Resort marketing has relied on glossy photos of sunsets and luxurious lifestyles that are unattainable for far too long. Thankfully those days are rapidly coming to an end. Consumers are smarter than ever and they know when they are being sold. One of the fastest growing Internet marketing strategies is inbound marketing.
The reason so many companies have turned to inbound marketing is because it is the most efficient way to bring in new customers.
If you are looking for astrategy that will attract the right visitors to your site, convert them into qualified leads and close the sale then you need to embrace inbound marketing. Or you can continue doing what you have always done and watch your market share decrease as your competition increases theirs. If you continue to make the same mistakes over and over you are putting your property at risk.
For the benefit of yourself and your property avoid making these three main resort marketing mistakes.
Related Post: Why Resort Marketing is the 51st Shade Of Grey
Neglecting Your Blog
Your business blog should be the base of all your Internet marketing efforts. This is where you can share valuable news, information and advice with your prospects. As you continue to share valuable content you (and your company) will be seen as a trusted voice in resort industry. When your prospects are ready to book a vacation or plan a getaway your property will be first on their list.
The key to successful blogging when it comes to marketing is to provide fresh, relevant content that your readers want. The easiest way to find out what they want is to ask them. Query your best customers and build buyer personas so your know exactly what type of content to create.
Next, you will have to publish content consistently to your blog. Develop a publishing schedule and stick to it. You can either outsource the content creation or put together an in-house team to do it for you. Whatever method you decide on just be sure to provide your readers with consistent content.
Not Nurturing And Tracking Leads
You spend a lot of time and money to generate qualified leads for your property so you need to treat them right. Most new leads are not ready to buy right away that is why you need to nurture them through the buying process. Someone who downloads an ebook on island resorts may be in the information gathering stage and will need more information about your property before they are ready to buy.
Each step of the buying process will require a different approach and specific information that will move the prospect along to the next stage. In any successful strategy you should easily be able to discern what stage your prospect is in. If you turn him over to the sales team too early you run the risk of scaring nim off. Wait too long and he may buy from your competitor.
Using a solid inbound marketing strategy will take the guesswork out of the sales process. You will be able to get the fight information to the right prospect at the right time. This will significantly increase your closing percentage.
Ignoring Social Media
Social media has changed the way everyone does business. Social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk likes to say, “Social media = business. Period.” and he may be right. Social media has forced companies to be more transparent and honest with their customers.
Your customers are talking with each other about you, do you know what they are saying? You need to constantly monitor what people are saying about your property. What are people saying about you on Tripadvisor and Yelp? You need to be on top of this on a daily basis.
Social media also presents an opportunity to showcase your customer service. If a customer has a complaint he or she is most likely to take to Twitter or Facebook to lodge their complaint. If your customer service team quickly acknowledges this issue and works to resolve it you can turn this customer into an evangelist for your company. Other prospective customers will see how well you handled the situation and be more likely to investigate your company further.
By avoiding these resort marketing mistakes you will be one step ahead of your competition. If you want to take your marketing efforts to the next level you should embrace inbound marketing and begin to attract more qualified leads that you can then turn into delighted, lifelong customers.
