The largest independent travel agent conference happened on board Harmony of the Seas last week, as The Travel Agent Next Door hosted nearly 300 agents and suppliers for a week long summit.
Marked with lanyards, attendees were roaming from session to session, and the sheer number of them drew attention from guests on the ship. When it was explained there were 200 travel agents on board, eyes lit up and questions began. Some travellers told us their horror stories of booking online, some have never used an agent but said they will be after speaking with us.
And that's all because wearing a nametag which started a discussion.
Good marketing tactics was one of the topics during TTAND's Agent Think Tank, an open and frank discussion where agents can share peer-to-peer their ideas and experiences and TTAND support staff can share their expertise to help guide them to success.
How best to market to clients?
Excited agents stood up to tell their marketing success stories. Like Joanne Cole, from Alberta, who has a stuffed mermaid doll she carries with her on adventures to help the shy agent create content that gets people talking. Rather than putting herself in the content, she documents the doll's adventures, which combines education with a great branding opportunity (her IG handle is @thismermaidrides) to help market her company and drive sales.
Cole also does more tangible marketing opportunities, such as last winter when she purchased 25 ski tickets to her local hill and offered them to anyone who had purchased a vacation through her. The ticket is branded and a good reminder of her agency with every glance.
"I also got a sign on one of the poles going up the ski lift, that said 'you can have a trip of a lifetime, anytime ask Joanne how.'" And they pass by every single time they ride up that chair, they see my face, smiling at them standing on a beach in Tahiti."
TTAND's Flemming Friisdahl offered his advice for agents who are nervous to get "out there" on social media, saying though it's time-consuming, it's an inexpensive and effective way to communicate with your audience.
"Don't let it be about you doing it, let it be about you doing your job. The reality is that what your perception of not wanting to do that is probably becuase I won't look good enough - that doesn't matter. It's about getting in front of the customer. It's about telling them what you're doing. And what we need to do is to tell people, it's ok to travel again. Book with me to travel."
Emails are also a valuable tool, with many TTAND agents in the session saying they've used e-newsletters to build their databases. Sending out regular weekly or monthly newsletters with an option to "share with a family member or friend" has helped to increase those numbers, which ultimately result in new bookings.
Other ideas that involved more of a spend yet were also resulting in strong bookings included car wraps and participations in local parades, digital billboards and online advertising.
Friisdahl says one of the biggest things to remember is that everyone is starting from somewhere and whether you're a brand-new agent or have years of experience, there is lots of travel business to go around. You just need to have the courage to move forward.
"When I started TTAND, we didn't have everything figured out, staff to this day will still ask "where's the manual on that' and I just say "we didn't write one," he jokes. "You just need the courage to move forward and know that you will probably fail. Now that may sound terrible, but we failed many times. And then we tweaked it, so we succeeded. Failure isn't because you didn't succeed, failure means you need to tweak it and make it better. It's not hard, it's scary. But there's a big difference between the two."
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