Marketing

Confession time!

What's the one thing you're putting off doing?

The one thing you've either decided you can't do, or a thing that gets in the way of more business success or ease? 

We all have something. Usually our main excuses for not doing something connected to our business are 'no time' or 'no money'. But really they're just the lazy excuses. Most marketing activities don't cost a great deal and we manage to make time for the things we prioritise. 

There's normally something else that w…

There's one thing that makes every marketing activity stronger and more effective.

No, not money. Not even a lot more time. 

Consistency.

Taking one small action every day or week can be as effective as spending ages and pots of money on bigger activities. 

Consistency builds momentum.

It builds trust. It builds awareness. It builds experience.

It builds business and profitability.

What sort of marketing activity am I talking about?

I mean any action you might do regularly (and I do mean…

Where are you spending your time on social media? 

I don't mean where you're scrolling: rather where are you posting and most active in order to attract visitors?

I think many of us have got distracted trying different channels, enjoying the ease of just sticking a photo on Insta, taking a sneaky peak at stupid videos on TikTok. 

We've moaned about the changes to Twitter (X), thought that facebook was 'past it'. If you're anything like me, you've probably also felt a bit tired of social media…

I’ve been going on about this for a while. If you've been listening, you may be feeling a little smug as you'll have seen rsome good results already...

If not, its worth psying attention to this trend as its noty going away!

One of the biggest post-pandemic trends in tourism is an increased desire among visitors to gain insights into places that give them an ‘insider’s view’.

I’ve noticed it in two different generations:

• younger people who don’t want to follow the crowd, are independently-…

Sometimes it’s important to keep up with competitors, to use the latest social media or do something so you’re not seen as ‘old-fashioned’.

But sometimes it pays to deliberately be different.

Millionaire entrepreneur James Caan says he made his money by 'zigging' when everyone else was 'zagging'.

I was reminded of this recently when the family-owned Booths supermarket chain (the North’s answer to Waitrose) announced that they are removing almost all their self-service checkouts. This was in s…

Every business has one. 

A question they're asked, again and again. 

'Are you suitable for children?' 'Do you accept dogs?', 'Where are you?'... or something equally simple. 

Or there's something that visitors get wrong, again and again. It could be something like not realising you're close to/or a long way from a place, or not realising how much there is to do. Or maybe your visitors often regret not booking in advance for a great local attraction or restaurant? 

Whatever it is, it can be f…

Can you quickly answer these questions?

I’ll explain why in a moment.

What can you smell right now?

If you tasted the most local (to your business) food you could find what would it be? 

Is there anything you can see close to your business that many visitors don’t have near where they live. Or is there a small detail that visitors often overlook? 

What sounds of nature can you hear? Perhaps they change through out the year? 

If you were to walk blind-folded in the area close to your busi…

When you first start a business it’s relatively easy to promote it and attract attention: you’re offering some fresh and people are curious.

After a little while though things get a bit ‘samey’ and marketing is harder. Visitors get used to what you offer. There’s even a chance of becoming invisible or not keeping up with visitor trends.

There’s a solution. A solution that can generate interest and additional revenue.

Yet very few business owners do this.

Visitors are constantly looking for s…

Earlier this year I helped to judge the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence accommodation categories. Going through the entries is always interesting. It’s a good way to see the latest trends.

This year two web pages were seen as particularly important.

Some businesses performed well, with excellent entries, but if they lacked these two pages we scored them much lower.

Why? Because the world has changed and we all need to keep up with customer expectations.

You’ll be asking which pages

Sust…

Does all your marketing work perfectly? 

Do you feel all your investment of time, energy and money is worthwhile? 

If you sometimes puzzle over why not all your marketing works, or just feel over-whelmed about how much there is to do, there could be a simple reason. 

It's not your fault

We're all constantly bombarded with information about different marketing tools - such as all the social media tools, mailing, advertising, PR... There are so many different ways to reach your potential visit…