1. Emulate This Heroine Of Database Marketing - Business Success
2. Don't Retype - Autocorrect - Improving Productivity
3. Private Training - Business Success
1. Can you do this?
Background information
I spoke at two wonderful conferences two weeks ago. One was Cruiseco whose members are the top 100 Australian travel agencies selling cruises. I met my new heroine at Cruiseco.
As always I conducted background research. Both a preconference online survey and personal telephone calls to members and suppliers. I always ask about databases and marketing.
Discovered - a heroine of clever database thinking and activation.
After three different Cruise line Sales Mangers said "Debbie, you should call Carole of Bicton" I did just that. Here is Carole's story. By the way Bicton is a suburb of Perth Western Australia.
Spectacular Growth
"Debbie, I started my travel company about seven years ago. We had two staff members. Today I have seven consultants and I can attribute it all to our database and how we work with it. Since we started using the database properly our business has grown threefold."
Info in a database
"Tell me about it Carole" I asked.
"Well, about five years ago we decided to put in an industry database. I figured since we have to enter data when we make bookings for clients, we might as well enter it into a database. We keep their passport numbers, their travel preferences, their club numbers. We have been told innumerable times by clients that they love coming in, being recognised by us and never again having to be asked or supply that information again like they did repeatedly with other travel agents.
This has helped spread the word of mouth and keeps us growing and growing"
"Steve from Orion Cruises said you had a successful marketing campaign. Can you tell me about it" I asked Carole.
"Well Silverseas had a luxury cruise departing Singapore. One of the fields in my database is travel preference - such as deluxe, moderate. I thought why not target this cruise to the right people? I was able to immediately sort through whom would be a prime candidate for an expensive luxury cruise. I then reviewed the list and sent out 24 letters, personally inviting them to look at the cruise brochure (which I enclosed) as I thought it was something they'd be interested in.
13 of those 24 people booked the cruise."
My guess - over $10,000 earned from a $34.80 investment (24 letters at $1.45 postage).
Points to take from this story
- People are in information overload. The more targeted you are, the more success you'll have.
- Information in a database + clever thinking = successful targeting
- Databases are not just for collecting info. You keep them to use them and profit from them.
- A good database helps increase the goodwill value of your business if you ever want to sell it.
- Database information you keep should also be relevant to your client - not just you. What business they've done with you - is relevant to you, not them.
- Do you have customer service and relationship building information? Such as family, employment, job type, industry, age, interests? But this is a future article to write.
2. Don't retype - autocorrect
Sick of retyping your name or your company name over and over when working on the computer? Why not set autocomplete to do the mundane task and save time for you?
Choose Autocorrect from Tools. Type in a unique abbreviation like "SIS" and then the name in full "Successful Internet Strategies". Then, whenever you type "SIS" in Word or Outlook it will automatically replace it with the full text.
This tip is in my book Conquer Your Email Overload - but thanks to Andrew Roughton from Vision College for suggesting it for the newsletter.
3. Private training
The launch of our new training and marketing program www.investinyourself.co.nz has gone beyond expectations. Members comments centre around "just what I've been looking for" and "just this one tip alone is worth the price many times over". IIY comprises weekly 3 minute video lessons that focus on improving business productivity & sales/marketing and also a huge marketing resource of over 300 tips and articles available for reprint.
I welcome you to view three sample lessons.
1. Splitting Names - Automatically splitting first and last names apart
2. Stolen Moments - Getting to your files quicker!
3. Google Offspring - how to see your website ranking
View sample articles and quick tips
http://www.successis.co.nz/investinyourself/articles.htm
Debbie in person
However if you prefer the personal touch - have a look at my travel schedule (to date) to see if I may be of assistance when I'm out of Auckland. Get a quote .
Read the last Issue of Business Quick Tips 
Published by SuccessIS. Debbie Mayo-Smith International Motivational Business Speaker and Author, 35 Chelmsford Ave, Glendowie, Auckland NZ. Phone 64 9 575 5359. Copyright 2006 SuccesslS. All rights reserved.
SuccessIS is committed to protecting your privacy. We do not sell, trade, rent or otherwise disclose any personal information you provide to us.
Quick Tips sent to you? Subscribe now.
To change your email address or subscription options please hit reply to this newsletter
and let me know. |
