Managing your Travel Business
by John Hawks

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That's why it can cost eight to 10 to 12 times more to win a brand-new customer than it does to keep your existing ones happy -- and, eight to 10 to 12 more than it does to expand purchases by your best clients.

Here's where your database comes in handy. OSSN recommends companies like ClientEase that will gladly work with you on the software needed to build and maintain your database. In this article, we'll assume you have your database filled and ready to use. Now what?

Database marketing grows your travel business by increasing the loyalty, frequency, and sales amounts from your existing clients. That means frequency and consistency in your database marketing efforts. Your marketing costs will be lower -- but your response rate should be much higher.

Keep these database marketing tips in mind:

Cultivate and "weed" your database. Experts say a database that's not maintained will see half of its addresses and other contact details go stale within a maximum of three years. That's a lot of lost business!

Your database clients are already qualified. Focus on sending them targeted sales messages that appeal to their needs -- and leave off the stuff about how you've been in business for 20 years. They've already bought from you and they trust you.

"Score" your database by the most profitable clients. Find an easy way to keep track of the commissions you've earned on each client sale, for example, so that you can sort your database quickly to find, say, the clients who generated the top 20 percent of your revenues last year. Then, make these clients your new best friends.

Pull your calendar TODAY and schedule your next three contacts with your top 20 percenters. Don't put this off 'til tomorrow. Right now, plan on paper when you will make your next calls or drop your next letters or send your next emails to this group.

Want to share other tips on growing a healthy client database? Share them with us!