When members of the tourism industry are asked what are the challenges are in relation to digital marketing, the response is often, “I don’t have time” or “I don’t know where to start”. In this post we’ll give you a few tips to help you get motivated and make the best of your limited time.
In our opinion, there are several factors that come into play, when it comes into online success, they inhibit businesses from growth and are a source of frustration.
They are;
- Lack of time
- Lack of accountability
- Inability to prioritise (lack of focus)
- Lack of confidence and skills
- Failing to keep pace with change
- Not having a plan or roadmap
- Not measuring the effectiveness of a plan
- Not reviewing the plan
Below we’ll identify the issues and some suggested strategies to help you improve.
Lack of time
Did you know there are 168 hours in a week? We recommend you allocate a minimum of 2 hours per week, now that’s not hard is it? Make it a habit by adding those hours to your calendar and treating them as a “meeting”. Set the meeting at a a time of the day when you think disruptions will be less likely. If you can remove yourself physically from the business, do that. Go to the local coffee shop to brainstorm and reward yourself when you “find the time”. It really isn’t a “lack of time” it’s actually a “lack of priority” that is the issue.
Lack of accountability
When you work in or own a small business it’s easier to have a “lack of accountability” especially if you can’t see an immediate return for all your hard work. Our second tip is to make yourself accountable, the online world is where your customers are, it’s where they source information, make decisions and ultimately spend their money. If you want to be found you need to be active.
Inability to priortise (lack of focus)
Tip – Don’t try and do everything at once!
Get the basics right, identify 2 channels, we think you should prioritise your website and get your SEO right to ensure that you get found for those all important local key searches. Then when that is done put a plan in place to write a minimum of two blog posts per month.
Next, select your primary social media channel, in order to ascertain what social media channels you should be working in you need to understand who your customer is and where they are sourcing information. If you do not know who they are click here.
These resources will also help you identify the platforms certain demographics use;
Now, you should have identified your website and 1 or 2 social media channels to focus on. Write them down!
Lack of confidence and skills
The only way to overcome this, is to take ownership of it. If you’re a Tourism Tribe member you’ve already taken the first step and recognised you need to up skill. Our advice is to focus your training on the priorities you have identified above. Don’t go reading all about Snapchat if your customers are on Facebook.
Failing to keep pace with change
It will be much easier to keep pace if you’re active on that platform, interested in the developments and how they may impact on your business. We remind you that the online piece of online real estate you own is your website, so please bear that in mind.
Not having a plan or roadmap
If you’ve been paying attention, you can see that we are developing a very basic plan or roadmap. We identified your website as a priority, identified your ideal customer and what social media platforms they are on. You can download a worksheet here. which may help.
The next step would be to educate yourself on those platforms you have identified and develop your implementation plan.
- What to post
- How often to post
- When to post
Tourism Tribe members can find a digital strategy template here
Not measuring the effectiveness of a plan
It’s all well a good to do all of the above but if you don’t measure the effectiveness you will be unable to ascertain whether or not it is working. You’ll get disillusioned and eventually give up. Identify what posts worked, why they worked, did the create awareness, eventually lead to a booking? You’ll find a great article here
Not reviewing the plan
Set yourself a review date and take a objective view, don’t be afraid to adjust or even change your plan, but make an informed decision, look at your analytics, identify areas for improvement and if you need help, ask!
Final take outs
So, take digital marketing seriously, try not to feel overwhelmed, set yourself a budget, make a plan, implement it and then measure the return. Repeat what works and stop what doesn’t.
