Ensuring that marketing and sales work together harmoniously and productively in business is no mean feat, but it’s something that call centre agency Blue Bay Travel in Stoke-on-Trent has down to a fine art.

That’s partly down to the hard work of Naomi Johnson, crowned Call Centre Agent of the Year in the TTG Travel Awards last September.

Since winning the award she has been promoted to sales team supervisor, becoming a crucial champion for the company’s marketing initiatives.

“We’re very focused on the incorporation of sales team feedback into every level of our marketing strategy,” says Tom Malbon, marketing assistant at Blue Bay Travel.

Key to the dialogue between sales and marketing is a new programme called Boost, which promotes Blue Bay Travel’s premium offering, encouraging clients to add upgraded flights, rooms or tours to their holiday.

Upgrade booster

Boost is integrated across all of Blue Bay Travel’s channels, Malbon explains. Specialist websites for its Tropical Warehouse and Caribbean Warehouse brands now incorporate a click-through “Upgrade Boost” offer panel on hotel pages, directing clients to deals.

When they click on the panel, clients are also given the option to sign up to a weekly newsletter to receive the best deals.

“We’re able to­ customise these emails by structuring pricing based on each subscriber’s preferred departure airport,” Malbon explains.  

Boost is promoted through social media advertising, targeting consumers based on their customer profiles and Facebook behaviour.

Malbon explains that Boost has also proved useful as an upselling tool for agents, who can show their knowledge and use it as a visual tool to demonstrate deals to clients on the site.  

Johnson played a vital part in taking an “agent-first approach” to Boost by identifying a marketing structure that helps the company’s sales team, Malbon explains.

“Johnson is one of the marketing team’s primary contacts for agent insights and sales feedback, which directly informs our marketing initiatives,” says Malbon.

Boost’s successes have led to a 47% year-on-year increase in total profit earned across the sales team for 2016, adds Malbon.

“Agents are reaching their targets more confidently, and product awareness has improved. Last year, Johnson increased her own overall profit by 21% year-on-year through simple changes that embraced Boost.”

Video visual guides

Blue Bay Travel’s InFocus video marketing programme also requires close communication between sales and marketing.

The professional videos are filmed on location and act as visual guides to hotels, demonstrating the company’s first-hand specialist knowledge of the Caribbean.

The format is fun and creative and feels like a snippet from a travel TV show, with smiling young presenters getting stuck into hotel activities and reviewing facilities.

The videos are embedded into Blue Bay Travel’s blogs, as well as being sent out in newsletters and posted on social media.

More than 230 videos have been posted on YouTube and most have at least 10,000 views.

Again, Johnson’s feedback proved instrumental in shaping the programme and guaranteeing its success.

“Naomi offered invaluable feedback on which hotels were most popular with our clients, allowing us to accurately target customers and retain brand loyalty,” explains Malbon.

Johnson is enthusiastic about her relationship with the marketing team. “Matching holidaymakers with their dream escapes is always deeply satisfying, but I’m most proud of the cooperation I’ve coordinated between marketing and sales,” she says.

She adds that there’s plenty more in the pipeline for Blue Bay Travel. “The marketing team are currently looking at a number of innovative projects that will dramatically reinvent our approach.

“We’re hoping to see more sales from a wider customer base by tapping into new holiday interests and a broader portfolio.”