Our tourism clients know their brand better than anyone else and are usually passionate about it. Through their marketing, clients love sharing their history, dreams, and aspects of their services and brand that they love and believe make them unique. That’s great and necessary, but that can only take them so far.
This approach may fall flat if they forget what might appeal to their customer. As tourism marketing professionals, a lot of our work involves connecting with customers authentically and keeping them engaged. In order to do so, we have to help align brands with what their customer wants.
To do this, we must employ the platinum rule, treat people the way you want to be treated. It’s crucial to be able to understand and share the feelings of their potential customers.
To do this, we have to get curious, and that means asking questions.
Start Asking Questions
Here are a few questions I can get you started to think about the customer.
Who is This Customer?
The more specific you can get with this answer, the better you’ll be able to step into their shoes. Through specificity, you’ll identify not just an avatar, but a real human being with wants, needs, concerns, interests, and habits. Now that you have a real person in mind, you’ll be able to address their concerns.
For example, a solo woman traveler might have different concerns than a couple with three small children.
How Can You Address the Customer’s Desires And Concerns?
If your customer is looking for something thrilling in their experience, how does your tour or activity provide that and how can you demonstrate that to the customer? Maybe you can use compelling images or high-impact video. Would it be better communicated through punchy quippy dialogue or flowery language? These are important decisions to make.
What Will Motivate Them to Buy?
Often times when we’re making decisions between products we’re consciously or unconsciously eliminating choices rather than making a choice, which means overcoming objections right away is key. Understanding this will help you drill down the focus of your messaging and give you the ability to quickly address the concerns to win customers who would have chosen otherwise.
For example, if the customer has small children, it might be good to consider how unpredictable their schedule might be. If this is a key audience for you, emphasizing a flexible change or cancellation policy could be a significant point for them.
If your experience is in a competitive destination or is an activity type, that may not be as familiar to your guests, perhaps highlighting the safety and social proof is more important to establish trust.
These questions are just scratching the surface but will help you determine the tone and messaging in your copy, visuals, and more. It will also help you establish confidence and trust factors to emphasize, and may even inform which channel to prioritize in your marketing. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and see the world of difference it will make.
Take a deeper dive into customer personas with our post, How Customer Personas Transform Your Travel Marketing to Win More Customers. And for more tips, check out all of our Tourism Marketing Quick Tips!
