by John Frenaye
Monday March 07, 2016

Yesterday afternoon around 1pm, there were thousands of people lining the streets of my hometown all dressed in green, wearing shamrocks, and discretely sipping a Guinness or some Jameson from a flask. Huh? What? St. Patrick’s Day is not for another ten days. What is up with these shenanigans?

Annapolis puts on the parade in advance of the “holiday” for a few reasons—as a small town they can attract bigger marching units if it is NOT on St. Patrick’s Day; it helps local businesses during a traditionally tough time of the year; and finally, it is sort of a wake-up call to the residents who collectively ask “What the heck?” And then I began to think—which tends to be dangerous.

Part of what makes this event successful…

“Calling cards, good or bad, tell a (surprisingly) large tale. Like the best packages, the best calling cards convey trustworthiness and WOW! At once.”

The Brand YOU from the Reinventing Work series by Tom Peters, page 135

Your Business Cards

This is a delicate subject, but one I am about to address in today’s column. Most business cards in our industry (the travel industry) are less than satisfactory. As Mr. Peters reminds us above, these small mini-billboards speak volumes…

by Richard Earls
Sunday March 06, 2016

How do you make your travel practice known to the public? If you are like most travel professionals, you rely on a number of tactics to raise your visibility. You may use social media, public relations, or content marketing through your website, email, and blogging efforts. You may take advantage of speaking opportunities or write for a local newspaper. You may advertise.

Inherently we know marketing works, because in our own civilian lives we ourselves respond to well-placed and produced marketing and advertising.  We have less confidence in our own efforts, however.

Ideally, your efforts to be better known are coordinated tactics where your public relations endeavors work with your networking at local functions, and both reflected through your social media…

Before founding National Transaction Corporation, Mark Fravel worked extensively in the data collection and financial technology fields under Harbridge Merchant Services and First Data, both serving as their Vice President. In 1999 Mark left to start his own merchant processing company, National Transaction Corporation, and has continued as its president for over 19 years. National Transaction has always exceeded excellence, often ranking in the top 10 for many prestigious data and technology…