(The Margie’s Travel Goes Online series tells the story of how Margie, John, Delores and their fictitious travel company use Microsoft Office Live Small Business to overcome everyday business challenges.)
It was a cold, rainy January day when boxes of Margie’s latest travel guide for seniors arrived in the office from the printer.
“Oh my!” Delores said when she opened one of them. “You’ve outdone yourself this time,” she told Margie. The cover featured an amazing aerial picture of a sun-soaked beach in Hawaii.
“It’s so dreary around here, I bet we’d book a lot of trips if people saw this right now,” John said.
“We could try an e-mail campaign,” Delores suggested. “There’s that tool – E-mail Marketing – that Office Live Small Business offers.”
“That’s a good idea,” John said. “We could put together a Hawaii trip pretty quickly and promote both the guide and the trip to everyone who has given us permission to e-mail them. Maybe offer an incentive for booking by the end of the month.”
“I like the concept,” Margie said. “But I worry that people already get so much e-mail. Will they even pay attention?”
“I’ve actually been doing a little reading on that,” John said. “Marketing experts say it’s a smart way to start a dialog and build ongoing relationships with customers. Plus it gets really high marks for being cost-effective.”
“I think if you give people something they’re interested in, they’ll love hearing from you,” Delores said. “And you know that your customers are interested in travel and if you offer them a deal, well, who doesn’t like that?”
“Well, you two have sold me on it. I can start making some calls and putting a package together,” Margie said. “How long will it take to set up the e-mail?”
“From what I can tell,” John said, “the process is pretty simple. The tool generates a template with the same look and feel as our Web site and all we have to do is add the words.”
“We can pull the e-mail addresses directly from our lists in Contact Manager,” Delores added. “So everything’s pretty automated.”
“Yeah, once you figure out the package we’ll need you to write up the details in the e-mail, add a photo and then I think that’s pretty much it,” John said. “I’ll get the new travel guide posted so people can purchase it from our site or eBay.”
“Will we be able to tell how many people actually looked at the e-mail or clicked to purchase the guide?” Margie wondered.
“You bet,” John said. “We can get detailed reports. And we can track purchases too.”
“It will be an interesting experiment,” Margie said. “We could even launch a monthly e-mail newsletter. You know how I love to write about travel and it would be a great ongoing promotion for the guides and tour packages.”
“I’ll be your correspondent in the Hawaiian Islands,” Delores volunteered, “as soon as I find my bikini.”
Next episode: The gang at Margie’s Travel got such great results from their first e-mail campaign that they started wondering about other inexpensive ways to market their services and travel guides. Find out how Margie’s Travel uses search advertising to attract new customers.
Margie’s Travel Goes Online series