In this economy, you might be wondering if you should continue buying leads at the same rate you have been for the past months. You might even be considering cutting all your marketing spend right now. Let me give you the other side of the coin. Some of our top Tripologists are buying more leads than they usually do!  Here’s why.

I’m a big fan of staying busy and always continuing the hunt for new customers, no matter what the economy is doing.  Why?  This is a rather simplistic answer, but travel is part of who and what we are.  Sure, we can hunker down for a while, especially while the economy takes a beating, but one thing for sure; we’re always THINKING about our next vacation.  For many, thinking involves planning.    Being a part of a person’s planning stage (by offering advice and a quotation), even if they’re not traveling for, say, six months, is critical.  What’s the alternative?  NOT being part of someone’s planning? That wouldn’t be an option for me if I were a travel specialist.  Guess how likely you are to get their business (when they decide to book) if you’re not part of their planning stage? Zero. Zippo. No chance.

So, we’re finding many Tripologists are at the very least, continuing to buy leads at the same rate as they were a month ago.  Some of our biggest fans are buying even more than they normally would.  Sure, some consumers are a little slower to “pull the trigger” and book their vacation right now.  Others however, continue to research their trips and take vacations.  Don’t forget, Tripology is all about the more complex trips and the mid to higher end of the market.  The luxury market is normally less impacted by a souring economy.  At the end of the day, September was one of our best months ever as far as the quantity of leads received.  Our high-intent consumers continue to look for good value and they continue to search for the most qualified travel specialists.  

You should be cutting SOME costs, right? Sure, you should be cutting operational costs in your business.  Go through your budget. You’ll know what you can cut.  However, as far as targeted marketing is concerned, this is a good time to keep plugging away and forging forward. I’m not saying you shouldn’t measure against benchmarks.  You should always be doing that. For example, are you doing any generic “brand-building” type ads? You can lose those for a while.  Stay focused and tactical.

This is a good time to offer expert advice to as many people as you can.  After you give them advice or a quotation, stay (and keep) in touch with them.  This way, when they’re ready to book, you’re top of mind.  Plus, by doing this, you’re cultivating your database, the most critical aspect of your business. 

In summary, if you’re looking for new potential customers, here are two ideas.  1) Call your local newspaper and offer to write an article on unique, affordable trips. I would bet they’d be interested.  They may interview you or if they’re a small paper, they may even let you write the article.  Let everyone know you’re a travel expert.  Become the authority on a special type of travel and it will pay off eventually.  People will find you.  2) Tripology has loads of high-intent travelers looking for travel specialists.  Sign-in to your account and start grabbing those leads. Selling is a numbers game; the more people you reach out to the more sales you’ll get.  If you don’t have an account, what exactly are you waiting for?  Are you so busy that you don’t have time to find new customers?