Trash The 2002 Marketing Plan - and just start over

Written by Carol Verret, Consulting and Training


Continued from page 1

Advertising and Promotion Budget - Resistrepparttar urge to cutrepparttar 121622 A & P budget. Don't throw your money away on any advertising or promotions that can't be tracked and evaluated as to direct revenue produced. Do use your budget to keep your frequent guests in your franchise loyalty programs close to you. Build in value adds to keep them from going downrepparttar 121623 street. Advertise only in vehicles proven to be effective - if an ad rep comes to you, make them show you their numbers,repparttar 121624 results produced for other clients inrepparttar 121625 industry.

Sales and Marketing Staff -- Resistrepparttar 121626 urge to cutrepparttar 121627 sales staff. Recruit additional staff fromrepparttar 121628 competitor downrepparttar 121629 street who's stealing your accounts. Train them - remember, many sales people forrepparttar 121630 last ten years have been answeringrepparttar 121631 phone. Train them to prospect and sell, then reward them with incentives.

Customer Service -- Now more than ever, focus onrepparttar 121632 GSAs and their customer service skills. Train your managers and supervisors to train them onrepparttar 121633 nuts and bolts of delivering good customer service. We have been cavalier about our customer service duringrepparttar 121634 period of time when demand was high. Who cared if we alienated a few guests - there were plenty more waiting to get in. Goingrepparttar 121635 extra mile wasrepparttar 121636 exception rather thanrepparttar 121637 rule.

The NYC police and firefighters have offered us a hard lesson and a wake-up call -repparttar 121638 extra mile isrepparttar 121639 only one that matters.

It is time to get back to our 'core competencies' inrepparttar 121640 hotel industry. As Carol Walter and Mark Haley alluded in their article of September 14 in Hotel-Online, we have become asset managers, real estate brokers and statisticians. While all ofrepparttar 121641 above have their role and none of us intentionally operate non-profit organizations, we have lost our focus.

It is no longer 'build it and they will come' -- it is now how do we locate potential guests in a contracting market, how do we persuade them to come to our hotels rather thanrepparttar 121642 competition and once there, how do we keep them coming back? If we accomplishrepparttar 121643 above with skill and a motive of providing hospitality --repparttar 121644 guests andrepparttar 121645 revenue will follow. A very wise and prominent man in our industry, Bob Alter, President of Sunstone Hotels once said, "It is easy to bringrepparttar 121646 dollars torepparttar 121647 bottom line when you have them coming in onrepparttar 121648 top line." This should be self-evident but is it truly sales and customer service that drives your hotels?

Carol Verret and Associates, offers training and consulting services to the hospitality industry in the areas of sales, marketing and customer service. Carol's latest training product is a comprehensive customer service system, ResultsWOW. For a complete description of her services, log onto her web site at http://www.carolverret.com. Be sure to subscribe to her newsletter, ResultsWoW Customer Service Newsletter by sending an emailto:Subscribe-On@carolverret.com


A Marketing Formula That Works

Written by Joe Gracia


Continued from page 1

Like it or not, you need to use a Sense of Urgency if you have any hope of overcomingrepparttar universal human trait of procrastination. Start looking more closely atrepparttar 121621 marketing vehicles you receive every day, and you'll begin to see that effective marketing always gives you a reason to act now.

3. BODY COPY: TELL THEM THE DETAILS OF WHAT THEY WILL GET

You got your targets' attention with your headline, by telling them that you have what they want. Now it's time to tell them exactly what they will get if they respond to your marketing offer.

Tell them exactly what is included. Tell themrepparttar 121622 specific features of your offer and how they will benefit from them. Tell them how others have been benefited. Provide them with specific numbers if appropriate.

Use bold sub-heads and bullets to make it easy for them to skim torepparttar 121623 information that is important to them.

4. CALL TO ACTION: TELL THEM WHAT THEY MUST DO TO GET IT

Don't assume that your prospects and customers will figure out how to get what you are offering. They won't do your work for you.

If they have to call to get it, then tell them to call. If they have to write or drop a post card inrepparttar 121624 mail, or fax something to you, then tell them clearly.

The point is to make it as easy as possible for your target to do what you want them to do. People don't like to do anything that is going to take work on their part. Make it as easy for them to respond as possible, or they won't.

5. POSTSCRIPT: TELL THEM AGAIN WHAT THEY CAN GET, HOW QUICKLY THEY MUST ACT, AND WHAT THEY MUST DO TO GET IT

If there is room inrepparttar 121625 marketing vehicle, such as a sales letter, it is always a good idea to re-cap your offer in a P.S.

Very often people will skip down torepparttar 121626 P.S. right after readingrepparttar 121627 headline. By repeating all ofrepparttar 121628 specifics of your offer there, you stand a much better chance of ensuring that your prospects will understand your offer.

Tell them what they will get if they respond byrepparttar 121629 deadline, and exactly what they must do.

Here's an example:

P.S. Droprepparttar 121630 enclosed post card inrepparttar 121631 mail by Friday, March 30th, to receive your Free Information Packet!

See how easy it is to recap everything in just one short sentence?

Copyright (c) 2001, Joe Gracia

FREE MARKETING IDEA-KIT http://www.givetogetmarketing.com Get your Free Marketing Idea-Kit, plus hundreds of free marketing tips, articles and case studies to help you grow your business at the Give to Get Marketing Web site.


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