MRV Marketing on a Shoestring

transcript

Tourism Marketing on a Shoestring May 17, 2011

Introduction

Travel Oregon Staff

Regional & Local Organizations

Presentation Team

Workshop Participants

Introduction

Community Tourism Planning Workshop

Nature-based Tourism Development Workshop

Cycling Tourism Development

Cultural Heritage Tourism Development Workshop

Agritourism Development Workshop

Rural Tourism Marketing on a Shoestring

Fundraising for Tourism & Teaming for Success

Introduction

Cooperative Marketing Paths

Local Businesses, Services, Attractions

Local Destination Marketing Organization (DMO)

Regional DMO (Travel Lane County/WVVA)

Travel Oregon

IntroductionOverview of Today’s Topics

What is marketing?Starting your marketing planWhat is the experience you are selling?Cooperative marketing opportunities – Travel Oregon/RDMOProduct positioning and brandingUnderstanding your potential marketsMarketing communications strategies and action planningBudgets, timelines, measurementDiscussionEvaluations and wrap-upWorkbook

Introduction

Outcomes

How to communicate in a way that the visitor finds compelling.Familiarity with marketing terminology, strategies, action planning.How to extend and maximize financial resources through partnerships.Tools and resources from which to develop a tourism marketing plan.

Introduction

What are the top three things you are going to do in the next week?

Starting on Your Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan

What do you want to work on?

The local destination marketing organization (DMO)?

Your business

An event

Other?

Marketing Plan

WHAT IS MARKETING?

What do YOU think Marketing is?

Definition of Marketing – The process or technique of promoting, selling and distributing a product or service. To be most effective, marketing requires the efforts of everyone in an organization and can be made more or less effective by the actions of complementary organizations.

Marketing includes everything from the initial awareness of a product, service, or destination to the marketing materials developed to the delivery of the experience.

Marketing Plan

Create your organization or business mission statement

Mission – A broad, general statement about an organization’s business and scope, services or products, markets served and overall philosophy.What is your business?What services or products do you provide?Describe the markets that you serve.What is your overall business philosophy?

Marketing Plan Background & Rationale –

Marketing Plan

What is happening in the world around you?

Economic Conditions?

Current travel trends?

Current social trends?

Marketing Plan Background & Rationale –

What ExperienceAre You Selling?

The Experience

What Are You?The LURE: the experience that motivates the visitor to actually come to your destination.

DIVERSIONS: things visitors can do closer to home but will do in your destination because they are already there.

AMENITIES: Things that make the visit a comfortable one: signs, restrooms, shade trees, parking, seating and gathering areas wifi, etc.

AMBIENCE: historic buildings, public art, street entertainers, etc.

Who is your customer?

Lead with the benefit to your customer.

Name the company second.

Are you part of a larger niche or destination brand?

When selling: (Page 9)

The Experience

Positioning& Branding

Positioning & Branding

A Brand

is a promise of the experience you are going to deliver.

Positioning

is how you describe what you are selling. (marketing)

(A good reference book is “Destination Branding for Small Cities”

by Bill Baker.)

What branding IS NOT:

A logo

A slogan

A marketing campaign

Geography

History

Tie in with a destination brand when possible

Become known for something special

If the product is not unique, make the service special

Even if you do nothing, you still have a brand. It just may not be the one you want.

Because consumers decide what your brand is, your product, service or destination has a brand.

Do you really know what your brand is?

Are you managing your brand?

Do you have a brand?

If so what is it?

How are you managing your brand?

Travel Oregon Programs

Understanding Your Markets

Understanding Your Market

Geographic marketsLocal

Instate

Region of the U.S.

Entire U.S.

International – specific countries

Demographic, Psychographic ResearchDemographics (age and income, education)

Psychographics (lifestyles, behaviors, interests)

Overnight Travel Study

Where visitors come from and how many

What visitors look like –

age, sex, party size, education, employed, income, etc.

How they plan their trips to Oregon –

timing, info sources, web use, etc.

What they do on their trips

How they rate their experiences

Trends over time

Sometimes called the Longwoods Study

A Regional Version of the Oregon Overnight Travel Study is Available

Overnight Visitor Profile Highlights (Willamette Valley)

Origin of Overnight Visitors

Source: 2009 Longwoods Overnight Visitor Study (Willamette Valley)

Other Places Visited

Main Purpose of Marketable Trip

Examples of Other Research

Tourism & Hospitality Indicators

Lodging Tax Survey

Oregon Travel Impacts

Fishing, Hunting, Wildlife Viewing and Shellfishing

Oregon Cyclist Visitor Analysis

Oregon Bounty

Importance of Cultural Tourism

Go to website: www.industry.traveloregon.com

Travel Oregon’s Target Audience

Travel Oregon’s advertising campaigns primarily target’s the following high-yield consumers:

Primary

Adults 25-64

who spend at least $1,000 per year on travel

and live in Oregon, Washington, Northern California, and Idaho

Secondary

Southern California and New York

Who are your target markets? –

Marketing Strategies& Action

Marketing Strategies & Action

Marketing Objective –

A goal that your organization or business attempts to achieve, usually focused on a target market.

Marketing objectives should be:

Results oriented

Target market specific

Quantitative/measurable

Time specific

Examples of Marketing Objectives (Page 11):

For an attraction: “To increase the number of trips sold(result) to RV visitors to the region (target market specific) by 100 (quantified) during the summer season 2011 (time specific).”

For a small lodging establishment: “To increase the number of room nights (result) generated from the bicycle touring market (target market specific) by 100 (quantified) during the spring and summer of 2011 (time specific).

Marketing Strategy -

A course of action selected from the

marketing mix to communicate to various target markets.

Marketing Mix –

Activities to communicate your brand, market

position, product/service features and benefits to the customer. For example:

WebsiteSocial networks

BrochuresPress releases

FAM tripsOther

Example of a marketing strategy and action plan:

Strategy for an attraction or tour: “Use printed brochures (collateral material) to communicate our brand, market position, product/service features, benefits to customer and pricing.”

Action plan for collateral attraction or tour: “Create 4”

X 9”

rack brochures to be distributed to visitor

information centers throughout the county.”

Key Shoestring Strategies•

Interactive

Collateral•

Public Relations•

Advertising

Travel Trade •

International

Special Opportunities

1. Interactive Marketing

Interactive

Travel Oregon’s Interactive Strategy:

Goal: ENGAGE in a conversation with consumers and provide them INSPIRATION, INFORMATION and TOOLS for their OREGON vacation experience.

1.Showcase the Oregon experience

1.Engage at every stage of the trip

1.Improve connectivity & partnerships

Interactive

How do you do create and Interactive Strategy?

Creating a website

Using social media like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.

Developing e-marketing newsletters and e-blasts

Creating a blog, RSS feeds

Developing YouTube, Vimeo videos

Using co-op opportunities with DMO, RDMO, TO

Interactive

Your Website –

8 Rules:•

Hire someone to help build the website structure.

Content is more important than design.

Design for easy navigation, not for art.

Home page is critical –

leads to other pages.

Understand the importance of key words.

Use a title tag on each page that is different. This is what shows up in searches.

Links and images need descriptive tags too!

Make a site map of your website and give it to Google.

Interactive

How Does Your Website Get Noticed?

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Marketing –

Keyword Ads

Banner Ads

Interactive

Search Engine Market Share –

April 2011

Source: comScore

Interactive

Key word ads >>SEM

<< SEO listings

SEM Key Word Ads

SEO << Listings

Interactive

Advertising on Google, Yahoo, Bing

Banner ads and SEM keyword ads.

Budgets are flexible by day.

Experiment with key words.

Pay only for visits to your site.

Try different ad copy.

Ask how visitors found you.

Use ANALYTICS.

Interactive

Social Media –

Where Do I Start???

Interactive

First of all –

Because marketing has changed from a one-way message to a two-way conversation.

• And there is no going back!!

Interactive

You need to think about a full social media strategy. Start Here:

1. Observe how it works

2. Look at competition

3. Become active

Interactive

Most Important:

1. Tell your story.

1. Focus on relevant social networks.

Interactive

= 500 million users and counting

= timely information; conversation

= listing and reviews

= reviews

= telling your story

Interactive

http://business.twitter.com

Interactive

A word about BLOGGING:

Opportunity to TELL YOUR STORY

Readers can comment, creates conversation

Builds additional web traffic

Can be time-consuming (but it’s free!)

Interactive

Content

Creative

Usability(navigation, search visibility,

accessibility etc.)

Sweet Spot

Balanced Communications

Collatera l

Collateral

What is Collateral? –

A collateral marketing strategy involves the use of various printed and online materials that communicate your brand, market position, product/service features, benefits to the customer and pricing if you are a business.

Collateral marketing strategies can include the following activities:

Creating attractive brochures and rack cards

Creating posters, bookmarks and other printed materials

Utilizing cooperative opportunities –

local DMOs, RDMO, and Travel Oregon

Collateral

Key Tips:

• Lead with the best, leave the rest

• Tell the story, don’t just provide lists

• Give the details

• Photos should be large and compelling, not amateur hour

• Always have people in the photos, your target audience

• State the benefit to the visitor –

it is not about you.

• Use good maps and detailed instructions on how to find you.

Collateral

Collateral Usability

• Collateral –

make it easy to carry

• Fit into brochure racks.

• Use quality paper especially if you use a lot of photos

Collateral

Ways to Distribute Collateral

• Visitor information centers

• Kiosks

• Online

• Direct mailing

• Trade shows

• Fulfillment of requests from interactive, PR, advertising

• Other

Public Relations

Public Relations –

Activities designed to generate and maintain awareness of your product, service or destination among your target markets and other organizations through nonpaid communication and information about what you have to offer.

Why Public Relations?

Important because it is “third party”

coverage but more controlled than social media.

More credible than paid advertising.

Public Relations

Public Relations Activities

Develop a website media or press area

Develop a hard copy press kit, press information, photo library

Create and distribute press releases

Provide media assistance for story writers and editors

Utilize cooperative opportunities –

Local DMO, RDMO and Travel Oregon

Advertising

Any paid form of promotion of your

product, service or destination.

Types of Media•

Newspapers

Magazines

Broadcast

Direct mail

Outdoor

Internet

Coop opportunities

Travel Trade

Travel Trade –

Travel agents, tour wholesalers and operators, corporate travel managers, incentive travel planners, and convention/meeting planners.

Travel Trade Marketing Activities:•

Advertising in travel trade publications

Attending travel trade shows•

Providing Familiarization (FAM) trips

Brochure distribution•

Public Relations

Cooperative opportunities

InternationalOpportunities

International

International Opportunities – The key international markets for Oregon:–

Germany, U.K. France, Benelux

Japan, Korea, China–

Canada, Mexico

Scandinavian Countries*–

Australia*

* New markets

International

International Marketing Activities:

Media & Travel Trade Research Trips

Trade Shows

Sales Missions

Partnering With Regions

In-country Marketing Reps

Printed Media

Social Media –

Twitter, Facebook

Marketing Plan Group Work

Budgets & Timelines

Establishing Budgets & Timelines

Budgeting Methods

Historical –

spending is same as previous years.

Percentage of sales –

industry average % of total revenues.

Competitive –

match spending of your competitors.

Task-oriented –

consider each activity and what needs to be spent to meet marketing objectives.

The Reality of Budgeting

Allocate a tentative, overall budget for marketing.

Determine your marketing objectives and strategies.

Tentatively split the budget between strategies.

Then split the budget between actions within the strategies.

Develop and refine the activities.

Reallocate budget to determine final budget allocations.

Establishing Realistic Timelines

Establish a full-year marketing calendar cycle.2.

Understand steps and time involved in producing collateral and advertising material.

Research key deadlines for advertising insertion dates.4.

Work closely with partners and service providers.

Stay connected to your local DMO, RDMO, and Travel Oregon.

Create and overall TO DO list that covers the marketing cycle and includes details of who needs to do what and when.

Measuring Your Success

How to you measure your success?

Establish your measurement criteria.

Establish marketing controls –

monitoring and adjust activities.

Analyze the results of efforts –

both at the activity level and the overall objective level.

Overall Evaluation

Ask visitors how they heard about you.

Total number of room nights for the year/season

Total income for the year/season

Total visitors and/or visitors by target market

Examples of Specific Measures•

Website

unique visitors, page views, origin of traffic, time spent on site, engagement

Collateral

number of brochures distributed, bookings generated from brochures

Public relations –

number of stories generated through press releases, FAM trips

Advertising

number of impressions, responses, bookings from specific ads or ad campaigns

Travel trade and International –

number of leads/bookings generated though various activities

Special promotions –

number of inquiries/bookings generated

Sharing

Evaluation & Wrap-up

Thank you !from the teams at

MRV Marketing on a Shoestring

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