Destinations around the globe are struggling with a single question:
What the hell do I do now? Do I advertise or go dark and save dollars.
Here is our answer.
...How a DMO can Sell Greatly by programming or influencing a first time visitor’s destination experience to maximize the value for both the visitor and the destination marketing organization.
...We all want the Google Juice. We’ve been told it’s the silver bullet to inbound marketing success. But we’re wrong. The only way to truly Google Proof your website, and your online marketing efforts, is Propinquity. Today we’ll talk about why propinquity marketing is a better long-term strategy vs the classic Google/Inbound strategy for most …
Travel planning is entirely different today than say even 10 years ago. Today’s travelers are invisible prospects to you and your marketing team, often until after they’ve made their vacation destination selection. Combine that with a consumer whose needs are more complex, stresses more numerous and media choices that have literally exploded over the last …
What Is A Social Sales Force? Simply put, a social sales force is comprised of motivated, unpaid ambassadors and influencers — what we at Converse Digital call Social Agents. Social Agents introduce you to prospective visitors online through Facebook posts, Instagram pics and Twitter taunts telling everyone how much fun they’re having. And they don’t …
What if I told you I could create a 161% change in consumer perception by simply changing the background of a headshot photo? Would you believe me? Would you believe that something so small could cause such a massive improvement in your consumer marketing programs? And not just any perception, a meaningful one — the …
Mardi Gras has, and continues to be, one of the most well known, interesting and misunderstood free festivals in the world. An enormous content marketing and digital marketing opportunity for brands — think brand activation, content creation, brand awareness, social media opportunities and good old fashioned sales incentives trips — Mardi Gras offers it all. …
Instagram’s new Hyperlapse IOS app is taking the tourism content marketing world by storm. Heck, it’s got everyone’s attention. Almost overnight (after its release) my Facebook feed switched from a never ending stream of ice bucket challenges to Hypersnap videos. But here are three reasons I recommend brands, and tourism destination marketers in particular, steer clear of …
Last week at #SoMeT13US, I had the opportunity to share my take on a key tourism sales and marketing strategy that I think all destinations should be deploying immediately. I talked about how DMOs and CVBs could find and win the invisible sales lead by leveraging proven social selling techniques. I thought you might find it …
This post is a reprint of a post I wrote after returning from my first overseas trip in 2010 to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, where I conducted a series of social media workshops. If you want to read the entire series (this is the third and final post) I’ve included links to view the original …
Should we be on [insert name of new or hot social network here]? This is easily the most common question our digital strategy clients pose to us. Unfortunately, the answer is always the same — it depends. In the case of popular photo sites Instagram versus Pinterest, the data is pretty clear around which social …
Are you struggling with developing your mobile marketing strategy? If you are, you’re not alone. Mobile Strategy Keynote presentations are probably one of the most requested topics I’m receiving lately. Just as marketers have begun to really feel comfortable with their Social Media Strategies, mobile has burst on the scene and once again has a …
Quick – which did you see — a duck or a rabbit? What you just experienced was a gestalt system in action or more specifically the principal of Multistability. However, what should really have your attention is this: if a simple black & white line drawing can represent two entirely different meanings without so much …
Converse Digital’s EXCLUSIVE Mobile Benchmarking Report for Destination Marketing Organizations of all sizes is now available for FREE. This report reviews the Top 200 US Markets and answers key questions DMO’s and CVB’s are asking today. We analyzed the Top 200 markets to help Destination Marketing Organizations benchmark their mobile readiness against the industry as …
Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at the SoMeT — Tourism Symposium in Loudoun, VA. I’m really excited about this presentation because I’ll largely be addressing client side tourism marketers. I’m looking forward to hearing their thoughts on my hypothesis that their content calendars might actually be hampering the effectiveness of their social media and content marketing efforts. I’m …
If there is one thing that binds all marketers together, it’s lack of enough marketing budget to properly fund all of your marketing efforts to create an optimum marketing mix. This is especially true for brands and destinations engaged in international marketing. Over the last few years I’ve experimented with combining brands and social media …
Today I’m off to Curitiba, Brazil, a city I’d never heard of prior to being invited to come there and speak about using social media to alter brand perception for destinations and festivals. But what makes this even more interesting is what you find when you virtually visit Curitiba as I did with my kids …
This weekend I was reading the Wall Street Journal and came across this Florida Tourism ad. No doubt, it’s part of the effort that all Gulf Coast states are undertaking right now to fend off summer vacation cancellations due to the oil spill. On one hand I applaud the simplicity. There is no concept here…it’s …