Become a Home Based Travel Agent

Direct mail, postcards, notes and letters by Pony Express…Does anyone even do this anymore? Have we become so digitally wired that the simple act of getting mail delivered that is worthy of reading has been lost? Perhaps Old can be i New Again, let’s take a look at why.

When I collect our mail from the mailbox I go through my usual routine of sorting and trashing. Our mailbox is a fair distance from our house so the walk is a nice way to get a few minutes away from the monitor and take in some fresh air. I grab the stack and as I walk back to the house I leaf through it to see what I can throw away or shred. I look at each piece in hopes that there are not bills that particular day which is like getting a gift in my mind. I separate the trash mail from the real mail (if there is any) as I walk back to the house. Our garbage cans are on the route back to the house so I either toss the circulars and other offers right in the trash, or head straight to the shredder in my office. If there is anything left, which is not all that often these days, I begin the process of opening and or filing the rest.

Is it just me or do you agree that it is not much fun to go get the mail anymore. I remember in the “olden” days when going to get mail was a rather important and exciting part of the daily routine. Why is it that now it seems so unexciting? For me, the answer to that is there is rarely anything coming in the mail that I want to read or open! Most checks we receive these days are direct deposits to the bank account and other then the bills and the advertising promotions; there is not much to look forward to when collecting the mail. Gone are the greeting cards that used to bring such joy and gone are the personal letters that we used to love to read. Gone are the pictures that family might send of little ones as they grow. Don’t get me wrong, I love facebook, Twitter, and most every kind of digital technology out there. However, I do miss getting personal handwritten notes and cards and all the emotion that they triggers. The touch of fine stationary and the beauty of a handwritten piece of mail is classic and genuine.

I did some research on this topic and found some interesting tidbits to share. Back in 1989, a paper by Maheux, Legault, and Lambert took a look at how to increase physicians responses to surveys. Apparently the doctors could not find the time to complete the survey more then 20 years ago. However, the study shared that when a simple “thank you” note was written at the bottom of the cover letter it upped the response rate by almost 41%. A great deal of research on this topic has proven that a handwritten note on any type of business correspondence dramatically increases the read rate and response rate.

If this is ringing true to you, then likely your clients are feeling this loss of personaliztion as well. Perhaps old is new again and doing what no one else is doing becomes unique to your brand and special to some of your clients. I challenge you to test this idea out and replace some of your email communication to clients with the genuine article, a handwritten piece of mail. I’d venture to make an educated guess that you will experience a great return on your investment in time and personalization. Why not give it a try?

What kind of personalization can travel professional’s employ when sending direct mail that will entice the customer to feel the love and react?

Joanie Ogg CTC MCC
Joanie Ogg Marketing Group
Editor

Joanie Ogg is a thirty-five year veteran of the travel industry and has been involved with the independent contractor evolution since 1988. She is the principal of Joanie Ogg Marketing Group, which specializes in consulting and speaking on the topic of Home-Based Travel. She also provides marketing and sales for wide variety of products under the umbrella HomeBasedTravelAgent.com.

A demonstrated industry leader, Joanie most recently served as the President of the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents (NACTA) and TravelSellers. She and her husband Tom acquired NACTA in 1996 and sold it to The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) in 2000. Joanie’s tenure in the travel industry includes owning and operating one of the first successful host agency models. She has owned and operated several storefront travel agencies (both commercial and leisure), as well as a Hawaii wholesale tour company.

Her decades of success have garnered her numerous accolades over the years. Her accomplishments have been recognized by receipt of two Lifetime Achievement Awards from major trade groups, being named as one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in Travel” by Travel Agent magazine on several occasions, voted as “Travel Agent of the Year” by the readers of Travel Trade magazine, and has been recognized by many other industry organizations throughout her tenure in the industry. In 2008 Joanie Ogg was inducted into the CLIA Hall of Fame, an honor held by some of the most influential executives in the travel industry.

Joanie is a Master Cruise Counselor (MCC) and a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC). Joanie has co-authored two popular travel industry books for cruise specialists and home-based travel agents and has authored hundreds of travel trade articles. She has inspired tens of thousands of travel agents attending her presentations at trade events, cruise seminars, international trade gatherings and numerous local educational venues throughout the United States. With a time-honored background and forward-looking vision, she is often featured as a speaker at many of the travel industry’s major conferences and events. Joanie’s speaking talents are widely sought as a travel industry emcee by the most recognized travel organizations. She has emceed such events as Cruise-A-Thons, ASTA’s CruiseFest, The Trade Show, The Travel Institute Forum and all of NACTA’s National and International Conferences.


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