Tourism marketing advice, tips and ideas
  • Ideas & how to...
  • Susan Briggs
  • Sign up
  • Profit Programme
  • Ideas & how to...
  • Susan Briggs
  • Sign up
  • Profit Programme

8 easy ways to instantly improve your marketing

8/10/2019

2 Comments

 
Picture
Question: what's the quickest, easiest, cheapest way to improve your marketing?

Answer: I'll tell you once you've read a bit more. 

OK, I'll tell you now, in case you haven't already guessed from the words above?

Words are powerful things, and cost absolutely nothing.


Choose the right words on your website, in your phone conversations, on social media, in any kind of promotional activity and you'll instantly add power to your marketing. 

Many people tell me they're 'not good at writing'. But they never tell me they're not good at speaking. Writing is just making a note of the words you'd like to speak. If you really think you're terrible at writing (few people really are), try using the dictate mode in Word or on your phone. 

I'll offer a few tips to help improve your writing in a moment. First, let's consider what I've written above as there a few tips in there. 

Question: what's the quickest, easiest, cheapest way to improve your marketing? 
Tip: use a question to which the answer is likely to be 'yes' as a headline and to encourage people to read more. Don't overdo it though!
Tip: Trigger words like 'quick, easy, cheap' grab attention. Think about the words you could use to grab attention among the visitors you want to reach. Everyone's trigger words will be different. They might include words like 'peace', 'child-friendly'... What are yours? 


Answer: I'll tell you once you've read a bit more. 
Tip: Short sentences are more powerful than long ones
Tip: You can use words to engage people and get them to pay attention. If you directly ask people to do something, often they will


More writing tips: 

1. Before you start to write anything, think: what is your key message for that piece of writing? What one thing do you need to get across? Start from that point. 

2. Just write. Write rubbish, write the wrong words, but keep writing. Any writer will tell you that they almost always write more than one draft. Write, refine, write, refine. Once you've started to write, the words will flow. Once you've written them, you can decide which words really matter. 

3. Keep it short. Shorter sentences have more impact. Which are the most important words? Keep them, then look at how you can cut down everything else you've written. 

4. Get rid of over-used, meaningless words. These bland expressions should be banned from your marketing: 
  • Something for Everyone - 'Something': who even knows what that's meant to be? 'Everyone' not appealing. People want to feel special. This expression in just lazy and unappealing
  • So much to see and do - you mean there's so much you can't be bothered to tell me anything? No one ever typed 'so much to see and do' in a search box, so this certainly won't help your search engine rankings. 
  • Unique. Is it really? Are you sure? Explain how, then it will be more convincing. Remember - unique isn't always good!
  • Diverse - what do you really mean? Diverse is just confusing. It's not specific enough. Be clearer, and say what you actually mean. 

5. Be memorable. I know that the points listed under no 4 sound bossy. I also know that over the next few weeks I'll bump into readers who will tell me they're stopped using those words and that they've remembered what I've said. You also need to find a way to be memorable and distinctive. 

6. Use the words and style that get the most attention. Which would make you book?:
 
“All our bedrooms are individually designed and have en-suite facilities” or “You’ll be able to relax and unwind in one of our comfortable bedrooms".
 
'You' is much more powerful than 'we'. Turn sentences round to make them stronger. 

7. Remember FAB. FAB stands for Features, Advantages, Benefits. Features tell, benefits sell. Most people write more about the features than the benefits. That's the wrong way round! Let's take the example of a play area. 

Features: adventure playground, maze etc. Features are the components of the product or service. 
 
Advantages: making this product/service better than another. E.g. safety award for playground, novel design
 
Benefits: what the features and advantages actually mean for the person buying or using the service or product.

If we were trying to promote this play area to a stressed parent we might write something like: 'sit and relax for a few moments while your children use some of their surplus energy on xx, enjoying the aaa, bbb, ccc. 

8. And another thing. Remember those rules you learnt at school? Don't start a sentence with And or But? Every sentence needs a verb? You're allowed to break the rules. No one will arrest you. And breaking the rules can be really effective and attention-grabbing. But you knew that anyway!

I'll be back with some more writing tips in another post soon. 

2 Comments
    Sign up to receive weekly Tourism Knowhow in your inbox every Tuesday
    Please note: all articles are copyright Susan Briggs 2021

    Ideas

    All
    3 Things Every Visitor Wants
    5 Ideas For Good Tourism
    5 Must-do Activities For A Quicker Post-Covid Bounce Back
    6 Mistakes You Can Fix Now
    6 Ways To Use Trends To Benefit Your Business
    9 Easy Tips For Photography That Sells
    About Pages
    Advertising - Is It Worth The Money?
    Advice - Coronavirus
    Advice From My Mum And Isaac Newton
    Are You Saying The Wrong Things
    A Single Solution To Many Different Marketing Issues
    Ask For The Sale
    Bad Reviews - Good For Business?
    Bad Weather? No Problem!
    Better?
    Better Times - Beyond Covid
    Bigger Bolder Braver
    Brushing Teeth & Tourism Marketing
    Building Anticipation
    Build Trust To Generate Revenue
    Chrysalis Or Butterfly?
    Colour Counts
    Colour Psychology
    Copywriting Counts
    Design Tips
    Direct Mail
    Down With Discounts!
    Duvet Days?
    Easy Ways To Use An Emotional Appeal
    Easy Way To Get Media Coverage
    Encourage Recommendations And Repeat Visitors
    Essential Marketing Tips
    How To Be An Expert & Benefit Your Tourism Business
    How To Use Local Distinctiveness
    How To Use Optimism & Positivity To Boost Your Business
    Is Social Media Effective?
    Keep Going
    Last Impressions
    Lessons From Low Cost Airlines
    Lessons From My Window Cleaner
    Maintenance Marketing
    Make Money While You Sleep
    Making Progress In Your Business
    Marketing Collaborations
    Marketing Mind-reading
    Membership?
    Millennials
    Niche Marketing
    Not For Everyone
    No Time For Tourism Marketing?
    Off Peak Marketing
    One Simple Way To Make Your Business Better
    Pictures For Better Marketing
    Piggyback Marketing
    Planning For A Better Future
    Power Of Three
    PR Coverage For Your Business
    PR: Don't Upset Journalists
    Profit Through Generosity
    Promote Off-season
    Questions To Help Build Your Business
    Quick & Easy Marketing Tip
    Reassurance - An Essential Marketing Tactic
    Restorative Tourism
    Safe Won't Sell
    Say The Right Thing
    Scared Of Selling?
    Share Your Small Successes
    Simple Idea For Immediate Impact
    Small Steps Make The Most Difference
    Smile!
    Social Media Engagement
    Social Media For Direct Bookings
    Some Positive News
    Spring Clean Your Marketing
    Status Stories
    Stop 2-1 Discounts
    Targets & Witchcraft
    Telling A Good Story
    The Hole In Your Marketing
    Toilet Twinning
    Too Ambitious?
    Trends & Business Opportunities For 2020
    Using Local Pride As A Marketing Super Power
    Walking A Dog
    Word Of Mouth Publicity


Build your business, using my tourism expertise, energy & enthusiasm 

  • practical tourism marketing advice to raise your profile and increase your revenue
  • creation and implementation of marketing campaigns
  • public relations activities and copywriting, including content for websites
  • developing and using local distinctiveness
  • digital marketing, and help to understand search engine optimisation and social media
  • advice and support for visitor attractions, accommodation, food and drink producers, artists, craftspeople and small specialist tour operators

All articles on this site are copyright Susan Briggs, The Tourism Network Ltd 2021
Picture
Email Susan Briggs 

The Tourism Network Ltd, The Old Mill, Millgate, Masham, HG4 4EZ 
Tel: 07768 365591    
​​