| Resort marketing entails quite a bit more than just | | | | agent error. With all due respect to the many hard |
| running ads, but for the purpose of this article, that's the | | | | working high school students who do a great job in the |
| portion we're going to focus on. Placing ads in various | | | | hospitality industry, if you're relying on a 16 year old |
| media outlets can be described as both advertising | | | | reservation agent to track your marketing efforts, I |
| and marketing, but the smart resort owners are utilizing | | | | guarantee you the data you collect will not be 100% |
| direct response marketing techniques in every ad they | | | | accurate. (Or a seasoned reservation agent of 20 |
| run. | | | | years for that matter.) The resort owners I'm talking |
| When I ask small business owners why they run their | | | | about here are practicing resort advertising. |
| ads, I typically get a handful of different responses. "To | | | | Resort marketing, when utilizing direct response |
| keep our name in front of our customers." "To let | | | | methods, allows each and every ad that is run to be |
| people know about events and special offers." "To | | | | tracked. The ads themselves are also different, as |
| brand our property." I love it when an owner simply | | | | they are not placed in order to "brand" their facility, but |
| says, "To get more paying customers into my facility". | | | | to get the potential customers to take a specific action. |
| While there may be some steps along the way to | | | | That action could be to join an email list, take |
| achieving that goal, that last answer should be the only | | | | advantage of a specific offer, or a number of other |
| answer given when asked that question. | | | | possibilities. While there is not enough time in this article |
| When I ask how they know if their ads are working, I | | | | to discuss all the tracking methods, every intelligent ad |
| often hear a bit of stuttering and stammering, but | | | | has one or more of those mechanisms in place. And |
| many are honest and simply tell me they really aren't | | | | with the many online advertising platforms available |
| sure. Some are quite confident as they tell me that | | | | today, tracking is that much easier. |
| they always make sure the receptionist, operator, | | | | If you're simply "spreading the word" with your resort |
| hostess, or other person making the first contact with | | | | advertising methods, I would encourage you to start to |
| the guest, asks the potential client how they found their | | | | implement a true resort marketing plan. Remember |
| particular facility. While this tactic is better than what | | | | that you are not Coke or Budweiser. While you can do |
| some hotel owners use to track where their | | | | some branding in conjunction with your marketing |
| customers are coming from, (like those that don't even | | | | efforts, that should never be your primary goal when |
| attempt to track), it is not all that reliable. | | | | placing advertisements. You can start very simply by |
| People often may have seen or heard of your | | | | changing up one of the ads you've been running for |
| establishment from multiple sources, but they will tell | | | | the past year to a direct response ad, and rigorously |
| you the first thing that comes to mind, or what they | | | | tracking the results. Until you find out what is and is not |
| think you might want to hear. The second fault with | | | | working, you will never get the maximum value in your |
| this message has to do with operator/reservation | | | | resort marketing efforts. |