What does all this mean?

Well, you are in the travel business. Every day you are bombarded with large quantities of generic travel product to sell, and most of it goes unmarketed. You are just too busy to promote everything to everybody. The answer is Specific Database Marketing.

To use the effective tool of Specific Database Marketing, you need a database of your customers’ preferences. The best way to get this data, without using painfully hard and often expensive survey techniques, is to use Travel Club Manager™ and start a free Travel Club offering something (membership card, specials, discounts, club functions, newsletter etc.) to members. All they need to do is fill out an enrolment form. On this form is the clients’ contact details, of course, but they also indicate, their Holiday Interests, Activities Interests, Sports Interests, Events Interests, Previous Travel History, Destination Interests (this is the biggie!), Clubs Affiliations, Loyal Programs, Airlines Preference, Tour Companies Used and Frequent Flyer Memberships.

All these options are laid out on the provided form in a way that is not oppressive, and, we have been told, entertaining to fill out, taking the clients approximately five minutes. Some categories may not seem to be relevant to your marketing, however, they exist to put the client into the right frame of mind for the important categories.

For example, it is not really necessary for you to have a client’s travel history. Sometimes useful, but not essential. When the client is filling out this section, he or she is thinking of all the past destinations they visited and holidays they have taken. Most people are surprised by the number of places they have been. With the form options we have provided, there are several places most have been, even though their experience may be limited. After completing this category, the client is now in the perfect frame of mind to select where they would like to go in the future and this is essential information for you.

Once you have your membership base, which should continue to grow, you can keep this up to date by sending out an annual form, (easily generated by your Travel Club Manager™ with their current preferences), showing the member these preferences and asking them for an update should they have changes (for those who return the forms in a timely fashion, there will be some sort of fun incentive, of course).

When your data base is in order, you can start to let Travel Club Manager™ take you from Broad Cast Marketing to Specific Database Marketing!

Have we confused you yet? We hope not. Here is a typical scenario in a Travel Office.

You open the office in the morning and sort through your many emails offering you the world on a stick. Some of these emails may be something you can sell, but not worth an ad or mass mailing. Others may look really saleable, so you spend the time to compile a list of potential clients from your CRM (Client Record Manager). You then send out possibly hundreds of letters or emails, wide casting a good deal to see what nets back to you. A typical result would be about 1-2%. If it were a good enough deal and you invested in an ad in the paper, the positive feedback may be a bit higher, however, we must remember, if the ad cost you about $200, the first $2000 in sales goes to pay for the ad. You are in the travel industry, so I don’t have to tell you how much time you have to spend to promote a package, so it has to be special for you to go to the effort.

Here is a practical scenario of the daily use of your Travel Club Manager™:

8:30 AM You open the office in the morning and sort through your many emails offering you the world on a stick. Some of these emails may be something you can sell, but not worth an ad or mass mailing (déjà vu). You select the ones that in your experience are good deals. The first one you like is from ‘Bang a Ball in Bangkok Tours’, offering a great deal for 10 days in Thailand, playing golf at five different courses and a five fine dining experiences. It includes almost everything; airfares, green fees, transfers etc. In the past you would park this deal in your brain, or even ring a client you know has expressed an interest in this kind of thing, but it is too specific to spend a lot of time and money to promote it.

But, you have Travel Club Manager™. You open it up, select your search option, tick DESTINATION INTEREST – THAILAND, SPORT – GOLF and ACTIVITIES INTEREST – DINING. You now have a list of everyone in your client database who is interested in all three of these things. (Three itches with a package that will scratch them all! The more interests your packages matches with your client’s, the better value the package to the client.) I digress, you have a small targeted list of potential clients. Travel Club Manager™ then allows you to send the list to Excel, making an .xls file, you write a cover letter in Word, mail merge letters and envelopes (or labels), print out copies of the pretty .pdf promoting the offer from your email and pop them in your mail outbox for the morning mail. Alternatively, you can ask Travel Club Manager™ to send a copy of the pretty .pdf to the email addresses of the clients on the list. Or you can ask Travel Club Manager™ to make an Excel file for mailing for those without an email address, and email to those on the list who have an email address! Time about 8:50 AM.

Another fantastic tool with your Travel Club Manager™ is the Popularity Reporting feature. When you are planning future campaigns and film nights, or what to promote in the slower times, you can do reports on what your local demographic wants the most, and you will always be aware of your clubs “top ten”. As a matter of fact, you will be aware of the popular position of all categories. If the destination most wanted in your club is New Zealand, and one of your top three Holiday Interests is Rail Tours, you know what to do … (“where is that GPT Rail Tour brochure?”).

Travel Club Manager™ is simply the most useful direct database marketing tool there is, an will reduce your advertising expenditure while increasing your strike rate. In the past you could send out 250 invitations for an upcoming film night, place two or three large newspaper ads, and get 25-40 replies with 1-2% attending booking from the night. With Travel Club Manager™ you will probably get a better result with 80 invitations and one ad, and get 30 – 50 replies. A typical response to a Travel Club Manager™ data based invitation list is 40-50% acceptance and up to 25% of attendees booking from the information night. A broad net-casting letter sent to a list generated from your Travel Club Manager™ (say, just asking for the Coach Tour interest), you may find 200 invitations will net you as many as 80 responses (assuming your invitation does not sound like an evening of watching paint dry).

Travel Club Manager™ by That! Software Co., has the potential to save you thousands and make you thousands … and That’s the truth.

If you'd like to see more of Travel Club Manager™, please feel free to view our User Manual.