Elsewhere on this site, we have discussed the value of marketing for your glamping site and we said marketing was important to build awareness of your site and its brand while running a glamping business.
Advertising fills a slightly different need. It will help to increase awareness of your site above others. It can help smooth out gaps and ripples in your booking patterns. It can help tell your customer of special offers, or of promotions, you might decide to run. It can be switched on, or removed, more swiftly than a marketing campaign which tends to need a longer perspective.
What circumstances might make you consider using advertising? In simple terms, anything that makes you think bookings are or are about to be, lower than you wish. Some examples:
- booking dips on certain dates – as part of your business plan you will have a forecast calendar of what level of bookings you expect on what dates; deviation from that could need advertising.
- approaching public holiday – people often book holidays including public holiday dates; remind your customers.
- start of season/opening of bookings – how do your customers know you’re starting?
- unexpected cancellations – plans sometimes go awry; if you know about this repair the damage by re-offering the booking slots.
- local events/festivals – you’ll know about this well ahead, and it should mean expanded business for your site if you tell your customers.
- a new, or newly active competitor – if you’re doing well others may want to as well, so remind your customers how good you are.
- tie-ins with other attractions – connections with other local businesses (restaurants, pubs, tourist attractions) can have mutual benefit, so tell your customers.
Most of these may need you to consider a promotion or special offer to attract customers into your empty spaces. You will have planned a pricing structure tied to your calendar, but remember that even a discounted sale may be preferable to no sale at all. Use advertising to tell your customers about their good luck!
Where to Get Your Site Mentioned
A kind of passive, but effective form of advertising is to get listed through specialist organisations, websites and magazines.
The obvious first step is the local Tourist Information Centre. This is a natural first stop for visitors to an area, and they will often allow the listing or a simple mention for little or no cost. These days they are likely to have a web presence as well, and that will get your details in front of a much bigger audience.
There are a number of specialist websites for the holiday industry in general, and glamping in particular. Although they may charge for a listing because they are a known centralised source of information, you can be sure your site details will be seen by people looking for such places. Additional advertising may make your prominence higher but could be costly, so do some research.
Consider using Search Engine Optimisation, and Pay Per Click arrangements. These will have a high degree of response, but you may need specialist advice about how to get the best from them.
