As a long-time lover of the South Coast and proud Poole resident, I meet a lot of Dorset travel businesses facing unique challenges when it comes to their marketing. Local travel and tourism providers come up against competition within the region, limited marketing budgets, and a reliance on word of mouth to get customers. But social media marketing for Dorset travel businesses is changing the game, setting off a beautiful tidal wave of discoverability and visibility to the tourists and local people who are ready to buy from you.Â
I’m Yasmin and I’m here to help you make a splash with your social media marketing for your Dorset based travel business, by building a strong community and trusted online presence. Tap the button below to find out how we can work together through my done-for-you content marketing services, or collabs and partnerships: Browse or travel marketing services or scroll on to dive in!
Contents:
Social Media Marketing For Dorset Travel Businesses: In a Coconut Shell
I’ve gathered 5 fronds from the social media marketing palm tree - these are my favourite ways socials can transform your local Dorset based travel and tourism business. We’re going to get into:
Building a community
Creating a turtley convincing content strategyÂ
Collaborating and leveraging local influencers
Promotions
User-generated content
Using the power of local social media, your business can not only survive but thrive here on our beautiful coastline.Â
Community building through social media marketing for Dorset travel businesses
Just like the ocean’s perfectly balanced ecosystem, it’s important to nurture a community in your own social media space. It’s just as important as looking after your active customers, because you never know who’s ‘lurking’ and just waiting for the right moment to buy from you.Â
A social media community for your Dorset travel business helps you connect with people, build relationships and have conversations that put you at the forefront of their minds. Aloha, discoverability!
My favourite ways to nurture a social media community are:
Engaging with your followers through both their and your Instagram stories
Replying to DMs and comments
Creating polls and other interactive opportunities to gather opinions and spark connections
Consistently posting updates, keeping people in the loop in an authentic way, and sharing fun and digestible content about your area are all winning ideas. It’s also a good idea to spend at least 15-30 minutes every day engaging with your social media tribe - likeability is just as important as a great product, service or offering.
Social media content strategy for Dorset based tourism businesses
A well-planned content strategy can help speed up the time between someone finding out about you, and choosing to buy from you or use one of your services. Simplifying the content strategy aspect is key to beating overwhelm, and also helps your audience actually digest what you’re posting.Â
There’s nothing worse than following what should be a great account, then finding out none of their posts have a flow or theme and jump around from topic to topic. It all starts with content ‘pillars’, helping you loop content topics that are of interest to your audience and keep you focused.
My top tip? Set your goals for social media for your local travel business, create your ‘pillars’ from there and map out your plan - keep it simple e.g. 3 posts per week, 3 story posts per day.Â
If you want to deep-dive on this, take a look at the 5 As of Travel Marketing to help you spark wanderlust with your content:
Collaborating with and leveraging local influencers
Just like the moon’s pull on the tides, there is so much power in collaborating with real, local people (‘realfluencers’!) to experience and shout about your business. It’s a form of referral marketing for your Dorset travel business, and fun fact:
People are 4x more likely to buy when they’ve been referred by a friend.Â
I know, I know…you don’t have a big marketing budget. No problem! Choosing the right people such as microinfluencers who don’t have as many followers but DO have great engagement or community activity is a winning strategy.Â
Why not invite them to stay at your staycation home, experience your jet ski ride or give them a big discount on an experience day, in exchange for a blog, content creation or a social media shoutout.
Sharing promotions for your Dorset travel business
Your social media channels are the perfect place to shout about any deals or promotions you’re currently running, attracting the attention of tourists and locals who are in the area already. Even when the Instagram algorithm feels like it’s working against you and engagement is low, your followers will still see your posts! My tip is to share shoals of seasonal offers, flash sales, early-bird discounts and deals as posts AND in your stories for maximum exposure.
How to use user-generated content in your social media marketing
I’m giving a huge ‘shell yeah!’ to sharing customer expereinces, and user-generated-content (UCG) is a whaley awesome way of doing this. Any time someone tags your business, writes a review or gives feedback on their experience, it all counts as UCG.
Be aware that you do need their permission to re-share their content, but there’s no harm in asking them to tag you on their socials when they’re sharing moments from their trip, stay or experience!
I have several options available for social media marketing support for Dorset travel and tourism businesses, which you can explore HERE. Browse my options and request a quote, and let’s wow your audience with scroll-stopping content that sells - my on-trend creative approaches and services will help this feel like plain sailing all the way.
Fancy an in person coffee or a chat about your marketing your Dorset business? Get in touch and say aloha!
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