Marketing
Part of your guests’ experience is the touchpoints they have with your business before they arrive and after they leave, such as
- How they find out your agritourism offering exists
- Finding information they need on your website
- Booking their stay
- Receiving a confirmation email of their booking, which includes any information they need to know before they arrive
- Finding your property as they drive using Google maps
- Receiving a thank you email after they leave with a link to review sites so they can write a review of their experience.
Pre-arrival and post-stay emails can be automated via your booking system.
Marketing is the middle man between your experience and potential guests – how your guests become aware of, and enticed by, your offering.
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How to make your website easy to use |
A website is a business essential. An appealing user-friendly website inspires potential guests to book, and makes it easy for them to do so, increasing sales. All of your marketing leads back to your website and its online booking system, so making sure it’s as appealing and effective as possible is essential. |
These articles provide tips for tourism websites, and visual examples of best practice, but a website designer can help you structure your website: • 3 traveller insights to keep in mind when building a destination website • Top 10 tourism website marketing fails and how to fix them (i.e. what to include in your tourism website) • How to brief a website development agency • About Search Engine Optimisation and why it’s important for tourism brands |
The Tourism Collective |
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A free Google Business listing will ensure your business is found in Google search results and on Google Maps |
Provide info such as your phone, address, opening hours, photos, even safety measures for visitors to take |
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If you want to be found by travellers looking at VisitNSW.com, and Australia.com, you must have an ATDW listing. |
ATDW is a state government-owned and funded ‘digital warehouse’ of listings of tourism business that are distributed to tourism websites and apps.
Be sure to link your Google Business listing to your ATDW listing. This way, when you update your ATDW listing, it will automatically update your Google listing. |
ATDW |
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Learn how to capture the attention of potential visitors. |
This guide teaches you how to write an appealing description of your business that is based on benefits to visitors, and the types of photos and videos that appeal to travellers. |
ATDW |
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Word of mouth recommendations is the most effective type of marketing. Customer reviews have a significant impact on your business – they can be the reason why a customer books – or doesn’t. |
Learn when and how to ask guests for reviews. |
Tourism & Events Queensland and ReviewPro |
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As with business planning, strategic marketing planning results in much better and more cost-effective outcomes than an ad hoc approach. |
Develop an understanding of how to plan marketing tactics, and download a marketing plan template. |
Business.gov.au |
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Improve your understanding of effective tourism marketing. |
This guide outlines • Identifying your point of difference • How to create marketing content (written, photos, and videos) • Online marketing • Working with media • How to leverage the marketing done by the state tourism organisation • Print marketing • Partnerships that support marketing |
Destination NSW |
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Social media builds awareness, inspires travel, generates bookings, and creates customer loyalty. |
This is a guide to • creating great social media content • effective messaging • what to include in images • elements of an appealing tourism promotion video • tips on how to be efficient on social media. Remember to use hashtags and tags to extend the reach of your posts, such as · #VisitCootamundra @VisitCootamundra · #VisitGundagai @VisitGundagai · #feelNSW #VisitNSW @VisitNSW |
Tourism & Events Queensland |
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Packages of elements such as accommodation, experiences, meals and transport take the guesswork out of travel planning for visitors, making travel planning easy. By doing the planning for them creating an itinerary, and providing a streamlined service for them, visitors can simply arrive and enjoy their time without any effort or stress – making it easier for them to choose to buy from you. |
This brief guide outlines what a package is, how to build an effective package, how to promote a package, and an example. For a deeper dive, check out this comprehensive Canadian guide and worksheet on tourism product packaging.
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DR Tourism |
Online sales
Distribution refers to where your agritourism experience is available for purchase.
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With most bookings nowadays taking place online and outside of business hours, selling online is now essential. |
Find out how to sell your bookable tourism products directly to customers on your website, and via third party distributors such as online travel agents to make your products widely available online. This guide includes a list of booking systems suitable for different kinds of businesses (tours, activities, attractions, and accommodations). |
Destination NSW |
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Learn how to choose a booking system based on your business needs. |
This provides the steps involved in selecting the right booking system for you. |
Tourism Tribe |
