AgentSmart

Sales & Marketing Tips

How travel insurance can help build customer loyalty


If something unexpected occurs during a client’s vacation, it’s important for agents to know how to handle a bad situation quickly. From conflicts with flight delays to hotel accommodations, when a client is calling from a far-away country and you’re not able to assist right away, travel insurance can benefit both you and your clients. Partnering with Allianz Global Assistance means your clients can purchase travel insurance and connect to our award-winning assistance center 24/7 to ensure they get the one-on-one care when they need it.

Like you, we are dedicated to providing a seamless traveling experience so that people can truly enjoy their vacation time. If your client’s dream vacation is less than perfect, travel insurance allows them the opportunity to seek reimbursement for their losses, making it much more likely they’ll return back happy and satisfied with their trip with you, creating stronger customer loyalty.

Having a good relationship with a travel insurer also provides a more “boots on the ground” approach to tackle challenging problems. An insurer’s travel assistance services can provide directions to a local consulate, suggestions for nearby hotels or the address of local medical clinics. This can help you and your client have some peace of mind that the right care will be available and expand the “reach” of your agency.

As always, remind your travelers to read policy documents carefully so they understand what’s covered by their travel insurance plan. Need help figuring out which plan is best for your customers next trip?

Call our travel insurance advisers at 1-866-844-3556

Travel Agent’s Guide to Social Media Marketing


Now that we are on the other side of the holiday season, it’s a great time to start fresh and put together a game plan for success in the new year. Are you considering new opportunities and reflecting on your sales and marketing strategies for 2018? With its promise of new beginnings, January can be the perfect time to double-down on a resolution to boost your selling potential and better connect with your clients.

Whether it’s expanding your client base or building relationships with your current clients, an active social media presence can be the answer. Nowadays, being online is one of the most effective ways to network and establish brand loyalty with a large audience of travelers. Beyond what any brick-or-mortar business can offer, your social presence puts you exactly where your customers are spending their time.

Social media has made a profound  impact on the way people make their travel decisions. Today’s travelers now look to their peers on social media to inspire their next vacation plans. It’s so common that we have popular slang for it: FOMO, or fear of missing out.  According to research conducted by Jetsetter.com, 60 percent of travelers share their experiences on social media on their trips. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an Instagrammable snapshot can certainly be enough to fuel travel inspiration.

Because the buzz about travel is shared through social, more businesses in the travel industry are harnessing the power of these channels to reach their customers. However, it’s not necessarily easy to know where to start or how to develop a strategy that will work for you and your target audience. Here are our tips to help you create a plan that can put you on track to reach your sales and marketing goals in the New Year.

Drive content with clear goals. 

Before you dive into creating posts, it’s important to understand what you’re looking to accomplish with your efforts. Whether your goal is to increase brand awareness, strengthen relationships with clients, or drive higher quality sales leads, make sure to align your content to the goals you want to reach.

Your objectives will change over time, so establish goals and benchmark your progress on paper. This will help you see concretely what’s working and where you have room to improve. And your goals should always be in line with the audience you want to attract. Understanding your target market will help you determine which platforms to use, how often to post, and the why behind your content strategy.

Research, research, and more research! 

As a travel agent, you provide a wealth of knowledge to travelers so they can make smart travel decisions. That makes you a subject matter expert, and the quality of your advice makes you a trusted advisor. To maximize your value and connect with prospective clients,, dig into the  research to see what questions or interests travelers have. That way, you can expand your knowledge base with expertise that best serves these needs..

Also, don’t forget to check out what your competitors are doing.You can gain a lot of insight by pinpointing what’s successful and falling short for others in your field. How are they interacting with your target audience? How is that audience responding? What are some of the key differentiators/ unique selling points of your brand? Staying on top of what your competitors are doing on social media can give you an edge to set yourself apart and create a strong social presence successfully.

Connect with your audience authentically.

Social media has transformed the way that businesses approach their conversations with customers. It’s no longer all about informing a one-size-fits-all audience about products and services, then pushing for the hard sale. Today, effective marketing means creating a brand persona online and creating a meaningful, two-way dialogue about what you offer. In a recent study by Sprout Social, 86% of consumers prefer a trustworthy and authentic brand personality when making purchasing decisions.

By sharing travel advice, customer stories, and articles that appeal to your unique audience, you are inviting your followers to join a conversation that can build trust and, ultimately, buy-in for your services in the travel industry.

Leverage social media not only to promote your business and  expand your reach, but also to strengthen the relationships you have with your clients. By staying up to date with research trends, updating your goals, and engaging with your followers, you’ll carve out a competitive niche as a dream vacation connoisseur.

For a more comprehensive resource on revving up your marketing strategy, check out our 2018 Agent Marketing Guide.

Become More in the New Year


It’s that time of year again, when we all shift the focus on starting fresh and accomplishing new goals. As they say on social media: new year, new you. The clean slate after the holidays is a time to reflect and resolve for change that can make life better, richer, and more rewarding.

While resolutions vary from person to person, the desire to travel more is usually a universal theme. And it’s easy to see why. Travel can kick-start motivation, inspire change, and help people gain a fresh perspective and big-picture view. As we discussed in our article about How Travel Agents Can Deliver the Best Value for Stressed Travelers, taking a vacation can also provide significant health benefits for a person’s  physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

2017 stood out as a big year for travel, and researchers predict the trend will continue into 2018, as interest grows for international travel. In fact, nearly half (48 percent) of U.S. travelers are planning to travel over the new year to escape, recharge, and reconnect with themselves, according to the data found in Amex Travel’s 2018 Trend Forecast. Statistically speaking, people are more likely to pack up their bags and seek out new experiences.

And when you travel more, you become more – because that’s the nature of new experiences. Traveling opens us up to becoming more inspired, creative, adventurous, curious, connected (to loved ones, nature, and ourselves), and the list goes on. Traveling is an exciting opportunity to conquer the unknown and try on new lenses to look at the world. We extend ourselves through the novelty of new cultures, cuisines, majestic views, and precious, priceless memories.

At Allianz Global Assistance, our goal is to encourage and inspire travelers who want to become more through travel. For the travelers who want to launch their lives forward in early 2018, travel insurance can help blaze that path forward with peace of mind. The experience of travel is often therapeutic. But travel mishaps like lost or stolen luggage, medical emergencies, flight delays and cancellations, and other covered setbacks can take the wind out of a traveler’s sails. Allianz Global Assistance strives to safeguard the investment so the travels are free to be… whatever you want them to be.

To help travelers understand what travel insurance is all about, we’ve created the Become More campaign. This initiative talks to travelers seeking to grow, learn, and live inspired through travel. With Allianz Travel Insurance, world explorers have an opportunity to become more committed to their resolutions year round.

To learn more about the Become More campaign, sign into AgentMax Online, select resources, and then look for Become More on the left-hand side.

Why Millennials Are Traveling More Than Their Parents


Travel agents traditionally targeted older travelers because of their disposable income and free-time to travel. However, as more Millennials are establishing themselves in the workforce and becoming full-fledged adults, it’s become essential to develop a strategy to reach Millennial travelers and expand business. Despite having smaller incomes and less vacation time to travel, Millennials travel more than any other generation (including Baby Boomers), and researchers predict that this trend will continue as their incomes and financial standings grow with age.

So, it’s helpful to consider: What motivates Millennials to travel? The short answer is experiences. Destination aside, trip planning is all about creating memorable experiences  centered on  culture, food, and “living like a local.. According to a survey conducted by Eventbrite in 2017, nearly 8 in 10 millennials say some of their best memories are from events they attended or experiences they enjoyed. And 7 in 10 believe that participating in these experiences make them feel more connected to other people, the community, and the world[1].

Millennials are the first generation of digital natives, meaning they’re accustomed to constant connection with others through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This has led to a phenomenon the kids call “FOMO,” or fear of missing out then scrolling past  posts of their peers having fun without them. According to Eventbrite, most Millennials (7 out of 10) base their decisions to attend certain events or experiences based on what they see on social media.

To help agents reach Millennial travelers –and anyone seeking travel experiences that allow them to feel more connected–Allianz Global Assistance has created the Become More campaign. This campaign, including banners, social media content , and print ads, makes it easier to talk about the importance of travel insurance. That way,your clients have the freedom to #BecomeMore on their adventures. And this inspired messaging taps into what’s truly important to them and why they’re traveling in the first place.

To learn more about the Become More campaign, sign into AgentMax Online, select resources, and then look for Become More on the left-hand side.

[1] Millennialsreport-2017. (2017, June 29). Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://www.eventbrite.com/l/millennialsreport-2017/