Marketing tips
Marketing
Learn from the ant killer
If you wanted to kill ants*, would you buy 'Ant Killer' or 'Insect Spray'?
If you wanted to enjoy paddle boarding, would you get lessons from 'Peter the Paddle Boarding Expert' or the 'Outdoor Centre'?
If you wanted to stay somewhere cosy in Masham with an open fire would you google 'cottage in Masham with an open fire' or 'places to stay in Yorkshire'?
If you're a normal human being, your answer to each of those questions will have been the first, the most specific description.
Years ago everyo…
Create a compelling business description
How do you describe your business?
It might sound like a simple thing to do, yet most people are not that good at describing their own business.
It's an essential and free marketing activity so it's worth doing well.
If people don’t know what you do, they won’t visit. Your business description is used in so many ways: on your website, in social media profiles, when you speak to people, and when others talk about you.
These notes are designed to help you cre…
Look forward to the end of Winter
I doubt you really need to be told to look forward to the end of Winter?
So are you using that in your marketing?
Imagine this: there's a row of images, or series of short films.
Each one shows something going wrong in the world, or is a shouty message 'this person is terrible', or a photo of something horrible or bad.
There's just one that shows the green shoots of daffodil stems, and grass starting to grow again.
Another row of images has a similar bank of negative images. There's …
Make a plan for Spring
Don't panic or look away!!
This might look like a lot but I've done lots of thinking for you... and you don't need to tackle everything at once.
As the leaves start to appear on trees, more visitors will be arriving.
Is your marketing ready to make the best of the year ahead?
If you use this quieter time to plan out your marketing and tweak some of the details, it will be much easier late as you get busier.
The following is just a suggestion. You might plan to just take some of these sugg…
Last minute bookings - curse or opportunities
Every year more businesses owners say to me, 'we're getting more and more last minute bookings', 'there's no real pattern - on days we don't expect to be busy, we are and then on other days barely anyone comes'.
This isn't a temporary blip. It's a trend that's here to stay.
So what can you do? You have a few choices:
1. Do nothing, hope for the best - but it feels pretty scary
2. Do some panicked marketing, usually leading with special offers and discounts - but then visitors will come to …
Money time energy health - what's most important for your visitors?
I think this is going to be a tricky year for many tourism businesses. There will be opportunities too, for those who're able to grab them. What can you do to maximise your revenue this year?
Many are worried about rising prices. Offering good value for money (not necessarily lowering prices) will be essential.
Over the coming months I think that visitors will have other pre-occupations too. These pre-occupations are all human nature, and become more prevalent:
- Time - how to spend it wise…
Become a dictator
Do you find that some of your best ideas strike when you're not at your desk?
Or that when you sit looking at a blank page, it's harder to start writing?
And are you short of time?
The answer is simple, thanks to easy-to-use technology.
Become a dictator.
Not in the all-powerful sense, but by dictating messages.
It's now so easy to do, whether you use Word, emails, notes on your phone or any other channel.
Years ago, I had a back problem and couldn't type, especially as I had an …
Use a talk trigger
Would you like visitors to recommend your business? To write positive reviews about it? To really spread the word about what you do?
Word of mouth recommendations are so powerful and valuable.
If you do a good job, there's a strong chance people will tell others. They may even do so on social media, potentially informing hundreds or even thousands more people.
But there's only a chance they'll do that. it's likely, but not guaranteed.
What if you could increase the chance? To make it more…
Know your success factors
After a very patchy, unpredictable year (which I think is going to be the future pattern) today's Do This One Thing is to think about these success factors and start to make a list of what you might need to do next year.
I'll help you work through some of these in early 2025.
Not all bad news
When the news is full of fuel price hikes and everyone around you is strapped for cash, it’s difficult to feel upbeat about the future. There is some good news. Not everyone is struggling…
This time last year I wrote about my predictions for the coming year. I said I expected the year ahead to be very unpredictable, and I think many of you will agree - it was! I'm expecting more of the same this year, but with a difference...
If you expect unpredictability, you can plan for it. Really.
After many years working in tourism marketing I've learnt to spot patterns and can pretty much predict which businesses will struggle.
Most of us struggle with uncertainty, so …