New Tools Destination Marketers Should Know About

If you’re a destination marketer, you probably have your trusty set of tools that help you draw visitors to your destination – likely a mix of social advertising, print advertising, billboards, content marketing and more. But in the quickly-evolving world of technology and digital marketing, there are always more tools to be harnessed. Whether your visitation numbers have been stalling or you simply want to get ahead (and stay ahead) of your competitors, it’s always good to stay up-to-date on new tools that are available to you.

Now, new doesn’t always mean worth it. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the ones that we think are truly worth considering for your next campaign. 

Arrivalist 

At PRIME, Arrivalist has been blowing our minds lately. It’s a geo-location intelligence tool that’s 3 parts amazing and 1 part creepy – but the information gleaned is invaluable. It enables marketers to better understand the in-market movement patterns of both their current and prospective consumers. Put in layman's terms, it analyzes the movement of travelers through their smartphones to better understand who’s coming to your destination, where they’re coming from, what type of transportation they’re taking and what their travel habits and activities are. 

DMOs can also target potential visitors with advertisements and then track whether or not those visitors book a flight or drive to your destination, creating a clear measure of ROI on ad spending. This relatively new technology probably has several other uses that have yet to be discovered, and we can’t wait to dive in further.

Streaming Service Advertising

While advertising on streaming services like Spotify, Hulu and Pandora isn’t anything new, DMOs are just now starting to tap into it and realize its full potential. Just like with most other advertising services, your ads can be paired with podcasts, shows or users that fit your target demographic. Some services like Hulu also allow you to target geographic regions. 

Streaming is becoming more and more common as people listen to podcasts and music during their everyday activities and commutes, and more people steer away from cable television towards streaming apps. It’s a great way to spark your audience’s interest while in their leisure hours or with a partner that they may want to vacation with. This kind of advertising is ideal for DMOs that have relatively large spending budgets, as a good starting budget for one of these services is around $5,000. 

Here are some companies you can reach out to about advertising on streaming services to find the right match for you:

• Hulu
• SXM Media (Pandora, SiriusXM and Stitcher)
• Spotify
• YouTube TV
• Podcast networks like Gimlet Media, Wondery and ​​WNYC Studios

Sojern

Sojern is a company that strategically places your destination’s ads on a variety of travel-focused channels based on people’s searching habits. Sojern does the targeting for you so that you don’t have to seek out the best places to advertise on your own. They place ads through several mediums including social media, metasearch, search engines and programmatic channels like Roku and Hulu. The platform makes it easy for you to measure your economic impact with helpful return on ad spend (ROAS) reports that are helpful to see how their advertising influences our local market. Sojern has packages tailored to DMOs and CVBs, and its staff knows the industry well, so they can easily speak the same language and quickly understand your goals.

Influencer Marketing Tools

Influencer marketing is something to try if you’re looking to grow your reach to new audiences. Instead of trying to reach them directly, have an influencer (someone the audience trusts) reach them for you. People commonly choose travel destinations based on recommendations from people they know, either personally or digitally. So when someone sees an influencer they identify with having a beautiful vacation in your destination, they’re likely to want to visit as well. 

Brands previously had to directly reach out to influencers to ask them to create and share content about their product or service. Now, there are tools that connect you with influencers all over the world, across all social channels. There are hundreds of these tools, but a couple that are known to work well for travel and tourism are Upfluence and TRIBE. Both connect you with their list of influencers that meet your preferences and allow you to collaborate with them on content. 

Not every new tool that enters the market will work for every brand. It all depends on your budget, your goals and your audience. That said, it’s good to stay in-the-know so you can be ready to incorporate new tools into your marketing strategy when the time is right. 

Don’t have the expertise or resources to constantly look for the latest digital marketing tools? Reach out to us at PRIME. We’ve got plenty of experience helping DMO clients find and use the tools that get them the most bang for their buck.

If you enjoyed this edition of PRIME Pulse, take a look at some of our other related articles:

• Why Blogging is Key to Destination Marketing
• 5 Reasons Your Website is Never Really Done
• 9 Types of Paid Advertising to Use for Destination Marketing
• 4 Questions to Ask When Branding a Destination