IC TRAVEL AGENT June 2014 | Page 21

Local Advertising The usual term for this is Local Store Marketing, however as advertising is a step in the marketing process we’ll go with Local Store Advertising instead, then again why don’t we go with LOCALYOU ADVERTISING? It is ALL about YOU isn’t it? Yes of course it is. So then our mission in this issue is to take YOU to market in ways that do not conflict with the anti-spam laws heralded by your country, state, province, region and or association. Let’s go! If you are not, by law, allowed to make a direct contact to find a suspect that becomes a prospect to convert into a lead – then you must return to using traditional methods and factor in social media to build inbound requests. Okay. If you understand the term INBOUND then you will know the premise here is to market yourself and your agency’s services in such a way as to attract people you do not yet know, to make contact with you. This is inbound marketing. It means the customer contacts you. Let’s review some of the long lost local store marketing techniques that do not fall prey to the CASL or CAN-SPAM legislations. Every Thing You Do Points to Your Website The fact that the customer is contacting you is of course implied consent / permission – they want information from you. When you respond you provide the information and at the same time “sign them up” as a client and you do this by requesting their permission to continue sending them emails, social media posts and more. You’ve read this so many times in IC Travel Agent that you should have rebuilt your website by now making is a real zinger! If you have not yet created the hottest website in town, then call in your host agency BDM and get their assistance. If it means forking out a few more dollars to have someone revamp your website than make it happen. Put the moola on the table and stand back. But first – you have to attract them to make that call or send an email request. Think of this as a fishing trip each day every day. You must be dangling a lure in the marketplace, attracting potential clients to nibble, then bite and finally to be landed on the deck of your fishing vessel named “Closed!” Assuming your website is now that very, very cool place to click to, you can be very proud to mention it in every advertising campaign you undertake. Why don’t we start locally and take a look at using your community newspapers and local magazines too.