Ideas & knowhow
Marketing
Using twitter to get free media coverage
I love twitter for the variety of topics on there and the many useful links I often find, but I rarely suggest businesses use it to promote their businesses. Whenever I look at Google Analytics for tourism business websites, twitter seems to refer very little business.
Twitter is brilliant for one thing though: generating free media coverage.
Journalists love twitter. They use it to gather stories, spot trends, find new contacts and – most importantly and useful for you – to ask for informati…
10 Social media ideas to build followers and your business
Do you sometimes struggle to think of good things to post on social media? It can be hard to try to find different ways of saying "Look at my business, come and visit!" without boring people or feeling like you're being too pushy (you're not!).
Here are some different types of social media posts you can use to promote your business, engage visitors and make your feed more interesting. Using a combination of these will help build engagement and followers. But don't forget to do numbers 6 and 10 …
Psychology of Colour
l’m a fan of small, almost effortless, low cost marketing tweaks that can make a difference very quickly.
Some may sound odd or flippant but those who try them, often email me to tell me they worked. Today’s suggestion is no exception.
Are you feeling blue, in a black mood? Seeing red or green with envy? Is life a little grey, or maybe it’s not that black and white?
Yes, you’ve guessed, I want to talk about colour.
You may think this is something you’re more likely to hear you…
Create cosy Autumn and Winter images that sell
Why you're not being 'salesy' enough
I had a conversation yesterday with someone who felt that they weren't earning as much from their business as they'd like because people don't know about them and what they do. They get decent traffic to their website and social media but somehow it doesn't result in bookings or extra visitors. I had a quick look: they were posting on social media but not 'selling', with very few posts about their business and what they actually do. Lovely Autumn photos, motivational quotes, a cake recipe - …
Make your customers cry
Actually I’m not exactly suggesting that you should make your customers cry but the fact you’re reading this demonstrates the power of emotions.
Many believe that marketing is expensive or difficult. It really isn’t.
Avoid being bland.
Make an impact by being memorable.
Develop a strong emotional appeal.
Make people feel something.
That’s all you need to do.
There are many ways to do this, no matter what it is that you need to ‘sell’.
Telling a story or giving a little information that c…
Surprise and delight to get more word of mouth publicity
Ask any tourism business what's their most effective, lowest cost marketing method and they'll almost certainly answer 'word of mouth'. It's easy, it's free - and it 'just happens'. Or does it?
Most businesses just hope for word of mouth publicity and recommendations from satisfied customers. They do a good job, and hope word of mouth referrals will follow. Now we have 'word of mouth on steroids', in the form of social media so it's become even more important to impress.
Surprisingly few peopl…
One easy thing you might have forgotten to do
One easy thing you might have forgotten to do…
I get a LOT of emails from tourism businesses. Many small businesses use gmail, hotmail and other email addresses instead of using their domain name (e.g. susan@tourismnetwork.co.uk).
While there’s nothing wrong with doing this, it could be having a small impact on your business. It’s not always obvious which business you’re writing from because the email address doesn’t mention the business name. Quite a lot of non-domain name email addresses get…
What's your niche?
If you wanted to kill ants*, would you buy 'Ant Killer' or 'Insect Spray'?
If you wanted to enjoy paddle boarding, would you get lessons from 'Peter the Paddle Boarding Expert' or the 'Outdoor Centre'?
If you wanted to stay somewhere cosy in Masham with an open fire would you google 'cottage in Masham with an open fire' or 'places to stay in Yorkshire'?
If you're a normal human being, your answer to each of those questions will have been the first, the most specific description.
Years ago ev…
Simple web check and update
If you only have a few seconds to convince someone to stay on your website and decide to visit you, what do you need to do to get results?
1. Build confidence
Consistency is key. You need your potential customers to trust you. Simple things help.
Keep the same fonts, photo style and colours through-out your website.
Now might be a good time to click through all the pages of your website to check there’s nothing on there that’s out of place? Maybe you had to add some Covid-info in a hurry and…