A newsletter is an effective means of communicating with your clients. When circulated widely, it can extend your client base and potentially add to your profits. As a product of the agency, the newsletter helps to establish your identity as a substantive organization. Directed to specific market segments, it can help improve your product mix. Ten factors should be addressed in making your newsletter an effective marketing tool.

1. Audience: Carefully decide who the target audience is. Basically, there are two choices: corporate and leisure travelers. Before deciding which type of newsletter to produce, define which business is most profitable and desirable to obtain. Direct your newsletter to this business. Some agencies may wish to produce separate newsletters for their corporate and leisure clients. Corporate travel agencies may also wish to create a separate newsletter for leisure travel in order to increase personal travel spin-off.

2. Goals and Objectives: Have a purpose in writing the newsletter: to extend your client base, create client awareness of your services, or promote new travel bargains. Inherent in everything you do, of course, is your overall goal: to increase sales. Be sure that your newsletter accomplishes these goals. Define specific objectives for reaching each goal. A sample goal might be to increase leisure travel business. One objective then would be to distribute the newsletter regularly and in a timely fashion, e.g., by the first of each month. Your readers will look forward to regularly receiving your newsletter.

3. Readership: “Quality” names including e.mail addresses are those that bring profitable business to your agency. Collecting these e.mail addresses should be a continuous task in your agency. Non-beneficial names create extra work, bring no business, or add unprofitable business. A little market research can yield substantial results. This requires deciding on which business you are after and how to reach the audience that fits into your business plan.

One method of obtaining names is by “computer prospecting” – sort the travelers using your agency by destination, class of service or amount of business during the previous year. A pattern will develop and you will be able to quickly identify key people for your mailing list. The ability to sort names is important since some newsletters may only apply to a limited market.

Your most valued clients should be included on the mailing list: the frequent traveler, key decision makers with corporate accounts, corporate officers, travel arrangers and others who make your agency successful. This will keep them apprised of your agency’s activities and thwart the marketing efforts of your competition.

Other sources which can generate readers for your newsletter include:

o Suggestions from your employees
o Referrals from your valued clients
o Input from corporate contacts
o Your sales department’s target contact list
o Suggestions from vendors
o Outside qualified mailing lists (e.g., cruise company trade magazines)
o Prospective clients in your area.

Names can be entered via most travel agency accounting systems. These names can be coded to indicate numerous bits of information. This is especially helpful if your agency does a specialty mailing other than the newsletter. Basic codes include type of traveler (corporate, leisure, group) and status (traveler, arranger, VIP, contact, etc.). A reference list of these codes should be kept by at least two employees to prevent misplacing them.

An ambitious goal is to develop a mailing list by customer habits. It can yield a much higher return than normal mailing lists. This mailing list is coded by buying habits and patterns. Sample categories can include cruise clients, single travelers, adventure travelers, special interests, non-smokers, sports enthusiasts, etc. This list enables your agency to better market specific items and reach these individuals.

Travel is a fact of life for most consultants. Many spend 45 weeks on the road every year, and some say they wouldn’t want it any other way.

We know one married couple where both are traveling consultants. They often joke that they should write a book called “Marriage on Three Days a Week” because they only see each other from Thursday night to Sunday night most weeks. Of course, they take great vacations with all the frequent flier miles and hotel points, and neither one is left at home to manage the household while the other dines in restaurants every night and comes home expecting all the chores to be done.

Like many others, they have learned how to be comfortable on the road so that their travel schedules are a source of new experiences and great stories instead of a hardship. If you learn how to be comfortable in your environment, you’ll do better work and last longer in this demanding field.

There are two types of consulting roles, from a travel schedule perspective. One type of consultant is the real Road Warrior who is in a different city each week, often visiting two or three different clients and staying only a couple of days each place. The other type travels to the same destination every week to work on a long-term engagement over several months. Which type of travel schedule you end up with depends as much on your personality as on your skill set.

No matter which type of travel schedule you have, there are some seemingly small things you can do to make yourself significantly more comfortable on the road.

Enroll in every frequent flier and hotel points program you can. The biggest perks in business travel come when you get a free family vacation later. All those trips to Pittsburgh might buy you a trip to Honolulu or Prague or wherever your heart leads you.

Whenever possible, use the same airline and hotel chain for every city. This helps you rack up the points faster, and it also establishes a level of comfort and familiarity for you from the moment you arrive in the city. Not every Marriott is exactly like every other Marriott, but there are enough similarities between them that you will begin to feel at home quickly.

Packing for Travel

Develop a routine for packing. Make a checklist that includes everything that you know you’ll need for any trip, including items like toothbrush and cell-phone charger. Go over the checklist every single time you pack a suitcase.

If you don’t follow this advice, you will eventually end up spending $200 on a “charge everything” device and using a hotel toothbrush that will rip your gums out.

Always assume you will have to carry your luggage yourself. If you aren’t sure you will need it, don’t take it. You can always buy one there. (Don’t accept engagements in locations that don’t have stores.)
Pack something comfortable to wear in your hotel room and clothes you can wear to work out.
Plan to sleep in something you don’t mind being seen wearing in public. In the event of a fire, hotels will evacuate two floors above and two floors below, even if it’s just a small fire in a trash basket. That’s what that loudspeaker above the bed is for.
All luggage looks alike. Make your bag easy to spot on the carousel and less likely to be stolen with a few strategically placed strips of duct tape or a big pink bow.
The military knows that rolled clothing does not wrinkle. Don’t fold it, roll it. Turn jackets inside out, fold the collar up and press one shoulder inside the other.
Think about what you pack from the perspective of Customs and Airport Security. For example, many airlines will not allow you to carry steel-tipped darts in your carry-on luggage. (Yes, one of us learned this the hard way. Not the one you think.) Carry all medication in the original packages, particularly prescription medication.
Purchase two of everything you use daily, like cosmetics, razors, toothbrush, etc. Leave one set at home. Pack toiletries once and leave them packed. This way, you don’t have to worry that you forgot something essential and will not notice until the middle of the night in a strange hotel room. When you run out of something on the road, replace it. (This is easier if you use common brands that are sold nationally.)

After only a few weeks of travel, you’ll know exactly what you need to pack and what you don’t.

Hotel Living

If you are traveling to the same city every week, pick a hotel that you are comfortable in and make friends with the people at the front desk and in Housekeeping. If you can commit to a certain number of weeks, they might even give you a break on the room rate, which is also good for your customer.

Once you’ve tried two or three different rooms in different parts of the hotel, you’ll begin to identify specific things you like or dislike. Within a few weeks, you’ll probably have a favorite room. Don’t be afraid to ask for it every week. Staying in the same room every week can increase your sense of comfort and it’s easier to remember what room you are in. Every one of us has been frustrated at least once by trying to open a hotel room door, only to realize that the key doesn’t work because this is the room we were in last week, and we have no idea what room we have been assigned this week.

If you followed our instructions for packing and bought duplicates of all your toiletries and travel needs, you can check a suitcase with the bellman over the weekend instead of carrying it home with you. Leave your laundry with a dry cleaner over the weekend and come back on Monday to a fresh wardrobe without carrying a bag with you to the airport. That’s freedom!

Make friends with the people who have control of the food. If you are eating all your meals off the Room Service menu, you will soon get bored with the choices. Encourage the person who answers the Room Service line to give you suggestions.