In This Tourism Marketing Quick Tip:
One of the surprising things we’ve encountered in tourism marketing is just how out of touch clients can get with their competition.
It’s understandable. You probably don’t have anyone on your team whose job it is to shop the competition each quarter. We find that tourism companies of all sizes often have people wearing multiple hats, and they’re busy. But knowing your competition is going to help you in your operations, your customer service, and your marketing.
And it doesn’t take someone with a special skill set to contribute here. All you need to do is shop like a customer.
3 Tips to Help You Shop Like a Customer
1. Browse the websites of all the competitors in the market—including yours
Find out what each company is claiming. We do this during brand strategy projects, and clients are often surprised, frustrated, or amused when they hear what the competitors are claiming.
When you are browsing the sites, adopt the persona of your primary customer. And as you browse, ask yourself: Which of these would I pick if I were them? Does anything stand out? Can I even remember the difference between the different companies?
2. Browse the ads of all the competitors in the market
Use the same mindset, but this time, go to the Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center, look up your competitors’ ads, and see which ads are the most compelling to you. Keep in mind that your target customer is seeing not only your ads, but your competitors’ ads as well. Are you winning the battle there? Again, think like your primary target audience.
3. Do secret shopping
That’s right: actually take competitors’ tours.
Now, if you’re the owner or general manager and you’re well-known in the market, you may not be able to do this yourself. But a new guide on your team, or someone on your operations team, can do it.
You can create a scorecard for them to fill out. Have them evaluate the booking experience, check-in experience, the tour guides, the views—everything about the tour. Have them write comments in the document, and then debrief them when they’re done. Have them do this all in just a 2 or 3 day span so they don’t forget the details.
When you shop like a customer, you’ll learn how you can improve your own experience, and what you could be talking about more in your marketing so that you win a larger share of the market.
