Agents get a leg up with collaborative marketing – get on board and get your free marketing collateral!
One of the biggest challenges in a world where we are constantly advertised to, exposed to, marketed to and yelled at for attention is somehow managing to get your voice and ideas out there. It’s tough. Unless you have buckets of cash like Air NZ and Qantas to make funny or emotionally connecting ad’s, your voice can get lost.
But in the world of social media, instant connectivity and multi platform user engagement, there are some practical ways to make a marketing message work
- Collaboration
- Localise your focus
- Play to your strengths
Collaboration
Its notoriously hard to get agents to work collaboratively, especially agents across chains or in the same locale. Creating a collaborative voice is like herding cats.
A great way around it is to run a competition, compile the results and share back the value-add collateral to agents who in turn, can take a cheeky swipe at the online, direct to public, travel agent sites. That example is at the end of this article.
Localise your focus
God forbid, can’t believe I am saying this but consider; Is print advertising at the local fete, using some g rated, but cheeky marketing, potentially more effective than a facebook site for creating business?
It was less than ten years ago we fought the notion the electronic would trump analogue and paper. So our frame of reference, almost our advertising moral compass, is purely digital. Could going analogue again, challenging new norms, actually make you stand out? Do you actually need a massive market to generate business? Interesting thought. Maybe being a big fish in a small pond is the way forward.
Play to your strengths
I couldn’t believe I have this conversation at WTM 2 weeks ago, but an agent, from the UK, felt that by spending 5,000 quid on a site and some simple marketing, could steal business from Expedia. Having been asked to talk to her about software and optimising her business, I had to explain to her looking at input, output, required sales, margins and marketing voice to consider the viability of her online venture. She was off to mortgage the farm.
She was adamant. Who, in there right mind, would take on Expedia online and think they could win?
However, Expedia can never be human. You are, you need to consider what can you do to remind your customers about what exactly you are good at.
That’s why we ran the t-shirt competition.
That’s why roomsXML and KarryOn are giving back your answers to give you something to strengthen your marketing voice.
How would you like your own customised “Keep Calm” promo tool?
This time, there’s not even a competition. However, there is roomsXML and KarryOn helping travel agents take up the good fight.
All you need to do to get your logo in the place of our logo on this fine example, which includes the best of the responses from our T-shirt competition, is to mail to au.support@roomsxml.com
- a high resolution version of your logo
- let us know any accreditation you have (such as IATA, ATAS etc)
And you will receive, free of charge, your very own Keep Calm, let the travel agent handle it marketing collateral, courtesy of roomsXML and KarryOn.