Can This Trip Be Saved? / Travel Selling 101
by John Hawks

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The consular or embassy officer will ask your clients routine questions and check their other identification to confirm their identities. They must also complete a new passport application -- a potential problem if your clients are traveling with minor children. (Nowadays, divorced parents must carry a notarized letter from their former partners if they share custody of the children, proving that the traveling parent has permission to take the children across U.S. borders.)

The new passport is typically issued for the full 10-year period for adults. If the consular or embassy officer has any doubts about your client's identity, the validity may be limited to three months.

Normal passport fees ($67 for renewals) apply for replacement passports -- so this is not an inexpensive chore! Also, remember that most U.S. embassies and consulates close on weekends and holidays in other countries, making it difficult to get replacement passports during those times.

Finally, OSSN recommends Passport Express Services (www.passportexpress.com) as an excellent expediter if you have clients in trouble with their passports or visas. Call them any time at 800.362.8196 if you have questions!

Selling Travel 101: Making Your Client Emails Sizzle!

This article will not teach you the mechanics of building an email listserv or collecting emails from prospects. You'll find lots of articles on the Web and elsewhere to give you those basics.

Instead, we're sharing with you this "hit list" of principles that you can review to strengthen the "pull" of your emails and improve your closing rate for sales:

If you send HTML emails, check the size.

Try not to send email larger than 100KB, because many spam filters may see that as junk email. Aim instead for 60KB. Remember that many clients don't operate yet on the same high-speed Internet connections that you have for your travel business.

Short deadlines are best.

Think about how you respond to your own email. When you open an email, you will typically respond right away if it's urgent; otherwise, you'll print it out to read later or save it in your email box (where, many times, it will languish for days). It's the same with your emails to clients -- if you want them to act quickly, set a short deadline for responses. (Or, give a bonus or "goodie" of some sort to the first clients who respond.)

Don't go overboard with the graphics.

Here's what typically gives you the most value for the space you'll use within the email: a header with your agency's name and/or logo, a box of color around your call-to-action paragraph, and your scanned-in signature in color. Here's the stuff that looks cool on your computer but distracts your clients: color behind the entire email (spam filters see that as a sure sign of junk e-mail), lots of icons, and "heavy" graphics that soak up memory.

Look at the From and Subject lines.

Try to send email from a person's address -- "john@ossn.com" -- instead of "info@" or "sales@" addresses. And, take a long, hard look at your subject lines. Would you open an email with that wording in the subject line?

Remember that people don't read email these days. They skim it!

Use links in your email to take clients and prospects back to your Web site. That saves a lot of space within the email itself. Also, use bullet points!

We'd love to hear your own hints for successful client emails. Send them to us!