By Bee Digital
About Bee Digital: Bee Digital is a digital marketing agency in Maldives that specializes in social media marketing, search marketing (SEO), content marketing, marketing automation and web development.
Bee Digital’s services specifically designed for the tourism industry can facilitate you in reaching potential customers and help you introduce your products and services to increase sales. Contact Bee Digital at: marketing@orcamedia.goup
Since the introduction of internet, most of the business in the tourism industry uses digital marketing. However, the use of digital marketing platforms, the level of importance and priority given to digital marketing is much lesser compare to traditional marketing. The budget assigned for traditional marketing is much higher than digital marketing budget.
COVID-19 pandemic has made businesses re-think their marketing strategies and the mediums used. The need for digital marketing have been felt like never before in the tourism industry which also plays a crucial role in the sustainability of the businesses.
The tourism industry is one of the hardest-hit by COVID-19 pandemic. With the travel restrictions and a national lock down in place, all the tourist hotels, airlines, restaurants and other tourist establishments around the globe are closed down. Many of the employees working in the tourism industry are forced to stay at home and some has to work from home without a clear idea of when can be back to normal operation. As the tourism businesses are closed down and employees have plenty of time away from work life, this could be the perfect time to be thinking about how to move forward with your business, adapt your business offering to the market (for the immediate future), and be ready to run in the post COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are marketing strategies businesses in the industry can adapt to improve the digital marketing, which can help businesses mitigate the damages and recover from COVID-19 pandemic.
As travel is on pause, those who are working in the marketing and decision-making roles have plenty of time to think about the current situation and future. Therefore, this is the best time to go through the current digital marketing strategies, asses its success rate and review those strategies. In order to asses and analyses the performance of digital marketing platforms, business can use analyzing tools such as Google Analytics for websites, Facebook insights for Facebook account, Instagram analytics for Instagram account to collect the data which will be helpful to plan digital marketing strategies for your business. Moreover, business can get the help from digital marketing agencies to do the work for them.
After collecting analytics and reviewed them, prepare a digital marketing strategy based on the findings. Renewed digital marketing strategy should be based on the current situation and future. It is a plan of how, what, when and which mediums of communication can be used to communicate with existing customers and potential customers during the lockdown and post COVID-19 pandemic.
Upon completion of the digital marketing plan, plan out content, topics or themes for a few weeks or few months ahead. Marketing managers and those who are working in marketing field can get ideas and suggestions from your colleagues by having a conference call or Zoom meeting. They can also get help from a digital marketing agency or can get ideas from online dedicated apps specially for digital marketing.
In order to create content for social media, marketing managers can get content ideas from their colleagues by having brainstorming session via Zoom or get them to create some content and send it for posting. Quality content on social media platforms play a crucial role to attract customers to the business. Therefore, quality of the pictures, videos, writeups content matters. Creating quality content which your audience can connect takes time and is often not given priority in businesses. Those business who don’t have in-house can get external marketing support from the content creation agency or digital marketing agency to create quality contents for marketing.
Keep in mind that pictures, videos, writeups characterizes your business. Therefore, content should be positive, caring and kind. Existing customers and potential customers will remember the personal or human element of the content. This is what helps to create a sense of trust and encourages people to stay with you or fly with you or to buy your product/services when they are ready.
After creating content it’s time to post and have engagement with customers. Since all the businesses are closed temporarily, it is important to let your customers know that your business is alive, it is essential to stay in the minds of your audience, even if there is no tourist in the property or airlines are not flying into the country.
Last two months or more, almost everyone have been staying at home scrolling through social media platforms more than ever before, as internet is one of the only ways to “socially interact” with friends and family. Moreover, people are stuck at home without work, they have plenty of time to go through social media and other platforms. This is the golden opportunity for the hospitality businesses to reach out to your existing and potential customers. So be active on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. Try to engage with your audience by posting pictures or stories of your property on social media platforms. This will let them know that you are still alive and will keep your business in their mind. Once the nations lockdowns are eased and bookings are opened the first property to spend holiday or airline to fly with could be yours.
Above mentioned are the marketing strategies businesses in tourism industry can implement during current COVID-19 pandemic to improve digital marketing results (especially on social media), to engage with existing and potential customers and to be ready to welcome guests, customers and clients back when tourism industry returns to its new normal.
