Written By: Tom Ogg
Your Unique Value Proposition, or UVP
It all starts with your UVP. Your UVP is the reason that group leaders will sign up for your groups. It should be unique, focused and succinct. Your UVP will be the precise message that your presentation will convey from the first glimpse all the way through the end of a travel event.
Consistency is the key to having an effective UVP and a strong marketing identity. All of your presentation from beginning to end should carry a consistent message and confirm your expertise in whatever your specific niche is.
Remember from a marketing standpoint the entire purpose of your presentation is to convince prospective group organizers of your expertise in the niche and your ability to make your group organizer look fantastic to his or her following. So here are many elements that will make up your total presentation to group leaders.
Logo and Logo Tagline
You should invest in a professionally designed logotype for your group business. Your logo should shout your UVP no matter what your niche is. Even if your group business is simply a part of your larger agency business, invest in a unique, niche driven logo for the purposes of marketing to potential group organizers. This is many times the first exposure they may have with you and by shouting that you are an expert in exactly what they are looking for it gets the point across fast.
Your logo tagline needs to also be concise and niche specific. It should be the first validation that a prospective group organizer has found the right company to handle the group they are going to promote. If you would like more information on how to build the perfect logo and how to construct the perfect logo tagline, visit www.HomeBasedTravelAgent.com and read the articles on this topic, or watch the video tutorials. It will make it crystal clear on how to go about this task.
Since your group organizers may be using business cards with the same design, it is easy to print a large quantity if color signatures with only the area for variable information left blank. In this way you can give your group organizer beautiful business cards that also convey the value proposition that you are promoting at a very low cost. It would be up to your group organizer to complete the cards at his or her own cost.
Your Capabilities Brochure
While you can only put so much information on a business bard you should also develop a “Capabilities Brochure” that is completely consistent with your UVP and shares why you are the bast choice for group organizers in your niche. You can share experience, testimonials, images of past groups and so on. This should be very compelling.
Your Group Offering Brochure
Your Group Offering Brochure is the romance stage of your burgeoning relationship with a potential group organizer. Its focus should be on one thing only, to get a group leader to take further action to find out all the details of your offering. Your Group Offering Brochure should be consistent with your UVP and motivating to possible tour organizers with a strong call to action.
Your brochure will feature the following sections.
Cover
The cover of your brochure is where you simply shout out your UVP. It should invite prospective new group organizers to open the brochure and explore your opportunity. The simpler, the better should be your guideline in developing it. Of course, your logo should be prominent and the brochure should be of the same design elements that you will use throughout your marketing presentation.
The Romance
The sole function of your brochure is to romance potential group leaders into finding out more details on how they can work with you. Avoid giving to many details during the romance period of the relationship. Use pictures of past groups, testimonials of both past group leaders and also past group members.
Remember that a picture tells a 1,000 words, so find and use professional photographs throughout your brochure. Try to make it easy for the potential group leader to envision his or her success just as others have experienced.
The Offer
Once you have leveraged pictures and testimonials to establish your expertise, put your specific value proposition in as simple of terms as possible. The very best environment is to have your value proposition summed up into one short sentence. The sentence should result in either a “yes” or “no” answer.
The Call to Action
Once the prospective group leader has read your brochure he or she will be able to make a determination if they are interested in taking advantage of your offer, or not. Your call to action should be a logical conclusion to the brochure and should be as simple as possible. Give your potential new group leader several choices as to how to proceed. Your telephone number, website, social media, email or any other vehicle one might use that they are most comfortable with to confirm their interest.
Do not put the dates you are offering into your brochure as oncer it is printed there is no way to make them off as they are booked. Instead have the available dates on your website and social media.
The Marriage
Once the potential cruise leader has reached out it is time to sign the Agreement, collect the deposit and deliver the marketing tools for the group leader’s use. These would include a business card master, a group specific flyer / brochure master and a group specific password enabled website.
Your Group Website
Setting your website up to collect information from your group leader’s group members is the very best way to staying on top of each group. It is quite easy to create a sub-web for each specific group on the second level of your website. Your group leader can select his or her own credentials to access it and also give their group members access to it too.
Your website should continue with the branding of your UVP and enjoy the same design elements as your logo, business cards and the group offering brochure. It should also be interactive so that it will become the workhorse in gathering needed information for group leaders and group members. Never have the site confused with information not specific to the groups.
Your Video Channel
By all means you should engage in developing a YouTube.com video channel. Use video to reach new markets. As an example, during a travel event, have your group leader take video of group members doing something and then post it to your YouTube.com channel. Tag all of the group members in the video so that it will show up on their news feed for all of their friends to enjoy. Always put your home page URL as a link in the description of the video and the group member’s names as keywords. You will be shocked at how much traffic you can drive to your site using this strategy.
Use video testimonials for maximum impact for both tour organizers and group members.
Your Social Media
The same is true for your social media presence. Think about starting a Facebook group for group leaders interested in the niche that you are operating within. Only select the social media channels that your group leaders and members use. If they are seniors, select Facebook.
Embed your YouTube.com videos in your Facebook page and then tag the group members and group leaders that are in the video. The viral nature of sharing video like this can be overwhelming.
Your Operational Support
When your new group leader has signed the Agreement it is time to get them selling. There should not be a delay in getting the group leader everything that they need to succeed. The best way to make this happen is by doing an “orientation” that explains exactly how you want the operational process to go and to answer any and all questions that the group leader may have. This will go a long way to achieving success with the group leader.