Where do you get your diving customers from?
If you have already completed the 'define your customers' worksheet, and the 'define your services' worksheet, then the next step in producing your marketing plan is to formally define where you get your business from, and to quantify this. This can often be easy if on your registration forms you include a box to tick which asks 'how did you hear about us'
The aim of this excercise is to help you plan where you want to spend your marketing budget, and how to monitor if that spend is giving you the right returns. So it is best to define areas with identifyable costs - for example web developments, advertising, referral. If you simply define by means of contact (eg phone, e-mail, face to face)
Our Hint: Start by being honest and splitting up what you make today - if you can, put some rough percentages alongside each source (eg 30% advertising, 20% repeat buisiness). Then in the final column decide what you want in the future. All you need to do then is work out plans to specifically target those groups.
Service | Examples | My Profile Today | Target Future Profile |
Repeat Business | Customers who come back and buy from you again, you may want to include referrals in this category or list it as a seperate category. | ||
Advertising - Specialist Journals | Adverts you place in specialist diving or local magazines | ||
Walk-in/Drive-in | Customers who see your centre and make a direct approach by driving in or walking in. | Website | Divers who contact you after seeing your website |
Web catalogs and Directories | Referals and questions from websites not directly under your control | ||
Partners, Booking Agencies, Travel Agents | Formal arrangements with third parties who sell on your behalf, usually for a commision | ||
Direct Sales Team | Your own team of | ||
Minor Sources (or "Other") | If you are only making small amounts on some categories then they are not a focus, so group them as "other" |
Put the words together and you should be able to come up with a definition of your sources something like this :
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Example 1 - A dive centre near Scapa Flow or Truk Lagoon "20% of the business comes from returning customers, often with new members in the group, 30% comes from our web pages, 30% from Advertising, 10% comes from afiliates, partners, and 10% other."
- Example 2 - A beach-front dive centre in a popular tourist destination (not renown for the quality of diving). "40% of our business will come from Partners in resort including two tour operators; 30% from walk-in(tourists) and 10% from walk-in (local residents); 10% from web bookings and the remaining 10% from Other including repeat"