A Marketing Program Is a Must

— Part I

By Angela Criss

As home based agents, we market travel. “Marketing” is an often-confusing term. It can be defined as “the wide range of activities involved in making sure that the seller continues to meet the needs of the customers and getting value in return.” People often consider marketing to be the same as advertising, but advertising or promotion is only one part of marketing.

Actually many small business owners try to set up shop before doing their homework. Developing a marketing program is a mandatory step in a successful business. Long term travel agent success depends on the ability to maintain a strong body of satisfied customers while continually increasing this body with new customers. A sound marketing program helps owners to focus their efforts on identifying, satisfying and following up on the customer’s needs — all at a profit.

To make sure the seller is meeting the needs of the customer, marketing includes research. It is easy to want to skip this process, but no marketing plan would be complete without some background research to find out what potential customers exist, what their needs are, and how you should meet them. Effective research will result in more effective sales, getting the value in return.

The aim of market research is to find out who the customers are, what the customers want, where and when they want it. The key to effective marketing research is neither technique nor data — it’s useful information.

1) First, successful travel agents look at potential clients (markets). Who and where are your potential clients? Surveys can be very effective. I often host booths at area county fairs, summer festivals, bridal shows and more. I ask visitors to complete a very short survey and include that survey in a drawing for a prize. Most are happy to answer just a few questions. While they complete the survey, I fill a bag of brochures to take with them. Short E-mail surveys can also be effective.

Also, many area Chambers of Commerce have already done a lot of the work for you. Many have done marketing research to make statistics available to industries moving into the area. Local libraries also have information on the demographics of the area. Due to my husband’s job, we have moved quite a bit. We often go to the library to find out more about the area we are moving to.

Try to gather as much information about the population around you. What does all this information tell you? By focusing on the demographics of your clients such as age, income, education, occupations, interests and hobbies, you can customize your travel sales to meet their needs. The more you know about your clients, the better you can serve them.

2) Next, look at how those travel needs might be met for each individual group or target market. Try to identify specific groups within the population that would benefit from your services. Zero in on specific market segments such as luxury, family travel, active travelers, senior tours and others. You can aim your sales efforts to emphasize the benefits of the service that would appeal most to these target markets.

Based on several survey attempts, what are the ages of your market? What is their spending potential? To find this, ask which hotels they stay in most often. Knowing what hotel they prefer, Motel 6 or Embassy Suites or the Four Seasons, can help you choose which products to promote most.

Your customers’ addresses alone can tell you a lot about them. You may be able to guess your customers’ lifestyle by knowing what neighborhoods they live in. Knowing how they live can give you solid hints on what they can be expected to buy.

Talk to your customers and ask how you can better serve them. Encouraging and collecting customer comments and suggestions is an effective form of research while instilling customer confidence in your services.

Understanding your target markets makes it much easier for you to customize your services to meet their needs and to focus on where to promote your services. Does your agency need to sell luxury products or “cheap” getaways? When hosting a cruise night, should you promote a highly specialized product or a mass market cruise line? It all depends on your customers and their needs.

3) At this point, the competition needs to be analyzed. Who are your competitors? (Don’t forget the Internet.) What is their market share? What are the similarities and differences between their services and yours? What attracts customers to them? What are the strengths and weaknesses of their business? How can you compete — lower prices, better service, easier access, etc?

4) Results of all this research indicate your position in the market or your market niche.
Marketing includes designing and describing the travel product so that clients will buy from you rather than the competition. I recently heard an interviewer ask country music star Loretta Lynn about making it in the country music business. She said something that I thought sums up marketing positions: “You have to be the first, the best or different.”
Use your information to determine areas where the competition doesn’t adequately fill consumer demand or areas where a new product or different promotion would capture a new part of the market. You might try to become specialized instead of offering a broad line of travel services.

5) Finally the travel agent creates a name to be identifiable through promotion. Since this step of marketing includes many factors, such as advertising, public relations and publicity, I will follow up with more information on this step of the marketing plan in the next article.

I hope you will give consideration to how you market travel, beginning with research. The aim of market research is to find out who the customers are, what the customers want, where and when they want it. Remember, effective marketing research is neither technique nor data — it’s useful information to help you increase sales.

A good marketing plan rests on the importance of customers to a business, their needs and how to meet those needs, even if you have been in business a long time, stop and look at the possibility of gaining new clients by learning more about their demographics. Just as new businesses can enter the market and capture a share of the market, an established business can use the same strategies and increase their market share as well.

Angela Criss has a B.S. in communications with an emphasis in advertising and a minor in marketing. She has had a myriad of jobs, including marketing director for a manufacturing company, various newspaper jobs and taught English for 10 years. She now owns a home based travel agency, Criss Travel, in rural Salem, AR.