Content & Marketing Hacks for Small Business

Hello everyone and welcome. My name is Ash and welcome to my YouTube channel Ash where I share trainings, walkthroughs and insider tips to help child advisers build confidence and book smart. And tonight's training is all about the easiest way to get clients simple practical strategies that you can start using right away to bring inquiries without feeling overwhelmed or stuck. So if you're here, you should already know what to do. Go ahead and comment hello in the chat so I know that you're with me. And of course, if you happen to be watching this on a replay, go ahead and comment replay so I know that you stopped by. You're probably wondering, why can't I see your face? Hold on. We're going to get there. Okay, but before we dive in tonight, do want to go ahead and let you guys know about a couple of things that are coming up. First of all, on Thursday, we're going to have a huge training called Build Your Travel Agent Command Center. So, if you feel like you're all over the space and you're just like not really aligned and your stuff's not in order, come join me on Thursday at 5:00 PM PST and we're going to get you set up with an entire command center so you know how to operate for 2026. Yes. And also speaking of that, if we go over here, I want to show you guys too my trainings for next week. Now, I normally would um kind of just post this in Evolution and then you guys go find it, but I wanted to go ahead and just kind of let you know what's going on um so you know what to expect. Yep. So, starting next month for February, I'm doing a lot of different things for corporate. So, right now, I'm set up to do Tuesdays and Thursdays um at 5:00 PM PST on my YouTube channel. That will be as usual. Um we're doing a lot of good stuff. We're doing things like content that attracts bookers, um, weekly, uh, which social media metrics actually matter. That's a big one. I feel like that's something we easily get kind of confused with is what to look at, right? So, then I'm going to do a vacation express walkthrough because it is kind of my new favorite vendor. So, I've been using them a lot. So, I want to show you guys that one. Um, it's like a an alternative for Vax. Anytime you run into a situation with Vax where you can't find a resort, try Vacation Express. They probably have. All right. Um, we're also going to talk about some team building for next month. We're going to talk about what to say when someone asks you about the business and how to retain agents. Feel like that's important. And then how to scale and simplify for week four. We're going to talk about how to market groups. Yeah, because it's group season and I actually just opened up a group cruise with Virgin Voyages. So, I'm going to tell you guys a little bit how I'm going to market that for the next six months. So, maybe if you guys want to do something like that, you could do it, too. All right. And then lastly, at the end of the month on Thursday, I'm going to have a live travel Q&A. I might bring some people on. Um we're just going to hang out and you guys are going to just be able to ask me anything um about team building, travel, booking, whatever it is, whatever kind of you want to ask. All right. So, that is what I'm going to be doing for next month. But let's go ahead and kind of dive into what we're doing tonight. Yes. All right. So, for tonight, we're going to dive into something really good. Um 10 easiest ways to get clients. Okay. Simple, realistic ways to get clients online and real life. Now, let me go ahead and make it bigger. One second here. Um, in there though, I I like to do this training because I feel like when we first think about getting clients, we always make it super hard. Like, we're trying to do the biggest things, you know, make the biggest impact. And I'm I'm not against that, okay? But I also want to show you how easy the easy path, okay, it is to getting clients. So that if you find yourself where you're like, I don't know, I don't know what else to do. Okay, I have some more ways. Okay. Can we all agree that one of the most beautiful parts about being in the travel industry is that there's always another way to get a client. Yes. Like like there is never one set way to get a client. Not only is there not ever one set way, but whenever you think that there that you're done marketing and you don't know if there's another way, trust me, there's another way. Okay? So, tonight I just want to show you the easy path that you could take. Now, does that mean that you're automatically going to get clients from this? Absolutely not. I don't ever want to leave with that. Okay? But what I want you to understand is is that when you're watching this, and as I always say with all of my trainings, when you guys are watching these trainings, just take small parts of it. Maybe you're already doing one of these things and you just need to add a second part to that. Okay, fine. Take that, make it your own, and implement it to where you can go and do this. Okay? You'll never hear me come out and say like, "You better make sure you're doing it this way." No, that's not what I'm going to say. I just want to open up that horizon that you guys have for when it comes to getting clients. Okay. So, for tonight, what we're going to be covering is basically like a different ways to approach marketing. We're not going to talk about the cold messaging. I don't do that. We're not going to talk about paid ads. I don't really suggest ever doing paid ads. Maybe on Facebook, I've seen it actually work the most, but anywhere else, we're not doing that. Okay? Um, no complicated funnels, no just nothing like that. We're just going to talk about what works really well for new and experienced agents that is kind of their go-to is what we're going to do. Okay. So, easy repeatable methods for online and also I'm going to talk about inperson because I feel like that's one of the biggest opportunities that we have is being able to see people and talk to them about travel. So, we're going to cover that tonight, too. All right. Now, the first one we're going to talk about that a lot of you guys don't do because I follow like 90% of you on Facebook. Okay? If you don't follow me on Facebook, add me. I don't care. Well, we could be friends. Let's go. Right. But the biggest thing that you guys always fail to do is talk about your wins. Okay? It doesn't even have to be about what you book, per se, but you don't ever talk about what you do. And and I don't even know if it's just like on your personal Facebooks. Maybe that's why I don't see it as much. But we have to celebrate ourselves. In order for other people to know what we're doing, in order for people to know what our wins are, we have to share it with them. Okay? So, you guys need to share what you're booking and you need to share your niche. Share everything that in there that you do and why you're good at it. Okay? So, share destinations, trip styles that you plan. Even if it's just mock bookings. I have a whole new deal for 2026 for myself. Anything that I am going to be sharing for clients, like a booking that I might do, I turn it into a mock booking because if you're not going to book it, somebody else will. Okay? That is a good healthy standard to have. That way, your work for doing quotes is never actually going without being noticed. They can constantly see the trips that I'm planning because I'm I'm posting it in my stories left and right. Right? Be visible about what you actually book. The I can tell you for a fact, okay? Um, Tik Tok went down. um yesterday. I don't know if you guys know it was down for a while, but there were people still seeing my story and they were replying back to it. Can I get a quote on this? Can I get a quote on this? Um I put my group crews in there. They're interested in it. And so it kind of like surprised me, but like it showed me the power of what a story can do. And just talking about things that I'm already doing. I'm already planning this trip. This is what I planned. This is what people easily book on because they can see it. It's tangible, right? They can read the details of it. they can see how you literally put out the quotes and inquiries. And speaking of quotes and inquiries, I just taught you guys, it's on my YouTube. It's probably one of my most viewed videos right now, how to make quotes and inquiries um within 15 minutes. And um even mock bookings, you could probably make them faster than that now that I showed you how. But use this, use this to show them what you book. And then you can pull in clients way easier by showing them something that you're already doing than bending the wheel and trying to do like extra stuff like making different reels and doing that. No, you don't have to do all of that. Just tell them about what you do so they know exactly where they stand and what they want to book, right? People can't hire you for what they don't know you do. That's it. Especially if you're not talking to them. I feel like a lot of us don't really talk to them. We're just posting like sales post. like you have to start talking to them and actually bringing them into it, right? Make them seem like they need to follow you to know more about what you do. Okay. Number two, this is a common misconception and when I first started, I was actually taught not to do this. So, I just want to flip the script here. Okay. A lot of us will take post like I have I I have adults only travel as my niche. Okay. So, a lot of my stuff is controversial and a lot of times people do not agree about my opinions. Okay? I do that on purpose. I'm going to tell you right now, if I know it's something that's going to probably rage bait them a little bit and make them talk about it, absolutely. Like, I'm going to give you a very common common thing that happens to me. So, [clears throat] there's a secrets resorts and then there's a secrets resorts in Florida and they're two different types of resorts. They're both adults only, but they're two different scenarios. Okay. I didn't know about that second one for a while, but I just kept posting secrets, secrets, secret secrets. Even after I found out about it, I just put secrets. And somebody went there and was like, "You need to dictate which one you're talking about." Like, I know that. I know. But I Yeah, okay. You're right. Secrets. Okay. It's not an adults only resort like you think it is, right? Like the point I'm trying to do is is I know that they're going to comment something on it. Go ahead. And guess what? Leave it up. Leave it up. Now, if it's something that's going to tear you down, okay, fine. remove it. But if they're going to argue in the chats, let them. The more that engagement you get, the more that you're in there, you know, like kind of talking to them, let them. Okay? Now, I know that's not the point of the post, but I promise you, the more that they're commenting and they're going back and forth in there, it's bringing my post back up, and that's what's bringing new people in, which is commenting to book. So, okay. Now, with that, how can we do that? Turn facts and objections into post. That's exactly how you do that. And that is a great way to bring in somebody. Okay? If you take a fact like the top 10 all-inclusive resorts to go to for families, okay? They're going to go in there and go, "Oh man, um, Dreams was great. Oh man, Nickelodeon sucked. Oh man, I really don't know which one I want. Can you help me?" Okay, we need to start answering those. Even if you don't like them, like even when they comment something weird, I still respond to them because that way you're bringing engagement back to your post, okay? If they post something that's not true, you're addressing that confusion openly. And then you can use real questions from DMs or text. Once I got that message that somebody was like, "Secrets, okay, it's not the same. You need to dictate which one." Guess what my next post was? Here's secret hideways. Here's secret resorts. Like I went in there and I fixed it, right? And I wasn't able to do that until somebody came along and said, "Hey, this is what it is." Okay, if one person asked 10 more are thinking it. So, whatever you see, let that dictate how you respond. Let it dictate how you and do your engagement and what type of post you do. Your audience are eventually going to do this for you. But what I was taught when I was first started was just to hide everything. I was told to send them to my DM. Don't let them comment on your stuff, you know, and I think it was the fear of other agents grabbing them. I get that naturally, but it looks better if I'm responding online than it does if I'm like, "Oh, see you in a DM." Okay? That makes it look like I'm not proud of what I do. No, this is what it is. If you don't like it, don't like it, right? And people love that. They they will go in and heart all of my little posts and comments. They think I'm hilarious. So, keep doing that. All right. Number three, using commentbased call to actions. Yeah, that's another thing. Um, back in the day, we used to just send people to our DMs. I just kind of talked about it, but change the way you're doing your call to actions. Get them to comment on the post and then respond to them and say, "I'm sending you a DM." Now, we're still going to pull them to the DMs, but we need to have that commentbased call to action because the more I see somebody going, "Book, book, book, book. Oh, now I want a book." Right? That increases the reach and it starts that conversation. That is the beginning part of your funnel is getting them to comment on something. And if they comment on it, I want you to understand how far they have to go out to do that. Think about when you're on Facebook basing, scrolling, scrolling. If you like something, you heart it, right? But if you really like something, you follow them. And if you really, really like something, you're going to comment on it. Either that you like it or it just made you mad. But either way, you're going to comment if it's getting an emotion out of you, right? So you need to have a commentbased call to action to direct them to do so. Okay, this warms up leads where others can see. Other people are seeing them comment on it and they're going, "Oo, let me comment, too." Right? Comments open the door and then if you're just having them go straight to your DMs, it can close it because nobody else can see those interactions. All right, number four, be consistently visible. I know this one like it's like overspoken and I'm sorry, but I can't explain it to you more. I have seen so many of you guys start posting and then you stop and you're stopping because you're not getting that instant gratification. And I get it. It sucks. It sucks when a post doesn't do well. Especially when Tik Tok was broken, right? I was over here like, "Why am I not getting any views? This is crap." No. Okay, listen. I get it, right? You don't need to go viral. I'm not asking you to make the most viral post. You just have to be consistent with it. And it's those small little post, okay, that build trust and that familiarity of them seeing you all the time is what builds confidence in them booking with you. Every time I'm doing something that takes me a little bit extra work. Some nights there will be nights where I don't stop working till about eight or nine o'clock. Okay? I don't have to do that. I don't have to work that hard. I really don't. I have built up enough success in this business to where if I wanted to take two, three weeks off, it wouldn't affect me. Okay? And that's fantastic. But I love what I do and I love working. So on my own as a Capricorn, I will do that. Okay? And it's those small little steps that I take late at night to be consistent and to be visible that make the biggest difference throughout the days. And it's those small steps that I took that makes it to where I can take two to three weeks off that it won't affect me. Okay? Visibility beats perfection every single time. You don't ever have to be perfect about it. There's one viral post that I have that has the word afraid on it twice. And that post is at over 139,000 views. They don't care about you being perfect, but they do care if you actually show up. All right. Number five, talk to one type of client. This is the biggest thing that you guys make a mistake on. General content attracts no one. You have to find your people. Okay? Not everybody is looking to book all-inclusives. Not everyone is looking to cruise. Some people actually hate cruising, which is weird, but they do. Um, [clears throat] not everybody's looking to explore the world, but there are people that are looking just for that. Okay? So, you have to choose a primary audience and you need to repeatedly just speak directly to them. Let others self- select out. Okay? If that's not something they're interested in, they can keep scrolling, right? But if you're talking to the person that you actually want to talk to, it's going to attract the right people and that's going to make your funnel a lot shorter, reaching to the bottom part of where they're going to book. If you're talking to people in general, right? Like this is if I'm just posting general content, I'm reaching all of these people up here, but all these people aren't going to come down here to book. Okay? So, I need to talk to the same exact person repeatedly about the same exact topic. coming down here. Um, you just have to pull it through and like you have to speak to the same person. If you are constantly going out of your way trying to talk to everybody, you're not going to be able to pull people in as effectively. And I can show you that on my Tik Tok page. If you looked at my Tik Tok page, I'm speaking to the exact same person over and over and over. And that's what closes the deal. Not the fact of it's just everybody look at my content. No, not everybody wants to see you. But you need to find the people that actually want to see you. And that's how you can close deals. Okay, number six, show the process. A lot of you guys are just like, I'm a certified travel agent. Okay, but what do you do? They there's a lot of travel agents out here. Why should I book with you? What makes you different from everybody else? You can easily do this by using mock bookings to show price ranges and what you would do and your inclusions that you can do. Okay, a lot of people can go and book adults only resorts on their own. Okay, but why do they book through me? What makes me different? Why do they follow me? Because they trust me. That's it. I build trust. I build trust by explaining to them the different types of resorts. I build trust by showing them the type of bookings that I do and the deals that I get. Right? We have one for Vax and especially Vacation Express. A lot of them resorts on there. Guys, they have a $200 off Jamaica right now. Why aren't you using them? Okay. Put a quote together. Look, there's $200 off in this quote. That's a reason to book with you. Okay. explaining the timelines of how you can actually make a a deposit and then pay over time. Explaining the common mistakes that people do on their own, they're going to go, "Oh, I don't want to do that on my own. Let me let her handle it." Right? People trust what they understand. If you are not breaking it down to them, they just think you're some salesman. Okay, great. You sell travel, fantastic, but why should I book with you? What makes you different? Okay, if they understand the process, then they can trust the outcome. That is how you can bring in new clients right there. That is probably the easiest way for you to bring in clients because you're already doing the process. Just show them the way that you do it. Number seven, this is going to be in person. Use real live connections. Clients don't only come from social media. This is probably one of the biggest misconceptions when we first start. We always want to go straight to social media. But you guys are already out and about. I don't care if you're at your grocery store. I don't care if you're just at a local community event. Don't be hiding. Well, that's not clear grammar. Don't I was going to say don't restrict yourself, but don't hide who you are. Be proud of what you do. You do something that a lot of people wish they could do and they you do it well. Clients, they you you have to talk to them in person. Okay? I'm not saying go out there and be like, "I'm a travel agent. Hear me roar." No. Okay? confidently say what you do to generate word of mouth. Just let them know, oh, what n% of the conversations that come up with people when they first like start talking is, "What do you do for a living?" Can we all agree? Yes. All right. Take that and then use it to your advantage. Oh, yeah. I actually plan travel for a living and my specialization is in adults only resorts. Oh, really? I know Betty and Tom who want to go. Okay. Like, you have to start the conversation. Okay. I used to not talk about it. I used to not tell anybody. And you know what used to make me so mad is when they would book travel with other people. And I'd be like, "Well, they didn't book through me." Well, it's because I didn't tell him. How many times have you guys done that? Be honest with yourselves. How many times have you basically shot your own self in your foot going, "Dang, I didn't tell nobody." Okay, you have to stop doing that because this is one of the easiest ways to get clients is with people that already know you. Okay? Don't go out there and talk to your friends and your families all day talking about I I got bookings. Okay, I'm not saying that. All right. You can build a business off of people that you don't know faster than you can build a business off of family and friends, but you can't tell people that what they're doing, right? You can't tell them what you're doing if you're not talking to them. That's all I said. All right. So, not every client comes from the internet. Yes. Can we all agree? Number eight. And I don't know why they put this stupid star behind here, but we're gonna keep going anyways. Um, use social proof or fact proof. So, I realize that I say this a lot to you guys, but then a lot of you guys are like, I don't have booking yet. Most of my audience for Ashnos Travel is new travel agents. And I acknowledge that. So, I'm going to give you both options. Okay. Social proof is going to be reviews, testimonials, and client stories. They don't have to be happening right now. It could happen six months ago. They don't care. They don't see it every day. It doesn't have to be the most recent testimonial. It just has to be something to show that you are socially proofed. You are a real thing. You actually booked travel. That's all it needs. Okay. Now, if you don't have this yet, you can also do fact proof. Fact proof is probably one of the easiest ways to get clients is because it builds trust. Educational post, comparison, industry facts. Okay, but if you don't talk about your niche with this, it doesn't work. You can't just post a random thing about the airport. How does this affect your audience? That's how you talk about it. Okay, people need reassurance to buy. I provide reassurance in my niche by telling them the truth about the resorts and what they can expect. This gives them that fact proof like, oh, she actually knows what she's talking about. Okay, proof builds trust. It doesn't have to be personal either. O, that's one of the most common misconceptions. I don't have to make it weird and personal. I don't have to sit here and go, I went to this resort and I had a fun time. No, not necessarily. But I did send, you know, Tom over there with his wife, Betty. Yeah, I guess that's what we're talking about tonight. Tom and Betty, they just went over there and they had a blast. Okay, that's the social one. Or actually, I'm going to tell you that these this resort right here is not meant for you if you like blah blah blah. Okay? Like there's certain ways you guys can do it, but it has to be nichebased in order for this one to work. Number nine, make the next step easy. Okay? Confused people don't book. Use one clear call to action and one clear action and eliminate the overwhelming part. Okay? What do I mean by this? You guys will post a lot of things when you're online and it's like you have no general idea of what to do at the bottom of it. Like it's like every post needs to be like a funnel. So, we're hooking them in. We're giving them the information. Um, we're going to pull on some emotions and then we're pulling them down. And now, here's what you do with this post. Call to action, right? And then hashtags. That's how I always tell you guys to build your post. But you miss that ending part. They don't know what to do with this. So, when every time you guys start posting things, the first thing I want you to think about is what do I want my audience to do with this? Then, I want you to put it at the end of the video. It's a video. I don't care if it's a post. I don't care if it's a carousel. I don't care what it is. Whatever it is that you want them to do with them, I want you to just try for a week to just tell them what to do and see if you get any results. Okay? If it's hard to respond to, people won't. If you make it hard to find your inquiry form, but you want them to do bookings, they're not going to do it. If you make it hard for them to qualify themselves by filling out the form, they're not going to do it. All right? Make it easy as possible for them to do it so there's no excuses. I'm going to give you a prime example. um with my adults only, I felt like my form for like my general travel is just a little overwhelming for them. So when I note that, I go back in there and I go, "Okay, so how can I make this simplified?" I'd made just a form for adults only travel. And that works better. I get inquiries way better on that one because I'm just talking about that than going, "All right, here's an inquiry form with 23 questions." What? They don't need that. They don't even talk about cruises. We just need to know what they want to do. Okay, that is what I'm referring to. That's the easiest way to get a booking. If you sit there and make it really hard for them, they're not going to do it. Number 10, the last one, the one that we always make a mistake on. I'm going to tell you something. For somebody who's been here for four years now, almost, it is easier to get repetitive business from clients that you have already booked than spending your time trying to find new ones. Can we all agree? If you are one of the agents that have been here for years, can you comment please and let them people know that are watching this? It is easier to get a client from somebody you've already booked. Right? Okay. So, I say that and I know it doesn't really pertain to following up, but it does. You guys will do bookings and then you don't follow up with people and that's just the drop off. And you do a booking one time and that's it. No more bookings after that. You booked your client. Have a great day. You need to make sure that you have it all the way pulled through. Okay. Follow up with the people that have already went on their trip. Follow up with the people that have already booked. Follow up with the people that inquired. Follow up. Okay. Now, let's take that and just take it a little bit. We're going to go back a little bit. Okay. Let's just say they haven't booked with you yet. All right. Um, I clicked on something. So, let's just say they haven't booked with you yet. All right. But you reached out to them, you did a quote for them, and you didn't hear nothing back. Follow up with them. Maybe you had some inquiries with them and they didn't really decide anything. Follow up with them. Okay, follow-ups aren't pushy. People are just busy. I don't think we realize that. I didn't even realize that for a first couple years. I used to get really offended when people didn't respond to me after I did a quote. You are busy. Let me know. Okay, that consistency with the followup is what closes the gaps. It helps fill that timeline. And maybe you don't have a new inquiry coming in. work on the inquirers you already had. Okay. Most bookings don't happen on the first message. I'm gonna tell you, I've been promoting um the adults only consistently only like almost about two months now. Okay? And I mean by that like I've always promoted it, but I've always slipped it in. This time that's all I'm talking about. I'm not talking about anything else. This is what it is. Okay? When I did that, the first week I did it, I got a booking and it was like okay. But then I got like I was like I was like, "Okay, we got on a roll." Right? Then right after that, I got another booking. I was like, "Oh, all right. It's working." Right? And then I got like 12 inquiries and I pushed all the quotes out and none of them booked. And I was like, "Right, okay." But then like the next day I got two more and then I got a booking. Like what I'm trying to say is is that just because I've gotten all those inquiries doesn't mean they always book. But that doesn't mean I need to stop talking to these people either. I need to go follow back up with them, right? And I do. So, I have a system for that and I'll teach you guys about it on Thursday. Yeah. Okay. Every time I send somebody an inquiry, I put it down in my system and I make sure I follow up with them and I keep them in my loop. Okay. But what I'm trying to get to is that it's okay that if you do something and they didn't book right away, that doesn't mean they're not going to book with you forever. Okay? Most bookings don't happen on the first message. And sometimes you have to talk to them and get them set up and do this, do that, right? Regardless, please always follow up because there's a lot of things that you miss in the followup. All right. Now, I have talked a lot. Yes. I want you to be able to execute some of these things. I want you to sit down and I want you to plan them out so you know exactly what to do. So, if you want to do that with me, go ahead and comment the word clients and I'm going to send the guide in the chat. But let's take a look at the guide, shall we? Come here, guide. Share this tab. All right, 10 easiest way to get clients. So, this is actually an action guide, okay? It has the 10 methods in here that I talked about so you don't have to remember them off the top of your head. But what I want you to do is I only want you to take three of them at a time. I don't expect you to do all of these at once, okay? But I want you to focus on the three of them, okay? And I want you to use only your priorities for that week as these three focus methods. Then whatever that is, how often you're going to do it. Yeah. Quick content check. We need to make sure we're talking to the right people. I mean, that's important. Follow-up reminder. And then the final remember or reminder here, okay? And I know it's short, but the thing is is I want you to be able to sit down and actually think about what you can really do because this is a lot, right? But if you just do three small things consistently for a week, let's see how it changes it because then you might want to do three more small things, right? That's what I want to get to tonight. Okay? All right. So, go ahead and comment clients, shall we? And let me go put this in the chat for you guys. One second. Studio. All right. Yep. Okay. You guys should have it now. Yes. All right. So, with that, I hope you all have a beautiful night. Um, I think we went over some really good stuff for me. If you like this video, please make sure that you like the actual video. Please comment if it helps. It helps me. Yeah. On our engagement deal. And share it with your teams. Okay. This is going to help a lot of newbies. So, if you have some new agents, teach them how to get clients. Yes. All right. So, I will see you guys back on Thursday at 5:00 p. p.m. PST. Um, build your travel agent command center. You guys can join me live there. Um, and I'll teach you all about systems. Yes. But other than that, I hope you guys have a beautiful night. Thank you so much for hopping on. I'm going head over to the studio now to look at the chat. So, if you need help, if you like the video, go ahead and comment, let me know. And I will see you in the chat. And then, of course, I will see you guys on Thursday. Have a good evening.