Marketing, Sales & Training


DIY Videos: Unleash Your Marketing Creativity

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the value of adding video to content marketing strategies is priceless. Don’t let the misconceptions of videos being expensive and complicated stop you from creating videos to describe your company and help sell charters and tours. Advances in webcams and smartphone cameras and a proliferation of cost-effective online DIY tools can help turn a marketing team member into a video master.

Start by going to the internet to find guidance on what’s needed to produce a quality video.

Wikihow.com has a step-by-step explanation of creating a YouTube video right here. The Verge, a news site dedicated to advances in technology, also has how-to’s on webcams and camera phones.

When creating a DIY video remember the goal is to present your story or marketing message in a compelling way. Here are additional steps to guide you in the right direction* —

  1. Determine what you want tell viewers. Create a story, or write your key messages down in a logical flow. Web videos must be short. It’s best to keep the subject focused on one idea.
  2. Use an online video creation tool. After knowing what you want your video to say, spend some time online looking over easy-to-use video creation tools. Playplay promises its video editing program is as user friendly as PowerPoint. Canva offers a drag-and-drop solution as well.  Vimeo has clear-cut instructions and guidelines. These three options also supply video templates designed to match a variety of marketing objectives and provide a library of stock images and footage for you to use.
  3. Be on brand. Use your logo, colors and signature coach at the beginning of the video, which allows viewers to immediately recognize you and the Trailways brand.
  4. Use Existing Content. Repurpose existing work. If you have video of a charter trip, a team celebrating a winning game, or video from one of your most popular tour destinations, include them to become the background for your message.
  5. Post to a variety of social media platforms. Posting a video on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube are among the most effective forms of audience engagement and broadens your marketing reach making your video worth the effort. Vimeo considers itself an all-in-one integrated solution for businesses. Unlike YouTube, which shows videos published by others in the subscriber side panel, Vimeo only shows your video library to viewers.

(*Source: Alison Murdock, Forbes Communications Council Member, blog post Feb 4, 2021.)

How long should your video be?

What is the ideal length? Statistically, YouTube advises that videos between seven to 15 minutes perform well on the platform. However, a video should only be as long as it needs to be. Some content marketing professionals are recommending video clips be no more than one to three minutes in length.

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Accelerate your driver’s skills and be rewarded with customer loyalty  

Aries Trailways Safety Manager Mel Collazo is among the first to complete all five courses in Trailways’ newly launched Customer Service Driver Training. The program, designed to help Trailways’ drivers deliver a superior customer service and safety experience, is based on Disney’s practices renowned for creating repeat customers.

“My intention was to learn what each course teaches and how our drivers can benefit by the training,” said Mel, who oversees a full and part-time team of 48 to 52 drivers for Aries Trailways, which serves the Chicagoland area with charters, sightseeing, convention shuttles, school trips, airport transfers and more. “I liked the video training and how it includes the Trailways branding, especially for inexperienced drivers.”

Mel, who joined Aries in 2019 with a longtime career as a driver and in safety management, knows first-hand how a driver can impact business success and customer loyalty.

For five years in the early 1990s, Mel was the driver for Doc Severinsen and his band on their trips aboard a Prevost seated coach to gigs in the Midwest, California, New York and around the country. Severinsen, 94, is a jazz trumpeter who still occasionally plays concerts and led the band for The Tonight Show, starring Johnny Carson. “I came to know Doc because I was working for Cardinal in Indiana, and they assigned me to be his driver on his tour through Iowa. After that, he only would ride with us if I was his driver.”

It is the kind of loyalty drivers can achieve by advancing their skills using Trailways training.

Drivers can access the Driver Training modules by going to the Team Trailways website, here. Scroll down the page and click on the training icon. For questions or technical difficulties, call 844-488-8195 or email Trailways@alliancesafetycouncil.org.

Trailways is offering discounted pricing of 50% off the Customer Service modules during 2022 to encourage members to get all their current drivers through the program.

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Continued Resiliency, New Busie Charter-Booking Technology Will Drive Trailways in ‘22

Trailways’ growth in 2022 will be technology-driven. “Everybody’s sales will be moving again in one form or another; tour, charter, direct line or sightseeing,” said Gene Berardi, Executive Committee member and President of Adirondack Trailways, Hurley, N.Y. “With scheduled service, 70% of bus travel bookings across the country are on the internet industrywide.  No one walks up and buys a ticket. The time is right for Trailways to be working with technology, and we’re going to be the leader.”

Charter has historically lagged direct line and tour products, however that is all about to change. The Busie charter sales platform, a cloud-based lead booking system that will be added to Trailways.com in the next few months, will give carriers a more efficient system to build business and profitability. “There are a lot of bus brokers out there,” said Gene. “I would rather use Trailways.com to sell more charters than pay a lot of commission to brokers. It’s all changing. We all know the time it takes to prepare quotes for a move, versus what really gets booked. Busie’s process will change that.”

“Having one central Trailways system to track and capture charter opportunities lets membership staff spend more time selling, and less time calculating quotes,” said Louis Bookoff, co-founder and CEO at Busie. In beta testing with Trailways’ seven largest carriers, the Busie system offers carriers a comprehensive and intuitive web-based charter quoting and booking portal that’s user-friendly for members and gives them the opportunity to include dynamic pricing on trips or tweak pricing based on market conditions. Additionally, it gives the Trailways network the ability to offer a truly modern quoting and booking experience online at Trailways.com “We’ve been working closely with Trailways’ executive team for more than a year to create a system that accelerates charter bookings for members, acts as a revenue stream and keeps Trailways leading the future.”

To learn more about Busie, or for a presentation please contact: trailways@getbusie.com

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Trailways Brand Brochure – Help Your Business Grow

Use the powerful Trailways brand to help your business grow.

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