Marketing has two goals: the retention of existing clients and the acquisition of new clients. From existing clients you achieve stability and it is from new clients you achieve growth. When you design your marketing properly, both your existing clients and new clients first notice or are reminded of your presence, investigate your offerings and finally enter into conversation with you about the services or products you offer. At this stage you have an actionable lead and enter into the sales cycle.

The process of drawing the potential client closer and closer to you, finally resulting in an actionable lead, is sometimes referred to as the “Marketing Funnel.”

I often hear travel professionals complain they are making no sales from their websites. To my ear, the complaint, however, sounds a bit strange. If you are making “sales” from your website, I suspect you are using a booking engine or a search engine geared to supplier specials, much like Travelocity or Expedia. However, for personal travel consultants, a website is far more of a marketing tool than a sales tool.  The difference is an important one to consider.
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Firstly, every website should be designed with the business model of the company behind it in mind. There is no “one site fits all” website. If your business model resembles that of Expedia, then you are gearing for great volumes with little personal client interaction. In this scenario, a booking engine or supplier search engine makes sense and your website is indeed a sales tool.

On occasion, a neighbor or an acquaintance, knowing I am somehow connected to the travel industry, will ask me about a vacation they would like to take. I use those opportunities to refer the person to a rotating selection of travel professionals I know. I tend to use different travel advisors depending on the person’s request. Recently, a neighbor asked me about a trip to Thailand she and her family wanted to take next year. I checked with a travel agent friend to see if he wanted the referral and I then put the two of them together.

Yesterday, months after our original conversation, I ran into my neighbor and asked how the travel planning had progressed. Looking at me a bit sheepishly she said “Well, your travel agent friend couldn’t find us anything cheaper than we could get online by ourselves.”  I explained to my neighbor the travel professional is not about the “best price” but was instead looking for the “best value.” I explained the travel professional was looking after my neighbor’s interests by choosing reliable suppliers, coordinating their travels and acting as their advocates. My neighbor listened, but the lesson was, I fear, arriving too late.

 You have a website, a Facebook page, maybe a Twitter account and you started an Instagram page, but they now languish at the back of your marketing plans going nowhere. Are your efforts disjointed, inconsistent and infrequent? If so, you already understand the symptoms of this malaise.
​Now, let’s explore a cure.​

Here is the truth of the matter: you will get out of your efforts what you put into them. The better the plan with which you begin, the better the results. Getting customers to your website, creating engagement and initiating a conversation with existing and new clients takes focus and effort. Great websites require a plan and resources. 

Every travel agent spending the least bit of time thinking about their travel agency website has heard the truism “Content is King.” I’m here to suggest, however, content is so much more than King, if by “King” you mean it is content bringing visitors to your website through basic search engine marketing. Indeed, it is relevant, original content responsible for most of the organic, (i.e. “free”), traffic visiting your site.
However, merely getting visitors to your site is only a first step. In addition, to be successful you need to also entertain (the Jester) and please (the Queen) your visitors, or they will soon be off to find better content and digital turf on which to spend their time. The Knight – he’s the enforcer, the one who makes you write often and well and with great design on a consistent basis.