An indispensable marketing “how to” guide
In December last year, Chris Torres appeared as a guest on my bi-weekly LinkedIn Live to discuss his recently published book, Lookers into Bookers: the Tourism Marketing Blueprint.
It was an excellent session, covering everything from sales pages to algorithm changes. If you’d like to find out what Chris believes the common missing ingredient in sales pages is, make sure you watch the replay here.
Being the numpty that I am, I ordered the earlier (and much fatter) edition of his book, called How to Turn Your Online Lookers into Bookers. It wasn’t until Chris and I were checking our set-up just before the broadcast that I realised my mistake. Chris immediately offered to send me the latest edition free of charge (a generous gesture, and, on reading the book, one that seems typical of its writer).
Having received a free gift, the least I could do is review it, so here are my thoughts.
First impressions
Not to judge a book by its cover – but first impressions count and, on opening the book, I liked what I saw.
While the earlier edition of Chris’ book was jam-packed with useful information, it was a doorstopper. The follow-up book is skinny in comparison. Streamlined enough to get through in a few hours, but like all good how-to books you can (and should) spend hours implementing the advice within.
Opening it, I found eye-friendly print and layout (short paragraphs and subheadings, nice!) and an easy-to-navigate layout. The QR book code at the end of the book takes you to the amazing resource that is the Customer Journey Toolkit, featuring resources on brand building, strategy and more.
The premise and approach
The basic premise of the book remains the same. And that is, that tour operators need to think of themselves as marketing companies. As Chris says: “To create a successful tours and activity business in today’s marketing landscape you must become more than just a tour operator…you must become a media company.”
The approach Chris takes is to document the exact strategy he adopted in helping Egyptian-based operator Sina Tours grow their leads, bookings and business (which he managed to do by It’s a fascinating behind-the-scenes peek at a marketing campaign, clearly explained. And you feel you’re getting the whole story (or in Chris’ words: “No filter. No bull-shit. Just the facts.”)
This is a genius approach for two reasons.
First, seeing the strategies applied to a real-life business is much more useful than learning about them in the abstract.
For example, in the section Who are Sinai tours….really? Chris asks Carol and Atef (the husband and wide team behind Sinai tours) a series of questions. These questions aim to dig into who they are, where they sit in the market and how they see themselves.
It’s interesting to see how they reply, not least because their answers are not always the same. Chris, however, skilfully manages to find commonalities so that their resulting brand reflects the best of what they offer.
Second, the focus on real-life people gives the book a narrative impetus that makes the reader want to stick around. You get to know Carol and Atef, their vision for their business and the challenges you face. And what happens? – you end up rooting for them.
What you learn in this book (and you’ll learn plenty) is likely to stick with you.
The process
The book takes you, step by step, through the process Chris led Carol and Atef through.
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- Building their brand
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- Developing their logo
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- Auditing their existing content
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- Doing keyword research
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- Building their website
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- Conducting competitor research
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- Creating a marketing strategy
And, at every step in the journey, you’re encouraged to undertake the same processes. At the end of the book, there’s a section on the (impressive) results achieved through this strategy, which provides extra motivation.
My verdict
If the thought of marketing your tourism business seems overwhelming, this book is what you need.
Tour guides and tour operators, no matter how confident you feel about marketing your business, there’s something you could learn. For the price of a takeaway pizza, you can buy yourself a step-by-step process to building your very own media brand. And, as the “Results” section of Lookers into Bookers shows, this could be a canny move for your wallet.
Finally (cheeky plug incoming) if you’d like a companion piece to Lookers into Bookers (one that helps you write the words you need to sell your service through your websites, emails and blogposts) get yourself on the wait list for my book Boldly Go, out very soon!
Section Title
Lookers into Bookers: The tourism marketing blueprint
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