by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-Business Consultant
April 218, 2001
"Why is it that few travel agents request e-mail addresses of their clients? I am considering producing an 'almost-ready-to-mail' newsletter for travel agents that would help them be able to send out an e-mail newsletter quite easily." -- Dub James, FunTripsLive.com
None of the travel agencies I called in my informal poll routinely collected e-mail addresses of clients. They are used to communicating face-to-face, by phone, or by fax. Some saw e-mail as an impersonal way to communicate. While most agents had a field in their client management software to collect an e-mail address, none saw it as particularly important, nor did they have any concept of using e-mail to send out a regular newsletter to clients. But when I explained to one how inexpensive an e-mail newsletter could be to acquaint clients with specials, one agent I know brightened up to the idea immediately.
Nearly all traditional businesses can profit from using e-mail. Staying in touch with clients via e-mail newsletters and updates is a powerful way to market, and instead of being impersonal, it extends your personality out to them very effectively, though in a different medium than you may used to. By all means, insist that your staff routinely collects e-mail addresses both from walk-in business, existing clients, and from Internet contacts. You'll find that this growing 'house list' of e-mail addresses will be marketing 'gold' for your company.
