The Tribune

MARKETING REVOLUTION

By D'ARCY RAHMING

IMAGINE this. John Smith lives in Minnesota. The winter has been tough, the job stressful, and so he decides to plan a cruise to the Caribbean. He e-mails his friend to ask him if he and his wife want to accompany him. Then he Googles 'cruises to the Caribbean'.

Over the course of the next few days he continues to look up things to do in different ports. He notices that they will be going to Nassau, so he looks up things to do while in Nassau. John's wife does the same thing, and so does his friend and his wife. They get on Facebook and tell their friends of their plans. Finally, they book their tickets, review various cruise ship packages and are on their way.

If you have a business that caters to tourists but are not actively pursuing Internet strategies, you are making a big mistake. John's story is more typical than not. Business person after business person has told me the cruise ships have too much control over the tourist and how he spends his dollar when hitting our shores. Yet there were at least five opportunities where businesses in Nassau could have drawn John in before he even spent a dollar with the cruise ships.

Opportunity number one came when he e-mailed his friend. A direct response ad could have appeared on the side of his e-mail inviting him to take advantage of something to do when thinking about a cruise to Nassau. The second opportunity occurred when he Googled the cruise lines. Again, ads could have appeared on his screen inviting him to take advantage of some offer while in Nassau.

The third opportunity came when he researched various options. In fact, using banner ad technology, he would be reminded of special offers to look at whenever he accessed any site, whether the site was tourism-oriented or not. When he got on Facebook to tell his friends, again ads could have lured him in. Finally, as he went to book his tickets, this was another opportunity to display an offering to him.

After the business had captured his name and e-mail they could begin to build a relationship with him, sending him good and valuable information. Learning about his likes and dislikes, and shopping habits. Regardless of what the cruise ship said, he would be looking for the business that he has the relationship with when he arrived in port.

NB: D'Arcy Rahming holds a Masters of Management from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://DArcyRahming.com or contact him directly at darcyrahmingsr@gmail.com