The Edge Marketing

If you are in ANY type of tourism business, read this article if you want to learn the secrets used by this rafting tour operator that yielded them huge increases in sales and profits in a SUPER competitive marketplace.

It doesn't matter if you are a small B&B or promoting and entire country, this case study we'll share in two parts will give you a road map of succes, lower your tourism marketing costs and help you avoid costly mistakes.

----------- Brief history of Company----------------

Whitewater Excitement, Inc. (WWE) was founded in 1978 providing river rafting trips on the South Fork of the American River in Northern California, 3 hours east of San Francisco. WWE was one of the early rafting companies in this region without much competition. Over the past 25 years, the area has become very competitive with over forty rafting companies on the same rivers. WWE business had gone up and down over the years, trying to move ahead but with little success.

The following is an outline of the major tourism marketing, E-marketing and communications changes and strategies Adventure Business Consultants (ABC) planned and managed for the 2003 & 2004 season and the specific rewards that have been harvested WWE’s efforts.

---------- Tourism Marketing Communications Improvements ------------

The first and most important step was to modify WWE’s marketing message (words) to showcase their many years of experience, their professionalism and thousands of guests they have had. The marketing message (copy) and graphic changes were made to create higher consumer confidence, sense of safety and to distinguish them from their many competitors. WWE also enhanced an existing “5 Star - Satisfaction Guarantee” program and with a new corresponding “Satisfaction Guarantee” icon to showcase WWE’s commitment to quality, safety and customer service.

All the new copy (copy = words) and graphic changes in WWE’s marketing message were applied to their primary marketing materials: color brochures and web site, www.WhitewaterExcitement.com. The strategies outlined below to increase prospects, would have done little to increase sales, if WWE had not also improved WWE’s marketing message at the same time.

To help structure their new marketing communications, WWE used the guide; Tourism Marketing Success http:// www.AdventureBizsuccess.com/tourismmarketingbook.php

If your marketing communications addresses the needs and questions of your prospective visitor quicky and concisely, you'll get more more calls and e-mail and you sell more trips.

---------------------------- E-marketing -------------------------

Web Sites, Search Engine Optimization, E-newsletters & More

With the intention of earning more targeted and qualified traffic, ABC did a detailed analysis of the key word phrases most frequently used in top search engines and directories by prospective river rafters in California. Seven key word phrases were integrated into the 2/03 launch of a new river rafting themed web site, California-River-Rafting.net. In spite of high competition, this site has yielded high ranking and tremendous traffic. This strategy alone grossed a 24 to 1 return on investment of new sales in 2003 and 2004.

WWE also created an opt-in (voluntary self-registration) E-mail newsletter sign up form with automated E-mail address database acquisition on the web sites. The goal has been to gather as many qualified prospects as possible to send our HTML formatted E-mail newsletter “California River Rafting News & Specials”. E-mail sign ups more then tripled.

E-mail newsletters will allow you to consistently reach out consistently to prospective clients at a lower cost - all contributing to increased sales. If you don’t have a opt-in e-newsletter sign up conspicuously on your website, start one immediately.

Look to Part II for the other strategies successfully implemented by this California rafting tour operator that has him smiling all the way to the bank.

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