How can Digital Marketing affect Local Tourism?

So far we have been discussing everything about digital marketing. Our discussions included several topics; the many strategies and tools of Digital marketing, its advantages, and its different characteristics when compared to traditional marketing.
We also talked about how the different digital strategies are integrated and should all work together in harmony and all.

We have never mentioned the real reasons that have lead to the rise of digital marketing and affected the overall marketing strategy outlook and direction towards many sectors, out of which, Local Tourism.

Internet has evolved from being just an entertainment tool to being something really indispensable in our daily life. Starting from e-commerce websites to social media networks, it is certainly defining our lives today.
Besides, our modern, busy and hectic lifestyles, require having quick solutions to all of our problems and having smart answers to our simplest questions.
Printed materials no longer grab our attention. Instead, a smart pop-up ad might be of so much more benefit and solve one of the problems we had without us even being aware of its existence.

A pop-up ad for a hotel in Mykonos for example, will remind us of how desperately we need that vacation and how affordable it is now after the 10% special discount. As a result, we will think about that vacation unconsciously until we finally book the ticket!!
That’s where the initial power of digital Marketing lies.

In fact, the example above is so realistic. It also helps us explain and justify the reasons why local tourism was one of the first sectors to benefit from the digital world.
Yet, with the amount of traffic in the digital world, the real question remains; how can local tourism stand out in such a huge competition?!

The switch to Mobile Bookings

Research has shown that people perform most of the travel and tour bookings individually, through Mobile phones instead of referring to private booking agencies!
Travel agencies and Hotels, or any travel/tourism related firms must take this growth in the quantity of smartphone users into consideration and respectively focus on their mobile marketing strategies. Thus, create more mobile-friendly websites and applications.

User Experience and Online Reviews

It is so accurate to say that we live in an era, where people engage with other people’s shared content and react upon other people’s shared experiences.
In other words, it’s all about the word of mouth, which is made possible by agencies sharing user generated content through several travel and booking based platforms such as TripAdvisor, Expedia, yelp… that highly depend on people’s unique and authentic reviews and comments.

Ranking your business higher using Local SEO

Before elaborating this point, knowing the difference between working with Local SEO and working with a regular SEO campaign is critical. After accomplishing the two previous points in this article; your mobile marketing strategies and the creation of a user friendly platform that’s based on a user-generated content, you will want your business to rank on the top of the search listings.
How can that be possible? Let’s go through some useful tips to help you rank the highest that you will ever can.

• Create your Google My Business profile, including a clear description of your business, High resolution photos, your exact business address and phone number, your business category (example, travel/Hotel/Restaurant…) and most importantly honest customer reviews.
• Make sure that your Business citation, Address and Phone number (NAP), are consistent. They must be in the same format as mentioned in your own website. This is important when you get listed on other local directories such as Yelp and TripAdvisor.
• Acquire genuine local reviews from your customers. Don't focus only on Google Reviews, but on all of the platforms or directories where your business exists.  For instance, you can motivate your loyal customers to review your business by offering them special discounts.
• Optimize your web page using the best Local OnPage SEO strategies. Invest your efforts on a well-designed web page to have a featured snippet on Google and be in the top ranks.

When it comes to implementing digital marketing strategies for local tourism, optimizing your local search will highly affect your business’ performance and listing.

After following all the tips in this article, you will be able to stand out in the crowd eventually. It actually might sound hard and complicated. That’s why you can always outsource and hire a Digital Marketing agency or let Aragil Marketing Agency do the job for guaranteed results!