Getting noticed in a sea of travel suppliers, newspaper advertising, television commercials, online booking engines and the Travel Channel can be a challenge. However, one tactic that should be in every travel professional’s strategy quiver is a specialization. Find a destination or a theme at which you are an expert and highlight your marketing of a niche.
Travel agents that have a specialization have distinct marketing advantages. Firstly, it is easier to locate your market. Specialize in Celtic ancestory, disabled travel, birdwatching or skiing, and the location of your target market becomes instantly visible. Your ability to reach out and touch the very clients you want to locate is greatly enhanced. Marketing becomes much less an expensive proposition when you don’t have to hunt for prospects in a random fashion.
Just as important, however, is the ability to quickly gain an unprecedented degree of notice in a niche community. The very essence of a community is the ability of its membership to communicate within its own ranks. Do an excellent job of travel planning for one member, and watch others begin to take notice.
Being an expert in a particular destination or theme has unexpected competitive advantages as well. Establishing your expertise in a community actually creates a natural barrier to entry with regard to competitors. As other travel agents do their research, they will likely veer away from your niche if you are sufficiently well established locally.
Many business people wrongly feel that every breathing body is a potential customer. Not only is this not so, it is absolutely wrong. If “everyone” is your customer, then nobody is. Your brand is built on your ability to distinguish yourself from others. Find a niche and grasp it with all the passion you can muster. Soon, you will have a following of like-minded clients.
Tomorrow: Outrageous Service
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