Positive Spin: How to Capitalize on Pro-Agent News
by Maria Lenhart /After years of portraying travel agencies as dinosaurs in our book-it-yourself Internet age, the national media has begun extolling the virtues of travel agents.
New Jersey-based Liberty Travel was featured on ABC’s Nightline in September, the same month that the Chicago Tribune ran a pro-agency article. This summer, travel agents received positive press in two prominent national publications – USA Today and the AARP Bulletin.
So what are agencies and their marketing representatives doing to make the most of this windfall of goodwill?
Not nearly enough, according to consultant Chris Ryall, president of Travel Marketing Experts in Toronto.
“Now is the time to capitalize on all this good press, but I don’t see it happening,” he said.
“Agencies and their consortia need to be far more aware of the consumer press. They need to publicize what they do, to be far more proactive in getting the word out to the public.”
Spread the word
One easy way to get the word out is to include a quote or excerpt from a pro-agent article in an agency’s various communications channels, including its website, emails to clients and newsletters. Providing a link to the article is effective as well. <
“If an article appears in the New York Times or USA Today, it’s from an independent, credible source, which is going to carry some weight with clients,” Ryall said. “They are going to trust it more than they would a quote coming from ASTA or some other industry source.”
Go social
Social media is another cheap and effective way to make the most of the recent spate of pro-agency publicity. Twitter is particularly effective for getting the conversation going, according to social media and public relations strategist Sally Falkow, president of Meritus Media in Los Angeles.
Falkow, who represents numerous hotel companies and convention and visitors bureaus, said Twitter is proving to be “enormously effective” in getting buzz going among her clients’ customers.
One client, a hotel real estate investment firm, is using social media and a service that distributes positive articles to media outlets to capitalize on recent press. “I don’t see why an agency can’t do the same thing,” she said.
While both Ryall and Falkow are big advocates of using social media for news-oriented communication, they cautioned that it must be done correctly.
“It’s not just enough to create a Facebook or Twitter account. The accounts have to kept active, with new stuff posted all the time. If clients go in and see that everything is old, it will leave a bad taste,” Ryall said.
Falkow warned agencies against handing off social media communication to an outside marketing or public relations firm. “The premise of social media is that people want to talk directly to the company itself, so someone at the travel agency needs to handle part of it.”
Use available resources
Many agencies overlook the marketing resources already at hand — those available from their consortium , Ryall said.
“The many programs, such as email blasts, database marketing, are tools that agencies can capitalize on, but often don’t,” he said. “It’s important to take the time to evaluate the resources you already have and utilize them.”
PR mindset
More travel agencies need to take on a public relations and marketing mindset, Ryall said. Unfortunately he doesn’t see that emphasized in agent training.
“Over the years I’ve had many interns who have gone through travel school or university training programs who don’t know anything about the press,” he said. “There seems to be very little emphasis on using the media for sales and marketing.
“This is so important. Those who are market savvy are the ones who are most successful.”
Agency groups could do more
Consortia and travel industry organizations also could be far more proactive in marketing the value of agents to consumers, Ryall said.
One point they could emphasize is the role consortia play in giving agencies clout with suppliers, clout that individual travelers doing their own bookings cannot match, he said.
“The general public has no idea of what travel agency consortia are or what they do. They (consortia) need to work more with the consumer media. Now is a really good time to build on the good press already received.”