With so many options of different marketing channels, it might be quite tricky to figure out, which one can help the most with your watersport business growth. In order to figure this out, you need to decide if you are doing it to increase the number of conversions or raise brand awareness. Listen to this episode to find out all the best marketing channels to leverage for promoting your watersport business.
With so many options of different marketing channels, it might be quite tricky to figure out, which one can help the most with your watersport business growth. In order to figure this out, you need to decide if you are doing it to increase the number of conversions or raise brand awareness. Listen to this episode to find out all the best marketing channels to leverage for promoting your watersport business.
Hey everyone and welcome to episode 20 of the Weekly Wave podcast presented by WaveRez. I’m your host Greg Fisher, and today we’ll be talking about the best marketing channels for spreading the word about your business. This will be the final episode in our series, so we hope to see you back later this fall as we bring you more great content to grow your business.
From my experience, marketing is very contingent based on how your travelers consume information in your destination. It’s easy to assume that just because your audience is seeing your ad, they are ready to buy. However, there are many steps in the process where you’ll need to reach your audience. We recommend checking out Episodes #11 and #14 for a more in-depth conversation on different platforms and advertising opportunities.
When thinking about marketing channels, it’s important to understand where customers are at in the purchase process when they see your ad. For example, if your business is mentioned in a blog, social post, or news article as a top 10 thing to do, the customer is more likely in the early stages of the purchase process. This doesn’t mean that you should exempt yourself from these opportunities, but keep in mind that you’ll see lower purchase conversions. Creating brand awareness is an important part of the process, but the amount of effort and financial resources in these opportunities needs to be limited. I often get approached with opportunities in regional and national travel publications, but I’m cautious of investing too much considering my customers are making last-minute purchase decisions.
In watersports, most purchase decisions are last minute, meaning less than 48 hours. This is why internet marketing should be your primary channel. The ability to reach customers based on their location and what they are looking for is huge for operators, which will yield the highest purchase conversion. This is why Google is my top recommendation. Google can be broken down into paid and organic search. Organic search is when customers find you through search results below the fold, and paid is the sponsored links you’ll find at the top of the page. No matter if you’re #1 organically on Google, you should be running paid ads, especially since real estate on mobile search is very limited. Even if you’re #1 organically for your top keywords, you might be half way down the page. Another great channel is social media, but I’m not talking about posting pictures of your happy guests. The best way to use social media is to re-market to users that have interacted with your website, booking software, or social media content. This is not something that is easily set up, but it has excellent results because you’re advertising to folks that are familiar with your business. Keep in mind that most of your customers will not be in town very long, so don’t make the mistake to re-market to them for more than a few days.
Lastly, don’t forget about traditional channels like billboards, rack cards, and in-room publications. However, before you jump into a $5,000 brochure distribution agreement, create some expectations like you would with any other marketing opportunity. Traditional channels can be harder to track, but maybe your goal is not a high booking conversion, but to create brand awareness. If you’re selling a new product that the destination has never seen before, a billboard could be a great investment to get a lot of eyeballs very fast. Aside from billboards, you can add tracking URL’s, phone numbers, and QR codes to brochures, promotional items, and paper advertising to get a better understanding of the ROI.
There are a lot of great channels to use for your marketing, but if marketing is not your thing, don’t be afraid to hire a marketing professional. Not only will it save you time, but you’ll have the peace of mind that your marketing resources will be spent and executed at a higher efficiency. If you thought this podcast was helpful, leave a review on your favorite podcast app and check out WaveRez on Instagram or Facebook. Again, I’m Greg Fisher, and thanks for listening to the Weekly Wave.
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