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I’m sure I’m not the only one who has found challenges with this shelter in place (SiP) order and seem to be more easily distracted when the deadlines are fewer and far between. In fact a lot of people are just furloughed altogether so what do you do in these unprecedented times?
Perhaps now is the time to look at ways to sharpen the tools you have. There is an ancient saying that sounds like a blessing but is really a curse that reads, “May you live in interesting times.” While that sounds good, who wants to be bored, it’s really meant more of a curse. And if there were ever a time of being cursed, now might just be it.
This blog is typically about marketing and making the most of your tourism and travel business and that’s the case here, too. However the tourism and travel and special events world have been absolutely turned on their heads with some lodging properties reporting single digit occupancy rates and others just shuttering their operations altogether. I love to travel and my wife and I do quite a bit in our travel trailer as we write the StressLess Camping RV Blog and record the StressLess Camping RV podcast. But there’s nothing more frustrating than asking someone a question about the area and you can tell they have absolutely no idea what the answer is.
They haven’t been a tourist in their own neighborhood.  Facebook advertising doesn’t work. At least that was the claim from someone I was talking to who had spent $12,000 and gotten almost no results. Wow. No wonder they felt that way! But I asked them to see what they had done and I’m not surprised that they didn’t get the results they were hoping for.
While advertising with the social media giant may not work for everybody or even be a good idea for all businesses, there are many industries or destinations for whom Facebook might be the best deal out there. Done correctly, Facebook ads can be quite a bargain and highly effective. Where’s the best ice cream in your town? Where is the most outstanding breakfast place? What would be a hidden gem that you would want someone visiting your area not to miss? Isn’t it fun to help people with these “insider secrets?”
Of course it is. You just earned your master’s degree in networking at a business mixer. Wait. What? Facebook Groups can be a powerful and free tool that can be part of a great marketing plan. But Groups can also actually help you run your business and more. Facebook has stated that they are assigning less priority to Business Pages from an organic standpoint. The simple reason they’re doing so is that there are so many Business Pages it’s impossible to assign them the priority they used to. Well, and they also want to earn your advertising dollars.   Regional tourism and destination marketing is a really important aspect of the long-term quality of life in a community. While some may disagree, marketing a region is an important component of an area. But it has so much more reach than just having people come and stay in the hotels for a few days.
When a destination effectively markets itself it tells the world about the highlights of the area. Everywhere you go in these United States there are highlights whether that be mountains or lakes or man-made structures. When I lived in LowCal Watts was one of those areas that really suffered from Rodney Dangerfield syndrome, no respect, but people still made the trek to go see the Watts Towers. Every somewhere has some reason to go visit. |
Tony BarthelTony Barthel is passionate about great marketing for small businesses Get Free Weekly Marketing TipsCategories
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