you, but brushed up a bit! Once you finish the makeover to whatever level you feel necessary, you’ll feel so much more confident and you’ll be wanting to do that photo shoot, snap that selfie and shoot that face on video. What can I tell you, it works.

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Find One Image You Can Use for Most Occasions The image shown below (chin on hand) is the image I tend to use a lot when marketing myself and my products. It’s getting a bit old now (not me, the image!) and so as I like to say, you, we, everybody needs to keep their marketing image as current as possible. This ‘keep it real’ concept came to me some years back when I attended a training session. The presenter’s image on the flyer was one thing, in person - he looked 110 years old!! It was quite a shock and a lesson learned.

Your Generic PR Image You also need a generic PR image that you like and one that reflects you as you are “today” (within a year or so) and you are confident in putting it out there. The Niche Image Right, let’s get down and dirty or up and clean. Whatever the niche is that you sell, be it religious groups or walking in the outback, you’ll want to build a portfolio of you in action as it were. The religious you should be photographed onsite, by ‘where it happened’, being involved in ceremony, and wearing the rig of the day. The hiking you will be featured in your rig of the day, up a tree, on a rock, wading across streams and anything else that shows you doing what you sell – like the image below of me out in the wilds with my pet seagull! Ya think?

This image is made up of three

photographs that have been “doctored”

and layered one over the other.

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Almost good to go, however first you’ll need to think about who you are going to attract or want to attract to do business with you. This is very important as it governs where and how you market yourself and which self you take to market. Work on the form below and you’ll arrive at the answer you need. Remember the list below can be applied to Existing and Prospective clients.

Anyone / anything: Existing Prospective

Generation specific: Existing Prospective

Age specific: Existing Prospective

Activity specific: Existing Prospective

Destination specific: Existing Prospective

Interest specific: Existing Prospective

Other: Existing Prospective

You might have selected / made notes on one or more headings and that’s okay. It means you’ll be creating more than a one-ad-fits-all plan.

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All three Tips, Tools and Techniques are interspersed from here on. As you read through each heading try to factor in how you might use each idea, or combine two or three based on the customer you are trying to attract. It’s your choice how you use the information, make changes, blend the ideas and put anything and everything to good use, adding to it as you go with your own ideas. So here we start with one of the best marketing tools ever – Animoto.

Animoto One of my favourite tools. I use Animoto often because, and I must confess, it is fun to use and the output makes you look like a pro videographer. The image below is linked to my Attraction Marketing video created for this page and to show you how you might use Animoto to create such a video of your own. Mine is tongue-in-cheek, yours could be the same or more “straight” and focused on your product. Adding humour is a good thing as long as it does not override your message which should be: Book Today!

Click the image to play.

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In addition to the marketing activities already mentioned there is also many more off-line activities you can initiate locally and that’s what we call Local Store Marketing. It’s low tech versus social/digital tech. Here we’re talking about placing your flyers in local shops where your prospective and existing clients shop and placing your ads in local newspapers that most households in and around your community, receive.

Off-Line and Traditional Guess what? Paper still works. Yes, despite the move to online and all things digital, paper still works and people on the street still read it, look at it and show their friends. Take a mental walk down your main shopping street… see any posters in the shop windows? Of course you do. Paper. Even in the most-trendiest of places, paper still rocks. In the travel industry, although suppliers are saving money by NOT printing posters to give away to agents, some still do. Then again, you can have your own posters printed.

Note to the wise when printing paper: many of your clients will be conservationist in mind, so as and when you do engage a paper based marketing activity, be sure to print on recycled paper. Same for your posters. Show your readership you care about the world you sell.

The traditional forms of advertising and promotion work well for local store marketing activities and here’s where you can make excellent use of the traditional forms of promotion. Let’s explore:

Book Stores Books and travel go together. Always have. Always will. There has even been a resurgence in old Victorian guide books of Europe and Scotland for instance being reprinted. Then we have the travel shows on TV where the narrator / traveller is using one of those Victorian guides to travel with. Working with a local book store be it a national chain or a local independent opens up many and exciting opportunities. You can:

1. Leave business cards at the checkout 2. Print and offer bookmarks for the store 3. Focus on one specific ‘how to travel’ book and help promote it 4. Arrange a travel talk at the bookshop 5. Set up a consumer event partnering with the bookstore

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Here’s a slogan image I created that you are free to use. Just right click, then copy, save as - or use your screen capture program or your

Print Screen (PrtScn) key to capture it.

Look for more slogans like this throughout Selling Travel’s Magazine,

website and other eGuides.

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About The Author Steve Crowhurst Travel trade keynote speaker, trainer, author & publisher.

Steve entered the retail travel industry in 1965 and has worked from the front line to the executive floor, owned and operated his own travel agencies, travel trade training and consulting firms and has worked from a home office for over 25 years. In 2010 he published his 412 page book 273 “No Fluff - No Theory” Marketing Ideas for Travel Agents; in June 2011 he published the first digital issue of Selling Travel magazine, this was followed by Travel Agency Manager and Travel Trade Supplier magazines in early 2013. In October 2013 Steve published the first issue of IC Travel Agent a digital magazine targeting the home-based travel agent, ICs and OSRs. Steve is now turning all of his workshops and webinars into easy to read, street savvy eGuides. Check back often at www.sellingtravel.net for new titles. If you would like Steve to speak at your conference or convention, deliver management level webinars or work with your executive team please email him directly: steve@sellingtravel.net

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