By: Abby Sanders

Marketing for experiences.

Imagine it’s one of those nights when you just can’t decide what you want for dinner. To make up your mind, do you picture a list of menu items? Or imagine yourself eating a medium rare cheeseburger with some crispy romaine lettuce, next to a vision of plucking up a piece of sushi dipped in a fine layer of soy sauce and wasabi?

Probably the latter. This perfectly illustrates the value of marketing experiences.

For maximum effect, travel and tourism marketing needs to go beyond telling someone what it’s like; you need to let them feel what it’s like. Here are just a few tips and tricks for selling the experience.

Include people and faces in your graphics.

We’re naturally drawn to faces: Instagram, arguably the world leader in commodifying experience photos, found that images with faces were 38% more likely to get “Liked” than photos without them. So whenever it’s appropriate to do so, include people and faces in your marketing photography.

With travel marketing and tourism development, this trick is even more vital. Seeing someone we identify with in an image transforms an aesthetically pleasing or interesting space into a place we want to be. Instead of simply checking out a photo of an empty yoga studio at a boutique hotel, a photo of a class in session encourages us to imagine folding into a relaxing Lotus pose on Saturday morning before a busy day of touring the city.

Put the viewer in the action.

In order to promote tourism, you need to take your potential new customers out of a research state of mind, and get them excited about the event, activity, or destination you’re selling. Look for ways to put them in the middle of it all. Consider incorporating photos taken at eye level, or even GoPro videos to give them a firsthand view of the concert, rather than photos of the facility.

In your copy, write as if your audience is already there: “Feel the soft sand between your toes” rather than “We have blue water and white sand beaches.” Any creative tricks that make an outsider feel like they’re already part of the activity will get them that much closer to tapping Reserve Now.

Create an immersive experience.

The message itself is important, but the way that message is conveyed also has

a huge impact on whether someone is inspired to make a reservation or keep browsing. When you’re trying to communicate an experience, it’s helpful to use immersive photos and videos. Don’t be afraid to

take up the entire width of the screen, whether you’re showing off meeting spaces for a corporate event, or an expansive mountain view for a group retreat. Images that physically take up more space on the screen make the viewer feel like they’re already there, not just researching tour and event companies during their lunch break.

Of course, these elements should be employed sporadically for more impact. Give your audience a clear path to learn more, and some white space to recover from the action.

Employing these tactics will give you an edge over your competition: rather than simply telling future customers what you can offer, you’re helping them imagine how it will feel when they arrive. A bulleted list of features and amenities should still have a home on your site, but there are more effective ways to channel the feeling of your destination and get that first click.

Interested in hearing more? Reach out to our team to continue the marketing for experiences discussion.