VISITOR BUSINESS MARKETING GUIDE
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
VISITOR
BUSINESS
MARKETING
GUIDE//
Whether you are just starting on your tourism marketing journey
or are a seasoned pro looking for some quick tips, this guide is
jam-packed full of industry specific marketing information to help
you stand out from the crowd.
Your checklist for best 2. Improve your digital marketing
knowledge
practice marketing Digital marketing is now more important than ever. Put your
best foot forward in the online space by upskilling yourself
on your website, social media presence, and the advertising
1. Have a Marketing Plan options available.
Having a marketing plan is important for any size business.
Upskill with Digital Boost
To create a marketing plan, you will need to: Developed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (MBIE), Digital Boost offers more than 100 training
Identify your unique selling point (USP) videos in all areas of digital business practice. It’s free to join and
through the registration process Digital Boost is able to tailor a
Build an understanding of your target market programme to suit your individual needs. Once registered you
have access to a large suite of resources.
Research your competition, in region and nationally
Digital Boost covers topics such as Google My Business,
Set some clear targets on what you want to achieve with
Websites, Social Media, Digital Tools, Digital Marketing,
your marketing
Accounting, Business Insights, Future technologies, the list goes
Outline how much budget you have available on. Register here to discover this amazing resource.
Choose your marketing channels Learn through the Marketing Academy
From copywriting to video optimisation, best practices and
Outline an achievable action plan everything in-between, there are articles, videos and more
designed to help businesses like yours improve the effectiveness
Put in place simple reporting metrics to measure success,
of your digital marketing efforts.
always measure your return on investment ROI)
Use this code for free access until Dec 2022: CEDA2021
CEDAs team of Business Growth Advisors may be able to
Click here to get started
connect and support you in developing a marketing plan.
To find out if you qualify, contact business.enquiry@ceda.nz
01 Visitor Business Marketing Guide
3. Tourism New Zealand and 5. Social Media
manawatunz.co.nz FREE listing Through social networking sites, you can keep in touch
Create a FREE listing on Tourism New Zealand’s website, with your individual followers and build brand trust in your
putting your business in front of over 41 million potential business. Some of the different social media platforms
visitors each year. Your listing on newzealand.com will then include: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
be replicated on our regional website manawatunz.co.nz, Look into which platforms best suits your company – it is best
creating an operator page for your business. to pick one or two and do them well rather than be on all
platforms and not keeping them updated. Look at what your
For instructions on how to create your listing, visit competitors are doing, or businesses similar to yours in other
register.newzealand.com. regions to get an idea of what works for your market.
For useful tools and tips, visit tia.org.nz/resources-and-tools/
social-media-tips.
4. TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor has over 375 million visits each year and is FREE
to create a listing for accommodation, a restaurant/café or an
attraction. Listing on tripadvisor.co.nz allows you to actively
6. Website
respond to reviews and update your details. Your business Your website is your digital storefront and is vital to the
may already be on TripAdvisor without you knowing, due promotion of your business. A website allows people to find
to people reviewing it, so it’s best to create your own listing you online, educates people on who you are and what you
or claim your listing so you can actively control content and offer, showcases your products and services and provides
respond proactively to reviews. an easy way for people to get in touch with you. Keep your
website relevant and engaging with good imagery, up to
Top Tip: Always respond to feedback, whether positive or date business information and any news and offers. Don’t
negative, as this demonstrates attentive customer service skills. forget that Google measures your websites quality by mobile
usability only (no longer desktop), so ensure you check your
An example response to a positive review: website experience on your phone as much as possible and
“Thanks for leaving a review, and mentioning our barista. You’re after any changes you make.
right, she is always smiling! Next time you’re here, you should
try the [insert product here]! We hope to see you again soon.” A great place to see how your website stacks up is with
Google Page Speed Insights. This FREE tool will give your
An example response to a negative review:
website a ranking out of 100, will tell you how fast your
“I’m sorry to hear you didn’t have a great experience. We are
website loads (First Contentful Paint needs to be 1.5 seconds
normally known for our high standards and we regret that we
or less), and will highlight any issues that you may want to
missed the mark. My name is [first name] and I am the [Owner
discuss further with your website developer.
/ Manager]. If you’d like to discuss this further, please contact
me at [phone number / email].”
02 Visitor Business Marketing Guide
7. Google My Business 8. Email Marketing
Attract new customers with a free Google My Business listing. Reach your customers cost effectively through an email
This is a really important, and FREE tool for your business, and newsletter. Email marketing platforms, such as MailChimp,
will ensure your business will appear easily when people are help you create and manage customised email campaigns,
searching for your business or businesses like yours on offering newsletter templates to get you started with a FREE
Google Search or Google Maps. 90% of people use Google plan available. Keep customers informed of your business
daily as a search tool to find local businesses making this a key updates, promotions, events and new product offerings
marketing tool. which can be easily shared with their connections.
Creating or updating your Google listing is easy and can be Measure engagement through tracking open rates, click-
done by heading to google.co.nz/intl/en/business and through and conversions. By building a database, you can
following six easy steps. This is also the most important place survey your customers to seek feedback on their experience
for Google Reviews – a much used tool of visitors. Keep an at your business. This will give you important insights for
eye on your reviews and take the time to respond where assessing, developing and improving your ways of working.
needed.
Need a Google My Business Checkup?
Connect your account to this Google My Business tool
and get a personal dashboard that includes best practices
recommendations, conversion performance numbers,
sentiment analysis and more! The tool is FREE for you to use,
a service provided to local businesses by CEDA.
Click here to get started.
9. i-SITE and Information Centres
For a few extra tips on Google My Business check out: Be sure to let the Palmerston North City i-SITE and Feilding
& District Information Centre know about your business.
CEDA 60 Seconds Discuss how you can best work with the info centre teams
to get the word out to their customers and neighbouring
The GMB resources uncover the secrets of the most
i-SITE’s and information centres, and how their Visitor
successful businesses online. Get free access to the Google
Consultants manage accommodation and activity bookings.
My Business Workshop webinar, the Marketing Academy and
the Google My Business Checkup. There are also a host of
Get in touch on isite@pncc.govt.nz and
other free resources to help make the best of your Google
info@feildingpromotion.co.nz or pop in to see them.
Business Listing. If you need help verifying your business on
Google Maps or Google My Business please get in touch with
the CEDA team.
03 Visitor Business Marketing Guide
Other Ideas To Consider
Brochures Trade and Booking Agents
Brochures can be a costly and immeasurable promotional Promote your business through online travel agents (OTA)
tool. Make sure to establish if a brochure is relevant for your and gain access to a large pool of potential new customers
audience, by thinking about how your potential customers and increase visibility for your business in new markets. Do
find their information. Then consider how you’ll distribute your research to understand the most popular and suitable
a brochure – weighing up additional display and sending OTA websites to list your products on in overseas markets,
costs - before committing to printed brochures. e.g. Expedia (US), Booking.com (Europe), CTrip (China) and
make sure to be mindful of their commission structure before
If you decide a brochure is right for your business, then make signing up.
sure you factor in the brochure design – especially when
considering how your brochure is going to look in a brochure
Qualmark
display. As the top third of the brochure is most visible, this
Qualmark provides evidence that your business has been
needs to capture the attention of your potential customers
independently validated as a quality tourism business. It
and have clear, obvious messaging about what you are
provides instant recognition for customers that your business
about and offer. To avoid your brochures having incorrect
will deliver a quality experience. Qualmark accreditation
information and becoming out of date, it is best to not include
gives you the opportunity to leverage off the work Tourism
prices, dates and times.
New Zealand carries out offshore, and ensures your business
remains competitive and current. Get more info here.
Eventfinda
Hosting an event? Eventfinda is a FREE national events
CEDA Business Support
database. Any event listing you make on eventfinda.co.nz will
CEDA’s Business Support includes a team of Business Growth
be distributed out to multiple websites including our regional
Advisors who work with businesses of all sizes across the
website manawatunz.co.nz as well as digital, print and radio
Manawatū-Whanganui region from starting and growing a
publications both locally and nationally. Eventfinda is a great
business through to innovation. It also provides online advice
measurable marketing tool as you can see where your listing
and support in all elements of business. On top of this, the
has been distributed, how many times it has been viewed and
CEDA Toolkit has a wealth of information and resources
any comments posted.
available to support your business. For more support, you can
check out our series of business webinars here.
Connect with Other Operators
Building a good relationship with other local tourism operators
Domestic Market Insights
is an excellent method to attract more visitors to your
DGiT identifies which Kiwi leisure travellers you should target,
business. Consider who your target audience is and where
when they want to visit, their motivation for travel, what else
else they may visit while in the area. These are the companies
they want to do and their preferred type of accommodation.
you should be partnering with. Reach out to local hospitality,
This FREE online tool can also suggest the best way to market
accommodation, activity and retail providers to see whether
to your target audience.
they would be interested in a reciprocal partnership whereby
you recommend each other to your visitors.
MBIE has also created the Tourism Evidence and Insights
Centre which houses all the insights, data and information
If you’re not sure of who the other tourism operators are in
about tourism in New Zealand. This information is freely
your area, visit manawatunz.co.nz or pop in to the Palmerston
available to anyone who wants to know more about whats
North City i-SITE or your local visitor information centre.
happening in the tourism sector.
04 Visitor Business Marketing Guide
Industry Associations Share With Us
Take advantage of the opportunity to provide content for
Join relevant Industry Associations to keep up to date with the
promotion in CEDA’s quarterly What’s On email newsletter and
latest news and developments and receive support and insights
expose your business to our audience of over 6,920 subscribers.
from industry experts which could benefit your business.
Send content and images to marketing@ceda.nz
Here are some key industry associations that may be Follow us on Facebook and share our content
relevant: facebook.com/ManawatuNZ
• Tourism Industry Aotearoa – tia.org.nz
Use #ThisIsManawatu on your posts or tag
• Tourism Export Council – tourismexportcouncil.org.nz
@Manawatu_NZ to allow us to share.
• NZ Backpacker Youth and Tourism Association – byata.org.nz
• NZ Maori Tourism – maoritourism.co.nz
Keep in touch, send your newsletters, product updates or
• Bed and Breakfast Association NZ – bandbassociation.co.nz
specials to marketing@ceda.nz so we can keep connected
• Lodge Association NZ – lodgesofnz.co.nz
and support your initiatives.
• Holiday Parks Association – holidayparks.co.nz
• Youth Hostel Association – yha.co.nz
• Hospitality NZ – hospitality.org.nz
For further Industry Associations, visit traveltrade.newzealand.
com/en/sales-tools/industry-contacts/industry-associates.
Make sure to check out membership costs before signing up
and get in touch with our team if you have any questions.
Brought to you by
05 Visitor Business Marketing Guide
You can also read
