Tools

How does your business and local area look at the moment?

Everywhere I look I see beautiful (mainly blue) skies, blooming gardens, lush green trees, fresh produce and happy visitors.

Now’s a good time to take photos.

Not just now and then, not just a few but of everything, everywhere, whenever you can!

I'll suggest how you can use these images in a moment. 

First of all though, I really want to stress: any spare moment, when you’re taking a quick break, when you see something beautiful, wh…

Do you find that some of your best ideas strike when you're not at your desk?

Or that when you sit looking at a blank page, it's harder to start writing? 

And are you short of time? 

The answer is simple, thanks to easy-to-use technology. 

Become a dictator.

Not in the all-powerful sense,  but by dictating messages. 

It's now so easy to do, whether you use Word, emails, notes on your phone or any other channel.

Years ago, I had a back problem and couldn't type, especially as I had an urge…

I recently met with someone who has a really good business, with loads of potential. But he said that he’s struggling, both to get more attention and new visitors, and financially. When we talked a little more I discovered two things: a) he’s paying for advertisements all over social media; and b) he’s paying someone else to do his social media posts for him. Neither the ads nor the posts are really having an impact - he’s not building followers very quickly, not really extending his reach (how …

Sometimes it’s worth taking a step backwards to help you leap forward.

Now and then I like to re-consider the basics of marketing. It’s easy to make things more complicated than they need to be.

There’s a short sequence of marketing activities that work, again and again. It’s more about words and ideas than anything else, so it’s free.

Here’s what you need to do to get someone to book, buy or decide to visit

Think: does your current marketing do this? Can you change your social media posts so the…

A long time ago I worked in an office where we used ancient manual typewriters to write the same kind of letters again and again. I’d seen one of the early Amstrad computers in action and eventually managed to persuade my boss that we’d be much more efficient with a computer. The day the computer was due to be delivered, one of the secretaries (then aged about 25) didn’t come to work. She sent a letter saying she was giving in her notice because she didn’t want to use a computer and thought it w…

I was recently asked, “If a small tourism business has a limited marketing budget and not very much time, what marketing activities are most worth doing, in order of importance?”

Here’s my answer in brief. I’ve ranked a list of marketing tools in order of importance/success, with the most important first.

1 - Good website - because it acts as a reference point for other marketing too, and can help to build trust and confidence in what you do. This needs to be combined with an updated Google Profil…

As the leaves start to appear on trees, more visitors will be arriving. Is your marketing ready to make the best of the year ahead?

Once busy with visitors, marketing gets harder to fit in so here’s a pre-season marketing checklist to feel a little more prepared.

Let’s focus on just a few elements for now:

Anticipation

[ ] Ideas for social media posts asking what visitors are most looking forward to, ways to get them to talk about forthcoming trips

[ ] Messages (e.g. by email or text) for guests who…

Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn… It all feels a bit overwhelming doesn’t it?

At least once a week tourism business owners ask me which social media channel works best, or ‘Do I really have to try to do them all?’, and ‘If I’ve only got time for one, which should I choose?’

It really depends on what you’re trying to do and who your target markets are, but there is one social media channel that works best for most tourism businesses. I’ll get to that in a moment.

If you’re feeling ov…

Are you busy? Tired? A bit over-whelmed or pre-occupied? Hamster-wheel spinning too fast? Just generally feel a bit ‘meh’, at least now and then?

I’m guessing ‘yes’ to most of those questions? If so, you’re definitely not alone. This is exactly how many of our visitors feel too.

Do you read every email you receive? Do you see every social media post of all the accounts you follow? When someone tells you something do you always listen and absorb what they say? Do you notice every word and photo on…

Are you leaving money on the table? Or maybe just not attracting people who want to spend money with you?

There are  reasons why you may not be attracting visitors or making as much money as you'd like.

Once you've considered each of these, small actions can have a big impact.

1. You don't make it clear who/what kind of people can benefit from your business. People often think something isn't for them, for example they may like the look of a holiday cottage but just not know what they'd be ab…