To the point, heavy with sales messages, personalized, visual, social, an effective lead generation tool for business to business.
As a travel startup you’re constantly pitching.
Pitching is selling and messaging your need for something.
Pitching is also a form of lead generation with the goal to get the receiver of your pitch to take an interest, engage with you, then close the deal.
Travel startups pitch:
The launch of a startup.
The launch of a new travel product.
A press release or a news release.
Investors looking for capital for their startup.
Businesses looking for partnerships and distribution.
Suppliers to help start or grow a travel business.
Co-founders looking for other co-founders.
Jobs looking for employees for their startup.
There are probably 100 other business things startups pitch.
We are always pitching something to someone. I love to pitch.
It’s one of my favorite things to do as an entrepreneur.
I feel pitching is one of my core strengths.
In working with travel companies the last three years a consistent theme arose. Every client was pitching and most were pitches to other businesses for something their business or startup needed from another business (B2B). Pitches were presented in MS Powerpoint or a Google Presentation document.
What I noticed about the pitch decks.
Most decks were 10-15 slides in length.
The focus was a high-level view and broad in scope.
Many decks were over 1MB in file size.
The content was heavy in text and bullet points.
Text primarily highlighted the features of what was being pitched.
The actual sales pitch was deep in slide 5-8 of the deck.
It took me on average over 5 minutes to go through the deck.
There were no incentives to get me to take action.
I help my advisory and consulting clients create pitch decks as part of their service. I love to create, write and work with mockups so this is natural for me.
We started creating a different kind of pitch deck, one for maximum effectiveness with the goal to acquire exactly what we needed which is a conversation to start an engagement.
3-4 slides, 5 slides maximum.
Fully customized or personalized for the receiver/viewer of the pitch deck using the receiver’s name or company logo whenever possible.
File sizes we try to keep under 1MB for easy email use.
Added visuals that displayed the “secret sauce.” When people view the deck they say to themselves, ok I get that. You want a quick and instant connection with the receiver.
Sales oriented decks that are direct about what we want. (I have this or I need this.)
We focused on highlighting the benefits for the receiver. How we help you.
We included testimonials to create social proof.
An Opt-in form was added so the receiver can get more information and connect with you quicker.
Enabled social sharing so a receiver can then forward the deck on or share it with a colleague.
We wanted decks to be viewed and read in less than 1 minute.
Here are two examples.
I call our new sales oriented, personalized, visual, social, lead generating decks, Travel Pitch.
Here is how to can create your own Travel Pitch.
- Explicitly appeal to the person, company or viewer you are pitching to by customizing with the logo of the company or the name of the person in the Travel Pitch.
- Tell the viewer of the Travel Pitch exactly what you need. I need this…I want this…I am looking for this…
- Show your secret sauce in a visual, so when the viewer looks at the slide they understand exactly what you are selling or what you need right away. It has to click instantly in the receiver’s mind. The viewer says “yes I have this and here is an opportunity” or the viewer says “No this won’t work for me”. We want the viewer to be able to make a decision quickly about his or her interest.
- Tell the viewer how their company will benefit in three ways by your Travel Pitch. What is in it for them? Why should they care? This helps strengthen the desire or need for what you have and pushes the viewer to act.
- Add a call to action, testimonial, video link, email address, phone #, opt-in form. This helps you transition the receiver to start the engagement process.
- Add a social sharing, forwarding component.
- Add an incentive offer to spur action.
Remember you only need 3-5 slides. By limiting slides you keep focus on truly what you need and nothing else. We are all time deprived as travel professionals. Our attention span is being shortened. We adapt to this by keeping the Travel Pitch short and sweet. Think the classic 30-second “elevator pitch” same concept but visual and interactive.
I am pleased to announce Travel Pitch a new lead generation service at TravelStartups.co where we help you connect with other travel companies and gain visibility for your company, products and services. Travel Pitch is a B2B service.
Create a Travel Pitch then send it to us and we will promote it at TravelStartups.co.
Check it out.
