How Travel With Jules has achieved its most successful newsletter ever

The newsletter title was a fun reference to the duo’s swan-like disposition that sees them appearing calm and serene with customers but “paddling like mad” behind closed doors to get through the Covid-19 crisis. Its content is light-hearted, beginning with a message explaining what Jules and Mags are working on and requesting customers are patient with them during the crisis before moving on to ask readers: “What has been your favourite place in the world to travel to and where would you like to go back to in the future?”

To encourage customers to share, Jules and Mags added photos and memories from their own holidays in Africa, Japan, India and Canada, to name just a few.

Jules explains: “People replied to say ‘thank you, we enjoyed [your newsletter] and we’re thinking of you’, but they’re reluctant to say their wish list because they don’t know when it will be achievable [to visit any of the destinations on it].”

“Maintaining contact is the most important thing, so customers know that when they’re ready, they can come to us.”

Travel With Jules is still receiving enquiries during the crisis, with requests coming in from customers hoping to travel to a range of destinations, primarily in Asia and Africa. The agency is also seeing interest in winter and Christmas holidays to northern lights destinations and Lapland.

SMART THINKING

So why does Jules think this newsletter was so much more successful than her previous mailouts?

“We’ve found people really like [us sharing our own holiday photos],” she says. “It’s part of the personal thing – if customers book with a big tour company they don’t know the agent or their background and, in times like this, they’ll be lucky to get through to a big tour operator or airline.”

“We take our time to get to know clients and they get to know us – they can see we are real people and have real first-hand experience of the destinations they want to travel to,” she adds.

Jules also thinks that her customers – who are mostly busy professionals who run their own businesses or work in the city – being confined to their own homes has given them more time to indulge in reading material such as the Travel With Jules newsletters.

While the crisis continues, the Travel With Jules newsletters will be focused on reassuring clients and planting new ideas for holiday travel once the UK’s lockdown rules are relaxed.

“Just because the door is physically closed it doesn’t mean they can’t contact us,” says Jules.

You can view the Keep Calm and Paddle On newsletter here and browse all Travel With Jules newsletters here.