In order to make the most of your corporate travel budget, it is critical to plan for leveraging your program for all it is worth. Telling travelers to select the lowest logical airfare is just not enough. Here are the elements that should be considered when planning or evaluating your travel program.1. Travel policyA well written and disseminated travel policy is the foundation of any good travel program, and I am consistently amazed that so many corporations have such an outdated and poorly conceived travel policy, if they have one at all. It is not difficult to find a well written policy. One can be found online quite easily. All that remains is that it is edited to reflect corporate culture, and disseminated within the company so that everyone understands and agrees to follow it. For this reason, it is a good idea to have everyone sign a copy of the travel policy to ensure that it is read, understood and owned by all company staff. I suggest that everyone in the company signs a copy of the travel policy, whether they travel or not. They may change positions in the company later and be required to travel. A travel policy need not be long or complex. Some of the best travel policies I have ever seen were only a few pages long.2. Centralized travel internally and externallyMany companies do not centralize their travel program, and they pay a price in terms of a loss of expense reduction opportunities and internal efficiencies. Many companies that do not centralize travel have a fear of requiring travelers to do something they may not want to do, along with the idea that centralizing travel will require hiring a Travel Manager. Both of these may be legitimate concerns but they do not have to be in most cases. By requiring travelers to book centrally, you are not necessarily causing them to lose flexibility. You can centralize travel while still allowing travelers to book on their own, either with a travel agency of your choice, or online through a provider that you have partnered with and have confidence in. By assigning someone with the responsibility of overseeing travel, you are getting a single point of contact both internally and externally for travel issues. If your company spends less than $1 million in air travel, you probably do not need a full time travel manager. In these cases, travel oversight can be given to the finance department, human resources, or even an executive level assistant. Here is a look at the advantages to be gained by centralizing travel.When you centralize travel with a single agency, you gain in a number of important ways. You will have a single point of contact for problems while travelers are on the road, and you will have one entity to go to for all your travel needs. This eliminates the problem of consolidating a travel report from among several sources. By bringing travel together, you will gain significantly from economies of scale. If you can measure total travel among various divisions or locations, you can get more for your money from travel suppliers. This will allow you to gain more from airline soft dollar programs, which means more free tickets and upgrades, get a higher percentage discount from our preferred airline, and get better negotiated rates from your hotel and car contracts. Your fulfillment costs will decrease as well, as your travel agency will often discount their fees for a higher overall volume of travel.3. Mix of online booking and personal serviceThis is an addendum to the previous element, which calls for centralizing travel with one travel agency. This is important, but in doing so, you need not require travelers to use an online booking system, and you need not require travelers to call the agency directly. By offering travelers the option of doing either, you are accomplishing several goals. You will reduce your fulfillment costs, as online booking is cheaper in terms of a service fee. By giving travelers the option, you are giving them a sense of control, thereby increasing morale and standing a better chance of a high adoption rate. Thirdly, you leave open a best practice of using your online booking engine for less complex itineraries, and allowing senior executives, frequent travelers, and complex itineraries to be booked directly with a travel agent that can offer a higher level of service and a better overall travel experience where it is most warranted.4. Look under every stoneWhile the bulk of most travel programs revolve around the air budget, there are several other areas one can investigate to find savings opportunities. There are a couple of more obvious areas to look, such as negotiated hotel rates at your favorite hotels, or car rental discounts with a favored supplier. Often your travel agency will already have discounted rates through consortia affiliations and agency car contracts. There are also some less common areas that should be investigated. For example, if ground transportation is a concern, most suppliers will offer discounted rates and a direct billing option. Direct billing arrangements with hotels and car rental agencies are also a great way to increase efficiencies and make the job of the accounting department easier.5. Leverage hard dollar and soft dollar contractsMost major airlines today offer hard dollar discounts as well as soft dollar incentives in exchange for company loyalty to their product. If your travel program is over $1 million in air spend, you can secure a discount off of the lowest fares of your carrier of choice in return for a market share commitment. For your secondary carriers, or if your volume is less than the minimum required by the airline, you can enter in to soft dollar programs for free tickets and free upgrades, as well as traveler status enhancements or airport club passes. These programs require little in the way of volume, but they are not well publicized so you may need to hunt for them or ask Baker Travel or your current agency to point you in the right direction.6. Do not neglect hotel volumeHotel volume is sometimes overlooked but it should not be. Negotiated rates can be had through your travel agency or directly with the hotel properties of your choice. Individual hotels near corporate locations will negotiate discounted rates for you in exchange for a minimum room/night commitment. By utilizing a travel agency, you are likely to receive discounts of 5% to 50% on thousands of hotels worldwide.7. Have at least one car rental contractRental car contracts are easy to enter into and require little in the way of commitment from the corporation. Choose a partner that has airport locations and a reputation for excellent customer service. You can save 5-10% very easily and can also negotiate frequent renter membership for all your employees. This will make them more efficient and enhance morale. You can also enter in to direct billing agreements at the same time that can make the jobs of your travelers and accounting staff much less stressful.8. Understand group and meeting contractsAirlines and hotels will discount your fares and rates when you have groups traveling together or meeting at a single destination from multiple points of origin. These meeting contracts can bring you airfare discounts of 2-10%, and if you have enough travelers on a single airline, you may be able to negotiate for free tickets to be awarded at contract completion. The minimum requirement is usually 10 travelers going to the same place at the same time. Some airlines have higher minimums so be sure to ask before a contract is generated. Hotels will discount their rates in a similar way with a minimum of 10 room nights. These discounts can range from 10% to a much higher discount depending upon occupancy rate and seasonal variances.9. Use reporting to consistently improve metricsWell managed travel programs require constant monitoring and financial controls to be properly leveraged. Insist on timely and customized reports that can be designed to bring you the information you need most. By receiving regular reporting on traveler behavior and provider contract performance, you will be in a better position to fulfill contract obligations, achieve cost reduction objectives and see where opportunities for future savings may lie.10. Use all avenues to enhance traveler comfort and efficiencyLastly, any well managed travel program will take in to account the comfort and productivity of their travelers. When travelers are comfortable, they can focus on their main priorities that help propel your business forward. If travelers are happy, they perform at a higher level. Ask if your travel agency can upgrade traveler status on a preferred airline. Look in to purchasing blocks of airport club passes so they can be used strategically during long and complex itineraries. There are many ways to reward travelers for the difficult and often grueling chore of travel. These kinds of rewards generate feelings of loyalty and increased productivity and efficiency.If you would like to learn more about how your company can better leverage their travel program to benefit your bottom line and the satisfaction of your executive level, feel free to contact me. I am delighted to point you in the right direction.

Large cities are fast paced and busy. Sometimes your can spend hours stranded in traffic while travelling very short distances during peak hours. This makes visiting clients very time-consuming for sales reps on the road.In a world where time is money, more and more business owners are turning to the internet to generate new customers and grow their company revenue. But achieving success online is not as easy as it once was.With more and more companies jumping online the competition is getting fierce. Regardless, SEO still provides one of the best returns for marketing investment. With more and more people using Google to conduct research before making a purchase, it is essential that your business can be found on Google.However, if you are like most business owners I talk with you don’t have the time to market your own business online. After all staying up to date with the latest search engine guidelines and rules is a fulltime job.It makes sense that most business owners would rather pay an SEO agency, company or individual to complete this work for them. If this is you then make sure you follow these 5 essential tips to achieve a successful SEO strategy for your business.Tip #1 – Choose a Local Provider: The internet and advancements in communication technology now allows us to connect with someone on the other side of the world in realtime. With this technology you may be tempted to find anyone in the world to provide your SEO services.However, the internet has also allowed many doors to open up for scam and fraud artists. For this reason it is always best to be able to meet your future SEO provider in person.By finding a local SEO expert, agency or SEO company to carry out your search engine optimisation campaign, you have the flexibility of being able to catch up with them in person. You can get a lot out of meeting someone in the flesh as opposed to only meeting them via email, texts or even a phone call. Also when dealing with large amounts of money over the internet I am always cautious until I have a good understanding of who I am doing business with.Create a strong relationship between you and your SEO provider by meeting in person, to ensure a strong result from your campaign.Tip #2 – No Overseas Outsourcing: Once you have found a local SEO provider ask them if they outsource any of their SEO work overseas. If they do then you might as well work with someone overseas directly. But of course this is going against the first tip!By outsourcing SEO work overseas, SEO companies can often charge higher amounts in-line with local prices and then get the work done overseas for a fraction of the cost. Meanwhile an overseas SEO provider may have poor English and not fully understand the location they are creating content for. Also they may use automation techniques for their copy writing and link building strategies which can lead to Google penalties. Unfortunately this is a common practice for SEO providers from third world countries.When your SEO campaign is completed overseas you often receive a very poor standard of work. This can portray an unprofessional image for your business and can even lead to your website getting penalised. So avoid this at all costs.Tip #3 – Get a Customised SEO Strategy: Achieving a successful SEO strategy requires complex analysis and planning. There are no one-size-fits-all approaches when it comes to SEO. And for that reason you should not choose an SEO package off the shelf and expect to achieve awesome results.All reputable SEO providers offer a search engine optimisation service that is custom designed for each business they partner with. Reason being is that every business is different in terms of their market, products and services, and business goals.A successful SEO strategy must take all of this into account and needs to be tailored to the individual business to meet their exact needs.Tip #4 – Get Progress Reports: Another vital tip is to ensure that your local SEO provider provides progress reports.Most common is to have a monthly report showing what work was done and how your website rank is tracking. If you are not getting this data then your SEO agency could be doing nothing while taking your money.Make sure you review this report each time you get it and ensure progress is being made on your business goals.Tip #5 – Play Safe: At the end of the day choosing who to partner with to provide your SEO services is not an easy task.Even the most successful SEO strategies take time to blossom into a positive outcome. This is how scam artists get away with ripping people off in the online marketing world. They convey hope to their clients that the benefits will be coming, meanwhile they are simply pocketing your monthly investment each month.Above all else beware of extremely low prices offered from an SEO provider. Quality SEO services normally costs anywhere in the range of $750-$5000 per month. If you are paying any less than this the SEO company may be using dodgy tactics which may result in a penalty once Google catches on.Choose WiselyNo-one said choosing an SEO provider would be easy. However, by following these 5 essential tips you will have a much better chance at success.Do your research and take your time in your decision for choosing who to partner with for your SEO strategy. And also be aware that SEO does take time. But when all the quality work starts to gain momentum your SEO strategy will cause your business to steamroll ahead. Best of luck.