By: Marica Mackenroth Brewster

It’s that time of year. Everything’s suddenly pumpkin flavored. We’re hearing Christmas carols while we do our grocery shopping. The colors of leaves on trees may or may not be changing.

People everywhere are looking for ways to feel festive – and even better if it’s something they’ve never encountered before.

Tourism and hospitality companies take note!! This is the prime time to make an impact with your marketing. With just a few tweaks, your marketing plan can amass more impressions, more data, and more visitation than ever before.

Using the holidays to amp up marketing is simple. Set aside some time to get creative and see how you can push your plan to new heights.

Here’s a few genius tactics:

• Pick a holiday and use it to increase relevancy to your audience.
  • Are you a CVB? Can you look into archives and find the first Halloween celebration in town? What about a restaurant that serves one of the first dishes used to celebrate Thanksgiving in Cajun country? Find some facts, get some pics or illustrations, then get that new unique selling proposition out there with some targeted messaging!
• Use Google Adwords? Broaden keyword phrases with intent.
  • You should already be bidding on highly targeted search terms in your digital marketing mix. For the holidays, it’s worth experimenting with broadening that targeting. Do this very selectively and based on season. For example, introduce the phrase “what to do for Halloween in (insert your city name)” and see what bites. Use exact targeting to keep costs down and various forms of this type of phrase. Bonus points if you can have a dedicated landing page or blog with a great call to action.
• Explore targeted sponsorships.
  • Is there a December holiday guide in your town? See if they’d be open to a sponsor partnership. Be sure to create a dedicated holiday page on your site with a relative promo code for optimum conversion tracking. This is a fantastic way to get in front of locals who may know your product, but need to be re-introduced.
• Bring in some super holiday-centric talent!
  • This is a great way to get your brand in front of audiences who may not normally be familiar with you. Tour company? Perhaps invite a campy, spooky band to play a few tunes on a private tour. Get some video footage and blast on social media. You’ll get some credibility with their following and who knows, you may get a new following too!
• Do good.
  • Find a charity dear to your heart. Donate a portion of your proceeds from a certain night or a specific tour to them. Use the PR coverage to gain exposure for you both. Feel good.
• Try deal based ads and cross promotions.
  • The key to this is to do it well. Make sure that the deal is worthwhile to audiences and use a promo code that is catchy, not hokey. For cross promotions, ensure that your mutual endeavor is super relative. For example – cooking school holiday baskets with monster seasoning included for Halloween.

Although we’re well into the season, it’s never too late to try something new. Look into your budget and get those creative juices flowing, fellow marketing nerds!