Advertising &

Communicating

With Group Leaders

By Barbara Mangini

I think it’s interesting that the term “direct mail” was first coined in 1961 by Lester Wunderman, the marketing guru and author of “Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay.” After he praised the virtues of communicating with consumers through the postal service, direct mail became the hot advertising tactic through the next two decades.
But by the ’90s, Wunderman was preaching something else: targeted relationship marketing and ongoing interactive relationships between buyer and seller. And, he was right on target with the word “interactive.” It certainly describes the new Internet driven mail (E-mail) of the computer age.
Applying his perceptions to the group sales business, I thought it would be fun to take a look at how traditional direct mail marketing to groups is done and how Internet mail is changing the way we do business with group leaders. I see significant changes in two distinct areas: Advertising to, and communicating with, group leaders.

Advertising to Group Leaders
Direct mail is usually sent to group leaders a certain number of times a year. Often, group travel brochures or fliers are mailed at the first of the year. Additional tour offerings are sent quarterly or seasonally. Contact is limited to planned campaigns and group leader lists are often broken down into only three categories: Past customers, potential customers and the general population of group leaders. Even with bulk mailing permits, postage is expensive and it’s nearly impossible to ensure time-sensitive offers will arrive on time. It’s no wonder the response rate on direct mail is only between 1% and 2%.
The real drawback to direct mail advertising is that agents are just “throwing it out there.” There’s no way to know if direct mail communication is annoying to a group leader unless the group leader complains and asks to opt out of future mailings.
Internet mail allows for ongoing E-blasts of itineraries and packages personalized for each type of target group. While consortia and technology companies do have a long way to go in identifying group leaders in a community and matching them to offers, searching the Net, local newspapers and organizations listed in phone books for various groups and their group leaders does work. Suppliers have made creating advertising fliers easy by offering online customization of group fliers so that custom offers can be sent to group leaders instantaneously. Likewise, invitations to special events like cruise nights are sure to arrive long before RSVP dates. All of this personalization increases the response rate from group leaders from the 2% of direct mail to 6% when receiving Internet mail.
Part of the higher response rate is the fact that smart agents, before they even contemplate communicating with group leaders through Internet mail, ask group leaders to voluntarily opt in to receive the mail. Permission marketing is direct marketing at its best, especially with concern about spam laws.

Communicating With Group Leaders
Direct mail communication is a monologue—-the agent talking to the group leader through letters and newsletters. Relationship building can only take place if the agent leaves his or her office to visit the group leader at the group’s meeting place, or if the agency plans a special event and invites group leaders, but there isn’t any guarantee that group leaders will attend.
Internet mail allows agents to create a sustained dialogue with group leaders —- all in real time. Group leaders can receive Internet mail for a myriad of reasons, from thanking them for their business to asking for advice on creating a new itinerary. Many strong agent/group leader relationships have grown in cyberspace as agents create a feeling of familiarity with their list of group leader customers.
With group leaders becoming younger because of the influx of boomers into the group marketplace, and because boomers are already proficient at gathering sales information through the Net, Internet mail is sure to gain popularity over direct mail.
However, whether staying with direct mail, moving to Internet mail, or preferring a combination of both for the time being, I think Wunderman may agree that, even in 2005, direct marketing success for agents depends on a qualified list of group leaders.

Barbara Mangini is director of training for Travel Trade. For information on her new DVD, “The Group Sales Reality Show, Everyday Challenges, Real Solutions,” a one-hour and 15-minute workshop that sells for $29.95, E-mail her at Mangini@nb.net.