Marketing tips
Stop scaring your visitors
Stop scaring visitors!
If you’re not getting enough business, this is for you.
OK, so you might not be actively scaring your potential visitors, but they are scared. And that’s stopping them from spending money with you, booking, or visiting.
We’re all scared. Not necessarily terrified-scared, but at least mildly anxious and unsure. We're nervous of making bad decisions, of spending money or time unwisely.
When we buy something physical, whether it’s chocolate or a car, we can see it, touch …
Reasons you might not be getting enough visitors - no 1
Are you 100% happy with the level of bookings/visitors you're getting? Is there room for improvement and increased revenue?
There are four main reasons you might be failing to generate the level of income you want. I'll cover each of the four reasons over the next few blogs. Here's the first one.
You might think you're doing all these but it's always worth looking back at recent marketing to double-check, and to do more of this.
1. Give the right information/inspiration to the right peo…
Stop the scroll - use more impactful social media messages
We want people to scroll - to find our posts and information.
But then we want them to stop!
We need visitors to stop scrolling long enough to take in the reasons why our areas and businesses are worth visiting. We need them to stop scrolling so they can choose us.
We need visitors to absorb essential information on our websites, and visitors don't always have the patience to scroll all the way down your pages to find what they're looking for.
The answer: use really compelling informat…
Word of mouth recommendations
Could you use this approach somehow in your business?
Word of mouth recommendations are the best form of promotion: you need to make sure they happen.
It’s easier if you do something, even small, to make people feel better than they expect.
I watched the owner of the old-fashioned sweet shop as they served the queue of children.
Each child asked for a quantity of their favourite sweet. Betty took the large jar off the shelf and poured a little into the old weighing machine.
Th…
The marketing power of the delete button
How much patience do you have? How busy are you? Do you have a lot of free time?
If your answers to those questions were 'not much, very and no', join the club. It's how most people will answer.
So if we want to help people book or visit our businesses, we need to make it very easy for them.
I often make suggestions for the kind of information and inspiration you should ideally have on your website.
But there's a caveat: you can't just keep adding to your website without removi…
Repeat yourself
What's the best thing you've ever done to promote your tourism business?
What worked well?
Or perhaps there's something small you did that was moderately successful?
It could have been a social media post that got plenty of engagement. Or a blog post that's still driving traffic to your website? A photo that people have said they like? Or something you say to guests that seems to resonate?
Whatever it is, don't just do it once.
Repeat whatever works, again, again and again.
We…
Above the fold
Here's an easy way to make your website more effective. It can help with search engine optimisation as well.
Make sure you have all the essential information above the fold.
What's the fold?
When someone looks at a website, especially on a laptop or desktop, they don't see the full page - they have to scroll down, below the fold to see all the information.
Many people will only scroll and get all that information if the first part is compelling and relevant.
When someone first …
Use a tomato timer
Do you sometimes have days when you faff about or lack focus? When you find it hard to settle and get things done?
Pomodoro is the answer!
The Pomodoro technique was created by a man called Francesco Cirillo and named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer he first used (Pomodoro = tomato)
It's a really simple idea. You set a timer for a short period of time, typically 25 minutes. Focus on one task and stop when the timer goes off. Then you have a five minute break before re-setting. …
Make full use of your Google Business Profile
Are you making the most of your Google Business Profile? (if you don't have one, get one now!).
It's a free, easy and very powerful way to raise the profile of your business. They've now added an extra feature - a QR code you can use to get more reviews - read to the end for details.
92% of search engine searches are on Google so it's really important to claim and update your Google Business Profile. You want your business to show up as high in the results pages as possible. You don't nee…
Should you advertise or boost a facebook post?
I'm often asked about facebook advertising and boosting posts. Is it worth it?
Interestingly, the question is often posed by businesses with limited engagement and followers, probably thinking it's a shortcut to growing a little faster.
Does it work?
First of all. let's look at the different between the two:
Facebook ads are a way to create an online ad which targets a very specific group of people, determined by who they are, where they are, or what they're interested in. To use these, yo…