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.

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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So what does the DMO of the future look like? Looking around the corner, as they say, is a leadership skill that takes knowledge, information and reflection. When I attended the Destinations International Annual Conference in Toronto this summer, we had the opportunity to really think about what’s coming next. This event gave everyone a chance to reflect, learn what others are doing, find out what communities are asking for.

In my conversations with 20 tourism experts at the 2022 conference, I asked them to look around the corner to define the DMO of the future. We discussed 7 attributes that DMOs will take on.

Community Connectors

“I see the DMO of the future as a marriage between community residents and the visitors we bring in, because for years we’ve also said the community, the residents are ambassadors. They will take care of the people who we bring in.” Barry Biggar, Visit Fairfax

Over the last few years, the typical stakeholders were a little bit looser in understanding that DMOs can focus on the residents. It’s not just about the visitors, not just about the heads and beds. 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.

“DMOs are really going to have to be partnering more and more, not just with those key community stakeholders, the chambers, local governments, but the actual residents of the community. … Really making it feel like they’re part of what the story is that we should be telling our visitors.” Scott McCrea, Explore Fairbanks

“The relationship with your locals is essential to long term health. If you don’t have a good relationship with your residents and you don’t foster a sense and appreciation of travel within those residents, then you’re not going to exist long term.” Stuart Butler, Visit Myrtle Beach

“We’re the translators and we’re the connectors and we’re communicating how tourism fits into this larger scheme. And so at the core of it is place-making.” Lindsey Steck, Visit Pensacola

“I have seen significant change in what we do as organizations and professions and what we have to do in order to continue to be relevant. And I think the pandemic taught us one very valuable lesson and that is the opportunity that we have missed over so many years to truly connect with the residents of our communities” Barry Biggar, Visit Fairfax

“At the end of the day, if your community doesn’t know who you are, doesn’t respect what you do, isn’t appreciative … then why are we there? ” Barry Biggar

“it’s not just residents, it’s the corporations, it’s the businesses, small, medium, and otherwise that, you know, we need to be sure we embrace and work together” Barry Biggar

Marketers with Influence

“Are we marketing organizations or are we destination management organizations? I personally think it’s going to be a combination of both. Our mission is never going to get fully away from marketing.” Beth Gendler, Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism

One point that stood out at the conference is that DMOs are the brand owners for the destination. Several of my guests on the podcast mentioned how DMOs will stick with marketing, and grow that into greater storytelling. I love that Olivia Novak, Discover Lancaster, framed it as taking on the role of the influencer. Influencers are people that an audience trusts. They are the insider and are showing the experience versus telling or talking about the experience. It’s an interesting shift of perspective on how the DMO of the future will approach marketing.

“There’s opportunity for destination marketing organizations to step into the role of being influencers for the destination. Think of any social media influencer, their main driver is their ability to create content, and their willingness to go and have experiences and try new things. We have those direct lines to partners who offer those experiences that we’re trying to promote. Our partners would be eager to participate in that, and it would be a collaborative effort between us and the partners, but also incorporating our residents too. I think that there’s opportunity to invest more into content creation, photography, videography, trying new things, and see what being a DMO influencer can look like. ” Olivia Novak, Discover Lancaster

“Our organizations will be continue to be about strengthening our ability to be the curator of stories and experiences in our destination.” Celestino Ruffini, Visit Beloit

“The DMO of the future from a marketing perspective is really going to become media publishers. I think content is your strategic product. It’s the thing a DMO produces and is capable of producing at a standard and a quantity and a quality better than anyone else. It goes beyond producing TV commercials and digital ads and blogs. I want to produce quality content that people want to consume and actively look for. What we’re going to see is, as we become content producers, we’re going to become more lifestyle brands than we are destinations.” Stuart Butler, Visit Myrtle Beach

Expert Collaborators

“I don’t know that we have the expertise to be the management organizations, but I think we do have the expertise to bring those two entities together. To collaborate, look for partnerships. Where they are available, to use the resources each have to fulfill the needs. We understand how you bring people together because that’s really what we’ve always done.” Beth Gendler, Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism

As I always say, collaboration the way the tourism industry does it is unlike anything else. It is the very foundation of the industry and it is the best way forward. Specifically, my guests pointed out that collaboration with stakeholders and other community shapers will be part of the new role for the DMO of the future.

“It’s not just residents, it’s the corporations, it’s the businesses, small, medium, and otherwise that, you know, we need to be sure we embrace and work together.” Barry Biggar, Visit Fairfax

“You have to be at the table, you can’t develop partnerships unless you’re at the table.” Beth Gendler

“It’s using those collaborations and being really open to different ideas that we maybe never would have considered in the past. Where we think ‘that’s not the place for our organization,’ or ‘that’s not the place for tourism getting more involved.’ Advocating, lobbying on behalf of our industry, our organization, and also our partners and our members, our hoteliers, our restaurants, our attractions. We have to be a voice for them and help uplift and empower their voices too. ” Rachel Riley

“Whether it be travelers or locals or business owners, they’re looking at the DMO more and more for guidance or for partnership. And I think that’s just going to continue to grow in the next 10 plus years.” Sarah Hughes, Visit Norfolk

Economic Development Partners

“Our role in truly being the first step in economic development, I think will continue to grow in the community’s understanding the role of the tourism.” Celestino Ruffini, Visit Beloit

“I think we have to be nimble and dynamic. I think everything fits very nicely under our industry umbrella. When you think about recruiting businesses, we’re the center at that, kind of that first date experience, for economic development.” Domenic Bravo, Visit Cheyenne

“We are turning into a more supporting and visible role, developing and expanding on the assets of all of our regions… For Rhode Island, we’re looking at art installations, park beautification, and a major attractions.” Louise Bishop, South County Tourism Council, Inc.

This is a trend we’ve seen coming around the bend for some time. From partnerships growing between two entities, to even combining them or forming a Tourism Improvement District. Jason Outman, Branson/ Lakes Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, takes it further and feels that as the role changes, the DMOs and industry have to provide training. Branching into economic development further means becoming part of the bigger picture and pipeline, and getting more involved in building rather than simply marketing destinations. Jason told me:

“We really are destination curators and developers. And it really is our job. If we are out there advocating for workforce and helping these builders, then that could help our destination. And if we get not just J-1 students who then go back home, but if we’re able to build these affordable housing complexes that drive year-round workforce, then that would obviously give us an opportunity to increase the tax base and income coming into the destination as well. 

… It’s a more political situation where we are involved in actually building these destinations, not just marketing them. We’re looking at it as, ‘What makes sense for a destination?’ ‘Does it make sense for a hotel to go here?’ ‘If we are building workforce housing and we don’t have public transportation, are we building it in the right spot?’ … We see those things differently than what other people do. And so I think as we transition maybe into a DMO of that realm, we have to have the training that goes with it. ”

Strategists

“I think we’re going to continue to be marketers, but also manage managing and creating strategies, longer term strategies for our communities.” Kelly Groff, Visit Montgomery

Bringing a unique view to community and economic development is part of a larger role the DMO of the Future will play. That is the role of strategist. Looking at things critically, planning for what’s next and building collaboratively are skills that DMOs already have, and will be able to bring to the table.

Kelly Groff also gave an excellent example of creating long-term strategies for our communities: “The workforce shortage is a huge challenge in every industry sector within tourism. So we’ve got to build that pipeline.” While the workforce shortage is here now, creating solutions and pipelines is a strategy to build toward a better future. One that doesn’t have to cope with these shortages on a global scale. It also has the power to create a ripple effect throughout the community and economy. Continuing with this example, Lance Woodworth, Destination Toledo, said:

“What I need to do is listen, listen to my community, listen to the residents, listen with the other stakeholders and the other organizations. The city office, your mayor, your county commissioners, and really try to grasp exactly where they want that destination to go.

… We need workforce attraction. We need people to relocate and move to fuel the great economic development going on as a whole in our area. … I think that the destination of the future really needs to listen and then craft their goals around the greater good of that community.”

Sustainability Advocates

“You want your residents to be happy and proud that there’s tourism there and not be disturbed by it.”

… What can we do to make sure it’s not too much pressure on the city with city services or too much of an impact? And what can we do to counteract that? Are there programs we can put in place? … How can we give back to lessen the burden?” Deana Ivey, Nashville Convention and Visitor Corp

We need the economy to move and to be robust, but we also need to have a society and a community. Sustainability has been a topic since we first saw the effects of overtourism. It encompasses environmental impacts and concerns, climate change and the negative effects tourism can have. Like everything DMOs set their minds to, sustainability encompasses a solutions-focused approach. What better organization to lead that charge than the one that’s there to protect and promote the assets or the region?

“Sustainability and regenerative tourism is really at the heart of everything that we do right now because climate change is real.” Rachel Ludwig, Tourism Canmore Kananaskis, explained. “We see it in Europe, currently, with the heat wave. Our destination went through flats. We went through forest fires. So really that is at the heart of protecting our industry. In our strategic plan we want to be a leader in sustainable tourism in 10 years. And we are well on the way, but we need to align again our industry behind us as well. So we’re just starting on the execution part. … The heart and soul of destination management is sustainability.”

Always Evolving

“I strongly feel that the destination organization of the future has to be constantly evolving. We can no longer just be static and set in our ways. Our future is being able to adapt to what our communities need based on the resources, based on what’s happening in that community. We’re very much an organization that brings everybody together to make things happen for the best of what that community needs. ” Racene Frieda, Glacier County Regional Tourism Commission

“We do have to adapt and we have to make sure that we’re really plugged in as a community value.” Paul Nursey, Destination Greater Victoria

And to sum all this up, in the wise words of Dave Herrell, Visit Quad Cities, “I think destination organizations have that ability to scale up and can do more and certainly have the expertise to pull it off. So I’m proud of the work that we do. I’m proud of what this industry is accomplishing every day. And I know we can do more. ”

What do you see when you look into the crystal ball for the DMO of the future?

The post The DMO of the Future appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

1. Do Your Research

Get a hold of data to inform your strategy all the way down the line. This could be primary research, like a survey to gather data from your customers/visitors. It could also be secondary research, performed by another company, that you find online. There are lots of great resources out there start with some of our favorites in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry:

• ADARA
• Destination Analysts
• Family Travel Association
• Longwoods International
• MMGY Travel
• NYC & Company
• US Travel

2. Write a Brand Summary

Start from the beginning. A clear understanding of your brand will strengthen your ability to differentiate your company from the competition. Understand the following questions: Why & how did the brand start? What need did it fill? What are its values?

Consider where your company and brand are today. Where are your major markets? What are your feeder markets? What markets would you like to expand into? Are you seasonal? How many customers do you have? What is your 12-month goal?

In creating a marketing plan, also consider what channels you currently use to market. Do you forecast an increase, decrease or status quo in your marketing budget in the next 12 months?

3. Define Your Target Audience

Who is your target audience? Understand who you are talking to, what is important to them, what their wants and needs are, and how your brand can fill them. Consider demographics, psychographics, lifestyle, brand perception, and beliefs of your audience.

Understand the perceptions in the marketplace about your brand. By tapping your current customers, you can gain valuable insight to help identify growth markets, pinpoint new product offerings and make marketing decisions easier. Year-end is a great time to conduct an online survey of your customers to collect new information.

4. Add a Situational Analysis

Strategic marketing plans must consider what is happening in the world around your organization. Consider trends, current issues, competitors and the competitive environment when preparing your plan. Strengthen this section of your plan with a SWOT analysis.

5. Outline Marketing Objectives

Good marketing objectives or goals will drive your marketing plan. These are obtainable goals that are set after you have identified problems and opportunities. They are the highest level of your strategic thinking and each plan may have more than one. A strong marketing plan will have measurable goals.

Sample Marketing Objective: Increase hotel occupancy during off season of November – February by 3% over the next 3 years. 

6. Create the Marketing Strategy

The strategy is how you will achieve your objectives. It’s the big picture game plan on how objectives will be reached. The strategy includes audience(s) to be targeted, desired positioning, allocation of resources and marketing mix. A plan may have multiple strategies.

Sample Marketing Strategy: Promote winter activities to reach winter-minded audience.

7. List the Tactics and Implementation

A tactical marketing plan is an actionable marketing plan. These are the tasks; the detailed action plan that includes timing and details of all major steps.  Tactics include collateral, digital marketing, social media, websites, public relations, and trade shows. Other tactics include conferences, email marketing, word of mouth, direct sales, and lead generation. These are all the things that you will do in order to accomplish your objectives. This section includes a tactical implementation strategy and/or timeline.

Sample tactics:

Increase photography library with shots of destination during November – February 

Develop relationships with tour operators specializing in winter tours 

Host 2 winter-activity focused influencers 

This section needs to include your marketing budget and you will need a detailed budget for each tactic. We have seen many businesses create fantastic marketing plans that sit on the shelf because they did not have adequate funding for the implementation. Consider your existing resources and capacities against your dream tactics. Be realistic with the amount of tactics and your timeline. A solid strategic marketing plan is one that clearly identifies the objectives, strategies and tactics and includes the resources to get it done!

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The ways in which proactive and reactive public relations can work for your tourism organization differ in both tactic and approach. Let’s start by breaking down the difference, and dive into the methods below.

Click here to listen to Episode 105: Doing PR Like a Method Actor, with Nancy Marshall.

Proactive Public Relations

You are your organization’s greatest advocate. With proactive public relations, you get to identify and tell the stories that you want to share, the ones that make your destination or attraction unique, compelling, and different. Proactive is what most people consider when building a public relations strategy. It’s about active outreach, taking the initiative to get the word out, and finding the right media people and publications to partner and work with.

Pitching & Active Outreach

This is frequently the bulk of your proactive outreach public relations strategy and the highest investment of your time. Start by developing media themes and angles that focus around the stories you want to tell, then break them down by month or season depending on their topic, timing, and any holidays or major anniversaries that might be happening that give the topic added value.

Once you have your content goals outlined, actively identify a minimum of 5-7 media contacts and publications that might be interested in a particular topic – a food author for a story about BBQ hotspots or a family travel writer to cover a new ropes course, for example. Consider your ask when pitching – what is the action you want the writer to take? Is this is fit for a particular column or section of their website? An interview opportunity? An invitation to schedule a FAM and see the attraction in person?

Active and individualized outreach allows you to pique the writer’s interest and develop stories that benefit both publication and destination, mutually.

News Distribution

Press releases can be another form of proactive PR, focused around breaking news and timely stories. This could come in the form of an announcement, anniversary, grand opening, or recent development within your organization or destination. Many news stories tend to receive more localized media coverage – but really big or groundbreaking topics can receive national attention as well. Broadcast and newspaper publications are the best fit for this type of story.

Shows & Desksides

Media shows and individual deskside appointments are a great way to find new contacts or begin relationships with writers that you may be trying to reach but haven’t worked with in the past. Seek out shows that take place in your target geographic markets or those that boast a list of attendees who work solely in your industry. For desksides, create a target list, email your prospects and determine a date, time and location to meet up.

Read our blog “Travel PR: How to Turn Desksides into Destination Guides” for a how-to on setting up and maximizing deskside appointments.

Reactive Public Relations

With reactive public relations, it’s less about seeking the leads and more about responding in the appropriate manner to opportunities and situations that come your way. It can come with a bad connotation, traditionally considered a “sit back and wait” kind of approach. But a good reactive public relations strategy does take work, consideration, and preparation. You have to know who the right people are within your organization to respond quickly to certain leads, what your key messaging is, and how to properly position yourself as an expert in the moment.

Partnerships

Seeking out and developing good partnerships is the quickest way to bring new leads and media opportunities to your organization. This can be with your local tourism organization, a greater regional organization, or even the entity that promotes travel statewide. Other partnerships could come from your top attractions, nearby DMOs, or through niche collaborative programs that are a fit for your destination.

Partnerships are a great way for your brand or destination to find its way into a larger overall brand and story – which can mean bigger publications and features that you may not have been able to field alone. They also provide a chance for more pitches and greater outreach, as you will have multiple people and programs focused on telling your story.

Lead Monitoring Services

Subscribing to a lead monitoring service is a good way to keep abreast of trends taking place nationwide or find topics that you may not have considered in your proactive outreach. One such service is HARO (Help a Reporter Out) that sends emails three times a day with story topics and leads from journalists that are currently in progress. Finding opportunities to fit into a larger narrative or position yourself as an expert source can help build relationships with new writers and reach audiences that you might not otherwise touch.

These leads move fast however – often with a 1- to 3-day turnaround at most – so monitoring frequently and responding quickly is key.

Past Media Contacts

Your past contacts may also come back to you, in the form of new requests or return visitation to your destination. Curating a media list is an ongoing endeavor – it’s never a one and done type of relationship. Even if you’ve hosted a writer or appeared in their publication in the past, don’t discount the power of repeat coverage. Keep the relationship strong by responding quickly and offering information, interviews, images, etc.

With past media contacts you also have the benefit of understanding how they work and what their needs are. And they are likely returning to you because of past successes – there is a level of trust established on both sides. This trust could open the door for more candid conversations – and opportunities to discuss additional angles and get coverage more easily for the stories you deem a priority.  

As you continue to build your brand (proactively) and establish yourself in a given industry, more leads will inevitably come to you (reactively) to get your input and opinion as an expert source within your field. The combination of both proactive and reactive PR is what leads to success – building awareness, garnering interest, and ultimately driving customers and visitation to your destination.

The post Proactive vs. Reactive PR: Why Both are Essential to Your Public Relations Strategy appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

How Often to Measure

First, consider when you’re going to pull your results. It’s easy to pull it all at the end, when the campaigns are complete and the metrics are crystal-clear, but that doesn’t help you pivot and consider your strategy throughout the campaign.

Most of our clients receive monthly reports from us, but we are actually checking in on the data every 1-2 weeks, depending on the tactic. This level of scrutiny helps us understand the fluctuations as they may align to key moments in time, in order to make adjustments as needed. We also pull cumulative key metrics for longer periods of time, such as quarterly or annually, in order to spot variations and trends. Try setting up a schedule to look over your metrics regularly, in addition to a comprehensive report at the conclusion of a campaign to help determine its success.

Now, let’s break down the type of data you will be measuring, and the timeline based on the PESO model.

Measuring Paid Tactics

For paid tactics that are digital, data is provided right from the get-go. Within hours of launching a Facebook or Instagram ad, you will be able to see the number of people your ads reached and some of the early actions taken based on your campaign objectives – like link clicks, likes or shares. Even with these early insights, it can be important to let your ads run as planned without making knee-jerk reactions. These are important to monitor, but especially on Facebook, your ad may still be in the learning stage and improve as time goes on.

If you’re running digital ads, check on them each week and pull a report at the end of the month (or even slightly before) to analyze,  in order to create the next month’s plan before seeing final numbers.

For ad placements in traditional media, you’ll typically receive the data available at the end of the run. But you can ask what data is available to you and request a specific data set in your report from a media partner prior to the campaign’s end.

Measuring Earned Tactics

The data for earned tactics comes mostly from media placements. We use the Barcelona Principles for measuring media placement success on a 100-point scoring scale, and to recognize the full impact of earned media outreach campaigns. The Barcelona Principles identify the importance of goal setting, the need for outcomes instead of output-based measurement, the value of social media, and take a holistic approach to measurement and evaluation. As a measurement tool, the Barcelona Principles also help us make note of which earned placements generate the most traffic to a client’s website or social media accounts or encourage readers to complete an action such as buy a specific package or purchase tickets to an event.

Additional Earned Tactic Metrics

In addition to those scores, it can be important to consider what topics were pitched during the month, how many media you’ve reached out or responded to and what publications they represent. Look at the number of media members you’ve invited on a FAM tour, the number of individuals you’ve hosted, and the number of partners you featured on their itineraries. When working with influencers, plan out ahead of time what stats they are willing to provide and within what timeframe. Ephemeral content – such as Snapchats and Instagram stories – disappear after 24 hours, so you will want to make sure your influencers are capturing and sharing stats associated with these posts. Even for those hosted media members that may not be considered influencers, we keep track of their social media posts that mention the client, destination or partners.

While you may not pull numbers and measurement until you’re ready to report, we highly recommend reviewing any earned placements as soon as you see them. This allows you to take immediate action if a link is pointing to the wrong website, a fact needs editing, or a name is spelled wrong.

Measuring Shared Tactics

Social media analytics for shared tactics are always available, and there can be a lot of data to sort through. Consider first what metrics are available and more importantly, which are most relevant to your goals. It might be follower growth if you are looking to broaden your audience in key markets, or engagement numbers if you are looking to inspire your audience to take a specific action.

These numbers can fluctuate from week to week, but like digital ads, we recommend keeping an eye on the data each week and adjusting as needed. Monthly reports then give you a full overview. Look for other available insights – such as the breakdown of your audience by gender, age or location, as well as what type of devices people are using to browse these sites. It may also be important to note what days of the week and time of day the majority of your followers are on the platforms. Facebook will tell you how successful different types of posts – such as videos, links or photos – are with your audience. Using this data, you’ll be able to make informed decisions of what kind of content you share and when you share it.

If you have Twitter, you’ll need to activate your analytics before you can see any data at all, at Analytics.Twitter.com. And you will need an Instagram Business Profile to gain access to Instagram Insights.

Measuring Owned Tactics

Google Analytics tracks owned tactics like your website and blogs. We recommend pulling stats at least every month, although you can review your dashboard to see metrics at any time. While you will want to pull the data that relates to your specific goals, there are general insights that are often useful. For example, the number of new visitors will tell you how many people are finding your site, while the number of pages viewed per session, time spent on the site, and bounce rate will give you an idea on whether your website provides the content these users are looking for. Keep track of these numbers monthly in a chronological chart so you can spot developments and trends.

We also recommend keeping yearly data readily available in order to easily compare annual trends or spot areas to turn your attention to. For example, you may notice that your website traffic always drops during the shoulder season and picks back up a few months later.

Other Owned Tactics

Other owned tactics, such as webinars, podcasts or videos, can be measured by the number of registrants, listeners or downloads you receive in a given period. Observe what topics seem to do better than others, what speakers seem to draw in a bigger crowd, or how far out you need to promote a webinar in order to bring in enough registrations. You may also be able to pull demographic information such as the location and age of your viewers, or upon launch, how many viewers watched the presentation in its entirety or who engaged further by downloading additional resources.

For email newsletters, track the number of subscribers you have, open rates, how these relate to the subject lines, click rates and what call to actions perform the best. You will see some data immediately after the newsletter goes out – but be sure to give your newsletters a few days to settle in people’s inboxes before pulling the metrics. Measure these on a similar basis to your distribution – whether it is weekly or monthly.

Putting it All Together

Whether you are reporting for yourself, a small team or an entire board of directors, it’s important to not only keep track of these measurements but pull them together into a summary on a regular basis. Consider benchmarks or industry standards, and once your report is complete, start to analyze your metrics as they relate to the greater goals you set. Interpretation is where these data points turn into a story – and the more often you analyze these, the better you’ll get at seeing the trends in the data.

Whatever you do, choose a measuring system that makes sense for you, the size of your business, and the scope of the campaign. Results are the best way to meet your goals – but they are also key in setting sustainable goals and determining the future of your organization.

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Developing a content strategy.

It’s important to create content. It’s more important to create good, quality content – and make it available to the right people at the right time, in the right places. Which means you need to be strategic about your content. Sure, you can throw some words together in a blog but if it isn’t addressing the reader’s needs – or worse, the reader can’t find it where they’re looking – then it’s not doing anyone any good.

By being strategic about your content marketing, you are able to get the biggest bang for your buck.

• Think about how you can develop content one time and repurpose it for different formats or channels. After you publish a killer blog post that shows off your thought leadership, post it in an industry-specific forum to drive traffic to your website.
• Consider how you can produce quality content that helps to generate business leads and grow your revenue, such as hosting a travel and tourism podcast and emailing it to your subscribers every week.

Here are some tips on developing a strategic content marketing plan.

1. Identify your organization’s overall message and goals

What is the message that you want these pieces to convey? What is the end goal? Ultimately, what do you want the reader to do with the information? These are things that should be in the back of your mind as you start planning your content strategy and brainstorming your content pieces.

2. Take inventory of  your content and your channels

First, do a content audit to see what you already have in your arsenal. (Let’s not reinvent the wheel here.) Ask yourself if you can reformat any of it for a different channel. A great example would be pulling a chart from a white paper and sharing it on social media.

Then, think about the channels you run – such as your website or social media sites, or have access to, like forums or LinkedIn groups. Consider how content is consumed on these platforms and what forms your content can take shape. Examples include: videos, e-books, white papers, newsletters, infographics, podcasts, listicles, blog posts, photo galleries, webinars – the list goes on and on!

3. Develop content ideas.

Take some time and brainstorm ideas for new content. Identify the overall themes of each content piece. To keep it timely, consider the different seasons, upcoming holidays, events or conferences that your audience will be attending, even problems or questions your audience will be looking to answer. For example, think about sharing your can’t-miss summer festivals at the end of spring, when visitors are starting to make their summer plans.

Organize your thoughts in a content calendar (also known as editorial calendar). Find a format that works best for you – we like to use a spreadsheet with separate columns for each form of content: press release topics, pitching angles, blog topics, etc. Another way could be making the columns your different platforms – website, Facebook, LinkedIn group – and then filling in the cells with the topic and format of each content piece. Based on how frequently you share content, the rows of your spreadsheet would identify the days, weeks, or months.

Planning out a few months (or even a year) at a time will make the process fluid. You will be able to easily write and publish interesting content, without pausing each week to think, “What should I write about this time?” You’ll also avoid overlapping topics too closely together, and becoming repetitive.

4. Write your content.

Now it’s time to bang out some awesome, informative content! The purpose of the content is to position yourself or your organization as a thought leader (which will attract people to come back frequently) so share your knowledge.

Keep in mind the voice and tone of each piece, as this differs across platforms. For example, blog posts can show off more of the brand’s quirky personality, while white papers are typically more formal- but that doesn’t mean boring! Infographics are usually heavy on stats and brief on copy, but case studies are full of rich details.

Make sure your content is addressing the goals you outlined earlier for the end user. If you want readers to sign up for your newsletter, make sure you’re directing them to your sign-up form.

5. Publish your content.

After all of that planning, it’s now time to share your content. You may want to do it all manually, or use a service to schedule things out. Protip: Just because you’re in the office 9-5, doesn’t mean that’s when users are consuming information. Schedule your content to drop when most people are on the platform.

Most importantly, make sure your content is easily shareable. Add social share buttons so people can quickly send that great post or podcast to their friends and colleagues.

The post Developing a Strategic Content Marketing Plan appeared first on Travel Alliance Partnership.

Tactical marketing is marketing execution. As I mentioned before, it’s posting on social media, sending out newsletters and communicating with your consumers. Strategic marketing is marketing with a plan, tying it to business goals and executing the tactics in a way that aligns with the plan. You can have tactical marketing without strategy (although I don’t recommend it!) but you can’t have strategic marketing without tactics.

So how does one go about adding strategy to existing tactical marketing?

Since you’re already marketing on your social media and other owned channels (website, newsletter, etc.), keep going! We’re going to add strategy to the mix, which may change what you’re posting and how you’re saying it. There’s no harm in maintaining your current tactics while you develop a strategy.

Define Your Objectives

The objective is a business goal you want to reach through marketing. What are your top business goals? How can marketing support them? Maybe you want to drive more traffic to your website, bring more people to your storefront, or sell more packages or products through an online store. These objectives will work toward increasing business in an obtainable way.

Develop Your Strategy

Strategy is how you are going to achieve the objectives. It helps you focus on the big picture before going into the day-to-day tactics. If a goal is to build brand awareness in a community, then a strategy may be to gain coverage with local media. If a goal is to drive more traffic to a website, your strategy may be to promote website content. Strategic marketing also means defining a target audience, positioning and evaluating your resources.

Tactics

Yes, you already have tactics in place. How can you adapt them to your strategy? If we’re looking to increase website traffic, and promote content, tactically you have a lot of options. You can come up with a content marketing plan to create fresh, shareable content. You can also evaluate your current channels. How often do you include links to your own website on social media? Newsletters? Are people clicking when you do?

This is also a good time to evaluate your tactics in relation to your new strategy. Do all of your channels make sense? Should you consider adding a social media channel?

Now that you have a strategy in place, you can continue to build on it. Revisit your strategy at least once a year, or more often depending on what you’re doing. Pull statistics for your tactics and use that to evaluate growth toward your objectives. Add on and adapt your strategy as you grow and as your business goals change.

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