Become a Travel Agent

Home Based Travel Agents
Targeting Your Audience

Why is it that we instinctively think we can do it all and we can certainly be all things to all people? This is especially true when just starting out in the business of selling travel, isn’t it? We could not possibly expect ourselves to know the entire world as a destination can we? We sure would like to though because it is exciting, interesting and mentally stimulating to learn new destinations and the many offerings available to our clients. It is however unrealistic to focus on everything so how do we break it down and make sure that we are marketing our expertise the Right Audience?

Yes, there is an audience for our expertise and we need to take the time and energy to find the audience and market to them to obtain the results we are looking for in growing our travel businesses.  We need to identify who are customers are going to be and what will they really want.  There are some key questions we can ask ourselves to help us capture and keep the clients we are looking for.

First and foremost we need to decide who are primary customers will be. It can be as simple as making a list of the types of people who are most likely to buy travel from your agency. This is an important first step because eventually your marketing plan will help you focus on reaching this type of client.

Suppose you decide that you wish to focus on family travel such as family reunions and multi-generational travel. You could look to a number of key customer bases here such as seniors who wish to travel with their extended family; young couples with small children wanting to bring the parents and grandparents along; busy professionals who have limited time to spend with extended family, etc.

There are several important factors to look at in identifying the customers such as demographics as well as lifestyle factors.  When we look at demographics we are identifying our target audience by looking at age, gender, income level, occupation, education and family situations.

Second you want to put yourself in your target customer’s shoes so to speak and ask yourself what is important to them. Simply write down why each audience you are focusing upon would want from your travel consulting. You need to do this for each type of customer type you wish to focus upon. What if you don’t have the answers to these questions? Start asking your friends and family what they would be looking for if they could have the perfect travel consultant. How about putting a survey up on your website to gain the information you need? Entice viewers to complete the survey by offering a free online newsletter or some other carrot to encourage participation in your survey.

You have identified your customer targets and what they are looking for from your service. Now you can look at your vendors and suppliers and match those vacation options to your customer’s needs and desires in their travel choices.

Your message to your audience is one of the most important elements of your plan. By taking those steps mentioned above you now can frame your message quite simply.  Here is an example of a simple fill in the blank message to your audience.

For (your target customer type), we (your agency name) can provide you with (the benefits and services you have determined they are looking for), because (why you do it best).

Now that you have completed the above steps you are ready to rock and roll and develop your plan. The steps in your work plan will enable you to reach the audience you wish to focus upon. You cannot however skip the previous steps and jump right to the plan. You need those key elements to focus on the direction to accomplish your ultimate goal of building your business.