What’s Your Top Destination Marketing Goal? 5 Tips from DMOs, Big and Small
From targeting specific audiences to increasing off-season visitors, here’s how we help DMOs of all sizes meet their goals.
By Colleen Ringer
The most effective travel marketing tactics are the ones that are tailored to meet the unique needs of each destination. These five examples showcase how to integrate specificity into your strategy to ensure you’re attracting the right visitors at the right time.
If You Want to: Appeal to Niche Audiences
When tasked by Brand USA — the destination marketing organization for the U.S. abroad — to create itineraries that would appeal to the Indian market, as well as a handful of posts intended for foreign travelers attending WorldPride, we at C/A allowed our audience research to form the backbone of this initiative. Then we drew on our travel savvy to deliver hard-to-resist dreaming moments geared at inspiring action. For each of the segmented itineraries we created, we focused on understanding what the brand’s diverse audiences wanted and needed to plan a trip to America.
If You Want to: Set Your Brand Apart
On average, travelers visit a total of 38 websites before booking a trip. With such a saturated market, the Arizona Office of Tourism (AOT) wanted to ensure its new site stood out from the rest. To help AOT improve searchability, increase traffic and build engagement — getting the right content to the right people at the right time — we performed a traffic analysis, competitive analysis and content audit of its existing site. We combed through nearly 700 pages, assessing what was working and what could use some improvement, and made specific recommendations for content migration and creation for the new site.
If You Want to: Boost Overnight Stays
When Destination Niagara USA came to C/A with a desire to boost that all-important destination metric — number of overnight stays — we responded with a content-focused approach that positions Niagara as far more than a day-trip destination. Each season, we create segmented digital marketing campaigns to reach and engage drive- and fly-market couples, families, shoppers and adventurers, with the goal of tempting them into multi-day getaways at one of America’s natural wonders. These digitally focused campaigns give the organization a clear picture of its marketing efforts’ impact and afford us the ability to shift gears mid-campaign as needed to maximize message saturation.
Each season, we create segmented digital marketing campaigns to reach and engage drive- and fly-market couples, families, shoppers and adventurers.
If You Want to: Increase Off-Season Visitors
From tip to tip, Long Island’s 120-mile expanse offers everything from big-city skylines to quaint harborside serenity — not to mention lush nature preserves, cozy B&Bs, world-class wineries and a star-powered social scene. And while it’s known for its sand and surf, it’s truly a four-season destination. Our mission from Discover Long Island was to prove this to prospective visitors, enticing affluent couples and families to visit the destination during the fall and winter “off” seasons. Part of our digital campaign strategy was to showcase this diversity, communicating the wealth of opportunity awaiting travelers on Long Island through digital ads and content-rich landing pages. The C/A team built a suite of ad creative highlighting the best seasonal activities in the region — from quaint inns and fun fall festivals to historic sites, museums and wine tasting. Once live, our ability to make quick campaign adjustments to messaging and targeting allowed the team to lower the campaign CPMs and drive more impressions and traffic for Discover Long Island.
If You Want to: Appeal to a Broader Audience
Dubbed the epicenter of racing in America, North Carolina’s Cabarrus County is well known among motorsports enthusiasts, but the county’s other attributes are often overshadowed. To broaden the destination’s appeal, we helped Cabarrus County Convention & Visitors Bureau create a new website built on a content strategy that highlights the region’s wealth of outdoor adventures, craft breweries, restaurants and local culture, alongside its iconic racing heritage. By integrating an editorial sensibility throughout the site’s content, Cabarrus County’s website now appeals to a wide range of user interests and encourages “dreaming” moments for a variety of traveler types.
Take Your Travel Content to the Next Level
We never take a one-size-fits-all approach. Let’s chat about a strategy that meets your needs.
Colleen has worked with clients large and small for more than a decade as a writer, editor and content strategist. She has managed content marketing programs for national and global brands, including hospital systems, universities and nonprofits. Before entering the world of content marketing, Colleen lived in the land of magazine publishing and wrote about architecture, design and travel.
As a mother of a video game-obsessed son, Colleen spends part of her free time learning about Fortnite and the other part trying to recruit her son to root for the Arizona Cardinals. She loves a good book, a strong iced tea and when her Fantasy Football team is winning.