Digital Hot Topics Webinar Series - Exploring New Digital Marketing Trends for Tourism Businesses

hello and welcome everyone I'm Patricia Kingston and I'm the corporate events officer at tourism ni and I'm delighted to welcome you along today for the second of our Ted expert digital Hot Topics webinars um as part of this year's tourism Enterprise development program we're joined once again by Karen Connelly founder of profile tree who has been helping brands with digital needs for over 12 years and specializes in digital transformation developing digital strategies and supporting businesses to introduce Ai and digital tools to streamline and drive business so we're in safe hands today I'm really looking forward to hearing what Karen has in store for us in today's session where we'll be exploring new digital marketing trends for tourism businesses so during this afternoon's presentation Karen is going to be discussing emerging digital marketing channels and Technologies and how to integrate these into your existing marketing strategy uh and Karen will kindly also be staying on at the end to pick up any questions you might have so be sure to pop those into the chat box and your control panel at anytime during the session and I'll be picking up as many of those as possible at the end so uh just without any further Ado it's my pleasure to welcome you this afternoon Karen and I'll hand over to you now excellent thank you for the introduction and yeah let's get let's get started so um welcome everyone and excited to talk about some of the trends we're seeing in digital marketing uh some hopefully some new new ideas and new content that we'll uh share today and I know we get some questions I'm sure but yeah all of these images um that have been created of lcaps are AI generated so we we're having a little bit of fun with that so again back into one of the one of the trends so you can try and identify maybe what the pront was or where the location was and and how it got it wrong uh in in a few of the instances for sure so digital marketing what's happening uh where are we today so definitely without a doubt digital marketing is essential and I think we've found over the last couple of years last year or two that it has become critical for any business four or five years ago I think businesses were able to get away with not really paying close attention and not taking digital marketing serious but today that is not definitely not possible if you want to grow your business and have a sustainable valuable businesses getting bookings all the time then you really need to be taking digital marketing as a ser as possible um because that's where all of the the customers are that's where the transactions are that's where the sales are so it's a it's a really important Channel and you have a really good strategy around that the the customer Journey so again we want to think about how people are um searching online and how they're going to purchase um so again we're we're looking for stat statistics online and we're finding data that people are spending 16 hours 17 hours researching a a holiday before they make that final booking and again that's a lot of time people are are on websites looking at videos looking at content narrowing down their decision to say right okay I'm going to go here and then I'm going to book here H and have you any content at supporting that are you in the inspiration stage or are you or have you been focused really on the booking stage so you're missing that brand building opportunity relationship building that you may have had with the that customer right from the start and maybe an opportunity to influence them where they go and I think that's where some of the big brands have have dominated or benefited in the last couple of years that they're very focused on trying to catch that inspirational stage and then they know that a percentage will continue their journey in book so again we want to look at the customer Journey uh integration what we're doing how we're how how we catching that Inspiration Point and taking out all way through and it's it's so it's inspiration planning the book The booking the looking you know reviews and then um the post as well and what what do we do after that data driven personalization so again if anyone's using Netflix or any of these these platforms Shopify even Amazon we're getting um when we sign in with our you look at the homepage without signing in you're getting a different experience when you sign in so they're using personalization it is common it's everywhere now and we all expect it if we go into any of the big um platforms today we expect personalization so again how can you introduce this it's very easy to do in in businesses that are trying to advance in their digital how can you introduce personalization into what you're doing so again that could be through targeted adverts so you've been really don't do a blanket advert targeting the Republic of Ireland you're doing you're going very nice you're really focused on uh a demographic and an area and you're testing to see how that's performing for you and you're making decisions on that so we can be unbelievably targeted in what we do so back to the personalization tailored content um do we do we have content for certain people certain maybe guests coming to stay in our location we've got a a pack of contents in our website they're signing up to a newsletter and or getting U email sequence and that is targeted to them so for example someone com stay for business is definitely going to be looking for different things in someone Comon to stay for a romantic weekend so getting back to it have we got our our um personalization um plan in and implemented in the business social media influence of course and and content marketing where we be without that but when we think of platforms like um Instagram Tik Tok Facebook how how they influence destination marketing and today again it's just it's un unbelievable how how powerful they are and then the question is how active are you on those platforms how much content are you sharing how many people are you engaging so again back to the point at the start is um you know what level of Engagement are you or investment are you making in digital to grow your business because that's that is where and people are making decisions content marketing so again there's loads of changes in that as well and and these things are changing so so far no no probably new exciting Trends here but or new topics but it's the same content but what we're finding is that especially in in Northern Ireland a lot of businesses aren't exploiting all of these areas yet so if we're we're talking about social media Pinterest Pinterest is the number one platform for tourism and they would if you're talking to Pinterest uh they would tell you it's it's probably homes DIY and travel that you know inspiration and again how many people are active and have an account and sharing content and building out a profile on on Pinterest when that's where people back to the inspiration where people are looking so again these are super powerful platforms that we need to be there and um active and engaging and and trying to attract uh attention and it it it grows our our brand and our presence online and it all filters into um everything we we're doing so they're the you know where we are today so recent shifts again yeah anyone can guess the the the location brilliant let's see so mobile first of course everything is mobile we used to again a year or two ago we're said Mo Google mo mo moveed to looking at how a website performed in Mobile well it's not even a given you know it's just mobile is everything at the moment so you really need to look at your your um your digital experience on mobile are you are you considering uh trends of um how people are using their smartphones or not you know the desktop computers and and laptops are not where people are booking most people are booking their holidays now they're doing it on a phone and what's that experience like on on for for your business on on a mobile device video content it is absolutely dominating again so again a lot of businesses we've been ducking and diving with video content still YouTube's second biggest search engine in the world world and it's maintained that but if you think of any of the the really hot social networks that have popped in the last couple of years we talk about Tik Tok um or any of these their video content even Instagram with this video um video is everything with AI content another Trend we talk about AI content being gener there's a flood of written content coming online people don't have time to read all this content we're relying on our devices we're listening and and um watching videos um again videos um very important especially the short form videos so think of Tik Tok Instagram rails they' have been some areas that have have seen massive growth and that's going to continue we don't see see any change that sustainability again of course we all know sustainability is so hot we see what's happening all around us and our own local environment um but we're going to have a look at some charts in in a few slides actually the the the searches around sustainability and sustainable travel have skyrocketed and so it's grown awareness and again we need to be selling our story how you on digital um have you messages about how eco-friendly your your tourism event or location is um what have you any conservation efforts um are you practicing uh responsible travel or travel and tourism so again most people are doing this but what we we're we're probably missing is the piece the classic piece is is actually putting our website in a in a constructive way maybe in our messaging um again in our premises is it there how we mention it we we have a look at interest than that as well um Ai and chatbots briefly mentioned you can see here so obviously they're changing everything that we do in in digital marketing and that that's going to change we can see Going Back to the Future trends that maybe in six months or nine months there's going to be AI automation tools for social media where we will be able to uh have an AI post on all of our social media take content from a website write incredible posts and share them on social media automatically for us uh we can see that's coming um and that's going to be incredible going back to maybe Pinterest and and posting in our Google business you know again we we hear it a lot digital teams small businesses don't we don't have time to do all this well then there's tools available free or very very small price that can actually help us scale our operation and instead of it just being one of us we can be five and the key is this is that most of the big businesses around the world have been using this technology for the last couple of years because they had the money to invest it but today it it's it's available to us because again it's free or $20 a month so there's no reason why we don't Implement these and consumers are looking for that consumers are looking for that 247 um answer on your on your property when you're sleeping your chatbot needs to be there representing you and answering those questions that people have because people don't have patience if someone they ask two or three properties a question and someone else answers the chances are maybe they might go through and finish their booking uh Journey we we see a lot in ecommer commer cart abandonment is that if you lose someone the chance of you getting them back is so so hard so you really need to do all you can to trying get them through that buyer journey and make that that sale with that SEO of course uh love it and hate it SEO has changed massively this year Google has um the algorithms have really changed um again back on the base of AI content it there's so much content going online at the moment we would have dealt or sites coming in and maybe had 10 or 20 or 30 pages now we're seeing sites of 500,000 pages and I think next year we're going to see sites of 5,000 Pages because again it's so easy to create content at scale and obviously people are flooding the market or uh filling out their website and and the right thing to do and before their competition does so then anyone comes and instead of maybe they asking what they do around this place tonight um you're seeing exent I've got an article on our website that'll give you everything that you need to do and that that that's there you're building that um relationship with them so seo's massively changed big F focus on local um I guess local businesses so again you're using Google Maps are is your business a real business Google is really trying to see because there's so many sites that are been being created at the moment this year particular around you know fake sites AI trying to get get traffic so Google's really trying to identify if your business is a real business so have you got a name and address and a link to your Google Map profile in your website um have you got an Apple Maps uh profile set up can it find you online do you have your social U media accounts set up and claimed are you a little bit active on that have you got a website of a couple of pages about your terms and conditions and privacy all these things that are signals to Google at your real business so you really need to make sure that you've got them appointed and if you don't what will happen if Google thinks that you might not be a real business chances are is going to send you a lot less traffic and we don't want that happening to anyone customer experience analytics so we have so much analytics in our businesses there's so much data from Google analytics to our social media analytics we have this it's incredible the amount of data we have again what we're finding is a lot of people aren't actually looking at it never ever ever um and what we're really trying to drive here push or suggest is that you actually do you take it maybe once a month and you have a look at your analytics again there's AI tools that will help you with this um but even just signing in and see even within the tools themselves they're becoming smarter you're being able to ask questions you're getting better reports when you sign in and this is happening automatically so again do sign in and check but where are your customers coming from what devices are they using what what are the search what's the keyword or phrases they're landing on your website and the same on your mobile so you need to understand this so you can adjust your marketing strategy for the year ahead and you can take full advantage so for example are you getting a lot of people coming through to your website um on the basis of searches around fishing and do you have some content on fishing well then maybe you should double or triple that content and try and dominate that Niche because again if if the the search algorithms have recognized that you're a very good fit for that type of content and that's what you're you're you specialize in then double down and bring in more um traffic and leads that way uh so do look at the look at the analytics for for for Clues and try and identify what's working and maybe you'll spot things that you've tried and aren't working so again maybe you're posting every other day in Facebook and there's no engagement and you're more or less wasting your time well then maybe save that time and and set aside a little bit of a budget maybe for a paid targeted personal ad in that area so again there's loads we can do um around that so we have the data but no one's generally no one use it so that's that's the challenge now so use the data um arvr of course um we're going to see that continue to grow out and roll out normally we when we think that as one of these big fancy expense we're thinking metaverse we hear in the news that um but again if you've used Google Maps recently you'll see that it is rolling out um massive improvements our phones are arvr machines and again we don't use a fraction of them but if you again I'm sure you've seen it in the Google Map app you hold up your phone and it gives you the 3D directions um of where you're going and Swit you can see the arrows in front as you're walking incredible but also what they're doing now is they're taking um they're making 3D models that you can around so again I was looking this want I was looking at the J call and I couldn't see it but um set up yet maybe I was again I was maybe having an off day but if you look at the Eiffel to for example or any of these globally famous um properties you're getting an immersive 3D um top down you can spin around and look at every angle of it that's again they're using their satellites and their technology and their street cars and they're rolling it in and using the technology that's in our phones to introduce us to AR and VR so it's it's happening around us we may not feel it or see it because it's not big and in the news but it's happening all around us in in all of these areas so again very very exciting um and it it opens up a lot of opportunities for us so just again to to jump into the sustainability we we talked about that so um you know again we're all focused on sustainability it's a big it's a big thing for us where we live never mind the business as well but this is a chart and I'd recommend it if you haven't used it recently go to Google Trends it's a an amazing platform again totally free we use it I multiple times a week I would I would be in it um and you can put in anything uh that you want and you can see information um you can go take it down to Five Mile town you can take you know you can really go into find detail and see what people are searching for and get some Trends and history and it's so valuable the data in here back to the analytics that we have with our fingertips that's free and we don't use it but I just put in sustainability to see um what what's happening around the world you can see again if we looked at the chart it's even it goes back longer but you can see there's a there's a steady growth people are really interested and searching for it there's a real focus on it so again how much content have you on are you sharing some messages in your social media um is is there policies on your website um is it is it around your premises and it's what people are searching for again so you can dive into this and have a have a look so really do recommend it and when we're in uh Google Trends of course uh have a look at I was having a look at chatbots and here we see so this isn't not our our customers aren't looking for chatbots this when I was reading this I was seeing this is businesses are competitors um who are looking how do I add a chatbot to my business and you can see again you can see the chart so this this data pool goes back to 2004 again back to the information it's incredible um and you can see that like it just wasn't happening in 2015 and I remember those early chat Bots and the Slowdown websites and was the nightmare um and that doesn't exist today that the technology is so Advanced but also the chat Bots are so Advanced it again it is incredible what can be done 247 you can get responses uh now sometimes I'm disappointed I'm actually end up talking to a person I want to try and get get sorted without even typing and talking to a person so um that that is what's happening um with our customers so again a we set up to to manage that to deal with that to um help and and as I say this is compor intelligence I'm looking at this thinking gosh okay my my um my competitor so many other businesses are looking and and diving into this so uh should I be looking at to so we're talking about opportunities now so where is there opportunities for us to to tweak or change what can we do going forward so again the the voice search was massive it was a Bzz word for a year and it kind of faded down but voice is everywhere it's it's it's it didn't hit the the the the frenzy of say the AI Tools in in 23 but definitely it it is everywhere when we think about the the the smart speakers virtual assistance um so if you're your website isn't optimized for voice search if you're you're not thinking about your business how you integrate it um so and how you do that is having natural content natural language content so you're you know what's the best you're asking questions and answering questions so what's the best thing to do in X and you're having this content on your website chances are then you can be found in Google there's also code you can put on your website to make sure that your your um website is you're actually basically telling the search engine if someone ask this query here is my answer again incredible to use that and that's called schema so that can be added to your website to again make sure you're appearing any and voice search and again you see people now they're not typing they're just talking into their phone and doing the search so and the interesting thing with that is still the day is people are saying um hey Google um uh tell me a restaurant a vegan restaurant on the lban road that's open to 6:00 and serves X so again whereas back uh two or three years ago we've been looking for vegan restaurant Belfast for example today it's like it's a 20w keyword and that's that's changing everything again so are you answering that type of content on your website so content again is key and that isn't going to change it's just we need it we really need to um push with that and move that forward AI artificial intelligence and marketing it's year it has been a crazy last 12 months and it is dominating ever and it's only going to get crazy on the way forward as I say we're so content is written by AI now with with human intervention of course um and go back and watch the the first video of the first session of this and you can get a we glimpse into that um we have we we see it already coming into say video creation so you can upload videos and have them shortened and edited down using AI you're not even editing the videos social media I expect massive changes in that in the next six six nine 12 months again from us I'm thinking as a business owner how powerful that's going to be because we can scale our social media um instead of maybe having to invest so much time and the only challenge with that is that our competitors are going to be doing the exact same so how can we get ahead of them how much time do we have before they start using it do we have six months nine months or a year and if we have that that's brilliant because we can make really good Revenue really good sales with that so yeah super cheap super easy to start introducing AI into our business so it's content creation customer segmentation and even better targeting going back to the ads like we can be so targeted ads now it is incredible um interactive content so for example in LinkedIn polls are incredible we're seeing people interact more with content online H quizzes polls uh anything that can create uh engagement on your website or or social media so is there an opportunity there just the the plant aide influenc influencer uh collabs still love them or hait them they're here to stay and but definitely there's a trend towards more long-term collaborations and with micro influencers so not the big you know the the the big numbers of followers more people are in the niche so again if we're talking about um the the vegan healthy food so someone maybe that has 10,000 followers but they're really active in comment and and maybe you're you're doing a deal with them for six or nine weeks and you're building up a campaign and that's the that's the relationship that's happening as opposed to the one andone hits that we've we've tried or seen in the last couple of years uh social commerce has really really really grown and um it's it's now nearly accepted that it's part of the norm so you know shopping on on social media there's there's opportuni to sell our products and services direct as as you know but is there an opportunity here to avoid the thirdparty platforms that take a commission and focus on these these platforms or gives us more um opport or options as opposed to being tied to one or two key platforms so we want to spread and generate um Revenue again where our customers are um because we know that it's very hard to get people off one platform onto another one so again if someone's shopping on Instagram or Facebook then maybe we we want to be there selling as well and and the last one there is Omni Channel marketing so um again you've probably heard so basically this just means your your marketing is in sync it's you're thinking of it as a one whole Channel as opposed to or I've got Facebook here and my website here so how you how's your emails is it all on brand is it all together is a journey from one to the other so this is really really important more so than ever because again think someone goes from maybe find you on social media they go to your website to sign up for your newslet or purchase something what's the email so how is that experience the whole way through so we really want to get that right and the and the impact on all of these is um we can if we if we get it right using say AI uh content and personalization we can drive better engagement with our customers we can really get more buying for our book and get more sales we can generate new business and retain people again just think of how many customers have you had over the years how many emails have you sent to them with offers so last two or three years how many customers have you served and how many marketing emails have you kept that relationship going have you an opportunity to to sell back to email marketing so you might have had time to do marketing but now with AI you could maybe do that re-engage old customers remind them of the the the time they had with you and and the experience and then hopefully they'll rebook um with the likes of uh voice search and influencer uh collaborations we can reach a much mass you know much bigger audience and uh we can Target new se you can be very na Target segments and you can see that come in again if we're looking for that say the the the vegan blogger we can Target at Nation see the impact that has um and and Hope track it um easier we we we also need to think of user generated content so and the make it builds trust so people like to see what other people are sharing it does build trust and it can lead to sales I was talking to a handy handyman yesterday and he was sh sharing that he was he did um a piece of work in someone's house he got finished early job on person was super happy every worked well and um they shared it on their Instagram and and he was saying he got 40 new followers in the hour and people messaging him and he was he he wasn't a big advocate of social media but again user generated content people trust people and if you can get them to do the marketing and and still still see some places are really really good at that Instagram shot so where where in your property is is the Instagram shot where is that place that you really have set you've staged at people when they come to see it there going right I'm going to take my that's my Instagram photo have you that set up as had an opportunity as well because again you see the people who who've done that the the classic angel wings on the wall or um the crazy furniture or something unique and special that will get people posting content uh online can you drive that because again it's free free to cheap obviously there's investment initially but it's it's incredible marketing that you can't you nearly can't buy well you can't buy if you've got the the budget to do it but obviously if you can get it organically it's a it's a much better way and again we get we get more better insight into our clients and so again yeah when we're we're just jumping through some social media because it's such an important platform so Facebook and we we've touched on AR VR and and what's happening in the metaverse and it it is been built on all the time and we're all expecting to see someday in the future as I say um CH gbt was 2018 uh it launched and it was November 2022 that it um actually found success and again we we these things are being built on all the time and then overnight they just pop and we're all surprised to see them gosh didn't see that coming so again just keep an eye on Facebook and how it's updating its AI algorithms and what it's doing it's really focused on delivering better content to the user and more it's helping us as businesses with better ad targeting and because it wants to really have the experience really good experience on their platform to keep people on it because obviously they they have a real risk of losing people customers to other um platforms so again a really critical uh platform for tourism or hospitality and VR is it it really is that's the one to watch on Facebook we just have to see how we are and it's got massive potential for for tourism marketing um if it does come in but it's not there yet but in the near future Instagram of course again it's so visual the rails of short videos and you you really want to be creating that short form content that's engaging showing the the you know showcasing your destination your experience and what's happening and what people can um experience if they if they visit so again are you doing that and can you do more um I what again back to analytics what are you getting from that what is your return on investment or return on time uh to date I keep an eye on the enhanced shopping features as they keep developing out um because again direct bookings purchasing it's it's going to be a real driver uh we expect for tourism Rel e-commerce so again keep keep an eye on how that develops Tik Tok I don't know everyone's here on Tik Tok or not or some people are um but again they've got incredible location uh based features they um they Geo go forgotten know the I've forgotten that the filters yeah as I said so too uh yeah too excited with what what's happening there but yeah so they've got they've got really good features around location so they're again enhancing that that's their little niche and they're really focused on that so again where you can pin where you've been um but they're rolling out new interactive tools as well so again how can we use uh more Tik Tok in our business are you on it is is there is your demographic on Tik Tok and if they are then you should be really in there mastering those platforms Pinterest as mentioned earlier it's amaz it just it amazes me how few people uh use Pinterest um as a business but you you desperately need an account on there and do fill it and have your your boards and your experiences any AG that you've created in your content you should be sharing it in into Pinterest any video you can be uploading into Pinterest it is an incredible platform and for tourism so if you're not there you that's your job today is to jump into Pinterest and be sure that you're active in there because it is one of the biggest um tourism and platform so you can you can create your boards you can showcase your destination your your travel tips your your content all of that um we work and then they're focused on again they're diving into the AR and uh they're doing try on experien so it's an interesting one to check out H Snapchat we've got more Geo filters on Snapchat again I I I was thinking it's uh Snapchat had been replaced by Tik Tok but again it is incredibly um popular with a younger audience so again back to your demographics if if your customers use uh Snapchat are you there using the snap map and other features for Destination marketing so it's again another destination marketing and Linkedin of course of B2B in case you're um you're you're relying on travel agents and and um more B2B clients LinkedIn is incredible the traffic to LinkedIn with the algorithm the SEO algorithm change this year has tripled so um LinkedIn was getting around 250 million visits a month at the start of this year today it's around 750 million visits a month and we're actually seeing that we can write an article and rank it on page one of Google using LinkedIn a page or post on LinkedIn as OPP post your own website so Google is trusting people real people and platforms that have real people in engagement on them more than our own website so again these platforms we should be on them so if LinkedIn is is related to your business or something that you could or should be doing then and make sure that you've got a u a profile there and you're creating content on it because a post on LinkedIn um or an article on LinkedIn um a Blog will rank um more often than not on page one of Google so um do do check it out so some ideas some new strategies and the AI images continue so again yeah uh if you if you recognize the players or don't recognize the players even worse um so I appreciate maybe not all Ts and business are going to jump in and start creating podcasts and doing audio marketing but podcasts are so important and so popular at the moment they really have again they're they've taken over um so you might not want to set up your own podcast but is there an opportunity to to go on a podcast or is there an opportunity even to create a a short 10 podcast uh episodes audio episodes of things to do in your local area or the history of the place and have them on your website so again you have that audio experience for people that are looking for that um one thing I definitely recommend on on podcast if you do get to that magic number of 10 we're seeing a massive uh benefit online because you you get so much uh so many links from all these other um podcast platforms so it's a really good way to help move your Authority up in in the of Google so podcast it seems to thrust people are talking it's maybe harder this AI content and it seems to have a really positive um impact so again can you be a guest on some uh related podcast or could you do a little audio series um in your in your local area arvr again as you mentioned it's it's it's coming and chugging along underneath and some you see some tours destinations have really embraced AR and VR and and created some incredible experiences with that so that's going to keep growing and we we'll see more of that uh as we go um we've got WhatsApp for business so again we we are seeing a lot of clients want to move into WhatsApp for business and have direct messaging so again if you're looking at new um platforms to communicate with clients maybe maybe consider that as um an option um we've oh yeah voice search and and we've talked about SEO and content you you're you're ninjas in that now of course so we do need to change our strategy what worked in last 12 months won't work in the next 12 months there's no doubt so again um have you how's your local marketing how is your um Maps how's your reviews and your your business information and then are you using these platforms because again businesses that Google wants to see it wants to see that you're using these platforms so we we need to be in there um messenger Bots we talked about as well or AI chat Bots very important you've got platforms like Facebook Messenger that that provide that service and then you've other third party ones that do the same and where you could see some of these um coming in so again you could see for example a hotel using a a messenger bot 24/7 answer FAQs and provide booking assistance and maybe offer local uh travel uh tips or things to do um the with the Geo marketing uh the targeted advertising we've talked that already but you could see a a a destination experience in the seaside Town um running ads and targeting people in a certain R radius with a maybe a last minute booking uh discount for people who are in that area right at this moment or for the next couple of hours so you're you're using these platforms that have the go targeting switched on and you're you're' been very selective with your ad budget so you're really super targeted people in the area and it's come in and get a maybe a special offer discount or um come come and check us out so there's there's again very smart campaigns that we can um operate we get back to we talked about it again the the user generated content um or maybe there's ideas where you can run competitions and get people to share photos and have a hashtag to again to drive that um Mass uh user content online um the short content for social media the videos very very important social Cas stories of maybe travel de or experience or things to do in the local area um what another one is obviously Niche content so again a you is opportunities to nich down in different areas we talked about vegan we talked about sustainability could you build out a little bit of content that area is that related to your business could you Niche into that and make sure that you're found for that because what you'll find is if you look at your analytics in Google it will have built a perception of what your business is and it's probably what people are searching for you and finding you for so if it's the right perception as hope it is then you want to build on that and if it's not then H we maybe need to change that and you can do that by um volume of content um consider loyalty and referral program so again is there and and opportunities for that so can guest get get loyalty bonuses for staying and they can redeem for uh extra um experiences and again we we talked about the you know partnership with the collaboration with the influencers as well so um Lo loads of things that we can do and I appreciate there's lots that we already know about but most people aren't doing them so again a classic AI image and I did want to put this one up because you can see AI isn't perfect it makes loads of mistakes so um and the content the te the text is pretty is pretty bad as well they haven't mastered that yet so um but quite funny to see so yeah AI isn't perfect so it still needs us and that's exactly what we want to see so where do we start today so we suggest you look at your current strategy what are you doing so back to analytics um I would definitely look at your analytics have a look back at what's happening and can we look at Google analytics and look at some Trends is there opportunities maybe look in your local area or what of people in America uh searching for the moment in your Niche when they're looking for and you can get the you can see all this information and again with your own Google analytics you'll see what people are arriving um to your own website with what we what we say is once you've identified maybe a trend or something that's relevant to your industry and it it it feels like it Lin what you want to do you want to set some objectives in and and really like say okay I'm going to do this so back to it if we're going to do a little bit of voice marketing I'm going to record 10 audios and it's going to be about the local area and you're going to encourage people that are coming to stay then to listen to so maybe when they're out and walking maybe a walking tour maybe there's none in your local town or the the local Countryside and and you can record something so when someone's walking up one of the the local paths or the forest they're listen to a little bit of history and find out you know what's what's the background what happened again we're just adding to that um experience you can imagine the the feedback when someone's leaving um if all of this was available uh to them so then we come up with a plan of attack how we're going to do this and you know again we want to think of you know the tools the staff who's going to do it if there's a budget and our time frame we want to test new things and roll it out gently of course and I mentioned their complimentary approach we don't want to we don't want to stop doing what we're doing and run over here and do something brand new and fancy H we need to maintain it and keep them all going in sync and the Beautiful Thing with anything in digital is they all support each other so it's it's when you it's it's a the multiplayer effect it's not one plus one gets you two it's 1 plus one gets you five live because again if you're on let's say you're doing all your social media and all your your platforms and you start doing Pinterest the the multiplier effect kicks in and it's not just one it it it has an incredible impact because it it will influence and benefit the other channels it'll raise the authority of everything that you're doing so it really is worth um exploring that so yeah so we want to roll it out gradually want to check for the results and me as we as we mentioned just monitor what's happening and make sure we're getting our our results and then when we got our results then tweak and and and start again so again the key things are we want to keep the messaging um keep doing what we're we're doing but build on it adding maybe something new especially with the AI tools we can actually do that without any cost or maybe even save time um we want to review what's happening and and change and again most of most of the trends and what we talked about today I'd expect people to know about but just probably aren't introducing them into the business so again um we have a big list here and we we'll send out some resources or there will be resources available to you but just to quickly scan through some of this is is we want to understand the audience um who has coming to the site and we have that in analytics it's quantity over quality or sorry uh quality over quantity um so yeah back to content is King just we really want to get that right um what's the type of content we're making is it is it short videos is it written content and how are we're going to make sure that we're we are that inspiration for everyone that's looking um for Content or or sorry looking for a destination or travel experience um as well social media is so so important we want to be on and active and engaging with people SEO we talked about video content if you're not doing video content you need to be doing video content micro influencer collaborations great to do if you are tempted by that or have tried it email marketing again with AI you can actually do email marketing scale especially you haven't done it in the past so definitely do consider it um we need to we need to just when we're doing this we need to be flexible and adapt to things that are are changing opportunities but what I definitely recommend is do give everything or what you're trying a good good try what we see a lot of is people try something for two or three weeks didn't work and give up we would see for example if you post a new article on on your website today chances are it's it's going to take three months for Google to send track so um so let's say you decide okay I'm going to post 10 articles a day and then you're you're checking in a week's time and there's no visits you're thinking that that didn't work well actually it does take time consistency so 99% of people will stop they don't see any results but of course if you can continue to um move forward and and pushing this it's the people that persevere will get the win and then just the last slide so again just to to uh wrap up so do I'm just encouraging do Embrace some of these new new trends do try the new free tools that are out there and and are getting better month on month and if you can't in integrate any of these into what you're doing already and but but definitely the most important thing or advice I can I can suggest is to to start do start and test something and go small look at a do a small little test with something um look at your analytics and keep tweaking and changing and it's the people who are engaging and taking digital marketing serious in the next 12 months who are going to have an incredible benefit retain their sales grow their sales and reduce their costs so again we we'll we'll stop now I've talked too much we we'll have a look at any of the questions and again thank you for your your time so far today

2023-12-18 16:26

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