Archives : 2011 : June
Be More Direct With Your Resort Lodging Marketing
June 27th, 2011One of the more underutilized marketing methods in the lodging industry is direct mail. A lot of marketers look at it as “old school” or too expensive and don’t do much of it. Most prefer email – primarily because it’s low cost and easier to execute.
But there are some great reasons to incorporate more direct mail in your marketing mix.
1) Direct mail has a lower attention barrier. The average person receives roughly 20 pieces of mail per week. Most of us get that many emails every hour. So you have a much better chance of getting the attention of the recipient with direct mail when you don’t have to compete with so many other senders.
2) Direct mail has a long shelf life. I’ve talked to clients who have received responses from a direct mail piece over a year after it was sent. Many recipients will hang on to a mail piece, especially if it has an image that appeals to them. The mailer will end up on their refrigerator or desk where the sender’s brand will get many many glances. Email, on the other hand, has a shelf life about as long as it takes to hit the delete key.
3) Direct mail offers greater opportunity for messaging. When you consider the front and back of a direct mail piece, you have a lot of real estate in which to convey your message. You can communicate using colors, type styles, and graphics without having to rely on the recipient having html turned on, or graphics enabled.
Obviously, these advantage come at a price. And yes, it takes a little more doing to execute a good direct mail campaign. But the reward is more than worth it.
Bill Schlosser
Vice President – Marketing
Email Addresses = Lodging Revenue Gold
June 20th, 2011Is your leisure reservations team getting your prospects email address 100% of the time? If not, why not? Well, it’s hard to obtain right? It’s a personal piece of information and one that most of us don’t relinquish easily. None of us like spammers but remember these prospects are calling you. They’re interested in what you have to offer and who wouldn’t be? You have a great location with a variety of fun and exciting experiences.
Since you’ve already convinced the prospect to pick up the phone and call you, let’s take the next step in the sales and marketing process and get their email, so that we can keep them informed on all the great reasons to come stay with YOU! My suggestion is simple, but in my observation, very effective. Getting the email has to do more with when you ask, than how or why. So, here’s my suggestion. Sometime toward the beginning of the conversation plug this little word track in:
Reservation agent: “May I please confirm your phone number in case we get disconnected?”
Prospect: “Sure, 555-555-5555”
Reservation agent: “And a good email for you please?”
Prospect: “Um, it’s someone@emailaddress.com”
Here’s why this works. It’s because of a psychological concept that internet marketers know well. If I can get you to share one easy piece of information it is much easier to get the next more personal piece of information. This is why when you visit a company online to get a Car Insurance quote they start with asking for your zip code only, then on the next screen they get your contact info. Have your team try it. You’ll be surprised by the number of emails you’re getting.
Brise Carpenter
Client Advocate
Higher Reservation Conversion – Part 3: Just Ask
June 10th, 2011For this tactic, we look outside the leisure travel industry to the retail industry. Why? Because they’ve figured it out. Their finding: if you don’t ask for the sale you won’t get it. Take Best Buy, for example. The latest statistic I heard at a sales and marketing seminar was that they sell 1 in 5 of their visitors an extended warranty. Whether you agree with extended warranties or not, you have to agree those are pretty impressive figures. This 20% success rate should come as no surprise considering the power of suggestion. Renowned marketer Jay Abraham is famous for saying: “People are silently begging to be led.” Over and over again we see this to be true, in every industry, in every aspect of human nature. Suggestion is powerful.
So how do you expect to book a reservation if you don’t ask? By the way, I’m confident most of your reservationists are NOT asking for the sale. They just aren’t. The concept seems simple in theory, but we find it quite difficult in the real world. This is because in the end it’s really about more than just asking. It’s about structuring the whole call to make asking for the reservation comfortable and natural. In order to know how your team is structuring calls you need to record their calls and coach them to higher conversion. Coaching and training is a no brainer but it is most effective when you have recorded conversations to base your discussion on. At the very least, have this conversation with your team and challenge them to start asking for the reservation. I think you’ll be amazed by the results.
This is the 3rd and final installment on Higher Reservation Conversion. Hope you enjoyed them and I especially hope they help you to be more successful.
Brise Carpenter
Client Advocate
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