When it comes to growing their business and generating new bookings, the vast majority of tour, activity and attraction operators rely on word-of-mouth, ads, and Google search rankings to reach new prospects.
But did you know there’s a far more effective way to grow your business?
The implementation of a photo marketing strategy can help you reach new customers, leverage the support of your past customers and even improve the guest experience - making you more competitive with other businesses in your area.
In this blog, we take a look at what experiential photo marketing is and why it’s so important for your tour, activity or attraction business.
What is photo marketing?
Photo marketing is the process of capturing photo (and video) memories of your customers, and then providing those photos to your customers in a seamless way that enables them to share these memories with friends and family through social media, SMS and email.
Photo marketing offers significantly more benefits to activity, tour and attraction operators than the traditional process of selling photos as souvenirs.
That’s because selling photos is difficult, time-consuming, expensive and doesn’t provide your business with the benefits that come with a robust photo marketing strategy.
Want to learn more about why selling photos is ineffective? Read our blog, Why You Shouldn't Sell Photos as Part of Your Travel Marketing Program.
Why photo marketing is critical for activity, attraction and tour operators
Your business will realize a significant number of benefits when you implement photo marketing into its day-to-day processes. Here are some of the top ways in which photo marketing will help grow your business.
1. Use positive customer memories to grow brand awareness on social media
One of the biggest opportunities for businesses today is social media. That’s because social media channels give brands a massive word-of-mouth marketing opportunity, by reaching more potential customers than ever before.
By sharing amazing photo memories with your customers that they want to share on social media, you can benefit from how photo marketing generates more visibility for your business on the top social channels.
Going one step further, using a photo marketing service (such as Fotaflo) gives you more control of the photos your customers share online. By sending them to a company branded webpage that has their photos, and includes call-to-actions to share these photos by email or social media, you can encourage your past customers to share these memories in a way that converts more prospects looking for the same experience.
2. Improve your guest experience and stand out from your competitors
The tour, attraction and activity space is highly competitive. Not only do you need to market yourself to new customers, you also need to make your brand more appealing than the other competitors operating in your area.
A photo marketing strategy will help you stand out for several reasons. Firstly, you aren’t holding your customers’ memories hostage by making them pay, which adds friction to this important relationship. Secondly, customers will be able to fully enjoy the experience with your brand, knowing that when you are taking photos of them, it’s a free service that your business provides.
Customers will recognize and appreciate the effort your brand has put into taking and providing them with wonderful photo memories at no additional cost. Memories that they can keep forever, and share with their friends.
3. Let past customers market for you
In a world that is saturated by businesses pushing their products onto the customer, there is no more effective marketing method than empowering your customers to tell your brand’s story.
Prospects are far more likely to book a tour or activity with your business if the experience has been promoted by someone they trust, rather than your own brand.
Let your customers have fun sharing your brand’s experiences through incredible photos. All you have to do is simply provide free photos (that are easy to share) of your customers having a great time.
4. Use customer memories to encourage repeat bookings
Businesses spend a lot of money finding new customers, but past customers are just as valuable. Not only can they help spread the word of your brand, but they also can become repeat customers.
By using photo marketing to remind your past customers of the amazing experience they had with your brand, you can encourage them to book activities with your business again in the future.
5. Earn customer credibility
One of the benefits of a photo marketing strategy, in which you use real photos of past customers having fun, is that it will help your brand earn customer credibility.
The use of photos taken by your company instead of stock imagery shows potential customers that you are legitimate. The more you can show authentic experiences of your customers, the more trust you will earn from prospects.
Are you interested in learning more about building a photo marketing strategy that grows your business? Book a demo to learn more about the Fotaflo platform today.
