1、Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 1Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & AttractionsIntroduction 3The Advantage of Direct (& Advance) Online Bookings 5Digital Marketing 101 6 Facebook & Instagram 8 Search Engine Marketing 9 Display 10 Video 11 Multi-Channe

2、l 12 Website Optimization 13 Insights 14Summary 15Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & AttractionsGuide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 2Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 3Attractions, tours, and activities marketers face unique

3、challenges within the travel space. As a travel vertical that often deals with last-minute bookers and walk-ups, and still invests heavily in out-of-home advertising solutions, online marketing can seem daunting, time-consuming, or unnecessary. However, there is a massive opportunity to capture onli

4、ne bookings: operators sold $44 billion worth of experiences through their own websites and online travel agencies (OTAs) in 20191, indicating that there are more dollars for the taking, and more ways to engage with your potential visitors. At Sojern, we work closely with hundreds of tour operators,

5、 in-destination experiences, activities, and attractions, helping them with digital marketing and driving direct bookings. We know just how difficult it can be for the attraction marketer to do it all: keeping up with the latest marketing trends while also answering phones, putting together new tour

6、s, balancing budgets, and ensuring visitors are satisfied. To help, weve put together a digital marketing guide, with tips and advice from experts in the industry.Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 3Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 4 The im

7、portance of direct, advance, online bookings and how marketing can help you capture more The basics of digital marketing and how to get the most out of each channel How to take your current marketing efforts to the next level In this guide, youll learn:Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activitie

8、s, & Attractions 4The Advantage of Direct (& Advance) Online BookingsWith online digital advertising, you can find people looking to come to your market and introduce them to your offering with ads. Those ads influence them to visit your website, and if your online experience is top-notch, theyll bo

9、ok right there. Digital advertising, then, is key to direct, advance, online bookings. These types of bookings remain a top priority for 41% of attraction marketers.2Today, more than ever, consumers are researching, shopping, and booking their experiences online. Globally, 85% of travelers search fo

10、r attractions 78 days before their trip.3 Thus, reaching these travelers and winning their business directly, ahead of their trip, is imperative. This allows you to: Generate higher net profit per ticket sales Win the direct relationship with your customers, and upsell your packages Build and genera

11、te more awareness of your brand Have more control over offers and promotions Continue engaging with customers after their tripHaving a digital presence and online marketing strategy is a must in order to capture your travel audiences interest and encourage them to book early and directly with you. G

12、uide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 5Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 6In traditional advertisingthink radio, tv, or magazine adsyou buy ad space where you think your ideal consumer will be and will see your ad. You then hope that view turns

13、into a phone call or a website visit, but you dont always know which (if any) outreach generated a lead. On the other hand, with digital marketing, your efforts are easily tracked. You see exactly what campaigns lead your potential visitors to complete a desired action, be it visiting your new websi

14、te, contacting you to learn more, or purchasing a ticket. This is an important topic to get up to speed on because more than half of all operators do not engage in standard digital marketing activities, have limited or no performance tracking, and remain unsatisfied with their marketing efforts.4Wit

15、h digital marketing, and perhaps most importantly, programmatic digital marketing, you find audiences based on certain criteria, advertise to them, and then see if after they viewed or clicked on your ad, they visited your website or booked with you. Instead of using content to guess what website yo

16、ur ideal traveler is on, and serving ads there, you use data science and advanced algorithms to find and market to the exact audience you want, no matter where they are online, either on desktop or mobile. Even better, you can limit your ads being served until that traveler has shown intent to come

17、to your destination, through either a flight or hotel search or booking (for example), creating greater efficiency with your marketing dollars. Digital Marketing 101Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 7The Tour at NBC Studios team marketed The Tour experience through vari

18、ous outlets in the past, and sought a better way to measure the impact of their spend by shifting to a more digital presence. “We want to do things that move the needle for us. Proving results that we can track back to a campaign is key.” Ryan MichaelsenDirector of Tours and MarketingLearn MoreSimpl

19、y, programmatic advertising (also referred to as real-time bidding (RTB) uses technology to buy and sell ad inventory through an automated and data-driven process. Programmatic advertising represents most types of ad spaces on all screens today, and increases effectiveness and efficiency of your mar

20、keting campaigns, while maximizing your return on investment (ROI). Whether youre a tour operator, major theme park, or local museum, programmatic advertising benefits everyone, regardless of time, resource, or budget constraints. Now, lets go through the basic channels of digital marketing and how

21、to put each to best use. About The Tour at NBC StudiosThe Tour at NBC Studios gives guests behind-the-scenes access to the studios where some of Americas favorite shows are made, like Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and more. Guests learn about the entire TV production p

22、rocess, from scriptwriting and producing, to the ways TV content reaches viewers at home.ChallengesThe Tour at NBC Studios is one of the most iconic activities for people visiting New York City. The team has marketed The Tour through various outlets in the past, and sought a better way to measure th

23、e impact of their spend. “We want to do things that move the needle for us,” explains Ryan Michaelsen, Director of Tours and Marketing. “Proving results that we can track back to a campaign is key.”Looking to bring more travelers to your local attraction? Get in touch now.ResultsOver the course of t

24、he Q4 2018 campaign, Sojern drove over $80,000 worth of ticket sales for The Tour at NBC Studios. More than just the ticket sales, the team was impressed with the added value that the Sojern team provides in terms of insights and campaign support. “Recently we just started testing A/B creative, to s

25、ee what works and what doesnt,” continues Michaelsen. “That insight is really beneficial.”ObjectivesNew to programmatic advertising, The Tour at NBC Studios team partnered with Sojern in Q4 2018 to run an online display campaign in order to drive ticket sales. With billions of travel intent signals,

26、 Sojern reaches people who have searched for or booked travel to New York City, and even those who are currently in-destination. Sojern puts The Tour top-of-mind for those in-market travelers, and encourages people to visit the website to learn more, and book their tickets.CASE STUDYDisplay Ad Examp

27、le on DesktopSojern Drives Strong Ticket Sales for The Tour at NBC StudiosSummaryNew to programmatic advertising, the marketing team at The Tour at NBC Studios partnered with Sojern starting in late 2018 to reach in-market travelers and drive ticket sales for the tour. In Q4 2018 alone, Sojern drove

28、 over $80,000 worth of ticket sales.The Sojern team delivered a really focused campaign for us, and proved the impact of our marketing spend. Some of their insights were things we hadnt thought of looking at before, so theyve been a comprehensive partner.Ryan Michaelsen Director of Tours and Marketi

29、ngSolutions Used Display$80,000+ in tour ticket sales in Q4 2018Provedthe value of their marketing spendEngagedin-market travelers with a highly targeted campaignR“Display Ad Example on MobileCASE STUDYGuide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 8With over 3 billion monthly activ

30、e users, Facebook and Instagram offer a massive opportunity for attraction marketers to showcase their unique experiences and drive engagement. Many marketers claim to do Facebook, by boosting their social posts or monitoring likes and comments. But there is a substantial difference between using Fa

31、cebook and Instagram as a social channel, and using it to drive brand awareness and direct bookings with paid advertising. Defaulting to organic reach is not a viable solution to reaching the billions of users on these platforms, and does not help you deliver your message to the right audience at th

32、e right time.In addition to Facebooks many products and solutions, it is inherently cross-device, which means you can reach users throughout the path to purchase, as they jump from desktop to mobile to tablet. Trip Consideration helps you identify or prospect new travelers within the Facebook and In

33、stagram ecosystem, and influence them to go directly to your website. Custom Audiences can also be used to retarget or remarket to an audience who already know your business, and have previously visited your website. Facebook & Instagram Reaching your Audience on Platforms that Drive More Engagement

34、Facebook & Instagram in Action To increase brand awareness, website traffic, and direct bookings, Hotel Nanta turned to Facebook, Instagram, Display, and SEM. In just 10 months, the property in South Korea doubled overall direct bookings, and increased homepage traffic to an average of 1,100 visits

35、per day. Learn More.Hotel NANTA Partnered with Sojern to Double Direct Bookings in 10 MonthsSummaryHotel NANTA partners with Sojern to increase their website traffic and direct bookings. Within a span of 10 months, Sojern generated over KRW 31,719,570 in direct booking revenue, doubled overall direc

36、t bookings, and increased hotel homepage traffic to an average of 1,100 visits per day.Since the hotel opened, we struggled with brand awareness. With Sojern, we saw a huge difference in terms of website traffic and direct bookings.Mr. Hyung Kyoo Kim Assistant Manager of Brand MarketingSolutions Use

37、dDisplay, Facebook and Instagram, SEM31,719,570in direct booking revenue in 10 months241booked reservations2Xincrease in direct bookingsR“Instagram Ad Example on MobileCASE STUDYGuide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 9Search Engine Marketing (SEM, also known as paid search)

38、increases the visibility of your website in search engine results pages through paid advertising. Simply, it is every link at the top of a search engine page marked as an Ad. Search is one of the most important channels that travelers use, so a strong SEM strategy is imperative for attraction market

39、ers. Last year, eMarketer estimated that advertisers spent $5.84 billion on search5, and attraction marketers allocated 17% of their digital budgets to SEM in 2019.6SEM also protects your brand. Chances are, third parties are bidding on your branded keywords and phrases to drive potential bookers to

40、 their site, rather than yours. If youve interested someone through your display efforts, for example, and they search for your experience, those people will likely be driven to third party sites to book with themunless you have a strong search strategy. Search Engine Marketing Winning Against the C

41、ompetitionSEM in Action “We differentiate ourselves by providing visitors with the hidden history of New York, so a strong SEM strategy is vital for my tours. Theres a lot of competition, with a lot of things to do and see in the city, and I want to make sure that if anyone is looking for a pub craw

42、l, Im at the top of the list. With this SEM campaign, we were focused on brand awareness, and in a short amount of time, our website traffic increased by 8%.”Bobby HeaneyOwner & CCO, New York CrawlingGuide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 10Display Ads (or Banner Ads) are an

43、 established channel in the digital marketing landscape.Display is effective for every stage of the traveler path to purchase, as travelers move from research to booking, across desktop and mobile, targeting customers where and when they are online. The average traveler spends 13% of their time onli

44、ne conducting travel-related activities7, and in the 12 weeks leading up to a trip, there are three times more experience searches than hotel searches.8If youd like to take your display efforts one step further, consider using an HTML5 ad. This eye-catching format combats banner blindness and as suc

45、h, can result in higher engagement and conversions. When we tested static ads against HTML5, we saw a 13% increase in clicks, an 8% increase in converters, and a 13% increase in the search rate on the customers website.9 Display Showcasing Your Brand Around the WebProgrammatic Display in ActionWith

46、a newly designed website and stunning video assets, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters knew they needed to diversify their marketing spend outside of print and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). With an eye to increase their brand awareness and drive direct sales, they used a programmatic display campaign that d

47、rove an 8X ROI while scaling spend. Learn More.Guide to Digital Marketing for Tours, Activities, & Attractions 11Video immerses you in the sights, sounds, and movement of an experience in ways that other mediums cannot. By 2021, its estimated that the average person will spend 100 minutes every day

48、watching online videos.10Attraction marketers are uniquely positioned to benefit from video, because it shares their experiences in a quick, consumable, and immersive way. Video can be used to provide a glimpse into what visitors can expect from your attraction as they research their trip, target th

49、em to upsell a specific package while they are in-destination, or as a way to share their experience and recommend to their friends and family afterwards. Additionally, many attraction marketers edit their videos down into smaller, bite-sized chunks, and then overlay different Call to Actions (CTAs)

50、 to test and see what drives a visitor to engage with their website and/or book. Video Standing Out and Immersing Your Audience in Your ExperienceVideo in Action Overland Ireland, a tour operator across the Emerald Isle, helps hundreds of visitors discover and explore Ireland in ways they never coul