I just published a new article at Tnooz titled, Facebook IPO filing reveals disruption ahead for online travel. The article is being read by hundreds of people and I've received a dozen LinkedIn requests and three phone calls concerning my view of where Facebook is going and how the platform will effect the travel industry. Feel free to comment as well.

http://www.tnooz.com/2012/04/26/news/facebook-ipo-signals-disruption-ahead-for-online-travel-distribution/

As the founder of the Travel Business Academy, a professional program that teaches entrepreneurs globally how to start a travel business, I am always searching for stories about successful travel entrepreneurs that I can share with our members. Travelzoo is in the news lately, with rumors surrounding an impending sale of the company, so I did a little research online to see what the story was behind the company and how it got started.

At the Travel Business Academy we teach entrepreneurs to create one-of-a-kind travel businesses. First, your start up must offer something unique that no one else is offering. We call this the unique-selling-proposition or USP. Second the consumer or business buying your travel service or product must truly want it.

The story behind Travelzoo and how solo entrepreneur Ralph Bartel built Travelzoo into a $500M company.

Ralph Bartel’s Travelzoo travel website, launched in the late 1990’s during the Yahoo and Netscape .com days, listing special travel discounts and last minute travel deals. Bartel launched the company with a killer USP. He offered 7 million free shares in a Bahamian holding company. As you can guess, the subscribers came rushing to his doorstep. He quickly built 700,000 subscribers, 1.5 million web site hits per day to the website generating $3,000 in daily ad revenue. [1]

At the time Ralph was going up against multi-million dollar travel companies that were running similar travel websites. The key differentiator was the lure of a free stock share for subscribing. The .com craze was a wild time and the populist theme was that people all around were getting rich starting Internet businesses. What Ralph was offering was the opportunity for the average person to participate in the .com craze to acquire his or her share of Internet riches. The USP was the idea that by subscribing maybe you to could get rich like everyone else. The interesting thing here was that this had nothing to do with travel. The Travelzoo website and promoting travel deals was just an avenue for people to get what they really wanted, which was the chance to think that they might get rich by being a part of this new travel website.

The free stock shares were obvious a gimmick to build a large subscriber base. The hard part was building a business and selling travel deals and offers that people really wanted to buy. Well it worked. Ralph Bartel successfully executed on his travel deal publishing business and today his company is worth close to $500M.

I am not recommending that your travel start up offer free shares as I think that would be very challenging today, although there are bills in the U.S Congress and the Senate, that aim to make it much easier for entrepreneurs to sell stock as a start up. I am advising all travel start-ups that you better have a killer USP when launching and have a travel service or product that people want to buy or it will be hard as hell to make it.

Do you live in the Orlando, Florida area? I am looking to host a free travel industry, networking event in the Orlando, Florida area at the end of April for people interested in online travel and mobile travel. If you’re a travel entrepreneur or a travel industry professional email me to attend the event. The event will be free on Monday, April 30th around 5PM.

If you would like to attend please email me.

Thanks,

Matt Zito

mdz@mattzito.com or 207-460-0740

I recently got sneak peek of Tripfab’s product demo, a new start up in stealth mode.

http://www.tripfab.com

What I like about Tripfab is they are taking social travel planning and combining it with supplier direct online bookings in a unique user friendly drag and drop travel booking tool. This is the next phase in online booking. Just as the airlines are moving to the direct to consumer model, travel suppliers (hotels, tour & activity providers) have been looking for ways to increase direct to consumer bookings without paying 25%-35% commissions to the OTA’s.

Through the Tripfab online booking platform consumers can not only book direct, you can also email the travel supplier, do a live chat if the supplier is online and request a live call to the travel supplier free of charge. The main killer feature of the trip itinerary tool is a drag and drop feature where you can drag a hotel, an activity, nightlife and restaurants onto a four-column itinerary split up between Morning, Afternoon, Night and Stay.

Another feature enables you to alert travel suppliers in the destination that you are visiting when you are planning on traveling so you have the opportunity to receive last minute offers on things like activities and tours.

When you checkout (buy your trip) you can view all the availability of the trip you just planned all on one page. You then proceed to pay with a credit card. I really like the User interface and the simplicity behind the entire booking process. In a way Tripfab is aggregating the entire travel opportunities available in a destination then displaying it in an appealing and easy to use interface. I assume that the business model is transactional and that the travel suppliers will pay some form of a commission.

Join My LinkedIn Network -http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattzito

On March 30 Facebook restructured the Fan Page design to what they now call Timeline. Your businesses landing page will now be the Timeline page. I recently added a Timeline cover for my Maine Vacation rental home and the Travel Business Academy fan pages. If you need help with making a Timeline Cover just email me and I’ll point you in the right direction really quick.

Facebook’s is expanding the sharing capability for travel businesses by introducing Timeline Apps built on Facebook’s Open Graph. If you haven’t read about this go here now and read this. http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/

Travel Businesses can now create Timeline apps that publish a Facebook’s users activity and actions when they engage with your app or website. Facebook calls engagements or interactions with your website or app, social actions. The first social action app was the Facebook “Like” button that you placed on your travel website. When a Facebook user clicked the “Like” button on your website, Facebook published that the Facebook user liked your website or Fan page to the Facebook users wall and their friends news feed. The new Timeline apps move beyond the Like button action and basically create a massive distribution system for your company to share “what people do” or different actions they take when interacting with your app or website. Social actions that your travel business can now distribute, are user actions like “traveled” to Orlando, Florida, or “travelling” to Orlando, Florida.

When a Facebook user, adds a new Timeline app to their Facebook Timeline, the user has to opt-in first (accept to use the app) and then give the app permissions to access their Facebook account. The users actions, “what they do” in your app is then published to their wall and distributed to their friend’s news feed and throughout the Facebook platform.

I believe Timeline apps will have massive ramifications for the web and the travel industry. I am fairly sure that the real intent of Facebook to go beyond the Like button and enable the distribution of multi-faceted actions and engagement or “what we do” on apps is because of mobile devices.

Timeline apps are a game changer and will help travel businesses share their prospective clients and guests actions and experiences within the Facebook social platform.  This will drive new travelers to use your companies Timeline app, which ultimately will bring your travel company more business.

Join My LinkedIn Network -http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattzito

Social Travel Planning is all the current rage. I’ve recently signed up for Gogobot, Wipolo, GTrot, and WAYN at their websites through the Facebook Connect plugin. I visited the websites of TRIPtrotting, Trippy, Dopplr, Wanderfly, WAYN and Twigmore as well. Most of these sites are built around trip planning and the use of the social web (Facebook) to share your travel itinerary and travel plans before, after and during the trip with your friends on Facebook.

I like Gogobot and Wipolo the best. With Gogbot when you add your itinerary or “where you want to go,” you can get other Gogobot users to send you trip recommendations.  I added a trip to Orlando, Florida and received a few recommendations from fellow Gogobot’s. I added my Maine home vacation rental to the list of vacation homes that are available to rent and this was really cool. If you get a chance try out Gogobot or Wipolo I think you will really like one of the social travel planners.

Join My LinkedIn Network- http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattzito

This Fall I attended the Eye for Travel, Travel Distribution Summit in Las Vegas as the expert moderator of the social group buying and flash sales session. It was a superb conference and I got to meet upcoming travel entrepreneurs including the team at Gogobot and a few wily online travel veterans. The talk of the town was Mobile Travel. Two of the world’s largest hotel chain brands presented slide’s that looked like hockey sticks showing massive growth in travelers booking hotel rooms with mobile devices.

The two hotel chains said that, 90% of the mobile bookings were either same day or within 72-hours of arrival, so the current mobile device hotel booking usage is showing that travelers are using their mobile devices for last minute lodging needs. I also met Sam Shank, co-founder of Hotel Tonight and saw a presentation about their mobile booking app. Hotel Tonight’s mobile hotel booking app is for booking hotel rooms at major U.S. cities on the same day of arrival or booking tonight. If you haven’t seen the Hotel Tonight mobile app or have not booked a hotel room with it, go to the iTunes store or Google Play (Android) and download it.

The mobile app landscape is being built out with thousands of new mobile apps coming to the market on a daily basis. Just as the Internet exploded in the mid-to-late 90’s with travel businesses needing websites and online booking engines, there are millions of travel businesses that are going to need mobile online booking apps. If you’re a hotel or travel business owner, I would start talking with a mobile app developer today as you could have a 1-2 year lead out in front of your competitors by having a mobile app to capture that short-term travel booking.

I say this because during the conference one of the moderators polled the audience of around 200 people on how many companies at the conference were going to invest in mobile technology in 2012 and less than 12 people raised their hands. I was quite amazed actually, especially after most of the people had attended the mobile travel sessions and saw the staggering growth in mobile device bookings by the big hotel brands.

Does Your Company Need Mobile Development Help? One company that I like in the mobile app development space is Red Foundry. Checkout their user friendly development platform here at http://www.redfoundry.com   Another talented web and mobile developer and good friend of mine is Craig Kaminsky. You can reach him here. http://www.imageaid.net/

Join my LinkedIn Network- http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattzito

I am seeking to work with a travel start-up or a company looking to develop a new leisure travel product.

“Think of me as a chief commercial officer with proven online travel entrepreneurial skills working with your team on a daily basis.”

I am a leisure travel product specialist, a biz dev guy and a true entrepreneur. I’ve personally sold millions in online travel NOT including client sales. I’ve built and sold two businesses an OTA and a lodging property. In late 2011 I helped a group buying deals start up develop a travel channel and we sold over $500,000 in travel in less than 4 months before it was acquired. My Rolodex includes 100+ boutique hotels and ski resorts across the U.S. and Canada and 1,500 travel industry professionals. When I work with companies I go all in.

If you have interest or you know of a colleague that may be interested please forward this letter. I am currently working out of the Orlando, FL area and will happily get on planes to meet great people. Please also see my next post as I've been developing three new travel start up ideas. You may be interested in these.

Sincerely,

Matt Zito

207-460-0740

mdz@mattzito.com

What is Matt Zito up to now?

I've been down in the Orlando, Florida area (Lake Wales) for the winter working on three new potential multi-million dollar online travel business ventures. Most of my time has been researching the market potential of these 3 start up ideas, talking to prospective suppliers, creating web and app mockups and development sketches. If your company or investment group is currently working in or seeking angel or VC investment the following online travel areas, please reach out to me.

Daily Travel Deals Distribution System – this business concept came about through some of my work with a few daily deals sites and talking with hotels about a need to distribute their inventory automatically to the deal sites.

Destination Mobile Travel App Network – this is a mobile app play that leverages hyperlocal advertising, network marketing and the inability for the bigger players in the deal space to get quality local deals into destination based markets.

Opaque Leisure Travel Product - this is an online distribution product and or consumer direct leisure travel product to sell unsold timeshare inventory. I am currently developing this idea with another successful entrepreneur and friend.

I believe all three business ideas are multi-million dollar business with the right partners. We also believe one of the ideas can be a billion dollar company and is ripe for taking.

Talk to me….

207-460-0740

mdz@mattzito.com

I spoke at the Social Buying and Flash Travel Sales session at the EyeforTravel's Travel Distribution Summit in Las Vegas in September. I talked about the Micro-Tripper and my work with a few of the leading social group buying companies.

My articles about the Micro-Tripper were syndicated to the leading travel industry news outlets. You can click through the links below.

http://www.eyefortravel.com/news/europe/un…o-tripper-trend
http://www.tnooz.com/2011/07/18/how-to/ana…pper-in-travel/

Interview with Amber Gibson, from HOTELS Magazine about the Micro-Tripper.

Amber Gibson: Do you see "micro-tripping" growing as a trend for Americans? Internationally?

Matt Zito: “The Micro-Tripper” is a term I coined to describe a new type of travel buyer on the rise. The Micro-Tripper—short-term, purely spontaneous travel enabled by the flash-sale, group buying, and private-travel sale start-ups, the new leisure travel market segment on the rise. The Micro-Tripper trend will continue to grow in both the U.S. and Internationally, as global economic conditions continue to deteriorate and travelers look for vacations and getaways that are shortened in length from 3-7 days to 1-3 days.

Amber Gibson: Why has micro-tripping become so popular? Does it have to do with lifestyle changes? Can you give any specific examples?

Matt Zito: In the U.S people are working longer hours and earning less money. Travelers are looking for 1N-2N getaways where they can get away, enjoy a new experience, and partake in a destination activity. The Micro-Tripper trend has been ignited by the new social e-commerce travel offerings from, Living Social, Jetsetter and lifestyle platforms like BuyWithMe.  The trend has been created by the convergence of social networking and sharing, new e-commerce technology, an extended recession, our insatiable desire to buy deals, and email marketing, the primary delivery path of the new “travel deal” product.

Amber Gibson: From a hotelier perspective, what can hotels do to appeal more to micro-trippers?

Matt Zito: Hotels need to be open to the idea of working with the new social e-commerce travel companies. The social e-commerce travel companies and lifestyle platforms are a new distribution channel. I view the 50% off sales as a new distribution channel to not only place heads-in-beds but to build new clients for the hotel. I owned a small lodge in the early 2000’s and was able to generate a repeat clientele of between 15%-25%. Acquiring new clients is one strategy where I think this new channel makes sense. I have been working with a few of the new social e-commerce players and I have a network of over 100+ revenue managers and directors of sales at boutique hotels throughout North America. My work and analysis says that 80%-90% of Micro-Trippers are new clients to the hotel properties.

Amber Gibson: Do you have any advice for hoteliers on how to capitalize on this new type of traveler?

Matt Zito: Yes, start by partnering with a few of the social e-commerce travel players and run a few sales. Get your feet wet see how it goes. I would also start looking to create my own one-of-a-kind travel packages that are 1N, 2N in duration, include dinner or a meal, with one-to-two destination activities. Hotels talk about generating ancillary income through selling hotel owned products like spa, for example. What I don’t understand is why they can’t reach out into their destination and start creating incremental revenue streams from the many activity providers that are in their local communities. There was a recent study done by Phocuswright that concluded that the destination activity market in the U.S. is a $28B market. The majority of destination activity providers either don’t have a website and or can’t even take bookings online. Why not create an opportunity for your guests to more easily reach these businesses in your destination and make money at for the hotel? I am really passionate about this and I am currently looking to work with a few hotels to develop plans to integrate this into their business model.

Amber Gibson: How can hotels convert micro-trippers into loyal customers?

Matt Zito:  Micro-Trippers are people and consumers like everyone else. A hotel needs to create value, offer an amazing experience and of course be hospitable. The myth is that Micro-Trippers won’t come back and pay full price when they have previously gone on a discounted trip. This is entirely not true. It’s like anything else in travel. If you have a great travel experience and make an emotional connection to a place or people you meet, you will return and pay full price because at that point its not about the money.

Amber Gibson: Do micro-trippers tend to return to the same location(s), or are they always looking for new experiences?

Matt Zito: I don’t have the research data on the answer to this question but I am planning a big survey to my 100+ hotel contacts this Fall to gage their feedback on selling to the social e-commerce websites and I hope to have more insight to this question. If your hotel is interested in participating in my survey please contact me.

Amber Gibson:  Why is it important for hotels to zero in on this new group?

Matt Zito: It’s important because, Micro-Tripper’s are not online searching a vacation to your hotel or destination like a traveler who is visiting an OTA website or visiting your hotels website and pre-planning a trip in the traditional sense. The woman in the family leads the spontaneous micro-tripper. Micro-trippers take between three and five trips per year, on one-or-two-night stays. Micro-trippers are staying at lodging properties and destinations that 75% of the trippers are unfamiliar with, and/or have never visited before, and did not plan on traveling to. The trips purchased were never consciously planned or pre-planned and an overwhelming number of the purchases by micro-trippers occurred within twenty-four hours of hearing about the trip from their friends and family, or through the email marketing that comes into their email box.

The Micro-Tripper—short-term, purely spontaneous travel enabled by the flash-sale, group buying, and private-travel sale start-ups, the new leisure travel market segment on the rise.

In October, I published, “Is the new, private-sale travel site business model the real deal?”, an in-depth look, into the new social e-commerce start-ups, their business model and how the deals get structured. As an active online travel business consultant in the new social e-commerce travel space (flash-travel sales), I am confirming, that yes, this new business model is the real deal and is starting to erode the OTA’s market share. The new social e-commerce travel companies are not intruding upon the OTA’s business but are, in essence, capturing an undiscovered new segment of the travel market that I call the “spontaneous micro-tripper”.  The spontaneous micro-tripper, created via the convergence of social networking and sharing, new e-commerce technology, an extended recession, our insatiable desire to buy deals, and email marketing, the primary delivery path of the new “travel deal” product.

The spontaneous micro-tripper is led by the woman in the family. Micro-trippers take between three and five trips per year, on one- or two-night stays. Micro-trippers are staying at lodging properties and destinations that 75% of the trippers are unfamiliar with, and/or have never visited before, and did not plan on traveling to. The trips purchased were never consciously planned or pre-planned and an overwhelming number of the purchases by micro-trippers occurred within twenty-four hours of hearing about the trip from their friends and family, or through the email marketing that comes into their email box.

The spontaneous micro-tripper is not an OTA buyer (the pre-planned travel market). The micro-tripper market is unlike any mature travel market. I believe this new market is being driven not by the 50%-off deal, like most people think, but by the power of the spontaneous purchase and the opportunity it creates for the lodging industry as a new online distribution channel.   

The key difference between an OTA buyer and the Micro-Tripper buyer is the pre-planned purchase vs. the spontaneous purchase. The OTA website booking model or sales process supports a traveler’s pre-conditioned itinerary through a trip-quote booking engine, where the traveler, in effect, tells the website where and when he or she wants to go by selecting a destination and arrival and departure dates. This is the main function of the OTA booking model. At every OTA website the traveler voluntarily chooses to visit the website, so in my view travelers are highly pre-conditioned to know where and when they want to travel.

Whereas the flash-travel sale, group-buying and private-sale booking model or sales process supports minimal if any pre-planning, and starts out by sending an email to the prospect telling them about a travel deal, travel experience or travel destination that they may have never thought of or heard of before.

I have relationships with over 100 directors of sales and revenue managers at many of the major hotels and resorts in North America.  A few have told me that their OTA business is slightly decreasing, while their new “flash-sale, private-sale, group-buying” distribution category is increasing. In my opinion, the recent Groupon and Expedia joint venture is not about Expedia seeing this as a threat so much as an opportunity to enter into this new market, one that their current business model does not support.

My final point for this article focuses upon the lodging industry’s distribution needs relevant to the market it’s distributing into. If you’re in agreement with me that your OTA distribution channel is to reach travelers that know they want to visit your hotel or the destination your property is in, and you agree that the spontaneous micro-tripper market is a new market segment, you’ll have to view the flash-sale, private-sale and group-buying companies as a new online distribution channel. You need to think about how you value an OTA booking vs. a Micro-Tripper booking.

A successful flash-sale, private-sale or group buying sales offer is 50% off to the Micro-Tripper with the lodging property paying a 20%–40% commission. The 50%-off offer is the bait that attracts Micro-Trippers from inside their computer. A 50%-off offer with a 30% commission is an effective 65% off your best available rate. I won’t get into economics too much in this article as I realize that each lodging property is different and has its own unique needs in yielding rates. My intent here is to help you see the value you need to offer to acquire a spontaneous Micro-Tripper.

If you’re distributing to the OTA distribution channel you’re offering between 20%-35% off your best available rate, 35%+ to the opaque OTA channels. The purchaser in both channels is a pre-conditioned buyer, or has pre-planned their travel, and is highly likely looking to directly book your hotel and/or visit your destination or area. For whatever reason, this buyer is going through the OTA instead of going through your property website direct. My point here is that an OTA travel purchaser is most likely coming to your hotel or destination no matter what.

So how do you value a micro-tripper who is unfamiliar with your lodging property and possibly your destination, was never pre-conditioned or never planned on visiting your lodging property, and who, once introduced to your property through a branded and highly discounted lodging offer or package, decides to book a micro-trip of one or two nights?

I believe the answer to this question ultimately varies with each individual hotel and lodging property. As a side note, I owned a bed and breakfast, fly-fishing lodge in my earlier twenties, so I’ve had experience managing and putting “heads in beds”. Yes, on a small scale, but I’ve been there.

The new distribution channel makes sense, purely as a new client acquisition strategy, if I convert but 15%–25% of the Micro-Trippers who visit my property on 50%-off deals as repeat customers over my client lifecycle.

There are then—in my opinion—some secondary benefits; heads in beds, increased occupancy, in-house ancillary income generated, and the marketing exposure your brand will get from being displayed in 1,000,000+ email boxes.

The Spontaneous Micro-Tripper is a new leisure travel market segment that your hotel or lodging property will want to distribute into. I believe that this new market opens up huge opportunities for destination-based hotels, lodging properties less than a three-hour drive from major U.S cities and seasonal properties.

If your hotel, resort or lodging property is interested in participating in this new and fast growing marketplace or you would like to learn more about it, please contact me.

Matt Zito is an active online travel business consultant in the new social e-commerce travel industry, helping both online travel companies and lodging properties build and grow their businesses. www.mattzito.com, mdz@mattzito.com, 207-460-0740

We just launched the Inagruial Online Travel Business Academy, where we are teaching the next generation of online travel entrepreneurs.

Go here to learn how to start your own home based travel business.

http://www.travelbusinessacademy.com

I recently wrote an article about Private Sale travel websites. I posted the article at the T4 blog where I am a guest blogger and I sent the article to my over 500 subscribers of the Travel Business Profits e-Letter. The letter then went viral throughout the Internet and I have been contacted by many professionals in the travel industry since. It's exciting when your ideas get major attention. Enjoy reading!

Is the new, private-sale travel site business model, the real deal? I get underneath the hood and reveal how it works.

In this month’s Travel Business Profits e-letter, I look at how the private-sale travel site business model works and why I believe it will be a powerful business model in the online travel industry.As an online travel business consultant, and an intrigued entrepreneur, I have been researching the new private-sale travel websites that have been gaining momentum in the online travel industry.

Private-sale sites, or member-only travel sites, are the NEW, NEW thing in online travel. The party got started over a year ago, but now the bigger travel players are entering with their own brands. Jetsetter.com and Rue La La were the first; Vacationist (an American Express Company), SniqueAway (TripAdvisor and Smarter Travel) and TripAlertz are the most recent entrants. I believe private-sale travel sites may be the next online travel business model that ultimately squeezes the OTA’s (online travel agency) supreme dominance.

The emerging private-sale online travel business model was derived in part from the retail clothing private-sales websites of Gilt.com and HauteLook.com. There are hundreds of other competing websites in the private-sale upscale retail clothing product space. Private-clothing-sale websites enable sellers to unload unsold branded inventory at large discounts at a timed event with a deadline to buy before the inventory sells out.

The private-sale business model originated in part from the legendary merchandiser Edward Filene, the founder of Filene’s Basement, who, in the late 1920’s, created publicly scheduled automatic pricing markdowns on his clothes. The publicly promoted markdowns produced a high tendency for consumers to perceive that a bargain was available and that they should buy now or risk losing out on the opportunity, because they knew that within a defined, short period of time, in the next markdown, the item could be sold out. The price dropped systematically with each markdown until all the products were sold out. The clothing that was left over was donated.    

The current web-based private-sale travel sites are invite-only, or member-based, and focus on selling hotel rooms. The private-sale travel business model will succeed in selling brand-oriented travel products including hotel rooms, cruises, tours, and individual travel products where the travel supplier wants to protect the brand image yet still discount to sell their unsold inventory. I also believe the business model will succeed in selling leisure vacation packages and business travel.

Why private-sale travel sites will succeed as a new business model for selling travel online.

Private travel sales’ core strength lies in its ability to harness the social network as the marketing and distribution channel for the website. The dynamic nature of the private-sale offerings, with exclusive weekly deals, book-by dates and large discounts off five-star hotels makes for great conversation between the members to disseminate the news virally via the social network. The travel offering, whether it is a high-end hotel room in New York City or a tour through the vineyards of California, becomes chatter and discussion and is moved aggressively across the social network by the websites’ members to their friends, family and colleagues. Dynamic travel offerings create the feeling that you are receiving a deal and spread virally online. The private-sale business model plays right into the hands of the powerful online social network. The offering spreads through Twitter, Facebook, and the other social networks like wildfire. The distribution of the sale through the social networks not only helps the private-sale websites sell the travel offering, but more importantly, it quickly builds new memberships for the website.

The membership component of the private-sale business model creates the illusion of exclusivity, when in reality; there really is no exclusivity at all. The goal of every private-sale or membership website is to build the largest possible pool of buyers to sell their offerings to. It’s truly just a numbers game.

Yes, you supposedly have to be invited or referred by a friend to join, but neither was the case for me, as I just entered my email address, and within a few days I received my membership acceptance. This may change in the future but the real reason for the membership component is to keep the search engine travel websites out. As soon as “everyone” is selling the travel product offering, the exclusivity component vanishes, and the membership, or closed door, keeps the online travel marketers and distributors out of the game.

High-end hotels and resorts are discounting rooms to the private-sale websites because they believe that their brand is better protected and not diminished by the OTA’s and search engines distributing their discounts all over the Internet. Hotels have a sense that they are more in control of their discounting, and that the process is more efficient in managing their yield. Hotel rooms have “shelf life”; unsold rooms are lost revenue.

Having spoken to a few hotels, I found that they are saying, “the private-sale model is better than the OTA model.” A few said that they believe this may be the future in online discounting. High-end hotels also believe that they are reaching the cost-conscious buyer, a target market that is difficult for them to reach through their traditional sales channels.

The private-sale website industry is literally in the initial growth stages. Jettsetter and Rue La La are two of the early pioneers. As the industry grows, and new players come in, new websites will niche down in both the leisure travel markets and the business travel market. I envision we will see private-sale and membership websites that target both specific demographic and travel lifestyles as well as geographic and destination-based markets. The early private-sale website entrants are currently at a similar stage of development as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz were when the OTA business model was created.

The private-sale websites utilize multi-media, imagery and text to tell you a story about why you want to stay at the hotel or buy a specific travel offering. I am impressed at how visually appealing the online merchandising presentation has been. The travel offering is being displayed online like you are looking through a high-end travel magazine or brochure. The best copywriters will tell you that stories are what sell products. The current private-sale websites do this very well.

Private-sale websites literally stole the playbook from the Internet informational marketers to create effective landing pages (home pages) that convert prospects into an automated online sales funnel. The most successful Internet informational marketers all know that to sell online you need a systematic, sequential sales process that ultimately converts prospects into buyers over a specified time period. Internet informational marketers sell successfully online by utilizing email opt-ins, email marketing campaigns (drip-drip-drip), one-time sales, limited offerings and book-by-date discounts. 

The private-sale process starts by acquiring the name and email address of your prospect. The landing page, or home page, of the private-sale websites is a simple one-page. To gain access, you have to opt-in or enter your name and email address. There is nothing else you can do other than login. The secret to selling information products online is to move your prospect from point A to point B, removing all possible links, literally boxing the prospect in so there is nothing else they can do other than to enter their name and email address. Once the conversion takes place, adding the name and email address, the prospect is dumped into the automated sales funnel, and the systematic sales process and merchandising begins. Oh, it’s a beautiful thing.  

How it works. Selling hotel inventory in a private sale.

There are a few different versions of the private-sale transaction between the website and the hotel. Predominantly though, this is how the deal is structured. The website negotiates a percentage off the lowest bar rate of the hotel. The percentage off can vary according to the hotel’s seasons, or for specified periods of time within seasons. The website will sell the most dates it possibly can; this is negotiated between the website and the hotel. Remember, the more inventory the website has to sell, the greater amount of sales that are possible. The website is generally looking for at least two different hotel room types to sell.

The website “free-sells” the hotel inventory from the start of the sale to the end of the sale. Free-sell is a wholesale room buying term meaning that the buyer doesn’t actually buy the inventory upfront. The website negotiates to “freely” sell the inventory during the sale dates. Free-selling removes all the upfront risk for the website. The website never pays for the hotel room until it has been sold.

Most sales are three–seven days —sometimes longer. Limiting the sale to three–seven days, or a predetermined number of days, protects the hotel from not having their inventory available for sale for an indefinite period of time. By contracting for short periods of time, the hotel can really discount without losing their shirt.

The hotel then receives all the bookings from the website at the end of the sale and payments to the website from the hotel are made. Most hotel sales to the website’s members are non-refundable; the transaction is very clean and the website does not have to worry about cancellations. It’s just pure cash in the website’s pocket. This is a win-win proposition for both parties.

The only way to make money with this business model, that I can see, is to have multiple sales going on every week and to have the ability to sell thousands of hotel rooms each week. 

I love the private-sale business model because it is simple from an operations standpoint. There are few moving parts. The heavy lifting is done on the front side through the marketing and selling of the travel products to the website’s members. I believe private-sale websites that niche, and target a specific leisure traveler, a lifestyle or a regional destination, can be started fairly quickly by travel entrepreneurs and larger travel companies looking to jump into the game. The barrier to entry is limited.

The race is on.

Wanna build a private-sale travel company?

I recently wrote an article about Private Sale travel websites. I posted the article at the T4 blog where I am a guest blogger and I sent the article to my over 500 subscribers of the Travel Business Profits e-Letter. The letter then went viral throughout the Internet and I have been contacted by many professionals in the travel industry since. It's exciting when your ideas get major attention. Enjoy reading!

Is the new, private-sale travel site business model, the real deal? I get underneath the hood and reveal how it works.

In this month’s Travel Business Profits e-letter, I look at how the private-sale travel site business model works and why I believe it will be a powerful business model in the online travel industry.As an online travel business consultant, and an intrigued entrepreneur, I have been researching the new private-sale travel websites that have been gaining momentum in the online travel industry.

Private-sale sites, or member-only travel sites, are the NEW, NEW thing in online travel. The party got started over a year ago, but now the bigger travel players are entering with their own brands. Jetsetter.com and Rue La La were the first; Vacationist (an American Express Company), SniqueAway (TripAdvisor and Smarter Travel) and TripAlertz are the most recent entrants. I believe private-sale travel sites may be the next online travel business model that ultimately squeezes the OTA’s (online travel agency) supreme dominance.

The emerging private-sale online travel business model was derived in part from the retail clothing private-sales websites of Gilt.com and HauteLook.com. There are hundreds of other competing websites in the private-sale upscale retail clothing product space. Private-clothing-sale websites enable sellers to unload unsold branded inventory at large discounts at a timed event with a deadline to buy before the inventory sells out.

The private-sale business model originated in part from the legendary merchandiser Edward Filene, the founder of Filene’s Basement, who, in the late 1920’s, created publicly scheduled automatic pricing markdowns on his clothes. The publicly promoted markdowns produced a high tendency for consumers to perceive that a bargain was available and that they should buy now or risk losing out on the opportunity, because they knew that within a defined, short period of time, in the next markdown, the item could be sold out. The price dropped systematically with each markdown until all the products were sold out. The clothing that was left over was donated.    

The current web-based private-sale travel sites are invite-only, or member-based, and focus on selling hotel rooms. The private-sale travel business model will succeed in selling brand-oriented travel products including hotel rooms, cruises, tours, and individual travel products where the travel supplier wants to protect the brand image yet still discount to sell their unsold inventory. I also believe the business model will succeed in selling leisure vacation packages and business travel.

Why private-sale travel sites will succeed as a new business model for selling travel online.

Private travel sales’ core strength lies in its ability to harness the social network as the marketing and distribution channel for the website. The dynamic nature of the private-sale offerings, with exclusive weekly deals, book-by dates and large discounts off five-star hotels makes for great conversation between the members to disseminate the news virally via the social network. The travel offering, whether it is a high-end hotel room in New York City or a tour through the vineyards of California, becomes chatter and discussion and is moved aggressively across the social network by the websites’ members to their friends, family and colleagues. Dynamic travel offerings create the feeling that you are receiving a deal and spread virally online. The private-sale business model plays right into the hands of the powerful online social network. The offering spreads through Twitter, Facebook, and the other social networks like wildfire. The distribution of the sale through the social networks not only helps the private-sale websites sell the travel offering, but more importantly, it quickly builds new memberships for the website.

The membership component of the private-sale business model creates the illusion of exclusivity, when in reality; there really is no exclusivity at all. The goal of every private-sale or membership website is to build the largest possible pool of buyers to sell their offerings to. It’s truly just a numbers game.

Yes, you supposedly have to be invited or referred by a friend to join, but neither was the case for me, as I just entered my email address, and within a few days I received my membership acceptance. This may change in the future but the real reason for the membership component is to keep the search engine travel websites out. As soon as “everyone” is selling the travel product offering, the exclusivity component vanishes, and the membership, or closed door, keeps the online travel marketers and distributors out of the game.

High-end hotels and resorts are discounting rooms to the private-sale websites because they believe that their brand is better protected and not diminished by the OTA’s and search engines distributing their discounts all over the Internet. Hotels have a sense that they are more in control of their discounting, and that the process is more efficient in managing their yield. Hotel rooms have “shelf life”; unsold rooms are lost revenue.

Having spoken to a few hotels, I found that they are saying, “the private-sale model is better than the OTA model.” A few said that they believe this may be the future in online discounting. High-end hotels also believe that they are reaching the cost-conscious buyer, a target market that is difficult for them to reach through their traditional sales channels.

The private-sale website industry is literally in the initial growth stages. Jettsetter and Rue La La are two of the early pioneers. As the industry grows, and new players come in, new websites will niche down in both the leisure travel markets and the business travel market. I envision we will see private-sale and membership websites that target both specific demographic and travel lifestyles as well as geographic and destination-based markets. The early private-sale website entrants are currently at a similar stage of development as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz were when the OTA business model was created.

The private-sale websites utilize multi-media, imagery and text to tell you a story about why you want to stay at the hotel or buy a specific travel offering. I am impressed at how visually appealing the online merchandising presentation has been. The travel offering is being displayed online like you are looking through a high-end travel magazine or brochure. The best copywriters will tell you that stories are what sell products. The current private-sale websites do this very well.

Private-sale websites literally stole the playbook from the Internet informational marketers to create effective landing pages (home pages) that convert prospects into an automated online sales funnel. The most successful Internet informational marketers all know that to sell online you need a systematic, sequential sales process that ultimately converts prospects into buyers over a specified time period. Internet informational marketers sell successfully online by utilizing email opt-ins, email marketing campaigns (drip-drip-drip), one-time sales, limited offerings and book-by-date discounts. 

The private-sale process starts by acquiring the name and email address of your prospect. The landing page, or home page, of the private-sale websites is a simple one-page. To gain access, you have to opt-in or enter your name and email address. There is nothing else you can do other than login. The secret to selling information products online is to move your prospect from point A to point B, removing all possible links, literally boxing the prospect in so there is nothing else they can do other than to enter their name and email address. Once the conversion takes place, adding the name and email address, the prospect is dumped into the automated sales funnel, and the systematic sales process and merchandising begins. Oh, it’s a beautiful thing.  

How it works. Selling hotel inventory in a private sale.

There are a few different versions of the private-sale transaction between the website and the hotel. Predominantly though, this is how the deal is structured. The website negotiates a percentage off the lowest bar rate of the hotel. The percentage off can vary according to the hotel’s seasons, or for specified periods of time within seasons. The website will sell the most dates it possibly can; this is negotiated between the website and the hotel. Remember, the more inventory the website has to sell, the greater amount of sales that are possible. The website is generally looking for at least two different hotel room types to sell.

The website “free-sells” the hotel inventory from the start of the sale to the end of the sale. Free-sell is a wholesale room buying term meaning that the buyer doesn’t actually buy the inventory upfront. The website negotiates to “freely” sell the inventory during the sale dates. Free-selling removes all the upfront risk for the website. The website never pays for the hotel room until it has been sold.

Most sales are three–seven days —sometimes longer. Limiting the sale to three–seven days, or a predetermined number of days, protects the hotel from not having their inventory available for sale for an indefinite period of time. By contracting for short periods of time, the hotel can really discount without losing their shirt.

The hotel then receives all the bookings from the website at the end of the sale and payments to the website from the hotel are made. Most hotel sales to the website’s members are non-refundable; the transaction is very clean and the website does not have to worry about cancellations. It’s just pure cash in the website’s pocket. This is a win-win proposition for both parties.

The only way to make money with this business model, that I can see, is to have multiple sales going on every week and to have the ability to sell thousands of hotel rooms each week. 

I love the private-sale business model because it is simple from an operations standpoint. There are few moving parts. The heavy lifting is done on the front side through the marketing and selling of the travel products to the website’s members. I believe private-sale websites that niche, and target a specific leisure traveler, a lifestyle or a regional destination, can be started fairly quickly by travel entrepreneurs and larger travel companies looking to jump into the game. The barrier to entry is limited.

The race is on.

Wanna build a private-sale travel company?

I am speaking on Friday October 29th at the Home Based Travel Agent show and conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey. My presentation, SECRETS of the online travel business, how to transition from a travel agency/travel agent to a tour operator business.

http://www.travelweekly.com/events/home-based-agent-show/conference-speaker-roster.aspx

I will have a booth in the exhibition area promoting my upcoming online course and program, Start a home-based online travel business in 30-days. Please stop by my booth and say hi.

In 2007 I sold CollegeSkiTrips.com the largest youth-based ski travel agency in the USA that I had run for over 15 years. We built our own proprietary online booking engine and website platform over a span of 5-years. I decided that in my next online travel business that it would be less expensive and quicker to scale up by either buying travel reservation website software or licensing the software to run and operate the business.

In late December 2009 and early January 2010 I set out to find a software platform to run my new online travel business. I spent 30-days searching all over the Internet trying to find the best travel software platform to operate and run my online travel company.

I became frustrated very quickly as there was no website or online community for researching and reviewing the different travel reservation software platforms, online booking engines and technology available. My research was conducted literally through Google by entering in multiple keyword search terms and phrases like “online travel software,” over and over.

I could have outsourced the research but I felt that as the owner of the company my selection of the best software platform for the type of business I wanted to run and operate was the biggest decision I had to make and would ultimately determine the success and outcome of my business. I created a spreadsheet of 20 different software providers and then narrowed my choices down to three. I then communicated with the three companies over several emails and phone calls. I conducted online demos and then made a decision between two providers ultimately choosing one at the very last minute due to a price cut.

The entire process was truly agonizing and fraught with too many obstacles. This article seeks to derive an answer to my question, how do I Find the BEST online travel software to run my Travel and Tourism business, and to solicit comments and feedback from travel software and technology solution providers. 

The travel and tourism software and technology industry is fragmented from a consumer or buyer of software solutions point of view. The travel software and technology solution industry needs a consumer oriented community where travel software providers can connect with prospects, provide demo opportunities, provide information on their software products, create a feeling of transparency for their products, list features and benefits, including video demos and real-time chat capabilities, a place where travel software providers and prospective travel software buyers can communicate with one another and build new long lasting relationships.

Ultimately I envision a place where travel solution providers can create a more efficient sales process to reach buyers that leads to more sales and stronger buying relationships between travel businesses and travel software providers.

As an Internet entrepreneur I see an opportunity to fill this gap and help build a more successful online travel industry. I am looking to build a website that brings together travel software and technology solution providers with current travel business owners and prospective travel entrepreneurs.

I’ve included a link to survey that I am currently conducting with travel software and technology solution providers that seeks to help the industry build a successful community that supports the buying and selling of travel software and technology. 

If you are a travel software and technology provider go here to complete a 10-minute online survey. If you need more information or are interested in what I am developing please send me an email or give me a call.  http://tiny.cc/fhfar

If you are a travel business leave your comments below.

Increase annual profits in your travel business by 10%-15% with the Automated-Booking Markup Strategy.

Hi, everyone, I am going to show you a proven marketing strategy I developed that contributed to an increase in profitability of an online travel business I owned by more than 10%. In the last three years prior to acquisition of the company we increased sales by 33%, 74% and close to 100% respectively. 

The Automated-Booking Markup Strategywill increase bookings and profits for your travel business. Every week receive new reservations, Automatically…like clock-work.

The power behind the Automated-Booking Markup Strategyis that it forces buyers to return to your website and buy your travel products. Literally every week ON-schedule you will receive new reservations.

The Automated-Booking Markup Strategywill become a moneymaking booking system that runs on autopilot. Literally the system will just run for you. 

My Automated-Booking Markup Strategyworks for online travel businesses, tour operators, travel agencies, travel portals, hotels, motels, B&Bs, guides, and any business in the travel and tourism industry that accepts reservations or bookings online.

Please go here to learn more about the Automated-Booking Markup Strategyand how it will help your business become more profitable and increase sales.

Best,

Matt Zito

Creator of the Automated-Booking Markup Strategy

http://www.mattzito.com/automatebookingmarkup/

I am currently developing an online course that will teach you how to start a home based travel business in 30-days. This is not a travel agent business selling other companies vacations and trips or anything like that. This is a real business selling your own branded travel products.

What are you interested in learning about starting an online travel business? Leave a comment about what you would like to learn in this course.

In the course I'll teach you how to start the following travel businesses.

Online Travel Agency or OTA

Online Travel Portal

Tour Operator

Tour Guide or Guide

Destination Activity Provider

Travel Broker

The course will include;

How to setup your home based office and all the tools and resources you'll need to get started.

How to incorporate your business.

How to partner with hotels, motels, resorts and lodging suppliers for lodging inventory.

How to write a contract to acquire preffered rates with lodging suppliers and activity suppliers.

How to determine your individual stregnths so you leverage them everday in your business.

How to outsource components of your startup business and build a business team.

How to select the best technology tools and software to run your online travel business.

How to write a 1-page business infrastructure and systems operating document.

How to create a 3-page sales and marketing plan outlining your vision, mission and 1-year financial goals.

How to package travel products to create a unique branded one-of-a-kind travel product.

How to distribute your travel products to scale your sales and become more profitable.

How to price your travel products to compete against the larger travel sellers.

Learn insider tips, tricks and marketing strategies to grow your online travel business.

Learn offline advertising strategies through traditional media.

Learn how to advertise online through Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Learn how to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to create leads for your business.

Learn how to write a press release and target traveler writers that will write about your travel business.

Packaging for Profits

Packaging in the travel and tourism business is all about leverage. To understand the true power of packaging and how it can make your business more profitable, I use leverage as an analogy to help you really understand how packaging works and how it can make your business more profitable. Leverage is simply to borrow to improve your capacity to increase the rate of return.

I define packages as two or more travel products combined to create a third unique product. Most travel packages include a lodging component and an activity component.

In the tourism business you can earn greater profits or increase your rate of return for your business through packaging. In its purest sense you borrow other businesses travel products to increase your economic gain.

Let’s look at the numbers and see how leverage works in the tourism business. In the mid 1990’s in my early 20’s, my wife and I bought a house in Pennsylvania and created a bed and breakfast named the Yellow Breeches House, next to a famous fly-fishing river. We sold two travel products. Lodging (B&B) and Fly-Fishing guided packages (B&B + guided fly-fishing). Our rooms ranged from $99-$175 per night in season. Our Fly-Fishing Getaway packages were $395 per person and included 2 nights lodging, 1-½ days of guided fly-fishing, 2-dinners and 2-breakfasts. Either a couple or 2 guys purchased the Fly-Fishing packages.

At the height of the business we had three Fly-Fishing guides . We paid $200 for 1 ½ day of guided work. We paid two restaurants $20 for each dinner and we served our own breakfasts.

Let’s analyze the numbers and compare selling a room vs. selling a package with 2 people per room on a 2-night weekend stay. A room only with 2 people would gross $350 in our most expensive room. A Fly-Fishing Package with 2 people grosses $790. Expenses are 1 guide $200, 4 dinners $80, net profit is $510. You make $160 more on the weekend or $80 more per night when you sell a package into this room. That same room now is worth $255 per night. Multiply this by more than one room and you can see how your business becomes more profitable very quickly.

The power of packaging is that you borrow other businesses travel products and unlike financial leverage you have no or limited expenses to borrow as you are just forming partnerships with other travel and tourism businesses in your community or area.

An increased profit is the core strength of packaging. Other benefits include the following. The client buying a package is less likely to cancel a trip.  Your business fosters new business relationships within your community and you create win-win deals for others. Creating packages enables you to quickly move with trends and fads in the travel and tourism industry. If something is “hot” this season you can create a package for it.

Packaging can be implemented and sold by not only lodging properties but by tour guides and individual businesses engaged in the travel and tourism business.

Geoffrey Warner a master furniture designer and creator of the famous “Owl Stool” in Stonington, Maine, offers local Bed & Breakfasts his handmade Owl Stool workshop. Innkeepers are packaging the workshops with their lodging. Guests of the Inns take a half-day workshop at his studio and go home from their vacation with an Owl Stool, made with their own hands. This is another example of packaging. Next year Geoffrey plans on selling his own packages directly to his clients in addition to the B&Bs selling and leveraging his areas B&B rooms.

This article was first published in the Maine Biz.

VisitMaine.com, the Maine Office of Tourism’s online travel portal, will increase traffic to your business website, help increase your website’s search engine ranking position and advertise your travel and tourism offerings.

Digital Marketing Infrastructure, or DMI, is the technology platform that runs VisitMaine.com. The online platform and Internet marketing tool is a powerful free marketing program offered by the state of Maine.

The first benefit for your business is the website traffic that VisitMaine.com will provide. The traffic will come through “link-backs” on your business profile page, getaway listings, including packages and specials and events listings. A “link-back” is a one-way URL link that takes a Web user from one website to another.

There are other opportunities, but here I’ll focus on the link-back traffic opportunities generated through a business profile page, getaway listings and the events listing.

Let’s talk traffic. I recently researched the monthly statistics for VisitMaine.com at Quantcast.com, a company that measures Web traffic. On average, 78,000 people from the USA visit this website each month, with a further 14,000 people a month coming from foreign countries. The total traffic is around 90,000 a month. In the summer, the traffic statistics go into the hundreds of thousands.

VisitMaine.com has a Google page rank of five out of 10. Websites that have page ranks of five or higher are generally highly trafficked ones. VisitMaine.com’s Alexa rank is 155,764, which places it among the top 200,000 websites on the Internet. Alexa calculates rankings by a combination of the average daily visitors and page views on a website over a 30-day period.

To acquire traffic back to your website, you need to register and create a business profile. A business profile page will display your business contact information, description and be indexed in the VisitMaine.com search engine. There is a field to list your business website URL, and this is the important link-back you’ll receive.

The second benefit is that by adding your business profile, you will help increase your own website’s search engine ranking positions at Google as your business website will be linked to a larger, more authoritative travel-related website.

I believe the primary factor to getting your business website listed high in the search engine results is the number of websites that are linked to your site and the authority (high page rank) of the website linking to you.

VisitMaine.com is ranked very high, so linking to it will help your own business website become more relevant and rank higher in the search engine results.

The third benefit is an advertising opportunity to advertise your business’s packages, specials and events. Package getaways must bundle a two-night stay with two or more travel-related add-ons — including breakfasts, dinners, vouchers, gift certificates, tours, activities, workshops or programs, performances or cultural events — that are normally booked separately.

Special getaways can be any tourism-related product such as lodging, meals or activities that promote a single travel product or service. Special getaways are an opportunity for your business to generate sales during off-peak periods through pricing incentives. Specials also can be used to liquidate inventory at the last minute.

Events are special events or occasions that occur in a town or region, or at an individual business such as a fair, festival, lecture, sporting event, etc.

When you add a package, special or event at VisitMaine.com, an individual Web page for that offering is created and is indexed in the website.

The individual Web page includes the getaway offering, a link to your business profile and a link to your business website. Every time you create a new offering you create another opportunity to gain traffic back to your website. This is a win-win opportunity as you not only can promote and advertise your travel offerings but you also can gain visitors.

VisitMaine.com is one of the most-trafficked websites in Maine. The Maine Office of Tourism has created a great service in making this online marketing platform available. You should not underestimate its power. Set up your profile, and get going.

This column was first published in the Bangor Daily News.

In an earlier column, I discussed an offline e-mail acquisition tactic that restaurants and lodging properties can implement to build a list of clients. Now I’ll discuss storing your clients’ e-mail addresses and contact information and how to deliver an e-mail message to them.

First transfer addresses from paper into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Make three columns — e-mail, first name and last name — and save as your offline client e-mail list. If you have staff, this is an easy task you can set up to be performed either daily or weekly based on the number of e-mails you have acquired.

Next go online and set up a Web-based e-mail-marketing account with iContact.com, aWeber.com, ConstantContact.com or GetResponse.com. The cost starts at $9 a month for storing 250 e-mails. As you build your list, you can upgrade your service to store more e-mails. You will store your e-mail here and also send e-mails to your list through this account.

E-mail marketing services have features that enable you to create an e-mail template with business images, company logos, headers and footers. You can write an e-mail, save it and choose a day to have it delivered. The services help you become more efficient.

On a weekly or biweekly basis, you should import your Excel spreadsheet into your account. When you first set up your account, notify the company that you will be importing e-mail addresses from clients that you have acquired offline. Tell the company that you have a restaurant or lodging property and that you were given permission from the clients to add their e-mail address and contact information for the purposes of sending them e-mail messages concerning your business.

It’s imperative that the company knows this. E-mail marketing service companies are very concerned about spam and may question your intent when you import e-mail addresses into your account. They want their clients to acquire e-mail addresses online through Web-based forms, so just check with the company.

Now that you have compiled a list of clients’ e-mails, it’s time to send your first message. E-mail marketing is the most effective and inexpensive strategy to reach clients with a direct marketing and sales message.

On your list are people and businesses that previously have bought from you so you must keep this in mind and focus on creating messages that build on the value of your business relationship. Sales, rewards and client appreciation messages are the most effective messages to send.

A sales message may be about a new product offering or an event at your business. Sales messages include a “call to action,” in which you ask the client to make a purchase. A rewards message is an incentive to maintain loyalty to your business. Client appreciation messages are softer in tone and are used more to keep contact with your clients, offering a discount or special percentage off your product.

I recommend that you do not e-mail your client list more than once per week to start. E-mail delivery frequency depends on the type of business you operate and how frequent you want your clients to buy your product. Restaurants can e-mail once per week, as this is an opportunity to promote the weekly specials. Lodging properties may want to e-mail once per month or bimonthly to start.

This article was first published in the Bangor Daily News by Matt Zito.

E-mail marketing is the most effective and inexpensive strategy to reach prospective and current clients with a direct marketing and sales message approach. It also is a great way to communicate upcoming business events, specials and product offerings.

My quick-start, 30-day e-mail marketing strategy is a hybrid approach: an offline e-mail acquisition tactic combined with an online e-mail direct marketing system. If you don’t have an e-mail list-building strategy in place, this simple yet powerful tactic will get you started.

Here’s an e-mail acquisition tactic to build a solid client e-mail list directly from the people who have visited, stayed or bought a product at your hospitality or lodging business. This is one of the best offline e-mail list-building tactics I have ever seen:

My wife and I attended the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity in September of last year. We went to dinner at the China-Dine-ah. It was a cool restaurant with a great atmosphere and good food. After drinks were served, the owner of the restaurant stopped by our table and introduced himself. He was a chatty character, and I knew that our food and experience would be great because only at the best restaurants do the owners ever come over and actually greet you. As he was talking, I got the impression that this was not just your ordinary meet-and-greet. I was anticipating that a marketing or sales pitch was on the way. I was anxious and waiting, but I wasn’t sure what it was.

After he finished the story about how he started his restaurant, he pulled two business-card-size pieces of paper out of his pocket. He laid them on the table with two pencils.

He said if we filled out the paper with our name and e-mail address, we would be entered into a weekly drawing for the chance to win $100 worth of dinners at the restaurant. We told him we were just traveling through, so it wouldn’t really help. He said if we won the drawing we could use it any time in the future. He said thanks for visiting and that the waitress would be back soon to take our dinner order.

He made the entire proposal and interaction laid back and inviting. My wife and I both filled out the paper forms. Then the waitress came back for our orders and took them with her. The entire process was a pleasant exchange of our name and e-mail address for the restaurant’s e-mail list. It was very clever, and I admired his e-mail list-building tactic.

Yes, every week we receive an e-mail from the China-Dine-ah, including information on who won the drawing and the upcoming weekly specials and discounts that the restaurant is offering.

I can see any restaurant using this strategy to build an e-mail list of clients into the thousands in a very short period of time. It also can be implemented at any type of lodging property in the following manner:

At check-in for walk-in clients, ask them to fill out the form for the chance to win a monthly lodging giveaway and-or gift certificate. Leave the e-mail form in the guestrooms on the table or on a desk. The guests can then fill it out at their leisure and the cleaning crew can pick it up later.

This e-mail acquisition strategy can be implemented immediately. In a very short period of time, you will build a list of clients in the hundreds to the thousands. In the next column I discuss how to deliver e-mails to your list.

This article was first published in the Bangor Daily News by Matt Zito.

Case Study: I received this email from Arthur Cervantes on May 25, 2010.

Good morning Mr. Zito!
I wanted to first thank you for helping small business owners with your great column, any help we can get these days is an extremely welcome one!
Here is my personal success story… This is so simple and effective-everyone love a FREE anything!
I have printed receive a FREE annual birthday & anniversary gift certificate! Upon signing up for our email savings club you get a bonus gift an appetizer or dessert of your choice!

I have had so much response I have two staff members working on this! Along with this I had a staff incentive of whichever staff member collected 100 email/contact info would receive 100 dollars cash!
Its amazing how cash is still the leading motivator!!

Within 1 month I am up to 2500 good contacts (and growing) who now receive a weekly text and or email with my weekly in house special!

I thank you in advance for your continued assistance and support for business owners.

Arthur

In earlier columns on converting tourist center visitors into clients, I covered the cost involved to have brochures distributed at the Maine Visitor Informational Centers, creating rack card distribution campaigns based on the three tourist subseasons, and how to allocate brochure distribution to the different Maine Visitor Informational Centers.

Now here’s a marketing strategy: Run a multiseasonal brochure-rack card campaign using discount coupons and tear-off specials. Distribute to the Maine Visitor Information Centers, placing the perforated tear-off coupon on the top of the brochure-rack card so it’s the first thing a vacationer will see.

Order rack cards that have tear-offs or what they call in the printing business perforation tabs. I prefer a rack card that has the perforation at the top rather than the bottom. The idea is to advertise a coupon or discount special and add this onto the coupon or in the tear-off area.

Most marketers will add the coupon to the bottom of the rack card. This is a mistake in my view. Remember, visitors in the centers are scanning the tops of the rack cards, making a 1- or 2-second glance, then turning to the next offering. The visitors in the center will view the coupon and see the discount immediately.

Create an offering that entices the visitor to want to pick up your brochure, take it with them, then force them to make a buying decision with your business in favor. An offering can be a discount off your product for the first 100 visitors, a dollar discount or percentage off your product for using the coupon (add a coupon code for tracking purposes), two-for-one deals or buy one get one free.

Change offerings in each of the three campaigns to adjust to the subseasons, as I am sure that prices fluctuate as the tourist season goes forward. (In a recent column, I discussed creating multiple campaigns based on the three subseasons). At the end of the tourist season in November, you’ll know what offer worked better over the others, so in the second year you can adjust and implement the offer that generated the most sales into all subseason offers.

You can become creative here and try different types of print campaigns. The bottom line is results in any way they come.

Another idea would be to have a different offering at each center. The May-June early season campaign would have three rack cards, one for each center.

Millions of visitors will be coming to Maine in 2010. The bottom line is that to get out in front of the crowd, your business needs to be different from everyone else. Your coupon-generated rack card will get attention and separate your business from most of the others that will continue to print up the same brochure year after year.

Travelers in this value-driven economy are looking for deals, specials and discounts. The coupon rack card in 2010 may be your best strategy to acquire sales from tourists this season.

This article first printed at the Bangor Daily News by Matt Zito.

In my previous column on converting tourist center visitors into clients, I covered the cost involved to have your brochures distributed at the state visitor information centers. You can read that column online at the Bangor Daily News Web site. I would also like to mention that in addition to the seven Maine Tourism Association visitor centers, there is a privately owned visitor center: the Maine Coast Welcome Center in Belfast.

There are basically three subseasons within the Maine tourist season. The shoulder seasons are generally referred to as May-June and September-October. Prime time is July and August. An argument can be made about seasons, but for this example I break it down into three. Your business may be different, so apply my strategy based on your business seasons.

Here’s a marketing strategy: Run a multiseasonal, brochure-rack card campaign using discount coupons and tear-off offer specials. Run three different campaigns, so you’ll have three different printings throughout the year. Print in April for the first shoulder season, May and June; print again in June for the prime time July-August season; and print a third time in August for the September-October season.

I realize that some businesses will be unable financially to run three campaigns. This is fine. Just run one campaign and one printing as you traditionally have. The discount coupon and tear-off offer strategy will work with only one campaign and one print run.

By creating multiple print runs, you can test your rack card offering and see which specials, coupons and pricing work and which do not. You can adjust your rates based on your current reservations, availability and sales. The idea is to avoid being static, to be constantly moving and adapting your pricing and offerings based on what the marketplace is telling you as you move through the season.

If you are in a pinch for cash, try these online printing companies. I am a proponent of buying local and buying Maine-made products, so try your local printing company first. If you don’t have any luck, you can try these: www.psprint.com, www.uprinting.com, www.overnightprints.com, www.48hourprint.com, or www.vistaprint.com.

These online companies print inexpensive rack cards, and you can choose the number of rack cards you want printed. You can generate print runs in the hundreds to the thousands, and the online printers ship within 24 to 72 hours. I suggest you use a rack card size 4-by-9 inches. Please check with the Maine Tourism Association regarding the shelf sizes at the centers because you should make sure the top of your rack card is visible to the perusing visitor.

Each visitor center accepts 100 to 150 rack cards-brochures per business. If you are distributing to three centers, you can print 500-800 rack cards for each of your three campaigns during the season. Knowing how many to print is a tough decision. I recommend that you call the Maine Tourism Association or the centers directly and ask them to provide guidance on print runs.

There is most likely a trend in July and August of brochures flying off the shelves, so adjust accordingly.

Once a center goes through close to all 100-150 rack cards, the Maine Tourism Association will either call you requesting more or send you a postcard. It’s best to have at least 100-300 available and ready to ship. You can ship these to the Maine Tourism Association, and it will store your rack cards, then send them on directly to the centers when your brochures run out.

My next column will talk about creating the perforated or tear-off coupon as the sales offering or marketing message on your rack card. The coupon will offer a special or discount to the traveler.

Maine Visitor Information centers are some of the best locations for distributing your travel – and tourism-based business brochures or rack cards. I view these centers not only as promotional and distribution gateways for your business, but as a sales center for persuading visitors to buy your travel-related product while they are visiting Maine on business or for vacation.

I recently visited the information center in Kittery and picked up a few brochures for hotels, campgrounds, restaurants and artist shops and galleries. The first thing I noticed was that the brochures and rack cards were basically all the same. The brochures all had the standard details about the business and the products being sold. Who, what, where and when was the message I was receiving.

There was nothing on these rack cards or brochures that really got me excited. Thousands of visitors are making stops at the centers every day as they flock through the state. You have about one to two seconds to pique their interest, so your “offering” better be good. Vacationers are buyers. These people have been cooped up in their car, driving for hours and have waited for months for this time to arrive. Now they are on vacation.

Nice looking brochures and rack cards are a step in the right direction, but you need to grab their attention faster to receive the sales outcome you are looking for by participating in the brochure distribution campaign at Maine’s visitors centers.

Travelers are picking up brochures in the centers for multiple reasons. During this upcoming tourist season everyone will be looking for deals, specials and discounts. If vacationers can save a buck this season, they will.

Here’s a marketing strategy: Run a multiseasonal, brochure-rack card campaign using discount coupons and special tear-off offers. Distribute to the Maine Visitor Information centers, placing the coupon tear-off on the top of the brochure-rack card so it’s the first thing a vacationer will see.

To execute this marketing campaign, you will first need to be a member of the Maine Tourism Association. If you are not a member already, you are missing out on one of the best deals I have ever seen for brochure distribution. Annual membership ranges from $75 to $460 depending on what type of business you operate. Call 623-0363 or go online at www.mainetourism.com to download the membership PDF kit. When I spoke to Sean at the association, he said the membership types were being consolidated and that most memberships would cost around $180 for the year.

Choose the visitor centers you want to distribute your brochures or rack cards. It costs $15 to $40 per year to have brochures distributed at each center. Kittery costs $40, Yarmouth $20 and Calais, Fryeburg, Houlton and Hampden north and south all cost $15 per year.

You definitely want to have your brochures in Kittery and Yarmouth, as these two centers are popular locations. Add in a third and for $75 you have annual distribution at three locations for your brochure or rack card. This is an amazing deal.

My next column will look at the tourist subseasons in Maine and how to create individual rack card marketing campaigns for each subseason. I will discuss the printing of your rack card, rack card allocation and distribution at the Maine Visitor Information centers.

This article first printed at the Bangor Daily News.

In early January 2009, I e-mailed my travel and tourism colleagues and warned, “Be prepared that your gross sales will be down by a minimum of 7 to 12 percent in 2009.” I wanted to give my friends and colleagues a third-party, nonbiased view of what was possible so they could start preparing and not be in a state of shock six months down the road.

I pretty much nailed it on the head, judging from the final 2009 figures as they come in from travel industry research companies and Maine’s official state numbers. The Maine Revenue Services declared 2009 the worst tourism season on record.

Yes, 2009 was a bad year. We all know that. But guess what? The 2010 summer tourist season is coming right around the corner.

What is going to happen?

Will the tourists show up or will they continue to slow their pace in visiting the great Vacationland?

What can you do now to stop the bleeding?

How can you stabilize your revenue so it won’t keep going down?

How can you counter the pundits and actually grow your business in 2010?

My name is Matt Zito and I am a veteran travel business entrepreneur and a small-business consultant in the travel and tourism industry. I have built and sold two travel and tourism businesses. CollegeSkiTrips.com was one of the largest online youth ski and snowboard travel agencies in North America and is now owned by the largest ski tour operator in the country, Ski.com. The Yellow Breeches House B&B and Fly Fishing Lodge was a nationally renowned lodging property in Boiling Springs, Pa. In my early 20s I was an Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing guide. I am also a published author with the top business publisher in the country, John Wiley & Sons of New York.

My goal for this column is simple: to provide you with a combination of new, 21st century sales and marketing strategies and old school, tried-and-true marketing techniques you can implement in 2010 to help you grow and build your business. I will cover marketing, advertising and sales strategies, online marketing, online advertising, e-mail marketing, business development strategy, new product development, social media, search engine and Web 2.0 strategy, and online technology tools for your travel- and tourism-based business. I will pull from more than 15 years of knowledge and experience in the travel and tourism business combined with my active consulting and entrepreneurial travel business endeavors.

I will spend a large portion of the columns discussing Internet and Web site strategies, as travel is now the No. 1 product purchased on the Internet. I have experience online not only as a marketer and advertiser of travel but as a Web site developer of travel as well. I have built a handful of Web sites and understand the underlying technology that is being used today. Web site technology and how you can use Web-based technology tools to improve sales and efficiency in your business will be discussed.

The format of this column will include one strategy, followed by three question and answers at the end of the column. My goal is to publish one article two times a month or every 14 days. It is my intent to answer reader questions about the business of travel and tourism and create interaction between readers and this column. I believe a Q&A section will be a valuable component for you.

If your business derives any portion of its income from the travel and tourism industry in Maine, this column will give you strategies and ideas you can use to help start and-or scale up your business in 2010. Small businesses that will benefit from this column include, hotels, motels, B&Bs, lodging properties, resorts, tour guides, guides, tour operators, travel agencies, restaurants and retail shops in destination and tourist areas, marketing directors of travel and tourism businesses and companies that sell products and services to companies in the travel and tourism business in Maine.

Travel and tourism is the No. 1 industry in Maine. There are thousands of businesses involved directly or indirectly with the travel and tourism industry. It is my intent to help these small businesses in this industry to grow and prosper by reading my column. I look forward to writing this column and getting to know many of you.

This article was first printed in the Bangor Daily News.

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