I read an article “The Tour Operator’s Guide to Online Marketing: Key Strategies and Tactics to Win Customers on a Low Budget”. It’s made by company called Regiondo (2022). Main point of this guide is offer marketing tools for companies that they can grow their business and achieve sustainable results with low marketing budget (Regiondo 2022). The text is interesting because I have dreamed of my own tourism company and I have a lot of questions which are linked to online marketing. For example:
- How to reach all the possible customers?
- Can I do marketing by myself?
- What are the best ways to reach people online?
- Is it expensive? How much I have to spend money for online marketing?
Customer data, why we need it?
The guide says that you can create a winning marketing strategy using customer data. It also says that the market research is a crucial element of business strategy. You can save a lot of time and money if you can make good use of the customer data. First thing to do is define the customer profile that you know, who are the people you need to focus on. (Regiondo 2022.)
The text gives good advices to make clear, who is your typical customer. They talk about tools what you can use for the defining. The Business Model Canvas was already familiar for me, but the the Value Proposition Canvas was new and it gave a new perspective (Strategyzer 2020).
Okay, but how I can get the customer data?
Regiondo (2022) says that there are two types of customer data. You can collect qualitative or quantitative information. You can have qualitative customer data e.g. from speaking with customers and asking questions. Quantitative data is usually collected by using surveys or forms, but it’s important to make sure that they are easy to fill up. (Regiondo 2022)
That was a good information for me, but I expected to get more creative ways for data collecting. Maybe some new ways to use social media or some new app? Anyway, I think that is a fascinating subject so I want to learn more from that in the future.
So I need data, but how I can reach the customers? Is it expensive?
Regiondo (2022) says that Google My Business-site is good way to reach customers. You can do an account for your company and after that people can find you from Google Maps (Google 2022). I think that is a really goop tip, because it’s free and so many people use Google to find local services.
There are also many other ways to get exposure in the media for free. You can for example make podcast or give interviews and tell about your business. Social media is functional and you can publish giveaways and contests for the people. (Regiondo 2022)
Is this important for companies?
My opinion is, it is really important. Competition is so hard nowadays so I think every entrepreneur who is working with tourism need to understand how online marketing works. If you want to be a successful and develop your company, you certainly have to know how to reach more customers. This marketing guide is really many-sided so I think it gives new information for most of us. I learn new ways to use online marketing and also realized, that is really large subject. I have to study this more, if I want to rule my own company some day.
A list from references:
Google 2022. Yritysprofiili. https://www.google.com/business/
Regiondo 2022. The Tour Operator’s Guide to Online Marketing: Key Strategies and Tactics to Win Customers on a Low Budget. REGIONDO. Tour Operator’s Guide to Online Marketing
Strategyzer 2020. https://admin.typeform.com/signup