Focus on the Right Marketing Mix for Any Strategy

Destination Marketing Must Have’s

Knowing the right mix of channels that best support an objective is part science, and part magic. These are a few marketing channels every destination should prioritize in their strategies moving into 2021.

1. Paid media:
   This can include many different outlets such as: paid search, pay per click marketing, search/affiliate, Google, Facebook/Instagram ads & display ads, single word ad groups, retargeting search, google shopping, and much more. We’ve all come into contact with these ads before. You see them on the side of your computer screen when reading an article. You’re searching for something and five minutes later you see an ad in your social feed. The goal is getting you to click, and when you do, advertisers pay, hence pay-per-click. It’s all about connecting directly with users who are searching for products and services like yours. (Tricks on getting your assets to stand out…well that’s another article!)

2. Earned Media/Public Relations
   Getting the word out into mass media to earn favorable attention or buzz to a brand’s to newsworthy activities is still a tried and true way to increase brand awareness. By sharing positive news (ideally directed to the brand’s core target audiences) a brand, product, destination, etc. can raise its profile to stimulate awareness and demand.

3. Influencer Marketing
   While still evolving, at its core, influencer marketing involves a brand connecting with an individual with an online “presence” or niche affiliation to help sell the brand and drive purchase. Different from public relations and social media, influencer marketing is a very “personal” approach, as the influencer and their audience have a level of trust that comes from that person’s “influence” over that audience. Why is this important for your strategy?  It’s a direct, personal line to an audience you may not have otherwise reached through other traditional channels. The interest factor creates a connection and sparks marketing magic.

4. Social Media
   This is a very effective way to keep the audience who’s already on your brand’s “follow train” engaged on the front end of the platform. You can then use the data and behavioral insights from the back end of the platform to inform a paid media strategy approach to target similar consumers with aligned interests.

5. Content marketing + Native advertising
   Content Marketing is key because it helps build a trust with your consumers by providing information about your brand’s offering that is relevant to them, served up in a relevant context. With native advertising, you’re paying to promote your content in a specific place to match the look and feel of the editorial media type in which your content will appear. At the end of the day, be it in visuals, video, or copy, you’re pulling in the consumer with content. And that content can take many forms.

6. Email Marketing
   This channel is important for brands for many reasons, and communicating to this engaged, already “opted-in” audience is relatively easy, as you can speak to them right to their inbox. I would argue that email marketing is perhaps more effective than reaching an audience via social media and delivers a higher ROI than other marketing channels.

Until Next time ~ Ayri