By: Marica Mackenroth Brewster

We get it. Tourism marketing sometimes feels like a million things rolled into one.

On some days, you’re asked to focus on sales. Other times, the company website should just. do. more. (And yes, it always can.) There’s even periods when reporting and analyzing become your primary focus.

Beyond the many hats a tourism marketer wears, there remains a constant, nagging feeling to do things a new way. The travel sector moves at lightning speed, and everyone – yes everyone – holds that sense of trying to keep up. When you’re feeling the urge to do things better-yet-cooler, but are overwhelmed with everyday duties, it’s time to get creative.

We recommend using the moments you’ve mentally “hit a wall” to try something new and simple – a little quirky even. Put aside a small amount of time to be creative and take your mind off the “big.” You’ll find that by directing your brain towards smaller, yet worthwhile exercises for the short term, the benefits are long lasting.

Here’s a few quirky practices to keep marketing, be creative, and use your time in a savvy way.

• • Next Level Signage (15-30 minute practice)
    • Think of clever placements to direct onsite visitors towards social media pages. The more active people are in tagging your company and posting content, the more engaging those pages will be. This helps connect potential guests with more research material and thus become even lustworthier to visit. Are your guests in boats? Put up a sign inside each boat noting a hashtag and social media handles! Are people waiting to tour in a designated area? Make sure it has signs. Are they outside? Could they use fans with hashtag notations?

• • Product Perfecting (30 minutes to 1 hour practice)
    • I always say the ABSOLUTE BEST way to market is to have a good product. In tourism, people talk, and they tend to do that a lot online. Per Tripadvisor, 53% of travelers won’t even commit to booking without reading reviews. Take a little while to peruse company reviews and write down the types of things causing you to lose stars. See anything trending? Perhaps there is a simple fix. For instance, if you have a tour’s “too long” or “too short,” think about providing some take away materials for visitors to read along or use later to extend their experience. Is it too hot outside? Install some fans on site or if you are a CVB, use this topic for a blog titled “best ways to visit while keeping cool.”

• • Online Experiments (30 minutes to 1 hour practice)
    • Have a gut feeling a certain type of visitor can be a great resource? Why not try it out? Create a small social media campaign directed only to this segment. Perhaps it’s birding. Call out bird lovers with a birding ad, using regional ad placement to keep budget small. Highlight how great your product is to take in breathtaking species. What about conventions? Make a promo code for a big one coming to town using the convention’s name specifically as the actual code. Pop that promo into a post with verbiage noting their page handles and hashtags. Boost it with a super tight geo range. See what happens.

• Make Someone’s Day (10 -30 minute practice)
• • Remember how we said that “people talk”? That goes far beyond visitors. Take a second to think about a person who’s helped you recently in the industry or someone you might like the chance to work with. Has a work buddy been promoted? Pull out your company note cards, write a congrats message, and place it on their desk. Is there a partner company that consistently does STAND OUT work? Write them a few reviews on Facebook, Yelp, or Google Business. Taking time to show appreciation is good karma – and it makes your day as much as theirs. It also creates a lasting impact in this huge, tight knit community, where relationships certainly matter.

The key to any of these quirky practices keeping them short and easy. Approach ideas as tactics to help your brain “breath” while keeping a sense of accomplishment and growth. Before you know it, you’ll be back to those reports and in a much better mood to knock them out.

So power on, friends! And let us know how it goes.