What motivates a prospect to get off their butts and make a
purchasing decision in your favor? How did they hear about you and why did
they choose to purchase now? These are timeless questions of advertising and
promotion. Are you asking yourself these critical questions and what are you
learning from the information?
I often say, "Marketing and sales is easy. Know who your prospects
are, where to find them, what they want and need, and then, give it to them".
But how do you best reach these hungry prospects? This article will cover three
important issues for your business success. Benefits of tracking advertising
and promotion, methods you can use and three important steps to converting
prospects into paying clients.
Wouldn't it be nice if every prospects was anxious to purchase your
adventure travel product or service immediately and you had all the business
you wanted? That is not the case for the majority. Most of us carefully spread
our limited promotional seeds around with the purpose of harvesting lots of
ripe prospects and juicy sales. Tracking promotions and advertising is like
farming. If you plant good seeds, water and tend your growing plants, notice
the plant health; in time you will harvest a bountiful crop. Why would you do
anything different with your business promotions?
"The most important measure is financial return," stated Eric
Grothwoll, marketing director for OARS. Eric expects and generally receives
better then 3 to 1 return on their promotional investment. Eric knows that some
things are easier to track than others and no one thing, in itself, creates
purchasing decisions. "All promotions work in conjunction with each other. I am
always looking at what's working and what's not?"
John Willard, president of Wilderness Expeditions in Maine agrees,
"Tracking advertising saves money." John found that by monitoring their
advertising and promotions monthly and making changes as necessary; his company
was far more effective without spending more money. So what is the information
you should be capturing and how do you use it to your advantage?
What Information is Important?
Savvy businesses
effectively use staff and technology to capture useful information about their
prospects. We are blessed to have a variety of data base programs and
reservation management software available to assist in capturing prospect
information. (see sidebar for a listing of software companies and products for
the adventure travel market).
"It's important to get hit reports that are more detailed and give
you good marketing information. This is something you should insist on from
your internet service provider" Laurel King, co-owner and marketing
director for Adventure Sports Online stated. The software they use is called
Webtrends and tracks the top ten URL's used to access your site, top key words
used, pages most often hit, average time stayed, etc. You can use this
information to not only enhance your web marketing, but also to see what your
prospects want and need.
According to Dan Austin, Director of Adventure Plus - A
premier provider of soft adventure packages throughout North America, " The
source of the inquiry is the most important. How did they hear about us?" Every
lead, whether it's from the phone, internet, in-house mailing or from a trade
show gets a "source code" on their computer. These source codes allow you to
run reports about your prospects. Additional important elements to monitor
include geographic, are they a repeat guest, when they want to travel, what
offer they responded to, who were they refereed by, how long after the inquiry
did they become clients, how many institutional or corporate groups are you
booking, how many individuals travelers; even how are they getting to the trip
departure point. ** Remember to ask on your outgoing answering machine message
how people found out about your company?
It's important to remember that profitable advertising and promotion
is a blend of what your offer looks like and says as well as were it is placed.
" It is like a breath of fresh air when an advertiser knows it is the
placement, duration and content of an ad that can produce results." stated Matt
Warren, (no relation to me), Advertising sales account manager for Adventure
West magazine. Often clients run an ad that their friend designed, for only a
issue or two to "try it out". Because they may not have gotten immediate
response, advertisers often blame the magazine. How often in your busy life
have you made a spontaneous decision on your leisure time? (What leisure
time?).
Nate Rangel, president of northern California based, Adventure
Connection opinion on average lag time between advertising, inquiry and a
sale was hard to say. " It could be a matter of days or many months". Nate
found on group sales, the larger the group the faster the purchasing decision.
Another outfitter stated on average they send info or advertise a year before
they land a client. Research your promotions, create a budget, make a
commitment and track your results. Don't just place an ad and forget about it.
Good promotions are continually cultivated.
Your success is gauged by cost effectively converting prospects
into bumper crops of paying clients. Prospects do not pay the bills, only
sales. I think in our time-challenged society, people need to be beat over the
head numerous times with a similar message from different angles before they
might possibly make a purchasing decision in your favor.
So you've planted a lot of promotional seeds, monitored and made
adjustments in your promotional program. Now your getting qualified leads. What
are you doing to convert them into sales.
Converting Prospect Into Sales
Before we are
outfitters, manufacturers or suppliers, we are salespeople. What experience are
prospects and clients having of your company when they want to reach you? I
hate shuffling around an automated phone system trying to speak to a real human
being. Don't waste your promotional investments on internal operational
incompetence.
Staff
I liked what Eric
at OARS said, "Marketing makes the phone ring. Staff really makes the
difference in converting them into a sale". Your staff should be knowledgeable
on all the products or services you offer. At most small to medium size
companies everyone needs to be able to sell. I think of sales as a transference
of enthusiasm. The last three letters in the word enthusiasm form an acrostic
that stands for "I am sold myself". If your staff is sold on the company and
what you have to offer, you'll harvest the fruits of your promotional
investments much sooner. Take time to train staff, especially seasonal
employees. When a prospect does choose to buy from your company, ask the
client, why they choose you?
Follow-Up
Make a commitment
to process literature requests and get questions answered on a timely basis.
The same day is best. The staff at Back Country Tours asks at the time of
inquiry if the prospect would like a call back. The staff who first took the
call, is the designated person to call back. Establishing rapport and
credibility is key. Your promotional material should be clear and concise.
Adventure travel prospects just want to know that they are going to have fun
and nobody has died.
Persistence
God only knows
what ultimately got a prospect to call you. Your prospect should have your
company name at the top of their mental list if you repeatedly reminded them to
choose your product and service. Postcards, brochures, newsletters,
testimonials, display ads, yellow pages, association, etc. can all perform well
if there is continuity in the message and you are persistent.
I just got off the phone with Norman and Carolyn Vaughan who live a
life of adventure and persistence. Norman Vaughan, 91 year old living legend,
climbed 10,000 foot Mt. Vaughan named in his honor by Admiral Byrd, three days
shy of his 89th birthday. This was after the previous years mission to his
mountain in Antarctica had ended in a plane crash in-route. Norman is a new
positive model for what we as humans can do if we persist, regardless of our
age or finances. Norman preaches, in his book, My Life of Adventure; "Dream big
and dare to fail."
Norman and savvy adventure travel business people achieve positive
results because they plant good seeds in fertile soil, noticed what working and
what's' not, make adjustments as needed, have a good team that follows-up and
never gives up.
Tim Warren and Adventure Business Consultants, has helped dozen's of
adventure travel business just like you with monitoring and placing your
promotional expenses so they yield the best results.
