Low-cost marketing - Top 10 tips

Adapted from Top 10 Marketing Tips for the ‘credit crunch’ by Laurence Bresh, July 2008.

1. Public Relations
2. Decide on your USP
3. The little extras - adding value
4. Make paid advertising work harder
5. Website
6. Google Adwords
7. Events
8. Packaging
9 .Work with your accredited Visitor Information Centre
10. Work with your local and regional tourism organisations, regional campaign committee and Tourism Victoria

After you complete your cash flow budget you’ll know what level of additional business you’ll need to generate to cover your operational costs in a post-emergency period. In developing a new marketing plan, here are some low-cost promotional opportunities to consider.

1. Public Relations

Research suggests that people are much more responsive to impartial editorial than paid advertising. Public relations (PR) opportunities, such as journalist familiarisation programs, will arise through your Tourism Response and Recovery Group,. However, it can also be useful to seek out your own PR coverage.

Approach your local media for exposure within the region if this is a market for you. Remember: you have to have a story that will be of interest to the general public - not a sale offer.

Consider press, radio, TV and online options. Public relations activities are a great marketing tool if your region is experiencing a downturn in visitation from an emergency even though only a small section may have been directly affected.

2. Decide on your USP

In marketing jargon, a USP is your Unique Selling Point. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, make sure you know what your business offers that sets it apart from others.

In a time of increasing individualism, people are more particular than ever about what they want from a tourism experience. This could involve providing special facilities or services for walkers or cyclists, visitors with pets, or families with young children.

3. The little extras - adding value

You know the saying it’s the little things that count. This is never truer than for a tourism business. To encourage positive word-of-mouth promotion (the cheapest and most effective of all) and return visitation, think about the added extras you can put in place in your business that will make people feel happier and more satisfied with their experience.

Research about accommodation businesses tells us that cleanliness is the highest priority for a satisfactory experience. However, consider a few others:

• Welcome drinks, or a basket of local produce
• Discounts on local attractions and services
• A pick-up/drop-off service, and transfers to/from accommodation to a restaurant for dinner
• Games for children in the winery, restaurant or accommodation
• Books and magazines
• Take-home mementos - photos of the tour, a booklet about local natural and cultural sites, quirky fridge magnet

4. Make paid advertising work harder

Be more targeted in your choices of where you advertise. Find out what your customers read (some accommodation operators have been known to search the bin to see what newspapers guests have left there). If you have quite a few visitors from specific parts of Melbourne or regional Victoria, find out what local papers they read. If your customers have specific interests, for example fishing, hiking, cycling, it can be useful to advertise in dedicated magazines or newsletters of relevant interest clubs. If your product appeals to people in a particular life stage, such as a seniors market, consider targeting relevant recreational groups such as Probus clubs, etc.

5. Website

As you’re aware, researching and planning a holiday on the internet is becoming increasingly common. Around 80 per cent of visitors in Australia consult the web to help make their travel plans. It’s an information medium that can’t be underestimated in its value. Make sure your website information (on your own website and other tourism sites where you are listed) is up-to-date and as good as it can be.

• Are your latest offers listed there?
• Do you have any new packages you can promote?
• Should the copy and images be updated?

6. Google Adwords

As Google is undisputedly the market leader in web search engines and you only pay when someone clicks on your paid advertisement, these are considered to be a worthwhile advertising tool. The way they work is that when someone searches the web using their key words of interest, next to the organic unpaid search results is a list of paid search results. The paid-for results are advertisements that come up in response to searches using certain key words that you’ve selected. (Visit adwords.google.com for more information.)

7. Events

Often events can be the trigger to bring people to your business at different times of year. A winery may use a series of music events to bring a new audience to their winery. A town recovering from a bushfire may create an event to celebrate a lifestyle or cultural aspect of the area to give people a reason to visit other than its natural features.

Also, look at opportunities to link your product or service with events being held in the region - can you develop a package, for example, your accommodation plus a ticket to the event, or provide an offer of a tour or tickets to a show to raffle at the event?

8. Packaging

Packaging is the grouping of products and experiences together to sell them to customers as a single purchase item. You can package within your business, or link your product with other experiences in your area or region. The package must provide one or more advantages to the customer, e.g. convenience, greater value, cater to special interests.

Packaging has the potential to make your product more appealing or exciting by linking it with other products/services that would be of interest to the visitor.

When marketing dollars are especially limited after an emergency, packaging also allows you to share promotional costs with other businesses.

Look around you to see who you can package with.

Ask yourself…

• What would interest your customers as a package?
• How would the package be booked?
• How would it be promoted?
• How long would it be available for?

9 .Work with your accredited Visitor Information Centre

Are you taking full advantage of the promotional opportunities available through the extensive network of accredited, professional visitor information centres in Victoria? Your local visitor information centre should be your first focal point.

Ask yourself…

• Do they always have adequate stocks of your brochure?
• Have the information centre staff and volunteers visited your business on a familiarisation tour?
• Have you offered a discount to the staff and volunteers to encourage them to visit your business for the full experience?
• Have you investigated opportunities to receive additional profile in the information centres, such as a window promotion or special offer/competition made available through the centre?

10. Work with your local and regional tourism organisations, regional campaign committee and Tourism Victoria

Cooperative marketing involves pooling your marketing dollars with other businesses and local, regional or state tourism organisations to create a bigger promotional impact when marketing the destination and its businesses.

As part of the recovery process for a regional emergency, Tourism Victoria and your regional campaign committee will establish a marketing program that is designed to bring people back to the region. This may include subsidised promotional opportunities to participate in press, radio and email promotions, or other initiatives. Spending your money on cooperative activities rather than going it alone can provide greater returns on your marketing spend.

“When a major event like a bushfire comes through and threatens all our livelihoods, we’ve got to work together as a team. To encourage people to return, we need to market the town as a group of businesses, it’s too hard to do it on your own. Do what you can to support each other - it also helps to keep your sanity!”
John Petty, Kookaburra Motor Lodge, Halls Gap

Useful questions to ask before you get involved:

• How much will it cost?
• What specific markets is the promotion targeting?
• How much exposure will your business get?
• How much business will the promotion need to generate to cover your participation costs?
• How will you track whether it generates bookings/sales?

To do
Whatever promotional activities you think would work best to attract your revised target markets, list these in your marketing action plan. Find a marketing action plan template in Resources section. Identify who will do what in your business to make the plan happen and use it as a tool to brief them.