Establishing Strategic Positioning

The first part of our strategic planning process is research and discovery. During this time, we interview organization leadership, hold a team visit in the case of destinations and attractions, conduct secondary research and host a creative strategy workshop with leadership and stakeholders.

We first started working with tour operator Old Sod Travel on their digital advertising in 2021 as people started returning to travel. During the research and discovery phase, we learned why travelers would want to use their service, what differentiates them from competitors, and what luxury travelers are looking for. The results of this research formed the strategic positioning for the brand:

• Transformational Experiences. Relaying the emotions of travel and connect with the aspiration of planning a trip of a lifetime.
• Authentic Luxury Tours. Guests wake up knowing they’re someplace special and spend the day among the new and different. This is about having cultural immersion within a destination, and soaking in high-end experiences.
• Hand in Hand Planning. Tours are fully customized for each trip, there are no pre-set itineraries. The travel consultants at Old Sod tailor each itinerary to the travelers wants and interests.
• Once, Again. Taking more than one trip of a lifetime. Crossing off multiple bucket list items with the singular experiences Old Sod provides to many destinations.

In addition to positioning themes, every strategy we work on contains strategic insights. Both the insights and strategic positioning form the basis for the key messages and inform the messaging across all channels. With these

What are Strategic Insights?

According to Mercer Island Group, a top agency search firm that works with some of the world’s largest brands, a strategic insight is “a penetrating truth that elevates strategy, enabling highly differentiated tactics.”

Defining a strategic insight starts with collecting research and data points that fit into several focus areas. We pull all that knowledge together through evaluation and analysis to come up with a strategic insight for each focus area. These focus areas typically are brand, consumer, and competition. We’ll sometimes bring in community for a focus area too, as it fits so well with destination marketing.

Using Your Data

Once the data is collected, we look at it to draw conclusions and comparisons about what is there. The data is telling a story, and we want to look at what’s on the page and make sense of it in terms of the focus area it’s in. As we pull these interpretations out of the data, we distill all of the research and work into clear, strategy-driving statements that will lay the foundation for messaging, approach and tactics.

The Overall Strategic Insight

Creating the focus area insights involves going beyond the data on the page, beyond the comparisons and coming to the big-picture truth for each focus area that makes the most sense for your organization. In defining a strategic insight, we look for the point where the insights from the 3-5 focus areas intersect. It is a compelling statement rather than a simple summary. It’s all at once an “ah-ha!” and an “oh! of course!”

Once we reach the strategic insight, it informs the messaging, tactics, approach and much of the rest of the strategy. It is a piece of the strategy that we come back to again and again to keep the marketing pointed in the right direction (the goals).

A Strategic Insights Example

This example comes from our work with Cayuga County, NY on the Harriet Tubman campaign. These brief summaries show a glimpse into the research completed and findings of the competition, product and consumer analyses. Then, you’ll see the corresponding insights and overall positioning statement.

Focus Area: Competition

Three other destinations can claim Harriet Tubman among their residents during her life: Dorchester, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; St. Catharine’s, Ontario. Of the three, Maryland has focused most heavily on Tubman in their tourism marketing with both Visit Dorchester and Visit Maryland promoting her prominently on their websites.​ However, the communities don’t seem to embrace Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad story as most of the focus is on the history. 

Competition insight: Cayuga County has the opportunity to tell her story differently by embracing her spirit.

Focus Area: Product

Auburn is surrounded by places known for their part in the equal rights and women’s equal rights movements. Auburn is full of places Harriet visited and frequented along with tributes and sculptures. ​Unlike anywhere else, Auburn is Harriet’s final resting place, her chosen home. It’s where she brought her family, married her husband, owned her own home and land, and spent her time in freedom. Auburn is where she lived as an equal with her neighbors and found community.​

Product insight: Auburn has historically been a leading community in equal rights and still is to this day.​

Focus Area: Consumer

Social justice travel is an upcoming tourism trend. Socially conscious people’s demographics and travel patterns have not been widely studied. However, social justice tours and tour operators have started to pop up. Articles about how to travel in a socially conscious or equitable way are being written. These travelers’ interests overlap with popular travel trends today: conscientious spending, experiential tourism, connecting with nature, togetherness, demand for authenticity, searching for fulfillment. Socially conscious travelers want to learn the history that’s not taught in schools. They want to go deeper and especially show their children the Truth, the history and break stereotypes.

Consumer insight: Socially conscious travelers want to learn the history that’s not taught in schools.

The Overall Insight

Now with our insights identified, we looked at how these insights intersect and where Cayuga County could stand out from the crowd in telling the story of Harriet Tubman in Auburn, New York.

The challenge: How do we promote Cayuga County’s current and historical connections of equal rights to attract visitors?

Overall insight: Welcome visitors to walk in Harriet’s steps to discover their truth in Cayuga County.

The post The Art of Strategic Positioning for Attracting More Visitors appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

How we use AI

AI is a tool. It’s a powerful tool, no doubt, but this is not Terminator. ChatGPT and tools like it are simply that – tools. It cannot replace our unique human creativity and critical thinking skills. AI can be used to supplement creativity, find efficiencies and assist productivity. We always thoroughly review and edit anything produced with AI assistance.

Anything done with AI still needs a human touch – or even a heavy hand – in editing. AI can even help to edit itself, as long as a human eye has the last look. My favorite way to talk about AI is as “our digital intern.” Not an intern specializing in tech, but rather a technology tool that acts as an intern. Just as you would check anyone else’s work for accuracy, typos, style and brand voice, the same goes for your AI “assistants.”

Drafts

AI can be a tool for writing first drafts of some content. One of our favorite AI tools for marketers called Jasper, is known for its writing skills. Tell the tool your main points and other supporting information like style and tone, and it will spit out a first draft. An important point to note about AI first drafts is that they are known for being over-the-top with adjectives, overly formal or flowery.

Top tips for using AI on any draft:

• Be as specific as possible in your prompts.
• Starting small, ask it for one piece of content at a time, not a week’s worth of social posts.
• Ask for three versions and you can piece together the best parts.

Editing with AI

What AI is even better at helping with is editing content that you (or another human) already wrote. Refining and rephrasing content is the strong suit. The above tips still work in this case, and I also like to be specific in what I’m asking the AI to do when it edits.

Using AI to edit – no matter who drafted the content – is a chat-worthy process. Give your AI tool direct feedback like “that’s too salesy” or “use fewer adjectives” or “I want the tone to be friendly, not sappy.” The tool will give you a revised version. I also sometimes ask it to review or refine a version I wrote based on all of the back-and-forth.

Naming

AI comes up with fun, clever names and snappy headlines and email subject lines in seconds. So often, we spend time coming up with the “just right” name for an event or themed itinerary when we could be planning the event or mapping out the itinerary (not pieces I would totally trust AI with just yet). AI is great at these – try it out and see what you get!

Summarizing

Another fantastic use for AI tools is creating summaries. Feed in your meeting notes, research notes or long-form feedback from your audience and ask AI for a summary. It can also pull out some themes to organize your thoughts or a report.

How we don’t use AI

We never use AI to create a final version of anything without human intervention. Even those snappy headlines in the example above will need tweaking. This is where the conversation with AI comes in, giving it feedback to come up with better and better versions until you find one you like. Sometimes, it’s straight editing. One other tactic for editing AI content is to have AI draft a few versions, then weave your favorite parts together into a human-touched final version.

Privacy

Unless you have the paid version of ChatGPT and have enabled privacy settings, the recommendations we’re hearing now is to never enter proprietary information into an AI tool. So that means no client, sensitive or proprietary data goes in to AI as a chat prompt or file upload. Open-source Large Language Models are designed to learn from all the data entered, so it’s best not to feed in anything that isn’t already accessible publicly.

AI and Visuals

AI-generated imagery and other creative works – authors are very wary of AI usage – are shrouded in some controversy. When it comes to visuals and art, the concern is over how the AI tools learned to create art and copyright concerns for artists whose works were learned from. Many marketers are using AI art, images and graphics now with the understanding that just like copy drafts, the art drafted by AI needs edits. Some digital artists are embracing AI as a tool, and are creating very cool works using its power, and their own personal creativity.

There are so many AI tools for generating visuals, editing images, cutting together videos and other graphics. Dall E is the open source version put out by OpenAI, creators of ChatGPT. Adobe’s Firefly tool is another popular one for those using the Creative Suite. We have dabbled in AI-generated images and use them for creative ideas in proposals, social media graphics and ads.

AI Tools for Tourism Marketing Innovation & Creativity

Our favorite tools for content are Jasper and ChatGPT, and those are a great place to start as you are experimenting in using AI for tourism marketing purposes. They write well and take direction on the project, just as if you were delegating it to someone. You just get the result in seconds instead of hours or days! There are so many resources available right now on creative ways to use AI

There are so many tools to try out, and so many different uses. From Seamless.AI and Apollo.io for sales prospecting, to PressPal by MuckRack for PR and Yoodli speech coach. Scribe AI can write down your processes (like how you use collaboration in your organization…) and all the big names in tech are developing their own. You may have already seen that Google, Zoom and Microsoft have AI tools now available. There are even websites dedicated to finding the right AI tool, although I’m partial to just asking ChatGPT for what it suggests.

The post How to Use AI For Tourism Marketing appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

Read our introduction to capacity building in communities for destination development.

1. Awareness

As with any marketing campaign, awareness is the first step. In the case of sustainable or ecological tourism, we’re raising awareness of the issues in addition to raising awareness of the brand or program. Awareness stems not only from reach, impressions and the frequency of a message, but also the clarity and simplicity of the message.

Awareness is also the first step in the customer journey. Read about how to align your marketing around the customer journey.

2. Why?

Give reasons why the issues are a concern. Inform consumers on the why behind the initiative or concern to gain their buy-in. Beyond being aware, now they are included in the information they need to understand. Providing additional context helps bring people with you. It’s also an opportunity to impart a feeling of goodwill by bringing them into a greater cause.

3. Demonstrate the impact

If we’re trying to change behaviors, then there are measurable impacts to the behaviors we don’t want. The cost of inaction is what we need to convey at this step. Provide real examples! How is overtourism impacting the environment? Are invasive species affecting crops or the ability to enjoy recreational areas?

4. Shareability

Create messaging that allows easy sharing and promotes discussion on social media. Involve the audience in growing your audience. Incentives big and small help in sharing a message of sustainability. Whether it’s simply asking your audience to share the message, providing small prizes or even running a larger contest, there are many strategies you can employ to encourage sharing.

5. What

Make sure the audience knows what to do, with helpful details to make it simple. Just as our tourism marketing requires clear calls to action, sustainability efforts need the same. Tell them what you want them to do for sustainability efforts. May we suggest a few #lifehacks? Break down the the actions to take to make them easy to follow, and easy to do. This is another point where people may be drawn to be part of something greater.

6. Barrier removal

Understanding what is standing in the way of the desired behavior is a key point in behavior change. Something may be preventing people from taking action. Until we collect information and feedback from the audience, we may never know what those things are. If direct feedback isn’t possible, set up measurement and tracking in a way that you can make an educated guess. Better yet, participate yourself or create a focus group with your team or colleagues who can give you feedback. Talk to the people – frontline staff, hosted media, friends and family – anyone who can help you find insights on what will make the actions easier to do.

7. Make a difference

Show people that they are making a difference when they participate. Share some or all of your analytics in a public, meaningful way that encourages people to continue. It can also encourage new people to engage. Demonstrating progress made inspires hope and provides more proof of the issue at hand.

Read our guide to measuring marketing campaigns and lock in your measurement metrics before you begin.

In the end, consumers need more than information; they need to understand the issues, the tools to share, simple steps to action and proof their actions make a difference.

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When we build a tourism marketing and/or PR strategy for our clients, we use the PESO model. This is a model for strategy developed by Gini Dietrich, founder, author and CEO of Spin Sucks. She created it to empower PR professionals to be more and do more than the typical idea of public relations. It is also a fantastic approach to building strategy. The ‘PESO’ acronym stands for Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned Media. We use the framework to take our strategy into action, tying all tactics back to the main goals and messages for a holistic campaign.

P is for Paid

Paid media is often the first thing people think of when they want to promote an idea or service. And it definitely has a place in a robust strategic plan. But it doesn’t have to break the bank, and it really needs the support of its three companions.

Paid media needs to drive toward your goals and make the most of your budget. Google (and YouTube) and Meta (aka Facebook and Instagram) are among the most affordable, cost-effective and versatile options in the digital advertising realm. Those channels are often foundational for our paid media plans, followed by other popular or desired channels. Recently, requested and explored channels include streaming video, Pinterest and direct mail.

See how we paired paid media with owned to generate demand for a tour operator.

E is for Earned

Earned media may be mistaken as only representing public relations or media relations. It’s actually about earning third-party endorsements. Very often for destinations, this takes the form of PR as the lowest-hanging fruit. However, when working with tour operators, we turn to review management. Awards are another way of building credibility.

Earned media means the end results are not paid advertisements. With PR, the results are placements with impressions. With reviews, the results are ratings and comments. Awards are the awards themselves, but for certain arenas may also be nominations or runner-up status. This publicity helps promote your organization and tell your story through different voices and angles, including ways you may not be able to talk about yourself.

As specialists in travel PR, it’s worthwhile to note that PR does have a place for almost every organization, even if it’s not the first tactic we recommend for every client.

Our approach to earned media involves both proactive and reactive methods. We build relationships with media by seeking out relevant journalists and influencers with highly-targeted pitches. We measure earned media results using the industry-standard Barcelona Principles.

Read about strategic PR in action with a history and DEI campaign for Auburn, NY.

S is for Shared

Shared platforms – social media – were long debated. Who “owns” and takes responsibility for a brand’s social channels? I love that this model essentially ends the tug-of-war between marketing, sales and PR. Social is its own thing – a channel and a way of reaching people in its own right. Managing social media requires a unique skillset and knowledge of the digital landscape.

Another reason I love that this is called Shared Media and doesn’t fall under owned media, is because these social platforms are separate entities. Your email provider cannot take away your customers’ emails, that’s an owned channel that you control. But a social media platform has the final say in how you reach your customers on their platform. This is a concept covered really well in the book Killing Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose. Shared media is also about community and includes private social channels.

Our approach in this pillar revolves around maintaining a consistent presence across channels by recycling evergreen, key message posts to keep up with the never-ending nature of social media. This allows us the flexibility to curate trendy and timely content while ensuring a steady hum of activity.

See how this approach to social media is working for one of our tour operator clients.

O is for Owned

Owned Media are the places you can share your messages that you have full control over. It’s the channels that you own – your website, blog, email newsletters, even direct mailing lists and phone numbers. It’s wherever you can reach your audience, it’s where you are in control of how and when and what the message is.

Owned media is the most valuable marketing asset because of this full ownership. These tactics are the foundation that carry your strategic messaging to your audience in the clearest way. The basics of owned media is a website that’s up-to-date, information-rich and easy to navigate paired with a growing email list that receives frequent and relevant communications. Then we build from there.

Owned media is also where some of the most fun tactics and ideas live. Apps, contests, surveys, games are the fun, creative projects that add to – and stem from – owned media.

This example of owned media combines growing an email list using a creative contest.

Each of these elements is an important pillar of marketing and PR strategy, but it’s only when they are planned in conjunction that you reap the full benefits of a strong tourism marketing strategy.

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Taking the time for tracking

Everyone always wants to know the numbers. I don’t think I’ve met a tourism marketer who didn’t want to know their stats. Whether they are the Tourism Director at a DMO, Marketing Director of a museum, Owner of a Tour Operator company or anyone in-between. When things feel rushed, it can be difficult to get campaigns up and running with the proper tracking in place. Measurement can take time to set up properly. Sometimes we have to choose between setting up detailed tracking, and launching a campaign on time. In our strategic planning, we plan out the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure. If we can set up the KPI data quickly, we can launch in a timely manner. Then we’ll set up more detailed measurement later (if we’re pressed for time). Fall is the perfect time to start planning for next year, because it leaves extra time to set up strategy and measurement ahead of high-season launches.

The evolution of tracking

Measurement is evolving, with quite a few significant changes rolling out in recent years, and more to come. Privacy updates with Apple’s iOS 14 changed what data we can see, especially with pixels, and rumor has it that more restrictions will come out with iOS 16. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) changed what data is tracked, how it is tracked and how reporting is done. That’s not all Google is changing – within the next 6 months, it will start to disable third-party cookies for some Chrome users.

Digital tracking tools

Now, pixels and cookies are still effective tracking methods overall. Google Analytics is still one of the most powerful and accessible measurement tools, even though it may look different from before.

Google Tag Manager

GTM is a great way to track activities on your website, but you will likely need the expertise of a web developer to implement it.

Meta / Facebook Pixel

The Facebook Pixel got an upgrade in recent years with the addition of the Meta Conversions API. Again, you’ll probably need developer help to set it up. Other social media ad platforms now have their own pixels and tracking methods, and each need to be set up individually to measure ad performance.

UTM Codes

UTM codes are a universal way to bring activity from any digital place back to your Google Analytics. Meta even has a built in tool for adding the parameters, but Google also created a UTM builder tool I use all the time to easily set up these parameters to use in ads. The only exception is you don’t need to add UTM on your Google Ads urls, those are already included as long as you’ve linked your GA4 property to your Google Ad Account.

Honorable mentions in the world of tracking include link shorteners, QR codes and offline data trackers. Offline data is actually more than an honorable mention – for more on what this is and how it helps in tourism, check out Destination on the Left episode 351 with Mike Sladony of Semcasting.

Working around measurement challenges

When I think about tracking for our clients, there are commonalities between the types of organizations we work with and the challenges they face.

DMOs

DMOs are often challenged with being the go-between. Their websites and digital campaigns are doing big work to attract visitors into their destination, but they don’t usually have a direct way to track bookings and purchases. Those offline data models are popular for this reason, tracking mobile data and movement of people who saw the campaign. There are also instances where the destination takes the reins and does the bookings, like Genesee County does with their golf program, acting as the receptive agent. They also have a co-op program with one of their major accommodations that gives more conversion data since we can track the off-site clicks to the lodging partner, and see how many people used the promo code.

Attractions

Attractions, especially museums and cultural institutions, often use third-party booking tools that simply don’t have external tracking built in. How these tools are operating without that is beyond me, but here we are. Sometimes we can add Google tracking, but that’s actually been pretty rare. But we can track actions taken on the website such as form submissions, downloads and clicks. We recently ran a campaign for Plimoth Patuxet Museums to gather email signups for niche groups like homeschool parents that worked really well. Since lead generation is built right in to the platform (Meta) or the website (Google), we get to know how many people we’re adding to their audience with our campaign.

Tour Operators & Private Businesses

Tour Operators and private businesses have a leg up on measurement. They are typically working with several resources like CRMs and booking platforms that do allow for measurement. The tricky part here is getting several disparate systems to talk to each other. If the systems don’t talk to each other already, there are tools like Zapier and Make that will create connections. These tools are relatively easy to use, again it’s just a matter of taking the time to set them up.

Effective measurement allows tourism businesses to make informed decisions and optimize their marketing strategies for success. The advent of web3 means more privacy and more focus on the individuals. Despite the obstacles, there are still effective ways to track our efforts. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, digital tracking methods will continue to change and adapt. And we will change and adapt with them.

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1. The Power of Collaboration

In episode 330 of Destination on the Left featuring Mayor Carlos Duffey and Ike English, they discuss the significance of collaboration between local government and businesses in destination marketing. When they saw a need to improve connectivity in the community and identified the creation of outdoor trails as the solution, they included people from their community who would benefit from the trails on the development committee. It helped them create a tourism product that would serve the residents, visitors and the local businesses.

“That committee did a great job in formulating the right recipe to attract people to the trail.”

Mayor Carlos Duffey of Jackson, Georgia

2. Empowering Local Communities

Travelers are looking to discover hidden gems during their vacations, and venture off the beaten path. This gives the local community an opportunity to shine whether that’s through contributing “insider” local content, as a destination brand ambassador or for businesses as part of a trail. The possibilities are endless when it comes to how the community can get involved in tourism promotion.

When the community is involved, it helps destinations highlight their unique charm and authenticity.

At their essence, Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are hubs of collaboration. Businesses and attractions within a region need to be aware of all the ways they can collaborate with their local tourism office to help them promote their business as part of the community.

3. Engaging the Local Community

In episode 307 with Sarah Howe, she discusses the importance of engaging the local community in her resort’s marketing efforts. Sarah shares her experience of involving residents in the creation of marketing content, thereby fostering a sense of ownership and pride in the destination. This approach not only helps in developing authentic marketing materials, but also strengthens community relations and supports sustainable tourism practices. 

Sarah points to her participation in the Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance, as a way to find and align with community partners. She explains, “None of us are successful if, as a group, we’re starting to fail. … It’s really great for all of us to have successful businesses, both for our employment pool as well as our visitors.”

4. Building Trust and Relationships

On episode 231, Don Welsh explains the importance of building trust and relationships within the community. While this conversation took place on the heels of the pandemic, it’s a great conversation to come back to because of the pivots made during that time. He highlights the significance of understanding the needs and aspirations of local residents, businesses, and organizations when crafting destination marketing strategies. By actively listening to community stakeholders and involving them in decision-making processes, destination marketers can build strong relationships and ensure the long-term success of their marketing initiatives.

5. Community Connections

The power of community comes to light when working on large-scale projects such as capital campaigns. Our team worked on two such projects associated with Letchworth State Park, the Grand Canyon of the East, in New York State. These collaborations provide financial resources as well as demonstrate the community’s commitment and investment in stewardship and growth of a treasured asset.

In the first campaign, the Letchworth Capital Committee reached their full goal and built the Humphrey Nature Center at the Park. Community elements included a user-generated content story contest around the park as well as fundraising during the highly-attended annual arts and crafts show.

In the second campaign, the Autism Nature Trail (ANT) at Letchworth State Park project had been in the planning stages for three years. This project needed to build name recognition and excitement within the community to reach its goals. Community involvement in this project ranged from minimal – such as the first 2300 followers on the Trail’s new Facebook page – to more invested – such as the 225 participants who raised over $22K in the virtual silent auction.

Destination marketing cannot be successful without meaningful community partnerships. By fostering strong connections with local stakeholders and the public, we can create authentic experiences, drive economic growth, and ensure long-term sustainability. We are stronger together!

The post Destination Marketing and Community Partnerships appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

1. Keep it simple.

Keep your messages simple and concise. Each post should have a focus, and get right to the point. Whether you’re sharing something fun and engaging, or asking your audience to take action, the shorter the better. Of course there will be times that you need to share enough information to give context or tout all the great aspects of what you’re sharing. Make sure it’s clear and that the audience knows what to do.

Keep in mind that people don’t want to read paragraphs of text. A common misstep we see often is a social media post with a full press release or blog post text on it. It’s better to link to the full blog or press release (better yet – link to the placement you got from the release!).

2. Make it visual.

More than just eye-catching, it needs to be thumb-stopping. Shaky, lowlight, low-res photos just won’t cut it. If you don’t have the photos you want, crowd-source and repost them (but don’t forget to give credit).

Visual retention is your best bet to be memorable. It’s often cited that people remember 65% of information when text is paired with a visual, but only 10% of what they read or hear. Over and over again, the data tells us that people prefer visuals and video over written text.

In addition to high-quality photos, consider incorporating infographics, GIFs, and videos to make your content more dynamic and engaging.

3. Embrace video content

Video content has exploded in popularity, with platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels becoming dominant. Incorporating video into your social media strategy can help you capture and retain your audience’s attention. Experiment with different types of video content, such as tutorials, behind-the-scenes footage, answering FAQs or storytelling.

4. Know your audience.

While knowing your audience’s demographics and habits is important, it’s also essential to understand their interests and preferences. Conduct surveys, engage in conversations with your followers, and use social media analytics tools to gain insights into what your audience wants to see from you. Are they online at 7:30 am or 3:30 pm? Do they like questions or exclamations?

5. Have a call to action.

What do you want your audience to do when they see your post, Reel, or video? Don’t expect them to know what you are asking. Include a direct ask, a button (on ads) and simple instructions on how to complete the task. Make it easy for them to do what you want them to do. And ask yourself if you’re measuring those actions.

6. Monitor social media constantly.

Your posts don’t exist in a vacuum. Pay attention to the stats of your ads and posts, and make adjustments as needed. Watch your reviews for unhappy (or very happy) customers. Also watch out for spam reviews and get them taken down. Know how people are engaging with your channels and how to change or increase your content.

7. Engage whenever possible.

If people are taking the time to comment or like your post, find ways to engage with them. Like their comment, reply to a happy (or unhappy) comment and answer their questions about the product or service. Let your audience know there’s a real person on the other end of the page who cares about them.

8. Be flexible.

Having a plan is important, but don’t be afraid to deviate from that plan. Take regular stock of your most engaging posts and repeat the topics, tone, or style that is working. Your audience may surprise you from time to time, so trying variations is a great way to gauge reactions if you’re unsure.

9. Have fun!

Social media is a lot of work, and can be frustrating at times- but if you’re not having fun with it, your audience won’t either. Get creative with your posts, ads, photos, contests, and more. Social media is an opportunity to reach your audiences and consumers on their level- so don’t forget to play!

10. Watch for platform changes

Stay informed about platform changes. Social media platforms constantly evolve, introducing new features and updates. And new platforms are starting to rock the boat in terms of popularity (but Meta is still the most popular). It’s important to stay up-to-date with these changes to ensure that your strategies remain effective. Follow social media marketing blogs, participate in webinars, and join online communities to stay informed about the latest trends and updates in the industry.

The post 10 Beginner Social Media Marketing Tips appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

So how can you tap into the “visiting friends and family” traveler market?

As with any marketing plan, we always turn to the PESO model to ensure cross-channel messaging.

Paid Media Tactics

Include the local geography as a portion of the target audience.

Earned Media Tactics

• Send press outreach materials to the local media.
• Also keep in mind that your locals are the ones leaving the majority of reviews at restaurants and attractions.
• Identify and work with local influencers – the best brand ambassadors you may not know yet!

Owned Media Tactics

Some destinations have locals who contribute to their owned channels, especially via blogs, to give the insider’s look at a destination that so many visitors crave.

Shared Media Tactics

While we often think of this segment of marketing as the main social platforms, it also includes community building. That’s where we can really dig in to building a community within your local audience that support tourism efforts and who “get” and spread your tourism messages.

• Create community partnerships with key stakeholders like Cayuga County, NY, did with their Harriet Tubman campaign. (Listen: episode 295 of Destination on the Left with Karen Kuhl)
• Start a brand ambassador program to promote tourism marketing and messages. With the local community behind you, the people in your area can be a strong force for those messages.
• Turning back to social media, use User Generated Content (UGC) in your social strategy.

Connecting with the residents, embracing them into destination marketing and also listening to them and letting them shape what tourism means in the destination, is the way of the future.

Local Brand Ambassadors

Your locals play an essential role in sharing the experiences and stories of visiting friends and relatives, reminding others of the importance of creating happy memories with loved ones. To create a successful brand ambassador program, first, identify the type of ambassadors that would be most beneficial to your destination. Is it a group of local influencers? Or is it passionate members of the community?

Give them the tools, resources, and experiences they need to become an advocate for your destination, such as:

• Social media toolkits with branded content and hashtags
• Invites to pre-opening events, special promotions, and experiences
• Training on unique local events, customs, and attractions
• Branded merchandise like t-shirts, hats, bags, and other swag items to show off their involvement with your community

Example Brand Ambassador Programs

Take a look at what these destinations are doing, to inspire your future Brand Ambassador program!

Visit Loudon in Virginia has a robust program centered around its front-line workers, with education modules, in-person events, employer information, discounts and a point of contact.

Colorado Springs recently created a program for residents with a social media account. Ambassadors receive emails with information that can easily be shared on their own social platforms.

North Alabama has a brand ambassador program for local influencers. There are several requirements for the program, including residency in the North Alabama counties and requirements for posting. In return, ambassadors receive swag and features on the website and social channels.

Quad Cities went as far to move their former QC Pro ambassador program to a Certified Tour Ambassadorprogram. Citizens who join the program must register, complete required reading and take a 4-hour in-person class and pass an exam to gain accreditation.

The post How to Leverage Local in Your Tourism Marketing appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

1. Collaborative Marketing Tools

Tourism marketing is collaborative. Very often, multiple regions and assets work together on projects big and small. Working together in real time over distances doesn’t have to be difficult.

Google Drive

Google Drive is host to several tools you may have heard of. These tools make for easy sharing and even working together in real time! Our team favors Google Docs (word processing) and Google Sheets (spreadsheets) for working together. Up to 15G of storage is free, and anyone can create an account (even with a non-Gmail email address).

Microsoft Office 365

Our team uses Microsoft Office 365 internally to work collaboratively together. Tools like Sharepoint and OneDrive bridge our remote work for live editing and streamlined file sharing. If you already use Outlook for your email, you may already have access to many of these cloud-based sharing abilities. Sharepoint even allows you to create shared folders for documents with other organizations. (This one will need some IT support to put in place.)

Slack

Slack is a messaging tool that frees up your inbox from little questions and giant threads, and supports two kinds of messaging. Public “channels” can be seen by anyone on your team and private direct messages go between a group of any size. It also has lots of great tools for sharing, including link previews, drag-and-drop file sharing, playing videos and lots of integrations. The free plan only limits a few things, like searching and history past 10,000 messages (chronologically across all channels). Upgrading unlocks the full history. Our team has been using the free plan for 3 years and loves it.

Of course, everyone is familiar with the most popular tools for video calls, meetings and webinars now. Zoom, Teams and Google Meet are the ones our team sees most often, and there are many more out there.

2. Automation for Tourism

I often feel like I am championing certain concepts and lately it’s been automation. Why spend hours on things that computers can do for us? With just a little bit of forethought, we can save ourselves so much time throughout the year – especially in the busy season.

Automation goes beyond scheduling an email on Constant Contact or MailChimp. It’s about connecting all the tools you use together. This does get involved on the setup side, but once it’s set up and tested and working well, it is a huge lift for the work at hand.

Zapier

The connector tool we use for ourselves and our clients is called Zapier. It has affordable entry pricing that you can actually use. It connects with the majority of cloud-based apps and programs I’ve ever needed. And it has a guided setup tool with testing built in that makes everything go smoothly.

What do I use Zapier for? Most often, contacts are being moved from one system to another, actually. Whether they’re coming in from Facebook ads or Google ads or webinar sign ups – then they move to the email marketing channel. It can send an email or alert – our website contact form feeds directly into a Slack channel, and we also have alerts in Slack when a video is recorded in our Zoom account. Another great use is moving data from a system into a cloud-based reporting tool. I love automating as much as possible, making things easier for our clients and my coworkers.

3. Creating Visuals

Photo Libraries

One of the most important marketing tools for tourism professionals is visuals. Stunning visuals are key to inspiring travel. While you can’t get away with stock photos for everything, there are great free and royalty-free photos available for free on sites like Pixabay and Pexels.

Using a photo isn’t just about having the right one, though. It often needs to be a certain size, or you’ll need to use it for something on a website or other promotion. Very few offices have a dedicated graphic designer who has the time to make a ton of little graphics for social media on the fly. And not everyone knows how to use fancy editing software, let alone the time/energy/know-how to make it look beautiful within minutes.

Canva

Enter Canva, or design-for-dummies as I like to call it. It’s a great tool for creating your own graphics. You start by selecting the size of your project. Use a pre-made size like a poster, Facebook post or email header – or type in a custom size. Then choose from pre-made layouts complete with fonts. The free version will take you far, they have integrations with Pixabay and Pexels, or you can upgrade for more collaboration and more stock photos. The best way to understand it, is to see it in action:

4. Social Media Marketing Tools

Creator Studio

When it comes to social media, there are a few tools that can make life easier. We outline content calendars in a spreadsheet to align messaging with strategy, and then schedule out the posts. Facebook’s algorithm penalizes posts (read: lessens the reach) scheduled through other tools, but their new Creator Studio tool has all the features we need to schedule posts in advance for Facebook and Instagram.

Tailwind

Tailwind offers scheduling for Pinterest. This channel has been left out or underrepresented in scheduling platforms, so we were thrilled to find this. It allows you to schedule posts out months in advance. Once you have posts scheduled, Tailwind automatically uploads them to Pinterest for you, taking away all the hassle and time of planning and uploading. The platform has a free forever plan that could be workable most destinations, and the next step up (Pro) is only $10 per month.

Try out some of these marketing tools for tourism to help you save time and take your marketing to the next level.

The post Low-Cost Marketing Tools for Tourism Promotion appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

Museums are cultural institutions, aiming to serve the community, preserve history and educate. And yet they also have a tourism mindset of needing to bring people in the door. This focus on the community influences everything museums do – including how they collaborate. They are building relationships to connect with the community, solve community issues and meet community needs. These relationships build the foundation for successful partnership marketing.

Connecting with the Community

The Wild Center reached a new section of their community by partnering with them on the Community Maple Project. Stephanie Ratcliffe, Executive Director of The Wild Center, explained that the project aimed to connect with the residents on a tradition that was in danger of being lost.

Many museums face a challenge of having people who feel that museums aren’t for them. And yet what I heard from everyone in the museum industry, they want their museums to be for everyone. The tradition of maple sugaring was beginning to fade, but while the surrounding areas were rich with sugar maples, none were on the property. So they tapped into the community – literally! Community members learned how to set up taps in their backyards and brought the sap to The Wild Center to be made into syrup. People who hadn’t come to the museum before were not only coming in for the project, they were excited to participate.

Partnerships with Relevance

Pamela Reed Sanchez, Executive Director, Seneca Park Zoo Society and Jonathan Binstock, The Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director, Memorial Art Gallery talked about creating relevant programs that meet a community need. For these organizations and The Wild Center, this shows up in the form of programs that go beyond partnership marketing, extending into the realms of experiential education and workforce development with local schools.

Education

The Memorial Art Gallery has a partnership with the Rochester City School District that goes beyond the basic field trip. They worked with educators throughout the school district to create a program where entire classes visit weekly for 10 weeks. The kids engage deeply during their two-hour visits and they start to see the museum as theirs. The program is changing the culture of the classrooms and schools as well. They are working to collect data on how it affects students’ ability to learn.

The Wild Center school visit program is an annual field trip for many schools and their relationship with the local schools is so strong that the superintendent refers to The Wild Center as the school’s “science wing.”

Plimoth Patuxet Museums are also an annual trip for many in the Massachusetts area. Their education program includes field trips, summer camps, visiting historians (both in person and virtual) as well as a computer game that is a learning resource for students.

Virtual trips are also an option at Old Sturbridge Village, where classes can visit the village together on a 3D Tour from afar.

Workforce Development

The Seneca Park Zoo Society has an urban ecologist workforce program, a workforce development program to encourage more diversity in the environmental sciences. The workforce program is a paid position for high school juniors and seniors, encouraging and supporting students’ interest in ecology. An after-school program teaches kids about nature, geocaching and nature journaling. They also launched a new curriculum, called Zoo Scholars, with the Rochester City School District to support education in math, science and language arts.

Visioning Collaborative Change

The theme for the 2018 Museum Association of New York conference was Visioning Change. For me, this came across most strongly in the keynote on Sunday given by James R. Hackney, Jr., Senior Director of Development, Yale Divinity School. Hackney described collaboration beautifully:

“We’re doing something for the common good. We’re not competing with each other. Every museum in the Museum Association of New York and in the United States has a specific role to play. We are only better, if we are better together. We’re all in this together.”

James R. Hackney, Jr.

This collaborative mindset is a key part of change. And change is crucial to moving forward. To paraphrase another quote from the keynote, change is difficult – it happens to you, or you cause it. He encouraged everyone to move and cause change. To embrace uncertainty as the new normal and to try new things without fear of failure.

5 Ways to Keep a Forward-Thinking Mindset

Approaching Marketing with a Growth Mindset

The post Building Relationships for Partnership Marketing appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.