Fred Olsen Cruise Lines’ public relations manager, Rachael Jackson, shares her top tips on how agents can promote their business effectively.

How can agents best use PR techniques to their advantage?

PR is one of the most cost-effective and impactful ways to grow your brand and raise awareness. Get involved in your local community, be visible, supportive and an active ‘corporate citizen’ to enhance your reputation and help build your business.

Do not neglect the power of client testimonials and recommendations – positive word of mouth is a strong sales tool: one person telling their friends and family how much they value your customer service and expertise can easily spread to dozens more, especially via social media.

It is also vital not to over-promise and under-deliver, while matching the right client with the right product is essential. This is even more the case with a cruise holiday, where a well-suited experience could win you a customer for life, while a mis-sold getaway could negatively affect your reputation. When practised well, PR can bring tangible financial rewards to your business, telling the story of your success and persuading people to book with you, hopefully for many years to come.

What digital strategies work best in your opinion?

As with all communication, it is always important to understand your audience. At Fred Olsen, we actively seek the opinions of our customers before creating any digital collateral. For example, prior to working with SimpleClick on our new cruise app, we assessed what our customers would find most of use and how we could deliver this in the most effective, understandable way.

We also find that our trade partners enjoy interactive visual content, so we have introduced 60-second product promotions in our weekly digital trade newsletter, as well as across our social media platforms.

What is the best way to build up a network of contacts?

People buy from people. While there is a proliferation of digital platforms, nothing quite beats face-to-face contact; this is particularly important when you consider the intricacies of promoting and selling a complex cruise product, with all the different types of ship, itinerary and experience that passengers can choose from. Don’t overlook fam trips and educationals, which provide an excellent opportunity for building up contacts and finding out who’s who.

How can the effectiveness of a PR campaign best be measured?

If you do not have the budget to employ a media monitoring agency, you could collate your own coverage via Google alerts and carry out your own assessment of sentiment, prominence and outreach. You might choose to consider the number of impressions on social media, or how sales have received an uplift by tracking a promotional code or specific ‘Call To Action’ featuring a unique telephone number. 

If you are undertaking change communications, it is crucial to understand whether there has been a shift in your audience’s perceptions and opinions of you – which can be gauged by a simple stakeholder survey, or by looking at customer reviews and feedback. At Fred Olsen we use the independent review website Feefo, which is well respected for its impartiality.

Ultimately, an effective PR campaign needs to be clearly mapped out in terms of smart objectives; gauging stakeholder sentiment with tangible outcomes and results forms an integral part of the process.