1. Creating the Marketing Plan for Your Home-Based Travel Agency

8. 7. Basic marketing strategies include the following:  Network,  Direct marketing  Advertise in print media or directories  Devise travel training programs that increase awareness about your services.  Write travel articles for local media or professional journals and newsletters  Direct or personal selling  Send out publicity and press releases  Participate in travel trade shows at the local or regional level.

9. 7. Determine Distribution 8. Test the Plan 9. Identify and understand the competition. 10. Establish marketing goals that are quantifiable. 11. Monitor your results carefully.

10. Hints and Tips for Beginners  Concentrate your efforts on finding customers who provide you with ongoing or repeat business.  Create a customer profile based on interviews as a way to understand existing clients. When you know why a customer comes back, you will be able to identify more of the same.  Stay focused on your target markets.  Don’t scatter your efforts. This is especially important for directing a particular marketing strategy to a specific group.  Be persistent. Marketing projects are the sorts of things that often need to be repeated over and over before permanent change is achieved.  Be prepared to revise your plan as you learn what works and what doesn’t.  Don’t be afraid of failure. When a strategy fails, view it as part of trial-and-error that you can learn from, and as a natural part of the process. This Is Really a Plan for Success

11. Marketing Plan 1. List your expectations 2. Make up a company mission statement 3. Answer this question--- What kind of travel do you intend to promote? 4. Why do you want to promote this kind of travel? 5. Make an outline of what kind of specialize travel you want to do. 6. What goals can you set to reach this? 1 yr. 5 yrs 10 yrs Recap

12. Marketing Plan 7. Develop a travel product strategy. 8. How are you going to reach your goals? Are you going to do direct mail or will you take advertising out in the newspaper? Will you sit at Farmers Market every week to promote yourself? Will you get enough referrals from friends and family? 9. What is the motivation behind your type of travel you are promoting? Is it near and dear to your heart? Have you been to your particular destination? Do you know enough about it to promote it? Recap

13. Marketing Plan 10. Does your specialty make sense? Is anyone else doing that kind? 11. Make a specific market definition: such as Caribbean cruises or European custom tours. 12. Create a marketing plan. 13. Will you do a newsletter? 14. Will you do direct mail? 15. Will you issue press releases? Recap