Advertising for Travel Professionals
There is probably no aspect of the entire spectrum of marketing that is as problematic as advertising. Done properly, travel agency advertising will influence a target audience. Done poorly, it will, well, make you poor. It’s no wonder that so many travel agencies advertise so minimally, and thereby lose out on a significant opportunity to make people aware of their services.
One of the secrets to an advertising campaign that works is to have the proper expectations going into the campaign. Understand what advertising can, and cannot, do for your travel agency. Advertising can interest people in travel. Advertising can make people aware of your existence. Advertising can motivate people to call your office. Advertising can bring a consumer to the doorstep of your travel agency.
But advertising cannot sell anything. That is where marketing stops and sales begin – with you.
For advertising to do its job properly, there are a lot of pre-conditions. The ad must clearly and authentically mirror the values and personality of your travel agency. The ad must be cleanly designed, and placed in appropriate media where your target audience will see it. The ad must be repeated with enough frequency to be noticed and for brand awareness to build. The campaign must be adjusted to keep it lively and fresh.
That last part is particularly important. Unless an ad is “changed up” with some frequency, people no longer notice it – it becomes background noise or, worse, invisible. Colors have to change, position has to shift. The same ad needs to be seen in a variety of formats – emails, banner ads, articles, newsletters.
One of the secrets to an advertising campaign that works is to have the proper expectations going into the campaign. Understand what advertising can, and cannot, do for your travel agency. Advertising can interest people in travel. Advertising can make people aware of your existence. Advertising can motivate people to call your office. Advertising can bring a consumer to the doorstep of your travel agency.
But advertising cannot sell anything. That is where marketing stops and sales begin – with you.
For advertising to do its job properly, there are a lot of pre-conditions. The ad must clearly and authentically mirror the values and personality of your travel agency. The ad must be cleanly designed, and placed in appropriate media where your target audience will see it. The ad must be repeated with enough frequency to be noticed and for brand awareness to build. The campaign must be adjusted to keep it lively and fresh.
That last part is particularly important. Unless an ad is “changed up” with some frequency, people no longer notice it – it becomes background noise or, worse, invisible. Colors have to change, position has to shift. The same ad needs to be seen in a variety of formats – emails, banner ads, articles, newsletters.
Your brand needs to osmotically saturate the subconscious mind of the target audience so when they want to travel, they will think of you. To the extent that you have tightly focused on a target or niche market, the more likely that audience is to think of your travel agency when they want to travel.
Advertising will set expectations about your travel agency. You have to demonstrate the ability to deliver on those expectations within the first few minutes of your initial opportunity to begin the sales process, when the client first calls. Impress the client by making good on the promises of your advertising and you have a real opportunity to sell your travel agency services to them.
Your advertising efforts need support. A well-rounded marketing campaign will have a strong public relations component composed of events, public speaking, word of mouth programs and press releases. You will have testimonials from satisfied clients and you will be participating in effective social media campaigns. It’s no easy task and you will need the support of good advisors and much planning in the process.
Advertising is an important part of the whole and it has its job to do. Together with your advertising, the balance of your marketing program will effectively represent your agency’s values to the world and drop them off at your doorstep.
Understanding Advertising
Advertising can be a scary proposition for a travel consultant. In a service industry like ours, advertising can represent a major portion of an entire marketing budget. Purchasing the right media can be a daunting gamble and generating appropriate creative is as much art as science. Results can be difficult to measure – it can sometimes be tough to determine whether an advertisement created any results at all. Yet, advertising is often the most visible marketing done by a travel agency. Hopefully, at the end of our discussion, advertising will not seem quite as dark an art as it may right now.
A good working definition is that advertising is paid, non-personal communication through media about a company meant to persuade a target audience to act in a desired manner.
Advertising is one part of the marketing mix, but it is sometimes mistaken for the whole. Advertising works in concert with the other aspects of a marketing plan to both generate short-term sales opportunities and to position the company for more long-term objectives. Travel is a good example of a service/product where advertising serves two types of objectives:
1. short term tactical (“buy now”); and
2. long term branding (“remember us and buy when you want to travel”).
Branding is the more long-term positioning of the company. It is common when purchases of a product are made infrequently – like travel consulting. A branding ad says “When you travel, remember this ad, remember our company, think of us.” A tactical ad has as its goal a short sales cycle. A tactical ad says “Buy now. This opportunity is immediate.” This is most often a product oriented advertisement. Naturally this is a bit problematic if you are advertising commodity travel because the typical short term ad will focus on price – not necessarily a good place to be for a travel consultant.
Because of its high degree of visibility, advertising is an important part of brand awareness. For that reason, the message in the ad must be clear and should never conflict with the company’s core brand message. Typically, advertising is non-personal – it is directed in a “one to many” fashion, though good advertising is targeted and focused on the demographic of the media chosen. The media can be visual, like banner ads, print advertising, imprinted merchandise, television or auditory like radio or pod-cast sponsorships. But in each case, the advertising must work in concert with the other segments of the overall marketing strategy, and the hard-dollar cost that is typically involved suggests that much careful attention needs to be given its planning, execution and management.
Remember the concept of Campaign Marketing earlier discussed. If we back up to a 30,000 foot overview, we will see the appropriate context in which marketing takes place in an ideal setting. Other elements of the marketing plan are at work conditioning the market along with advertising. Public relations efforts are exposing the public to the company brand and press releases are finding their way into local newspapers, blogs and newsletters. Company representatives are speaking at various events in the community. The company is fostering and amplifying a strong word of mouth campaign. The company CEO is blogging and the company newsletter is being sent out the door on a regular basis. In the midst of this planned and synchronized activity, the consumer sees or hears a paid advertisement.
Already conditioned by exposure to the brand by the company’s other marketing efforts, the consumer acts in a certain way – they call the company, they fill in a form, they click on an ad – and in the process arrive as a sales lead for the company. Now the more intimate, one-on-one sales process takes over to convert the lead into a sale.
You can get there from here. A well-managed advertising campaign will always share certain key characteristics that can be planned and executed with some reliability. Let’s begin, as always, with the message you want to convey.
Your own advertising needs to be synchronized, then, with two aspects of your marketing plan. First, what is your objective? Which predominates – long term positioning or short term sales? Secondly, is the message of your ad fully in sync with your overall company brand message? Is it compatible with the image you want to project?
Advertising may indeed be a dark art – but we intend to shine some light on it.
Your advertising efforts need support. A well-rounded marketing campaign will have a strong public relations component composed of events, public speaking, word of mouth programs and press releases. You will have testimonials from satisfied clients and you will be participating in effective social media campaigns. It’s no easy task and you will need the support of good advisors and much planning in the process.
Advertising is an important part of the whole and it has its job to do. Together with your advertising, the balance of your marketing program will effectively represent your agency’s values to the world and drop them off at your doorstep.
Understanding Advertising
Advertising can be a scary proposition for a travel consultant. In a service industry like ours, advertising can represent a major portion of an entire marketing budget. Purchasing the right media can be a daunting gamble and generating appropriate creative is as much art as science. Results can be difficult to measure – it can sometimes be tough to determine whether an advertisement created any results at all. Yet, advertising is often the most visible marketing done by a travel agency. Hopefully, at the end of our discussion, advertising will not seem quite as dark an art as it may right now.
A good working definition is that advertising is paid, non-personal communication through media about a company meant to persuade a target audience to act in a desired manner.
Advertising is one part of the marketing mix, but it is sometimes mistaken for the whole. Advertising works in concert with the other aspects of a marketing plan to both generate short-term sales opportunities and to position the company for more long-term objectives. Travel is a good example of a service/product where advertising serves two types of objectives:
1. short term tactical (“buy now”); and
2. long term branding (“remember us and buy when you want to travel”).
Branding is the more long-term positioning of the company. It is common when purchases of a product are made infrequently – like travel consulting. A branding ad says “When you travel, remember this ad, remember our company, think of us.” A tactical ad has as its goal a short sales cycle. A tactical ad says “Buy now. This opportunity is immediate.” This is most often a product oriented advertisement. Naturally this is a bit problematic if you are advertising commodity travel because the typical short term ad will focus on price – not necessarily a good place to be for a travel consultant.
Because of its high degree of visibility, advertising is an important part of brand awareness. For that reason, the message in the ad must be clear and should never conflict with the company’s core brand message. Typically, advertising is non-personal – it is directed in a “one to many” fashion, though good advertising is targeted and focused on the demographic of the media chosen. The media can be visual, like banner ads, print advertising, imprinted merchandise, television or auditory like radio or pod-cast sponsorships. But in each case, the advertising must work in concert with the other segments of the overall marketing strategy, and the hard-dollar cost that is typically involved suggests that much careful attention needs to be given its planning, execution and management.
Remember the concept of Campaign Marketing earlier discussed. If we back up to a 30,000 foot overview, we will see the appropriate context in which marketing takes place in an ideal setting. Other elements of the marketing plan are at work conditioning the market along with advertising. Public relations efforts are exposing the public to the company brand and press releases are finding their way into local newspapers, blogs and newsletters. Company representatives are speaking at various events in the community. The company is fostering and amplifying a strong word of mouth campaign. The company CEO is blogging and the company newsletter is being sent out the door on a regular basis. In the midst of this planned and synchronized activity, the consumer sees or hears a paid advertisement.
Already conditioned by exposure to the brand by the company’s other marketing efforts, the consumer acts in a certain way – they call the company, they fill in a form, they click on an ad – and in the process arrive as a sales lead for the company. Now the more intimate, one-on-one sales process takes over to convert the lead into a sale.
You can get there from here. A well-managed advertising campaign will always share certain key characteristics that can be planned and executed with some reliability. Let’s begin, as always, with the message you want to convey.
Your own advertising needs to be synchronized, then, with two aspects of your marketing plan. First, what is your objective? Which predominates – long term positioning or short term sales? Secondly, is the message of your ad fully in sync with your overall company brand message? Is it compatible with the image you want to project?
Advertising may indeed be a dark art – but we intend to shine some light on it.
Exercise:
Think about the travel advertising you have seen in the past. Much of it no doubt was marketing travel product, like a cruise, more so than travel services, establishing a relationship with a travel consultant. However, you have no doubt seen other service industry players such as attorneys and real estate companies marketing their services. Over the next few days, gather together some advertising of both products and services and study them. Make notice of what works for you in other's advertising and what doesn’t.
Think about the travel advertising you have seen in the past. Much of it no doubt was marketing travel product, like a cruise, more so than travel services, establishing a relationship with a travel consultant. However, you have no doubt seen other service industry players such as attorneys and real estate companies marketing their services. Over the next few days, gather together some advertising of both products and services and study them. Make notice of what works for you in other's advertising and what doesn’t.