DIGITAL FAM TRIP REPORTS by SMP Training Co

TURN YOUR FAM REPORT INTO AN INTERNAL EDUCATIONAL TOOL AND EXTERNAL MARKETING E-BOOK

So, how was the FAM trip? When did you get back? Have you managed to entice anyone to book with you to the same destination, travelling with the suppliers that sponsored the trip? Am I hearing a resounding YES! Well done. Now some of you, if you are new to the industry, may not yet know or understand the commitment you make when you accept a FAM trip and travel for a no‐to‐low cost. It’s an unwritten law that you crank up your marketing skills when you return from a FAM and start promoting the destination you visited and the suppliers who hosted you. The minimum pay back is the cost of hosting you – which would be a breakeven for the suppliers. Then of course you must pay back your agency owner by selling more business and generating more commissions. The average cost to an owner for you to be away one week is around $3,000 ‐ $5,000. So that’s a minimum of $30,000 in new business you MUST sell to that FAM destination. If you are independent and home based then it’s your decision how much you generate for yourself, however you are still on the hook to sell something for your FAM trip suppliers. One way to help you generate a return on the massive amount of work that goes into providing you a FAM is to turn your experience into a digital e‐book, like the one you are reading now. Once the e‐book is complete and published either online or located on your agency website as a PDF download, send it to your colleagues so they can learn from your FAM, too. Then send out the link to your client base and push for business. Use your fabulous photographs, work with your suppliers to write the content and use their graphics too. If you have one thousand clients in your database and 10% read your report – that’s what, 100 potential sales! If you pitch your report on line and let it go viral who knows how many people might read it. Your Facebook fans could pass it on too. You’ll need to come up with a cover. Design one that you can use for all FAM reports. Discuss in‐house. Perhaps have it created professionally. Leave an area on the cover that you can change per destination or supplier you are writing about. I’ve just created the ‘Tripping’ title as an example – it’s yours to use BUT you’d better check it online first. It might be taken!

Let me tell you what I saw, did and experienced and then perhaps you can join me on my next tour…

Create a cover using a graphic or a photograph that you took yourself. This is important. The fact that you took the photo, places you ‘there’ – and this is what you are selling. You were there and you are now marketing what you saw, did and experienced to your clients. Use slogans that your supplier uses and also the slogans that the country or region where you went, uses. Again, very important that you use the correct slogan. They change from year to year and you’ll need the most current.

Add a photo here of you boxing a kangaroo, throwing a boomerang, standing on top of Ayers Rock, surfing, at a café… tucking into some tucker, swimming with the dolphins. Keep it real.

Set up your pages so they flow. Follow the itinerary you took. Write your journal. Mention people by name. Talk about how you felt and what you thought of each experience as it happened. Create a photo gallery within this eBook report or add a link that will whisk the reader to the location, website where they can view all your photographs. Best if you route your reader back to your agency website where they can find more information and your contact, book now call to action. ©2012 Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co.

Your report cannot, MUST not be boring. If you are not sure about how to lay it out or the content that would work best, work with your owner / manager or host agency HQ and talk to the suppliers who hosted the FAM. You can in this case, copy and paste directly from the supplier and tourism websites. Be careful though with the images you cut and paste. Although they are featured on a supplier’s website, the copyright might still be owned by the photographer. This means you MUST ask for permission to use the image. Your supplier would probably clear the way for you to use the images you need. The one requirement perhaps would be that you credit the image to the photographer. The same process applies to any written content you cut and paste from the supplier’s websites. A travel writing posting his or her articles online and on the supplier’s site will still own the copyright to their work. You cannot use it without permission and sourcing it to the writer. The next thing to work on is the layout. Play with two columns, both the same width, or one slightly more narrow than the other. Try boxes. Angle some print. Use different fonts… different colours. Or, keep it straight laced and make it easier to read. It may look boring, however the reader is after the content, the information and might not care about all the fluff. Use country / map outlines, world maps that pinpoint the location of where you went. Include flags and slogans and the official flower or animal and capital city. Think about the imagery you could use. You want the images to draw your reader in, not push them away.

You can also check how the trade magazines you subscribe to layout their pages. You’ll find that some trade magazines are news based, others are focused on destination information and others combine the two. Study the supplier ads in these trade magazines and take note of the words, call to action statements and the colours, the fonts, the slogans.

CREATE YOUR OWN ADS FOR YOUR OWN TOURS GOOGLE IMAGES RESULTS: SEARCH FOR TRAVEL AD LAYOUTS

Writing to the reader who is a customer will be slightly different than what you create for your colleagues. Creating an e‐book is the green way to go. You can update it, change it, add to it and allow your client readers to comment on it, share it and pass it along through their social networks. Viral word of the mouth is good! To serve your colleagues and help them better understand where you went and what you experienced, you should write from the sales point of view. Explain how your colleagues should show and tell, use images, maps and more when engaged with a client. Include links to more information and destination websites, too.

Hope this Selling Travel eMag helps you come up with your own ideas on how to parlay your experience into new business. Remember, selling travel is always about NBG – New Business Generation. If you are not selling, then you are prospecting.

ALRIGHT. MORE GOOD THINGS TO MENTION.

I’ll be providing webinar content for a number of clients this 2012 and into 2013. You’ll be able to attend for free or a fee, sometimes bordering on cheap (!) all the way up to a professional level 90 minute session for $65 ‐ $125.

More information can be found at the following links: www.facebook.com/sellingtravel www.sellingtravel.net/webinars.html Contact me here with any questions: www.smptraining.com/webinars.html www.citc.ca steve@sellingtravel.net www.thetravelinstitute.com ©2012 Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co.