Ah, destination marketing--the art and science of 
promoting cities, states and even regions as great places to live, work and play. It's the reason Colorado's tourism agency puts up billboards in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin every summer. It's probably at least partially responsible for a lot of long car rides across the country, as families road trip their way to popular tourist destinations like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Disney World.
But you don't necessarily have to have mouse ears or one of the largest canyons in the world in order to make the most of destination marketing.
All you have to do is have a destination marketing strategy that clearly communicates your brand, value proposition and attractions. Then you have to move the masses (figuratively and literally). Here's how:
1. Know where you are. No, not geographically. You need to know your position within the marketplace. Are you family friendly, focused on frivolous fun or somewhere in between? Once you know where you are in the market, you can promote your unique qualities.
2. Build your brand. Now that you know where you are in the marketplace, it's time to start shaping your brand. Develop compelling messages about your destination and support those messages with images, videos and other forms of media.
3. Start driving traffic. Naturally, you're going to need a state-of-the-art website that conveys your brand and values. You'll also need an inbound marketing strategy to start driving people to your website. It needs to be aggressive, formalized, and it needs to include high-quality content (blogs, landing pages, etc.), search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising, social media messaging and email campaigns.
4. Develop a database. Getting your message out to the masses is going to take a lot more than an inbound marketing strategy. It's going to take database development. After all, you are going to need to know who might be interested in making a trip your way, how to reach them and what they want to know. In other words, you're going to have to start developing a database.
5. Track, assess and adjust. Things move quickly in the destination marketing business. That's why it's incredibly important for you to always be tracking your efforts, measuring their effectiveness and adjusting them to maximize their potential.
Ready to get going?
If you are ready to get going and inspire others to get going in your direction--connect with the travel destination experts at ADTACK today. They'll use inbound marketing to help move people your way. Request a free consultation or call 702-270-8772.
