Creating a
lasting impression
Digital Visitor’s award-winning product, Visitor Review, is a review and online community solution that can be seamlessly integrated into clients’ own websites, allowing their online visitors to contribute photos, videos and reviews, and start discussions about their specific venues, services or products. Photos, videos, reviews and other content uploaded to the
organisation’s solution can then easily be shared with other social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter, helping to drive traffic and new audiences. If a friend of yours has added a review to a website then you are likely to click the link to see their experience and this really helps with the viral effect. “A good example of a recent client we are working with
is the Severn Valley Railway (in the UK),” said Simon Jones, co-founder and director of marketing for Digital Visitor. “They introduced the Visitor Review platform only a few months ago and have already seen an additional 400 unique visitors to their website per month.”
about selling experiences and holidays to people, so by including inspiring videos, photos and reviews, this helps the customers to actually visualise what to expect. “Today, people want to see
what their day out or experience will entail and they want the peer- to-peer reviews. They will trawl the internet to find advice and reviews from other like-minded customers, so whether you encourage it or not, they will search for it. “Social media marketing has many advantages over
more traditional marketing routes, the first being that it is an excellent way for attractions operators to open up a conversation with their customers, helping to discover brand advocates and build long term, loyal relationships. Secondly, social media is instant, so it is an excellent way for tourism and leisure organisations to transmit important information quickly and to an expansive audience. Third, and perhaps most important, social media is a great customer service tool. Not only does it allow businesses to connect with and engage with customers online, but it also means that when you respond to one query, you do so publicly for all to see and for all to share, thus saving you time and effort. “Social media is constantly developing and changing so it
Considering the fact that the percentage of Facebook users
over the age of 26 is now above 56 per cent and growing all the time, the opportunities within the rapidly growing realm of social networking are becoming increasingly apparent to theme park operators. “Social
media marketing must play an important role for
organisations,
especially those in the tourism and leisure industry,” Jones added. “Why? As an industry, we are all
is essential for organisations to future-proof for what is yet to come in the social media world,” Jones continued. “The future of the marketing sector will be shaped more and more by digital marketing and specifically social media marketing as it continues to further secure its place in the marketing mix. People are talking about your brand, products and services and if you don’t join in you are missing out.” Ultimately, when asked how important it is for operators
to utilise innovative marketing techniques in the current trading climate, Burnet commented: “It’s fundamental! All of our park customers are exploring ranges of different techniques to increase guest satisfaction and increase in-park spend. By removing hundreds of guests from queue lines, the Lo-Q queue management system frees these patrons to spend money elsewhere in the park. The system also supports ‘proximity marketing’ and our current mobile and smartphone-based solutions provide support for everything from integrated park maps to near-field communication functionality.”
50 InterPark May-June 2011
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