Many businesses have one primary focus, to bring in new customers. Tour and activity operators spend a huge amount of time and money on this, building strategies to encourage guests to purchase experiences with them.
What many brands forget, however, is just how much revenue can be gained from existing customers. Customers who have previously visited your tour or activity business represent a valuable revenue stream - both for repeat bookings and driving new referral bookings when they share photos of your brand and experiences.
To access this revenue stream and drive up profits, tour and activity operators must have a strong remarketing plan in place.
So, what exactly is remarketing, how does your tour or activity business do it and what benefits can it bring your brand? In this blog, Fotaflo will answer all your questions in regards to remarketing and how to do it successfully.
What is remarketing?
Remarketing is simply the act of reconnecting with past customers in an effort to either bring them back to your business, or to encourage them to share their experience with your business so that you can access new referral customers.
It is the act of sending communication, often in the form of emails, to people who have already been a customer of your tour or activity business previously.
Remarketing could involve sending past customers a deal that encourages them to book with your brand again, or sending them photos that remind them of their experience and that they share on social media that drive referral bookings to your website.
Remarketing vs. retargeting
The terms remarketing and retargeting are often used interchangeably, but they are actually two different strategies.
While remarketing focuses on sending communications to past customers to remind them of their experience, retargeting typically comes in the form of online advertising which is targeted to consumers based on their previous internet behaviour.
Retargeting is more about casting a wide net in the hopes that your brand can generate bookings from new prospects, while remarketing is a strategy that identifies your top advocates (known as advocate marketing) and specifically targets them with photo memories that remind them of your brand.
Example of remarketing
To give you a better idea of what remarketing actually is, we’ve created a quick fictional example.
Sean books an experience with your zipline adventure tour company. During the experience with your brand, you take one photo of Sean smiling and having fun - a photo that will remind him of his amazing experience for the rest of his life.
At a later date, you send an email to Sean wishing him a happy birthday along with his photo memory of the experience he had with your zipline brand. Sean remembers his emotions of that day and decides to either rebook a new experience with your company, or share that photo on his social media pages, which leads to his friends and daily booking an experience of their own with your business.
What are the benefits of remarketing for tour operators?
Remarketing is an incredibly important strategy that goes unnoticed by most businesses. In fact, studies show that it’s cheaper to retain a customer than acquire a new one and the probability of selling something to an existing customer is 60-70 percent whereas selling to a new prospect is 5-20 percent.
In reality, it’s often easier to remarket to your past clients than it is to generate new business.
When you implement an effective remarketing strategy, your tour or activity operator will:
- Establish an authentic word-of-mouth marketing strategy
- Increase referral bookings to your business
- Drive up the number of repeat bookings
- Gain exposure for your brand in new markets
- Enhance the guest experience even further through continuous engagement
- Engage customers that visited your business years ago!
How tour and activity operators can remarket to their guests
So, how exactly can you encourage previous customers to rebook with your brand and share their experience with their friends and family through remarketing? We’ve listed three key steps here:
▶️ Step 1 - Establish which customers you’re going to target
The first step in remarketing to past customers is to identify which customers it would be most effective for you to target. These past customers will be the most engaged with your business, and have a strong social following that can help you generate new leads.
When you identify who your brand advocates are, you can encourage them to share photos of their experiences to their family and friends. This will increase the reach of your brand and help you generate social referrals.
▶️ Step 2 - Share photo memories with your advocates
Now that you’ve identified your top advocates, it’s time to implement an effective photo marketing strategy. There really is no better way to capture memories of experiences and remind your past customers of those emotions than through the power of photo memories.
In fact, remarketing to your past tour and activity customers through photos is hugely beneficial. It can help you attract new customers, bring back repeat business, improve the quality of online reviews and boost your profitability.
Not sure what photo you should be sharing with your past customers? Read this blog, on the one photo every tour and activity guest wants from their experience.
▶️ Step 3 - Analyze the results
KPIs and metrics are the foundation of any successful remarketing program. That’s why your business should have an easy way to measure the results of your remarketing program - who are your top advocates? What went well with your remarketing plan? What can you improve?
When you can see how your remarketing emails performed in the past, you are then able to use that information to make improvements that drive even better results in the future.
Interested in learning more? Get in touch with Fotaflo today. We’ve developed an innovative photo marketing platform that helps tour and activity operators grow their business through the power of photo marketing.
