Tourism operators often try and sell their own services and products without selling the area at the same time. But tourists usually want to know what attractions are available in the area they are going to, not just the place they are staying. In fact, an interesting area is almost always the deciding factor in planning their trips.

One of the benefits of being part of a route is that areas can be marketed together. This means that people are drawn into the area first, before individual operators start competing for their share of the market. Visitors need to be made aware of the area and its attractions, so they can decide that this where they want to spend their hard-earned money. Before this can be done, however, you need to know what exactly you are selling and who your target market is.

A marketing plan will help to do this.

This Guide will explain what must go into an effective marketing plan, so that the route can attract more customers to the area – to the benefit of all members there. It will explain how to write a marketing plan, what you should include in your plan, and how to monitor and review your marketing performance. It provides useful hints and tips, as well as sources of further information.

A marketing plan must achieve one or more of these aims:

• Attracting more customers to the route.
• Increasing the average sales made by route members.
• Ensuring your route visitors buy from members more often.
• Ensuring repeat visits from visitors (customers).

The marketing plan for your route does not have to be too long, and you shouldn’t be overly concerned with making your plan too complicated. The shorter and clearer it is, the better, so that everyone can understand it.

Why is a marketing plan important?

Sadly, most small organisations do not have a marketing plan, but focusing on your marketing effort is one of the most effective ways for your route to survive and thrive, especially in increasingly competitive times. This is because a good marketing plan can:

• Get you more visitors and customers
• Get inactive visitors to come back
• Get your current visitors to buy more.

By developing a marketing plan for your route, the Route Forum is collectively marketing these smaller organisations as well as the larger organisation.

It will also allow you to take advantage of all the know-how, thinking and underutilised assets that you own but are not fully exploiting. By bringing your knowledge together in a plan, you will identify all the actions and tactics you need to achieve your marketing objectives with an implementation timetable.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan describes your target market and your customers so that you can better understand what they want. It will also then build on this information to plan the best ways of reaching them with products, services and experiences they will be most likely to buy at a price that they can afford.

Defining your market

Your marketing plan should provide detailed information about your target audience – this is the market you are aiming at with your product or service. A profitable market consists of people who genuinely have a need or desire for the products, services and experiences sold on your route, and will jump at the chance to buy it when you offer it to them.

For instance, most routes will want to target as least two traveler types: tourists who travel by road and business people who travel by road. You need to think about what your route can offer to each of these segments.

Your plan should typically answer the following questions about your target audience:

• Are there segments in your market that are currently underserved? For instance, does the route cater for business travellers (upmarket accommodation, meeting rooms or conference facilities?)
• Are the segments you are aiming at big enough to bring substantial business to your route?
• Does your route face too much competition for certain segments? (Is it more sensible to target low-budget travellers rather than business people, for instance?)
• What are the services or products that your route can offer that travellers cannot get easily in other areas (scenery, certain outdoor activities, certain fruit or vegetables, etc.)?

Understanding your customers

Knowing your customers intimately is the key first step to effective marketing. To prepare a marketing plan, you must know exactly:

• Who your customers could be.
• What they would want from your route.
• What will motivate them to come to your area and spend time there; in other words, what do they want to do there?

To help you really understand your customers, your marketing plan should answer the following questions:

• What are the demographic characteristics of your target customers, in terms of age, gender, income, hobbies, ethnicity, and so on?
• Who is the primary buyer and who has the primary influence in the purchasing process? These may not always be the same person. When marketing to families, for instance, should you target the husband or the wife? When marketing to businesses, should you target the CEOs or the administrators? (Ask the question: who makes the decisions and arrangements for company travel?)
• What habits do your target customers have? For instance, where do they get the information to help them make decisions? Is it from television, newspapers, specialist magazines or the internet?
• What are the main emotional motivators that will make someone consider visiting your route? Relaxation, excitement, saving money? What else?

Identifying your market niche

For most small organisations, the best marketing plans concentrate on supplying products and services to customer groups that fit the lifestyle (psychographic) and demographic (such as age, gender, occupation or income) profiles of your target market. In other words, if you define your market as everybody and anybody, then it is hard to focus your limited marketing budget.

Your marketing plan should outline how you will carve out your specific niche and how you aim to dominate it. By defining the niche and narrowing your market focus, you will find you can spread the awareness of your route more quickly. It will also become easier and cheaper to contact potential visitors, and you will almost certainly face less competition.

Developing your marketing message

Once you have identified your target market audience and profiled your niche customers, you will need to focus on developing your marketing message. This should explain what your route offers and should persuade people to visit.

There are generally two types of marketing message. One is short, to the point and often referred to as the elevator pitch. It’s your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be with someone important who asks you ‘What do you do?’ and you have 30 seconds to make your pitch.

Here is a video on How To Do An Elevator Pitch that will help you get the idea.

The second type is the complete marketing message and your plan should develop this type of message and identify where it will be used. The message must be compelling and persuasive; include the following in it:

• An explanation of your target customers’ need or problem.
• Proof that this need is important and that it should be served without delay.
• An explanation of why you are the only business that can address this need.
• An explanation of the benefits people will get by using your solution.
• Examples and testimonials of satisfied customers who have used your visited your route and enjoyed it.
• An explanation of prices and payment terms.

Defining your marketing medium

This is a crucial part of your marketing plan and will define the methods and media you will use to ensure your message reaches the target audience. It should identify exactly how you will sell your route to your targeted visitors.

Your marketing medium is the communication vehicle that you will use to deliver your marketing message. The best medium for you will be the one that reaches most people in your niche at the lowest possible cost. The following is a selection of different types of marketing media you can use to get your message across:

• Newspaper, magazine and radio adverts.
• Online advertising on selected websites and search engines.
• Social media – here is a video that shows you How To Set Up A Facebook Fan Page.
• Posters and billboards.
• Competitions.
• Seminars and talks.
• Leaflet drops.
• Travel shows – read the Guide How To Attend Travel Shows and look at these Examples of how other routes have got the most out of shows they have attended.
• Press releases and advertorials.
• Networking.
• Flyers and brochures.
• E-mail.
• Postcards.
• Sales agents.
• Gift vouchers.
• Word of mouth.
• Website links.
• Business cards.

Setting sales and marketing targets

Targets are critical to marketing success and these should be realistic and specific. If you haven’t written down your goals and targets in your marketing plan then you are simply wishing for success instead of aiming for it.

Ensure that your goals and objectives use the SMART formula:

• Specific.
• Measurable.
• Achievable.
• Realistic.
• Time-defined.

These goals should include financial values in terms of numbers of visitors, numbers of overnight stays, numbers of customer visits to key sites on the route, amounts spent by visitors per visit, length of visit per visitor, etc. You can also include targets such as enquiry levels, sales conversion rates, website traffic generated, press releases and articles published.

Once these targets are set, your marketing plan should indicate how and when you will review and adjust them.

Setting your marketing budget and timetable

Your plan should include a realistic budget to allow you to undertake all your desired marketing activity and a timetable for its implementation. You can calculate your budget using either exact figures or an estimate.

Once you have calculated or estimated your budget, you will need to produce a timetable to implement the plan. This timetable will identify:

• Each specific marketing action you will take.
• Who will carry these out.
• A timescale for each activity and when it will start.
• Key events and milestones during the year, such as trade shows and exhibitions.
• When any additional or external resources, such as specialists in PR, graphic design or direct sales will be needed.

You will find it useful you read these Guides: How To Develop A Project Budget and How To Develop And Manage A Route Budget.

Monitoring and reviewing progress

Once your marketing plan is under way, you will need to monitor and review its progress continually. Ideally, you should do this each month. You should also consider possible scenarios such as how to handle responses to particular marketing activities or how to deal with seasonal aspects of your industry or sector.

In addition, you will need to consider how to manage your marketing plan. You must ensure that you don’t spend your entire annual budget in the first couple of months. Decide how you will monitor and interpret results and think about how you will adjust the plan or introduce new tactics as you progress.

Who is involved with developing a marketing plan?

The route forum needs to facilitate the process of producing a marketing plan with the input and involvement of all members.

How do we develop a marketing plan for the route?

If there are resources available, it can assist to have an expert involved in helping the route members to develop a plan – but it must be someone with on-the-ground tourism experience in the area or a similar area. Their role would be to streamline the writing of the plan but they must take all the input from members and must be able to draw the necessary information out of members. It will not be useful for the plan to be written by an outside consultant if members do not ‘own’ the result.

The process needs to involve all members, and must express their views and capacity. This way, the objectives, plans and implementation timetables will be relevant and achievable.  

Practical tips

• The marketing plan will be one of your most important business documents, so make sure you set aside some uninterrupted time to develop it.
• Study the detail around your proposed marketing media, how appropriate your marketing message is to your target audience, and your overall marketing budget.
• To begin with, don’t worry about writing style or making your plan too complicated or long-winded.

Use of this Guide

This Guide can be used by the Route Forum to develop a marketing plan that will extend the route’s impact. It can also be used by individual members to better market their own businesses.

Other Guides and Examples

Open Africa has developed a detailed Marketing Toolkit to help you develop a marketing plan.

You may also find these other Resources on marketing topics useful:

• Guide: How To Attend Travel Shows
• Example: How Do We Attend Travel Shows
• Resource: How To Do An Elevator Pitch

Contacts and other support

SA Tourism Services Association (a database of credible tourism service providers).
Tel: 086 12 72872
Fax: 011 886 7557
Website: www.satsa.com

Indaba Tourism Exhibition is one of the largest tourism marketing events in Africa, showcasing a variety of southern Africa’s best tourism products. It attracts about 12 000 local and international visitors and around 1 700 exhibitors.
Tel: 011 483 2501/21
Fax: 011 483 0031/39
E-mail: indaba@indaba-southafrica.co.za|
Website: www.indaba-southafrica.co.za

 

Exhibiting at trade show and events provides useful opportunities for your route to showcase products and expertise, network with potential customers and suppliers and keep up to date with news and developments.

There are numerous travel shows both in South Africa and abroad that is worthwhile attending. The most popular among the South African shows is the Getaway Show, which is held in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Open Africa attends the Getaway Show from time to time and all the routes in the network are invited to participate. Routes will need to pay for the cost of the stand, furniture rental and marketing material that will be distributed at the show and it is up to the route to raise the necessary funds for accommodation and travel to and from Cape Town or Johannesburg.

This Guide will help you prepare for an event by completing the right administration, planning your stand and preparing your employees. It also includes hints and tips and sources of further information.

While travel shows are useful events to market your route and its members, they can be expensive to attend and often hundreds of other businesses and competitors take stands. So it is vital to prepare well so that everyone involved in your delegation and the members along your route can get the most out of an exhibition. The fundamental aim of a route attending a trade show is to stand out and to attract potential customers.

There are also Guides on marketing route (using various media), a Guide on How to Develop a Marketing Plan, and a Marketing Toolkit by Open Africa.

Why are travel shows important?

Travel shows usually are open to the public, so they bring us face to face with potential customers. These people are at the show because of their interest as tourists, so they are a good group to target as they are more likely to buy what we have to offer.

The shows are also important as a networking opportunity among other tourism providers, many of whom have services that could feed into our route. For instance, tour operators may not know much about your area – this is your opportunity to sell your route to them and bring in bus-loads of tourists.

How can the route make best use of travel shows?

A travel show is an exhibition of products and services in the tourism sector, usually open to the public – where exhibitors promote themselves to visitors and network with others in their sector. The events are usually organised by professional events management companies but smaller shows are sometimes arranged by trade associations or government agencies to promote a particular areas or sectors.

Deciding where to exhibit

Not every trade show, exhibition or convention is worth the time, effort and/or money it takes to organise a successful stand. In order to find suitable events to get involved with you will need to:

• Identify exhibitions that are relevant to your business. Trade associations sometimes publicise key events and exhibitions relating to tourism. Ask other businesses that have exhibited previously whether they found it a cost-effective event.
• Find out who visits the exhibitions you are interested in. You want as many potential customers as possible to see your products and services so check the exhibition has an established reputation. Ask the exhibition organisers to send you visitor figures and profiles for the past few years.
• Find out if the exhibition is open to the public or the trade only.
• Research the visitor profile to identify whether the demographics fit with your target audience.

Once you’ve identified a show to exhibit at, the next step is to check the costs and practicalities of exhibiting. Before booking space or registering with an exhibition organiser consider the following:

• Facilities – establish exactly what is included in an exhibitor’s contract price. Hiring exhibition space is usually divided into two categories: ‘space only’ means that you are expected to provide all your own structural equipment, including a stand, screens, furniture and lighting. By contrast, a ‘shell scheme’ provides basic structural panels, but you will still need to provide your own livery, literature and any other promotional materials, electricity supply, lighting and furniture.
• Costs – set a budget for the event. Check out not only the obvious costs but also the hidden charges that will arise for electricity and use of facilities. A standard carpet is usually included in the stand price but there will be an additional cost if you want cupboards, chairs and tables, or spotlight and electricity sockets.
• Extra facilities – ask if demonstration space or private meeting rooms are available at the venue.
• Location and access – check that the venue can be accessed easily by all your potential customers and visitors.
• Labour requirements – establish who is allowed to carry out work on your stand if you have booked space only and book subcontractors’ time well in advance. Some venues and exhibition organisers insist the construction of stands and the installation of facilities are carried out by the venue’s own contractors.
• Opportunities for workshops and seminars – these are a useful way to create awareness of your business and its products and/or services and can drive visitors to your stand. Remember, don’t use them as a sales pitch, more as an educational tool.

Preparing for an exhibition

Once you have decided on a suitable exhibition, you should appoint a member of the route forum to be responsible for organising the exhibition or, if you have hired a specialists, liaise with them. Whoever you decide should be responsible will need to deal with the following issues:

• Venue – if attendance at a particular exhibition is crucial to you, book well in advance to ensure the best choice of stand and make sure deposits and hire charges are paid promptly. You may be able to get a discount if you book at the last minute, are exhibiting for the first time or book more than one exhibition with the organiser (if they are part of a series).
• Accommodation – some exhibitions last several days, so participants will need hotel accommodation if the event is some distance away from your route. Book this early to avoid last-minute problems, especially with large exhibitions. Many exhibition organisers negotiate special rates with local hotels.
• Transport – you will need suitable vehicles or a courier service to transport your exhibition material and equipment including computers and leaflet stands. Remember that posters, literature, models and samples can take up more space than you think.
• Insurance – check that your business adequate insurance has been taken out for the exhibition. You should pay particular attention to the Public Liability insurance. Some venues require you to have a minimum level of insurance cover in place so you should check this in advance.
• Site and stand – whether you have booked a shell scheme stand or arranged for the construction of your own stand, you should attend the venue at the earliest opportunity to check that everything is satisfactory. Even with a shell scheme stand you will usually have to hire and pay separately for furniture and electrical equipment and supply.
• When you arrive at the venue check carefully that all screens, shelving, desks, seating, display aids and lighting are in place and that all electrical sockets are working properly. If participants are expected to erect a stand themselves, they will need to be shown how to do it prior to the event.
• Storage – check that there is adequate storage for personal belongings, literature, refreshments and anything else you plan to take along. You should also consider having some lockable storage space to keep valuable items secure.
• Badges and permits – you need to book, collect and distribute all your exhibitors’ entry permits for participants and guests. Check that each member of the team has a personal badge that clearly shows their full name, job title and the name of your route.
• Presentation – make sure the stand and your staff always look neat, tidy and professional. Ensure that any corporate clothing and uniforms have been organised or a dress code agreed.
• Computer equipment and screens (if appropriate) – check that you have all the printers, laptops and screens that you will need or arrange to hire them. Ensure that your staff know how to operate the equipment and that it works properly.
• Parking – check that sufficient parking permits for you and your staff have been issued and that arrangements have been made to allow extra deliveries where necessary.
• Extra space – if you need meeting rooms or demonstration areas, check that they have been reserved and are not double booked.
• Participants– choose enthusiastic members of the route who are natural communicators. Don’t forget to draw up staffing rotas to ensure you have enough people to allow for proper meal breaks, rest periods and attendance at relevant seminars. Your stand should never be left unattended, even for a few minutes, while the exhibition is open.
• Training – ensure that your team is fully briefed and clear about your aims before the exhibition begins. They will need a thorough knowledge of any products and services you are promoting at the event.
• Literature – check that you have all the stationery, brochures, business cards, order forms, leaflets, corporate gifts and giveaways you need. Take plenty of spare stationery and paper as you often need more than you think.
• Deadlines – the exhibition organiser will usually provide you with an exhibitor’s pack. This may be a manual or details of a web portal you can access. It will include a list of key deadlines (for example, when payments need to be made, when bookings must be confirmed and deadlines for submitting forms).
• Marketing – send out invitations to the exhibition to your potential and existing customers and suppliers, the media, corporate guests and other VIPs. Promote your attendance at the exhibition on your website, in newsletters, e-mails, social media and promotional literature. Find out who else is exhibiting as they may be potential partners or customers. Contact them beforehand to arrange meetings at the exhibition.
• Finally, and most importantly, ensure that you have proper systems to record the contact details of all new customers who are interested in your route. At the very least, each member of your team should be issued with a notebook and plenty of pamphlets.

What should you do immediately before an exhibition?

Draw up a checklist including everything that you need to take with you to the event and all the details you need to arrange, together with contact names and numbers of all suppliers. Remember to include items to cover all contingencies, including first aid and refreshments for participants, and take plenty of back-up supplies and equipment.

Draft a contingency plan to adopt if anything should go wrong and ensure that the venue can provide bureau services if you need them.

Ensure that you have set goals and targets by which you can measure the effectiveness of the exhibition afterwards.

Consider informing your local press and obtaining PR coverage of your attendance at the event.

It is vital that every member of the team is properly briefed before they take part in an exhibition. A week before the event you should give all participants a briefing pack to ensure that they fully understand the following:

• Product and services.
• Prices.
• Sales techniques to be used or avoided. If necessary, organise role-playing sessions to ensure everyone is fully familiar with your expected standards of behaviour.
• Rotas, including meal times and rest breaks. Make sure the participants are clear about how much time they need to set up and close down.
• Dress code.
• Contact numbers for the whole team and emergency numbers for the exhibition organiser and venue manager.
• Enquiry handling – make sure that team members know who to consult if faced with an enquiry they feel unable to answer.
• Accommodation and transport – staff should know exactly where they are staying and how they are expected to travel to the venue.
• Targets and objectives – make it clear to your staff what you expect of them and what outcome you expect from the exhibition.

What do you need to do during the exhibition?

It is critical to ensure that you maximise visitor numbers to your stand and capture contact information from potential clients so that you can follow them up afterwards with a view to converting enquiries into sales.

The most important thing to monitor throughout the exhibition is the appearance of your stand. You or your exhibition co-ordinator should regularly restock empty brochure displays, tidy shelves and cabinets and clear away rubbish.

During the exhibition you should visit other stands to network with exhibitors, find out what they are doing and what they are offering to customers. This also provides an opportunity to build partnerships and find customers and suppliers for your route (or your members along your route).

After the exhibition you will want to evaluate your business’ performance and balance the achievement of objectives against the cost of attendance. Therefore during the event you should record the following:

• Number of visitors and enquiries taken.
• Number of samples and leaflets taken.
• Number of hits on your website.
• Positive comments.
• Negative comments, including complaints and criticisms.
• Any issues raised by visitors.
• Details of any press or media interest.

Who is involved with trade shows?

The Route Forum can research the available travel shows that members would find useful, and discuss these options with members before a decision is made on which ones to attend. They can also use the links with Open Africa to explore which shows have been most useful in the past, and perhaps even where there might be funding to cover some of the costs of attending certain shows.

Trade associations (or chambers of commerce) in the route’s nearest towns – as well as the local and district municipalities – may also be involved in trade shows. They may be organising their own shows or may be instrumental in getting delegations from their area to attend a show elsewhere. The route and its members could take advantage of these links by talking to chambers and municipalities before making your own plans.

How could the route deal with trade shows?

In the experience of Open Africa, the best way to make use of travel shows is for the route itself to take the exhibition space on behalf of members – and then all members can be promoted at the show. This does not necessarily mean that all members must attend – many do not have the time or resources. Those who can exhibit on the stand must do so, and those members who can’t be there can send their brochures and other promotional material.

It might be necessary to set up a small committee of members to assist with all the planning for such an event – including the preparation of marketing material like banners, brochures, business cards, price lists, etc if these do not already exist.

Practical tips

• If you are unsure whether to exhibit at a particular exhibition or venue, you could visit your chosen exhibition first before committing to booking a stand at the next one.
• Try to choose the best position for your stand that your budget will allow. A central position in the exhibition hall, corner sites and sites at the ends of walkways are best.
• Printing can be expensive, so have detailed brochures available for serious enquirers and leaflets for casual visitors.
• Don’t let people linger around the walkways outside your stand – invite them in!
• Consider hiring a professional photographer because you can use pictures of your stand in future sales literature.
• Remember that exhibitions are news – don’t be afraid to contact local or trade press.
• Don’t forget to follow up all leads with a telephone call, e-mail or letter after the exhibition has closed.
• Take advantage of the fact that some exhibition organisers provide lists of visitors after the show for direct marketing purposes.
• Analyse and review the effectiveness of your attendance at the exhibition in terms of leads generated, sales achieved and objectives met, quantified against costs and investment of time.
• Check with the organiser whether there are special requirements for playing music or serving alcohol on your stand.

Use of this Guide

The route functionaries can use this guide to help research, select and plan the next travel show where you want to exhibit; it can also be used to brief members on what is involved in getting ready for such an event. It is the members who must mainly man the exhibition stand, so they all need to know what is expected.

Someone from the route who is good at exhibitions could also use this guide as part of a training session for members before going to a travel show; the training can be quite informal and only needs to take a couple of hours.

Other Factsheets

There are other factsheets available on the topic of marketing your route. These include:

• Guide: How To Develop A Marketing Plan
• Resource: Video – How To Do An Elevator Pitch
• Resource: Video – How To Set Up A Facebook Fanpage
• Example: How To Attend Travel Shows

Contacts

The Exhibition Association of South Africa has a list of upcoming exhibitions at: http://www.exsa.co.za/events

There are also a range of provincial tourism portals that advertise trade shows:

• Gauteng Tourism: www.gauteng.net
• Western Cape Tourism: www.tourismcapetown.co.za
• Eastern Cape Tourism Board: www.ectourism.co.za
• Northern Cape: www.northerncape.org.za
• Northwest Province: www.tourismnorthwest.co.za
• Free State Tourism: www.freestatetourism.org
• Limpopo Tourism: www.limpopotourism.org.za

Want to know why it’s important your business has a Facebook page? Read 7 Reasons Why Having a Facebook Page is Important for Your Business.

How to set up a Facebook page:

1. Go to www.facebook.com/pages/create
2. Click to choose a Page category.
3. Select a more specific category from the dropdown menu and fill out the required information.
4. Click ‘Get Started’ and follow the on-screen instructions.

Here’s a quick and easy video tutorial to illustrate the above steps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4N0yyB6hE8