Episode #20: Effective tourism marketing with limited time and resources

Effective tourism marketing with limited time and resouces

In episode #20 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Sean Blocksidge from Margaret River Discover Tours, a niche day tour business operating out of Margaret River in Western Australia. Sean tells the fantastic story of starting the tour business, almost going broke and then the day 'the phone and email went nuts'. He shares marketing tips and insights from his first hand experience. A must listen for all small tourism businesses and operators especially those operating with no or low budget marketing and limited time.

 

Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode

Check out http://www.margaretriverdiscovery.com.au

Coming from a wine and hospitality background Sean Blocksidge saw a opportunity to create a unique wine and nature tourism experience in the Margaret River region of Western Australia. Sean says when he started the business in 2008 he was doing all the 'wrong' forms of sales and marketing techniques and burnt through a lot of money. He realised he needed to pay more attention to online marketing and spent a huge amount of time researching and getting his head around digital including watching what the wine industry was doing with social media (including Wine By Brad).

The day the tour become the number one thing to do in Margaret River everything changed. Listen to Sean tell this story from the 6 minute mark.

Word of mouth is what makes the business successful says Sean and TripAdvisor is like word of mouth on steroids.

One of my favourite points of this interview is discussed at the 9:20 minute mark. "People use four or five different tools to make a booking decision...". It maybe your website, then secondary endorsements e.g. TripAdvisor, then you have other references/personal references and then social media channels come into play.

"I always say I don't think I have ever sold a tour EVER off my Facebook page, but it is an important part of my business because it is a reference tool that people are looking at to say 'yes this guy/tour matches what we are wanting'."

At the 11 minute mark we ask Sean how much time and money he spends on marketing now, listen to his answer.

Sean comments that Instagram is a dramatically growing part of his social media suite.

Listen to Seans view on 'follower numbers', he makes a great point about he is much more interested in a core group of people that might be listening to the message for example one person/follower might be at the front desk at a hotel, or staff member at the visitors centre, those people who are seeing on a daily basis what you are doing, and you are front of mind...are so valuable."

I ask Sean to re-tell a story he had told me a few years ago about Twitter and The New York Times (listen from the 16 minute mark - its a cool story!!).

We chat a little more about TripAdvisor (20 minute mark) - Sean offers some great tips including it is hard not to take feedback personally, it is almost better (especially if it is your own business) to get someone else to write the draft response for you.

I ask the all important question about what is Sean's favourite social media tool (listen at the 22.30 mark for his answer).

Then we wrap up with some tips! I ask Sean for three tips, and his answer is;

1) What's the strategy - have it written down! (and also within the strategy what is the message).

2) Don't get stressed about the numbers - it's a slow build and the core people are where it's at.

3) Think about posting out of hours

4) Don't put up crappy pictures (make sure the horizon is straight, pop the image through a photo app like snapseed to lift the colours)

5) Be consistent in what you do and think professionally - if your social media is hokey people will look towards something else

[Tweet "Be consistent in what you do and think professionally ...

Effective tourism marketing with limited time and resouces

In episode #20 of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast we chat to Sean Blocksidge from Margaret River Discover Tours, a niche day tour business operating out of Margaret River in Western Australia. Sean tells the fantastic story of starting the tour business, almost going broke and then the day ‘the phone and email went nuts’. He shares marketing tips and insights from his first hand experience. A must listen for all small tourism businesses and operators especially those operating with no or low budget marketing and limited time.

 

Highlights, Notes & Links We Mention in this Episode

Check out http://www.margaretriverdiscovery.com.au

Coming from a wine and hospitality background Sean Blocksidge saw a opportunity to create a unique wine and nature tourism experience in the Margaret River region of Western Australia. Sean says when he started the business in 2008 he was doing all the ‘wrong’ forms of sales and marketing techniques and burnt through a lot of money. He realised he needed to pay more attention to online marketing and spent a huge amount of time researching and getting his head around digital including watching what the wine industry was doing with social media (including Wine By Brad).

The day the tour become the number one thing to do in Margaret River everything changed. Listen to Sean tell this story from the 6 minute mark.

Word of mouth is what makes the business successful says Sean and TripAdvisor is like word of mouth on steroids.

One of my favourite points of this interview is discussed at the 9:20 minute mark. “People use four or five different tools to make a booking decision…”. It maybe your website, then secondary endorsements e.g. TripAdvisor, then you have other references/personal references and then social media channels come into play.

“I always say I don’t think I have ever sold a tour EVER off my Facebook page, but it is an important part of my business because it is a reference tool that people are looking at to say ‘yes this guy/tour matches what we are wanting’.”

At the 11 minute mark we ask Sean how much time and money he spends on marketing now, listen to his answer.

Sean comments that Instagram is a dramatically growing part of his social media suite.

Listen to Seans view on ‘follower numbers’, he makes a great point about he is much more interested in a core group of people that might be listening to the message for example one person/follower might be at the front desk at a hotel, or staff member at the visitors centre, those people who are seeing on a daily basis what you are doing, and you are front of mind…are so valuable.”

I ask Sean to re-tell a story he had told me a few years ago about Twitter and The New York Times (listen from the 16 minute mark – its a cool story!!).

We chat a little more about TripAdvisor (20 minute mark) – Sean offers some great tips including it is hard not to take feedback personally, it is almost better (especially if it is your own business) to get someone else to write the draft response for you.

I ask the all important question about what is Sean’s favourite social media tool (listen at the 22.30 mark for his answer).

Then we wrap up with some tips! I ask Sean for three tips, and his answer is;

1) What’s the strategy – have it written down! (and also within the strategy what is the message).

2) Don’t get stressed about the numbers – it’s a slow build and the core people are where it’s at.

3) Think about posting out of hours

4) Don’t put up crappy pictures (make sure the horizon is straight, pop the image through a photo app like snapseed to lift the colours)

5) Be consistent in what you do and think professionally – if your social media is hokey people will look towards something else

Be consistent in what you do and think professionally – if your social media is hokey people will…
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Check out http://www.margaretriverdiscovery.com.au

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