Navigator Marketing was founded by Ben Blackler in 2009 in order to utilise his skills and contacts, built up over 15 years of sales and marketing in travel and tourism, to help other travel and tourism companies become more profitable through more effective marketing.

He’s successfully delivered these strategies for a range of high profile companies, including Black Tomato and TUI, targeting a wide range of customer types and working with budgets from multi-million to shoestring.  And he’s won some recognition along the way, including 3 CIMTIG Advertising Awards.

But it’s his achievements in making marketing budgets work harder than he’s most proud of, including:

• Achieving a 28% year on year increase in gross profit for the young, cutting-edge travel company Black Tomato in the midst of the current recession which had hit the company’s core young, professional market hard.
• Launching no less than 6 successful websites with results including a 66% fall in ‘bounce rate’ to market leading ‘Look to Book’ ratios.
• Turning a 25% turnover deficit into a 22% surplus in less than 12 months for Sunterra Travel, a membership based travel club.
• Originating and implementing a new ‘brand values’ based staff training initiative at TUI-owned Simply Travel which led to an 11% increase in customer service ratings after 3 years of decline.
• Launching a new cruise e-tailer that turned over £1m in its first year of operation from an investment of less than £100,000.
• The origination and development of innovative new revenue generation initiatives, including a new event concept that turned over £1m in new business.

He is a graduate of Sheffield University, has a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing and is a Full Member of the Chartered Institute in Marketing.

He lives in Cheltenham with his wife, son and 5 fish.

You can contact Ben regarding your marketing challenge on 07776 027325 or email him.

Some of Ben’s Recommendations:

“During Ben’s time at Black Tomato he added a huge amount of value to the sales and marketing activities of the business. His focused and highly analytical approach was a huge asset and played a key role in the successful development and implementation of the marketing and sales strategy in 2009. As a manager Ben was hugely respected by his teams and his consultative approach to management created an atmosphere that allowed those working for him to really thrive.” Tom Marchant, Owner, Black Tomato

“Ben is the most knowledgeable travel marketer that I have met – full stop. He is driven, passionate, informed and refreshingly really does understand results driven digital marketing. These attributes, together with a work ethos second to none make him a very easy person to recommend.” Ian Anderson, Leading Digital Marketing Consultant

“Ben quickly grasped the need of the organisation at the time and made 2 recommendations. We went with one, which he accepted gracefully, and we haven’t looked back. A good decision to hire him, a good decision to follow his recommendation.” Gary Bartelings, Director, Australian Pacific Touring

“Ben is an experienced and commercial marketeer, with a no nonsense style who combines a good understanding of financials, with an innovative and creative approach to marketing activities. During his time at Sunterra he led a team who achieved a significant increase in revenue and share of spend from the membership. Well respected at all levels he is a very capable professional who I would recommend without hesitation.” Jim Shannon, VP Marketing

You can follow Ben’s Blog using RSS , or on Twitter or connect to him on Linkedin .

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