The importance of engagement by social media was a common theme for all four agents on a discussion panel at the Global Travel Group Annual Conference.
The panel comprised Ben Owen from Venture Travel, Claire Welling from Itsso Travel, Issy Wiggins from Go Easy Travel, and Jo Richards from Tivoli Travel. All four agents offered a range of tips for successful marketing and customer engagement.
Ben Owen, the youngest member of the panel, is new to the travel business and he described Venture Travel as "an online agency with offline customer service" with competitive pricing as an important selling point. He told the conference that Facebook engagement results in around 100 inquiries a day.
It is 13 months since Mr Owen and his business partner started Venture Travel and he has found Facebook to be the most successful social media platform for engagement. He said Twitter is "more of a customer service tool" but Facebook is better for targeting marketing because of the data it gathers, even after the social media giant was limited as to what data it was allowed to keep on its users.
"Facebook gathers a lot of data on its users and it has incredible targeting tools, such as age and gender and people who have recently become engaged in the last six months - [they can be targeted with] honeymoon offers," he said. "You can target really nichely."
Mr Owen told delegates that that next step was to leverage voice recognition technology to "stay ahead of the wave". He explained that voice recognition technology often relies on Google search data to give answers to verbal inquiries and, as such, he encourages customers to leave positive Google reviews to boost the company's search profile.
He added that the company could move to more promotion via Instagram if that becomes more effective: "You have to move with the times."
"Facebook will only die out if something better comes along," Mr Owen said.
Claire Welling said that taking the "leap of faith" to move the shop to a more prominent high street location with good footfall has paid off. In particular, her strategy of creating attention-grabbing window displays, instead of "plastering the window with posters", has proven successful.
"[Our windows] are our point of difference on the high street, a talking point in our town," said Ms Welling."The window is the eyes into our business."
Ms Welling uses Facebook to generate interest in the windows by sharing pictures, and giving people clues about what the next window might include to encourage people to take a look. Her windows always feature Mickey and Minnie Mouse because selling Disney holidays is an important part of her business, and this helps engage children as well as parents. Facebook is also used by Ms Welling to run competitions with goodie bags as prizes.
Jo Richards is a strong advocate of hosting and attending events to engage with potential customers, particularly after making the move from homeworking to running the business from a shop. Her business location is "not right in the town centre" with "good parking [and] a lot of local businesses [nearby] and people want to support their local businesses."
She said the business is across the road from Thomas Cook and this creates opportunities.
"I like to confront companies like [Thomas Cook] because it shows we are different," Ms Richards said. "I will sell anything from a ?99 holiday up to the biggest holiday you can think of. Thomas Cook will give Jet 2 referrals to me and I refer currency clients to them ... so we can work with Thomas Cook."
In terms of events which she has found effective for customer engagement, Ms Richards said wedding fairs can be very productive, and that agents should speak to everyone who attends, not just engaged couples "because everyone takes holidays". She said holding stalls atChristmas markets and careers fairs at schools can yield bookings, as well as supporting local galas.
"We invite work experience students into the office [and] a lot of parents go along [to careers fairs] so it's an opportunity to talk to parents about holidays," Ms Richards told delegates.
"Face to face is more important than ever," Ms Richards said. "Put your face on your leaflets, get yourself a professional photograph."
Issy Wiggins started networking on a serious level in 2010 and ended up with four networking groups in her local area, although this has been streamlined to one group. It is run as a not-for-profit, members pay to join and there is an 80% renewal rate, she told the conference.
Ms Wiggins emphasised the importance of finding the right networking group: "Test them all, try them, see what works for you [and] have a different message for each meeting."
The session concluded with the four agents sharing their top tips with the conference.
Mr Owen said that as agents, you "wear two hats - your marketing hat and the other is your consumer hat." He said that it is important to be aware of consumer behaviour, such as the large number of people who scroll through social media during TV ad breaks, which makes Facebook a good marketing and engagement tool.
"Don't spend money on flyering - [go for] the best value for money," he said. "Holidays are fantastic ... people love sharing holiday photos ... [so Facebook] is the perfect platform for it."
Ms Richards' final words of advice were: "Don't miss an opportunity in whatever guise - you could go to a show and it costs you ?25 [and get a booking] so try every type of event. A golf day [led to] a ?10,000 booking for a disabled client."
Ms Wiggins said: "Never discount anybody in the room [at a networking event and] become the expert in the room."
"Embrace your uniqueness," said Ms Welling. "Celebrate what drives you and bring likeminded people in. Chat to people on their level and throw yourself into the community."
