With the huge amount of options people have when buying your type of product or service, it’s so important to make it really clear why they should buy from you, what value do you bring them and what is the experience going to be like?

Every now and then, ask yourself the questions below. It’s also good to involve your team in this exercise to ensure everyone is on the same page.
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Here are 5 questions that will help you clarify why people should book you or buy from you:

1. What do you do? Clearly describe the product/services you offer and the experience your customers will have. When doing this, always think from your customer's perspective - people that may know little about the area or type of product you offer.
2. Who are your customers? The more specific you can identify and describe the needs of your customers, the more likely you are to be able to tailor your product to them. Revise this periodically as your types of customers can be changing and you want to ensure you are still providing them with a product/service that appeals to them.
3. How will you meet the needs of your customers? How can you tailor your product as much as possible to your specific customer groups? Don’t try to be everything to everyone and try to appeal to specific niche markets. These customer groups will then better relate to what you offer and are more likely to book you or buy from you.
4. How are you different from your competition? They say that 50% of sales come from your USP’s (Unique Selling Points). People come to you because you offer something that is better, more unique, cheaper, higher end, award-winning, highly reviewed, personalised, or whatever else makes you stand out from your competition and that appeals to your target markets.
5. How easy is it for people to buy from you? In other words, how 'visible' are you to your target customers? Be as effective as you can in reaching your customers in ways that appeal to them and make it easy for them to book you. In travel, it could be through inbound operators/wholesalers, OTA’s, booking agents, through your website, email marketing, social media etc. Ask your customers what methods they prefer to use and adjust your marketing strategy to make it easier for people to book you.

Ask yourself these questions at least twice a year and you'll come up with ways to improve your marketing.

Till next time, Marijke
Coming soon: the new Agri-tourism Success Programme and the new Tourism Business Success Programme.  Click here for more info!

Happy new year to you! 
Here are 5 Tourism Marketing Trends for 2019!

​Trend 1: The rise of Instagram for tourism.
Instagram has grown at a much faster pace than Facebook has in the past. It’s a great visual platform for tourism businesses and by learning how to use Instagram ‘properly’, including the use of hashtags, you can reach and keep in touch with customers in an effective way. 

Trend 2: The growth of Google Reviews (and Google bookings).
​You will have noticed the increase in Google Reviews and Google Local Guides. The advantage of this is that everyone uses Google and it’s a good to have an alternative way to review to Tripadvisor. Google has offers online booking - you can book directly from the operator's Google Listing through one of the existing Online Travel Agencies (OTA's). Google clips the ticket.
Oh, and did you know that Tripadvisor is going ‘social’ too? Late last year, they launched their own social media platform. I won’t go into too much detail here, but to be honest, I’m not sure what to think of it and whether it will take off.

Trend 3: The increased importance of content marketing.
Content marketing has been growing in the last few years, but now businesses are becoming more strategic about it. Content marketing involves developing quality and unique content that will benefit your customers. Think about imagery, blogs, videos (virtual reality/360 degree videos) etc.
By developing a content strategy (rather than posting random ad-hoc content) for your website, social media, blog etc, you will have quality material that will encourage your customers to book you, share your content and follow you. User-generated content (USG) is when your customers’ photos for example are shared on social media. UGC is hugely powerful and should be a part of your content strategy.  

Trend 4: Mobile marketing & the growth of voice search. With between 75% and 80% of visitors using their smartphone while on holiday, the growth of voice search has grown too. Paying more attention to the mobile user experience and speed is important – how does your mobile site perform and is it optimised for voice search. 
We’ll also see the growth of payment methods such as Alipay, Wechat pay and Whatsapp pay.

Trend 5: Direct marketing. More and more hotel chains world-wide are using direct marketing to reach customers as their share of bookings (and thus paying more commission) to Online Travel Agencies (such as booking.com and expedia) has grown so much. Many hotels are focusing on direct marketing to their customers and I believe it’s hugely important that smaller accommodation and activity operators do this too. Don’t forget that you don’t control what’s happening on social media. What you do control are your own customer databases. 

Do you need help with your business and marketing strategy? Do you want to learn and keep up to date? Then check out the new Tourism Business Success Programme and the new Agritourism Success Programme.  Go to www.smartraining.co.nz for more info!

A few years ago, a business owner, we’ll call him John, came to see me. He was desperate and needed my help. Up to then, he had a good running tourism business which he had grown nicely over the years. He had a steady stream of customers and he wasn’t too worried as it all seemed to happen quite easily.

Suddenly – shock, horror! - John’s business dropped by 40%. What happened?

Well, his biggest supplier of customers stopped using him. And as he received over 40% of his business through this supplier, he suddenly had a big problem. This supplier decided to start competing with them. John had never looked at his distribution strategically, i.e. analyse where his bookings were coming from and how he could work smarter. It was time he did.

Distributing your product more strategically could include the following;

• Ensure you have spread your risk. If you have one very large supplier, like John had, you can see that this poses a big risk to your business. So, have a look at how you can increase your business from a range of distribution channels.
• With the rapid rise of OTA’s (online travel agencies) and their market share of your bookings, it’s important to also focus also on getting more direct bookings. A great way to do this is through keeping in touch with existing customers.
• Set clear goals of where you want your business to come from, through what distribution channels and decide what you need to do to achieve these goals.

Oh, and John is ok. He managed to get his business back on track again through strategic distribution planning and runs a successful tourism business.

Till next week, Marijke

We are now well into February and chances are that if you started setting a few goals or resolutions at the start of the year, you are already lacking the motivation to stick with them. Whether it be actioning your marketing plan, updating your website & social media, getting more exercise, or just planning to do more fun things, once you’re back into your daily grind of urgent and important activities, it’s easy to lose motivation to focus on a new and exciting goal.

So, here are some ways to get motivated and achieve a new goal. And wow, how great would that feel!

1. Being passionate about what you want to achieve really helps! Visualise the end result and how it will make you feel. Write down why you want to achieve this goal; your motivations.
   
2. Start with ONE goal. If you try to do too much at once, you are unlikely to keep motivated to do it all. Do write down all the things you want to achieve though, and then pick one to start with.
   
3. Then, decide how long it will take to achieve this goal, for example two months. What do you need to do each day to achieve your goal in these two months? Start small! Write it on a notice board or pin it to your notice board so you see it all the time.
4. Develop the habit to work on your goal every day. If you miss a day, get back on track as soon as you can. I love the quote: ‘Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going.’
5. And last but not least (I find this extremely powerful and important): surround yourself with positive people. Tell them about your goal and keep them in the loop of how you’re progressing. They will support you along the way! (Also: it’s much more fun sharing your success with others!) And be kind to yourself :)!

So, what is your ONE goal going to be for the next few months?

Till next week, Marijke

1. Create a Marketing habit! Set aside a set time each week to work on your marketing & business goals. If you do this, it becomes a habit and you will actually get the things done that you plan to do!  
2. Keep up to date with your marketing! I read 2 marketing or business books a month and I attend conferences, workshops, read online newsletters etc. I don’t remember it all, but I do pick up the things that are useful to my business. And I find it motivational and it inspires me to implement new ideas!
   Do check out the Marketing for Success Programme, you’ll love it!
3. Create a video for your website! Video is a great way to increase the conversion to sales!
4. Keep in touch! Keep in touch with your customers by sending them an update every month or quarter (keep it brief and ensure it relates to them!) Note: do personalise the message!
   
5. Get to know your customers better! Where do they hear about you, what do they want, what do they like, what social media do they use, what could be improved? Plan to survey them regularly. Then create products or experiences that suit your customers!
6. Work with complementary businesses! Develop a package or jointly market your products.
7. Make a list of topics to use in social media & newsletters – then, when you do so, you don’t have to come up with new things all the time! Examples: great photos of customers experiencing your product/service, something funny, something interesting, a link to a video, tips, special deals etc.
8. Communicate your USP’s! Why do your customers choose you over your competition? Your unique selling points, the things that set you apart from others accounts for 50% of your sales. So, do communicate these clearly on your website and promotional material!
9. Make it easy for people to book or buy your product! Whether through online booking, 0800 numbers, distribution through a range of channels. For example if you’re in tourism I mean through your own website, 3rd party websites, booking centres, wholesalers etc. The wider your distribution, the easier it will be for people to find you!
10. Focus on the quality of your service and whole customer experience! The better the service and experience, the better your reviews and word of mouth. Hire enthusiastic staff and train them well!

Do you need help planning your marketing and get support along the way? Do you want to learn new marketing skills and work with like-minded businesses? Then join the 11-month Marketing for Success Programme  starting in April. Click here for more info & testimonials!

Till next week, Marijke