When asked what marketing approaches they consider most important in attracting clients or keeping current ones, the responses from both traditional and home-based agents have been remarkably consistent over the past few years. Overall, the approaches they employ have not changed more than one or two percentage points since last year. Cruise editor Tom Stieghorst asked Vicky Garcia, COO of Cruise
Planners, about some of these findings and what marketing tactics work
best for her agents.
Q: How much of the survey fits what you're seeing?
Vicky Garcia
A: We are seeing more use of agent websites as we dip our toes further into video marketing, so we're using more video content on websites. We're also seeing an increase in mobile, because we're making sure we make mobile-first, responsive websites. So the result is the videos that work on the website work on mobile, as well.
I think agencies that are not playing in the mobile space will lose out in the long run because consumers like to communicate via any way they want to. The biggest challenges are that a customer might reach out to their agent today via a Facebook Messenger and then, tomorrow, follow with a question texted to the agent's cellphone and then email a copy of something they saw online and say, "Can you get me the same deal?" So they're having to be cross-channel-friendly.
Q: Do you still see the value in hosting travel nights/cruise nights?
A: We're seeing great success with it, especially with more specific or upscale products such as river cruising. Especially with unique experiences like river cruising or expedition travel, people want to hear about that in person, not just talk on the phone. We're seeing great success when people promote it that way.
Back in the day, I think what happened is that travel agencies wanted to do a cruise night and just talk about cruises. I think people won't go just for that, but if you tell them specifically, "Hey we're going to have a river cruise night," their curiosity is piqued with that. We're seeing more of these events, but the strategy around them over the years has become more sophisticated and more targeted.
Q: Are newsletters still an attractive marketing approach, given all of the other ways to communicate with consumers?
A: We're definitely seeing newsletters being a little bit more readable. We produce a newsletter on behalf of our agents for their customers, and we definitely see the open rates are a lot better with a newsletter format than with just deals and deals and deals.
That being said, we have both flavors, because some people want to opt into the newsletters while others say, "Give me what I want to hear; don't tell me your whole life story."
It's working for both sides, so what we've done is we've made both available on our agents' websites so that consumers can opt into either one or both of them.
Q: What's your overall takeaway from the marketing research in this year's survey?
A: The biggest message when I read the results was there is no silver bullet but that personalization is key. I have agents who in their minds would say, "I would have never done mobile." But they're doing it because their clients are making them do it.