Richard Turen
No one can deny the impact of the digital age on travel industry advertising. It has brought major change to the way large travel companies market their products to the consumer. It has spawned a gaggle of Internet-savvy gurus eager to assert that you, the travel seller, must constantly do more to "engage" your clients on social media.
The best-attended seminars at travel gatherings usually have to do with techniques to make your social media most effective. Most of the agents and agency owners I talk with are convinced that to be strategically hip and to truly reach their clients, they have to throw out much of what they thought they knew about advertising. It is a whole new world out there, and encouraging conversation, contests, offers and more and more tweets ought to be the goal.
Some of the best travel agencies in the U.S. are now touting the fact that they are attracting new employees who are 30 years younger than management and who have well-defined social media skills.
There is a certain mindset in some quarters of our industry that sales success is largely based on our ability to get folks to "like" us on Facebook and to follow the corporate drivel that makes up 90% of online media ads.
Now I can understand why it might be helpful for Taco Bell to offer two-for-one pricing on a Doritos taco. But I'm less certain we ought to be selling a few nights at Claridge's in London using the same technique.
Advertising and communication with our clients is best done in a format suited to the smartphone environment, we are told, a fact that is driving many agencies into the hands of app and social media developers eager to modernize their client communications.
Many in our industry have already taken the leap off this cliff, and they have largely found, much to their surprise, that there's no safety net, and the path is straight down.
You see, it turns out that even the most wildly successful social media platforms, like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, can't really generate profits on their ads, because users just become inured, and their eyes skip over them. In fact, the really huge social media sites are dependent on big data -- your personal info that they sell to eager buyers.
Whether or not social media advertising, placement and promotion really pays off for the retail travel seller remains very much an open question.
That is why we have dedicated our firm to a rather tried-and-true method of reaching all of our clients, each and every one. We mail them a newsletter. Yes, we actually mail it, first class, using actual stamps.
And you know what? Our little newsletter produces a higher rate of return than any other form of communication we use. By far.
Now let me put this in context. We belong to one of the top consortium groups, whose publications have won awards in competition with travel magazines like Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure. Our newsletters are beautifully produced. They make me proud when they go out. Our name is stamped on the front.
But our clients expect less travel hype from us and something more personal, more truthful. They don't want to read any mailings or publications that make everything smell like a strawberry.
Our newsletter comes out four to six times per year. The format is a booklet, exactly half the size of a sheet of paper. It has a black cover with our company name in silver. The last issue was 32 pages.
I hope you will re-evaluate the role of the lowly newsletter as a means -- the best means -- to communicate messages to your valued clientele. But you have to be willing to take "the big shot," coming out of the gate with something new, something that makes you unique. You have to speak in a voice that rings true. You have to take the pledge that you will not try to imitate what others have done before you, because this big shot only comes once. You can't afford to blow it. Here are some things I would recommend to develop the best possible newsletter for your firm:
• First, find the best printer in town, someone who understands layout so they can produce your words, suggest headlines and handle the placement of the photos and artwork you will give them. If you can't find someone who will personally help you through the production process, making your life infinitely easier, don't begin a new newsletter format.
• Include a full-page company directory. Make reaching the right person for the right trip easy for the reader. Put your directory on the inside front cover.
• Have a welcome page in which you personalize the company. Feature shots of your staff. Have a section in which you describe the planning of some truly exotic worldwide vacations. Mention your overseas contacts. Use these pages to describe memorable journeys as well as to demonstrate the breadth of your agency reach.
• Never use "sell" copy. Your newsletter should be without hype, a candid view of travel realities unavailable elsewhere.
• Rate products in various categories. Give one or two reasons why a cruise line only gets two stars. Don't be afraid to name names. Your honesty will bring you more clients and retain more of the ones you have than all the phony travel advertising that litters the consumer landscape.
• Don't accept paid ads that feature misleading price points or claims of "luxury" that are not accurate.
• Only accept advertising from suppliers you truly endorse, even those that may not be rated highly. Help customize the ads to provide an endorsement of your team and what you represent to the consumer.
• Always include the best consumer information. Name the best credit cards for travelers, the top 10 lie-flat airline seats in business class, the airlines with the worst seat pitch on international flights, the five best Caribbean islands for those who want to escape mass tourism, a dummy's guide to understanding travel insurance or the top three restaurants in five major European cities.
• Always write in a collective "we" voice so that the information is seen as coming from your aggregate staff knowledge, not some outside source.
• We always have a full page we call our "Shareholder's Report." We consider every client a "shareholder," and the report specifically lists areas of our business that are up as well as down. It also includes measured trends. It makes the reader feel like a company insider, which ought to be a goal of every newsletter.
There are those who feel that a client newsletter is a remnant from some past advertising age. But that enables you to take the big shot, a truly honest approach to marketing travel that will leave your competitors stuck in the silliness that characterizes so much of social media.
Finally, consider this: All of your competitors are trying to show that they have expertise. Consider that a given and instead focus on designing a newsletter that positions you as the one truly "honest" voice in the neighborhood. That will take some guts, and you will have to learn to point out the downsides of products as well as the benefits.
But once you learn how to do this tastefully, your newsletter will represent expertise coupled with honesty, the best possible combination in retail travel.
Senior Contributing Editor Richard Bruce Turen was named a Superstar Generalist in Conde Nast Traveler's most recent list of Top Travel Specialists. He is the owner of luxury vacation firm Churchill & Turen and also owns and edits TravelTruth.com. Contact him at rturen@travelweekly.com.