A Styrofoam replica of Stonehenge? Going! A house made of paper? Gotta see that! The Clown Motel? Staying the night! Whether it’s a weird roadside attraction like one of these or more traditional travel destinations like amusement parks and museums – if you build it, people will come. But the challenge for most owners is getting new visitors and loyal customers coming through their doors in droves, day after day, year after year. To continually build your business and drive steady foot traffic to your location, try our top 5 destination marketing digital strategies: 1. Reach Current Visitors and Prospects With Your First-Party Data First-party data is a rich resource you should value above all other data. To take advantage of your first-party data, start by segmenting interested prospects and past visitors based on their individual motivations, interests and intentions. Create custom messaging and offers to appeal to each segment in your list. For instance, add exclusive new benefits to a premier sales package or subscription to make loyal customers want to claim VIP status. Or send a “Welcome Back! We’ve Missed You! Here’s What’s New!” message to those people on your list who visited during the past year but have not returned since. Regularly target all different people on your list – prospects, visitors, loyal customers and super fans – by developing exclusive content made just for them, such as tailored quizzes and polls, challenges and contests, and special promotions and coupons. This will give you plenty of opportunities to connect with your audience in personal and engaging ways while helping you enhance your first-party data profiles too. 2. Reach Tourists and Locals With Mobile Marketing When tourists and locals are on the go and on their phones, reach them with mobile marketing. Use mobile geofencing to target tourists or locals based on their GPS coordinates, zip code, city, county or DMA. When your digital advertising appears on mobile sites or apps they’re viewing and they’re close by, they may be more apt to visit. Or use mobile conquesting to target your competitors’ audiences. Consumers visiting a popular or competing attraction may make a special trip to stop off at your locale if they know about it. Another way to achieve good destination marketing results is to use mobile retargeting to advertise special promotions or discounts to those people who have visited your attraction in the past or already researched you online. 3. Reach Everyone in the Family With Digital Advertising Parents? Kids? Teens? Sometimes, it’s hard to know who in the family will have the final say in the destination decision. Here’s how to get your brand and message out to every family member: Reach parents with behavioral targeting segments or by advertising on parenting websites. To reach kids and teens, advertise across a range of children’s TV websites, YouTube channels, free music platforms or popular social networks. But be careful how you advertise to minors. Know what you can and can’t do according to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act [COPPA]. (These rules prevent most forms of data collection on children younger than 13.) To speak to everyone in the family at once, try household extension targeting, which lets you advertise simultaneously across all desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile phones in the same household. 4. Reach Ideal Customers With Search Campaigns To get in front of ideal customers still out there, launch a destination marketing search campaign. Consumers who are actively searching for similar destinations online, may reconsider their plans if your search ad pops up in time. Targeting in-market searchers specifically with countdown ads can increase urgency and spur action. For instance, you can show searchers how many days are left before an exhibit closes or how much time is left before a promotion expires. To make the process easier, set up automatic advertising updates based on day or time. 5. Reach Indecisive Prospects With a Polished Website Will they or won’t they? Sometimes, it’s a tossup. Prospects can be fickle. To make it more likely they WILL visit, put all the details they need to decide on a polished and easy-to-navigate website. Include videos, customer testimonials, thorough Q&A, ticket prices and packages, coupon codes, hours, parking, driving directions, etc. Then people know what to expect before they choose to make the journey. As you implement these 5 destination marketing strategies, reach out to us. We can give you the latest industry insights to grow your digital knowledge and provide the right ad tech tools and expert advice to revolutionize your business and turn your steady foot traffic into constant crowds.