It's no secret.

You guys are hard to reach. You're always out of the office or have your noses buried in client business. Or on some expensive (free) travel agency junket.

It sounds just like my life.

(Except the junket part)

It's just as hard to reach your customers too. Back in the day, you had die-hard customers that would be coming back to you no matter what.

But now it's so easy to book online.

And everyone has their nose buried in their smartphones, at home, while watching tv, in the bathroom, and even while driving. 

Here's my morning routine... wake up at 5 am, roll over, try not to crush my cat - and reach for my phone to read email.

Sounds familiar?

It should because you and I (and everyone else) do it.

So how do you reach customers who are so preoccupied?

You have read everywhere that you should be emailing your customers, often and not with just sales pitches, but with good useful information that keeps your agency in the part of their mind that thinks about travel.  

You and I get gorgeous emails every day from our favorite retailers. (Mine is Amazon and Target - crap I just ordered something again last night - sigh).

But we're still caught up on being scared of annoying our customers with frequent newsletters.

Why?

And besides, what would you put in those newsletters?
When should you mail them?
How often? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Never?

Big retailers do it because it absolutely works.

Here's what I have learned from writing newsletters for travel agencies in the last year. (We have open and engagement rates well above the industry).

Keep your list warm
Mail often, weekly is the absolute best. Twice a month is the minimum. People will forget about you if you don't. And your list quality will degrade like ice cream on a summer in Brooklyn.

Make the information useful
Instead of telling you all about our email services, I'm just giving you useful information here that you can actually use to do it yourself. You see what I just did?

End with a call to action
Ask your customers to do something at the end of the email. So it's not just a useful read. It's a read, a nod, and an ask.

Embrace unsubscribes
You're actually getting rid of people who don't care about you and getting a lean, amazing mailing list of customers who absolutely love what you do and stand for.

Have an opinion
A beautiful thing about our industry is that you specialize in certain things. Love those things and stand for them. Be opinionated about them. You will be surprised and shocked what that will mean to your business.

Your friend in travel marketing
Tom MacLean
VP of Sales & Marketing
Travel Agency Tribes