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14 Sure fire ways to stimulate business growth

Written by Adrian Caruso, CEO/Master Business Coach of TA Fastrack

If your searching for some ideas to grow your travel business and to make the most of opportunities then here is a few ways to help you.

1. Create Marketing and Sales Tools

Analyse your travel businesses image and marketing efforts and try and identify ways you can improve them. Find out every item that can be used for promotion of some sort e.g. referral cards, stationary, welcome kits, emails, sales letters follow up letters, promotional gifts, website, presentation tools etc. Find effective ways that you can promote your travel businesses image and be the top of mind of all your customers and prospects.

2. Customer Relationship Management

Through every customer touch point the customer, service should reinforce why the customer keeps coming back to you time after time. Customers need to be impressed by the professionalism, care and attention you provide them. Ensure your staff are at their peak performance through constant training, mentoring and by providing the resources and systems to help them do their job better.

3. Focus on a Niche

Look at what interests you and your staff and see where you can differentiate yourself in the marketplace. Once you have found a gap in the marketplace that you can excel at then focus on this niche. Shout out to the marketplace that you are experts. It could golf tours, eco tours, antique tours, well being tours etc.

4. Conduct Competitive Intelligence

Find out what your competitors are doing and do it better. Look online, talk to your customers, visit trade shows, network and what ever you can do to find out their standards of business and how you can go one step further.

5. Seek help

The top professionals and even business coaches have mentors and advisors. TA Fastrack offers a range of customised business coaching, consulting and training services designed specifically for the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. The programs have produced results for managers, owners and operators that could never have been achieved alone. Call TA Fastrack on 07 3630 1298 o schedule a complementary consultation.

6. Join Organisations and Charities

Be socially active by taking time to volunteer for certain organisations and charities, as these are great public relations tools as well as effective networking outlets. Will you be not only helping a cause of organisation but also stimulating your business growth and image at the same time?

7. Cross Promote with other businesses

Whom do you share customers with? Find them and figure out how you can promote one another. One option is to add a brief note at the bottom of invoices referring your travel clients to "an excellent beautician," and have that beautician do the same for you.

8. Chat Online

Get your consultants and employees chatting online through forums that are participated in by your target market. It is also a great way to get feedback, stimulate interest and gather information. All it costs you and your staff is a little time.

9. Offer an e-Newsletter

Again, this establishes you as an expert, but it also provides another very important marketing tool: e-mail addresses of potential clients. You've opened up the gates to creating a relationship with these prospects by offering free information.

10. Shout your expertise

Get your team to write articles to distinguish your travel businesses expertise. Put them up on your website, email them to your database, post them in the mail, have them in the shop for walk in traffic etc. Not only does it bring you more traffic and potential customers, but also it provides you with an business portfolio to demonstrate your business sense and your travel product or service.

11. Host a Seminar or Function

They are cost effective and increase the attraction to your travel business. Bring suppliers and experts along to make the night more attractive. Ensure that all participants get value for their time at the events.

12. Offer a guarantee.

More people will be willing to try out your business and recommend your business if you offer "satisfaction guaranteed."

13. Referrals

Word-of-mouth marketing is just about the cheapest thing you can do to boost your business. The main way to attract referrals is to just do a great job: Impress your clients and they'll tell everyone they know. But there are more aggressive tactics you can use as well. Ask everyone you know to promote your business. Hand out several business cards to people rather than just one so they're more likely to pass them on.

14. Phone

Call a customer. Touch base, see how they're doing, It'll improve your relationship, and you may jar their memory. After all, you'll never hear "I've been meaning to call you!" if you don't pick up the phone.

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email, 07 3630 1298, http://www.tafastrack.com