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I have a unique fun adventure travel site thats opening up this week and I'm looking for ways to market it.
One thing we are trying to do is get editorials and features. We feel we have a good interesting topic that writers would love to write about.
We also plan to do some article marketing. Any tips for that?
But besides these, were stuck. We want to reach people all across the country, but were having a hard time with our somewhat limited budget. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Here are a few free options:
Social media. You don't have to be everywhere in the social media world (in fact, it's better if you're not). Choose a couple things to really focus on like Twitter and Facebook. Add to the community, post fun things (not just business stuff) so that people can tell your company has a personality, and use it to promote unique things with your company.
Blog. I think just having a blog about what your company does wouldn't be interesting enough to attract people. Like you said, you have a good, interesting topic, so just do posts on that. Those writers who do features and stuff—their articles could be put on the blog. The point is, you provide useful or interesting content and drive people to the site. Then, you can leverage that traffic to make announcements about your company and highlight things.
Article marketing...but you already knew about that one, apparently. Ezine articles and Helium are two free places to submit articles, but there are tons of others, too. If you have a blog, you can guest post on other blogs, especially ones that are targeted at your niche, which could be valuable, too.
Remember, each of these things requires some time to really get going and offer a lot of value, so don't get frustrated when you aren't seeing huge results in the first few months.
Hope that helps at least a little!
Hi baconman,
Are you on Facebook? Go research your competitors and find out if they have a presence on Facebook. Take note of all the pages you find so you can return to them if necessary.
Then, if you don't already have one, make a page for your own business and make sure to dress it up with a nice shot of your logo.
One free approach to this method - *friend* people who interact on your competitors page and introduce yourself as someone with similar interest in adventure travel - photos of exotic places might be attractive to the people you meet.
Get these people to *Like* your business' page and promote your site with it.
A not-so-free, but not terribly expensive approach: You can also build a following by using Facebook advertising and targeting people who like your competitors pages. If you're directing traffic to something on Facebook, it's way less expensive than if you direct people off the site.
Just as a heads up, any time you use pay-per-click advertising, you're responsible for budgeting wisely.
Social media is your best bet. But, I've heard the FB ads aren't effective. However, setting up a page and running a contest on your FB page can generate buzz. Watch the rules. Then, promote the contest on Twitter using #giveaway or #freebie.
With social media, you need to read up on the right and wrong ways to do it. You need to be human.
That said, sometimes some spam helps. I set up a secondary account on Twitter I used for that and it actually worked. You need an auto twitter software (cheap, maybe free). Follow people with key words in their profiles or who fit your demographics. When they follow back, the auto software sends a direct message. Be very creative with that message - it's your chance to get a visitor.
I also believe in blog reviews. Just be sure the bloggers have good traffic. Find ones you like and ask them if they'd be interested in doing a review. Most don't charge (and have to disclose if they do), but they expect free product/membership in return.
Good luck!
Having just helped create www.DolomitesWalkingTours.com for world-class professional travel guide Gary Scott, I'm wondering what consideration you gave to your site from an SEO perspective. How optimized is your site?
For your tours, who's your target market? There's a distinct difference between marketing to seniors and to youth - and any age in-between.
I always encourage people to consider the long-tail effect of any online PR campaign. While you might gain some short term benefit, Google has a vested interest in quality search engine results pages; devaluing content farms is one of its most visible actions recently. You might see some initial benefit from article promotion, but based on the recent stance of major search engines, it's not likely to last.
You might try issuing a press release via a true news wire service such as our's, if your goal is to attract media attention and gain valuable backlinks from online sources. Your press release would be available on sources such as Google News, news syndicators and aggregators. You'll have the most affordable access to professional copywriters with journalism experience in the industry, so you can ensure your content meets the quality standards of the editors who receive your news. If you want to reach a higher level, consider an expert edit of content you write.
Remember that marketing is a process - taking a single action and expecting that to be the answer to all your needs would be unrealistic.
We're always happy to provide ideas for targeting. Let us know how else we can help?
Regards,
Melanie
how much are you focusing on basic SEO and internet marketing? i'd get those out of the way before delving into facebook, etc. build a strong foundation so your growth is sustainable and does not only rest on the success of other platforms like facebook
baconman,
There are already some great suggestions above so I won't rehash what's already been said. I just wanted to offer a couple of thoughts. First, if you do decide to go use Twitter I recommend looking at HootSuite as a great tool to help you organize your campaign. Second, I know it's counter-intuitive in the days of global reach with the internet, but have you considered launching a guerrilla marketing campaign using inexpensive "old-school" methods to establish your business locally in San Francisco?
P.S. I like your user ID made me smile :)
Best of Luck!
Jon Stojan
Social Media (facebook, twitter)
Video Marketing( youtube)
Article Marketing
I believe those are the best ways to market
your travel site if you are on a budget.
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I have my own business and I am thinking about using a blog to market it. Would you recommend using a blog to market a business?
Here are a few free options:
Social media. You don't have to be everywhere in the social media world (in fact, it's better if you're not). Choose a couple things to really focus on like Twitter and Facebook. Add to the community, post fun things (not just business stuff) so that people can tell your company has a personality, and use it to promote unique things with your company.
Blog. I think just having a blog about what your company does wouldn't be interesting enough to attract people. Like you said, you have a good, interesting topic, so just do posts on that. Those writers who do features and stuff—their articles could be put on the blog. The point is, you provide useful or interesting content and drive people to the site. Then, you can leverage that traffic to make announcements about your company and highlight things.
Article marketing...but you already knew about that one, apparently. Ezine articles and Helium are two free places to submit articles, but there are tons of others, too. If you have a blog, you can guest post on other blogs, especially ones that are targeted at your niche, which could be valuable, too.
Remember, each of these things requires some time to really get going and offer a lot of value, so don't get frustrated when you aren't seeing huge results in the first few months.
Hope that helps at least a little!
These are actually great suggestions that you can probably try. There's a lot of great ways that you can actually market your site online. You can even consider submitting your website to great directory sites aside from article submissions. Try every option you can think of, there' s actually no harm in trying. ;)
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