In order to draw visitors to your ski resort, you need to create a feeling of fun, relaxation and escape from the ordinary. If you can appeal to each visitor personally, that's even more effective. Do you need to do all this marketing and communication manually, taking up your time each day? Do you need to use multiple marketing providers to manage your social media pages, send out emails, run a text message campaign, survey visitors and manage your contact data? Why not try an all-in-one resort sales and marketing software tool instead?
A marketing automation solution can serve as an effective resort sales and marketing software tool, which allows you to manage all your ski resort marketing and communication from a single place. So, what kinds of campaigns can you run automatically? How can you successfully draw in visitors and appeal to visitors' individual wants?
1. Ski Resort Events Based Around Holidays
Create and schedule ski marketing holiday campaigns months in advance. For Christmas, hold a feast at the ski resort or have guests sign up for a gift exchange. Valentine's Day marketing can focus on a couples' getaway promotion or a speed dating event for singles. For Thanksgiving, run a "thank you" promotion exclusive to your loyal guests. This could be a discount on a season pass, a free night's stay or a coupon for ski rental.
Once you have your content created, automatically cross-promote it on multiple channels using your resort sales and marketing software. Schedule automated social media updates to get new visitors engaged, schedule emails to go out to your regular guests, and schedule regular text message promotions to build a buzz around the event.
2. Personalized Promotions
What does each skier want? In order to provide a personalized ski resort experience, you need to find out what your skiers are looking for. Personalized promotions engage more customers and lead to more sales. Send out an automated online survey through email and text message. Promote the contest on your social media pages as well so it reaches more people. All of this can be done from the same resort sales and marketing software tool, meaning it has never been easier to reach people through multiple channels at once!
Ask people when they typically like to vacation at the ski resort, whether or not they own their own skis, what level of skier they are, their food allergies and preferences and so on. All this data is added to each contact's personal profile so you can send them information and promotions based on their unique needs. This makes your marketing more effective than mass message campaigns,
Once the data is collected, you know which options are popular and which options do not draw a lot of interest. Your automated solution provides you with detailed reports showing you the survey results. Each skier who provides contact data is tracked. This means you are able to automatically contact each visitor and guest based on their own preferences, past purchases, location and much more.
3. Social Media Contest to Win
Contests are very popular on social media. With ski resort marketing, the possibilities are endless. Have visitors submit their best ski action shot or best ski video for a chance to win a season pass. Getting real skiers engaged enters skiers for the contest, but it also shows newcomers images and videos of real people having fun at your resort. It's a great way to get free effective marketing and show your ski resort from the perspective of a skier.
Automate your social media contest postings. With your automated marketing solution, schedule posts to go out every day so visitors to your pages and your followers stay up to date. This also builds buzz around the contest.
4. Bring a Friend Programs
With bring-a-friend promotions added into your ski marketing mix, your loyal ski guests introduce new visitors to your ski resort. For bringing a friend, the guest receives a promotion or a discount. This program is easily promoted through email newsletters. Create a newsletter that advertises the bring a friend program and include a "Click Here" promotion so the guest can enter their visiting dates and their friend's information.
With automated email, you can see who has opened and responded to your emails. Test different subject lines and send times to see what is the most effective. With an automated solution, you can easily create professional looking landing pages in minutes using templates and a drag and drop interface.
5. Snow Updates by Text Message
Text messages are a great ski marketing tool because they are almost always opened within five minutes of being received. Provide text messages so users can sign up for brief daily updates about weather conditions, temperature, daily room deals and so on. Consistent text messages keep your contacts engaged and make them want to go skiing. For skiers who don't have cell phones but still want updates, use automated voice messages.
Another way to use text messages is to run text message campaigns with shortcodes. Use shortcodes to build excitement and provide a simple way for skiers to take action. "Text 11551 to enter to win a free season pass."
6. Limited Time Promotional Offer or Freebie
Limited time offers boost excitement and increases the sense of urgency. This could be a free ski rental with the purchase of a day pass or a free day ski pass with the purchase of weekend stay. Promote this on social media, email, text message, and so on.
7. Share Your Secret Trail
This is another effective social media contest. Ask skiers to share their favorite place to ski at your resort. When they post it, they get a chance to win a weekend stay, a free meal for two, or whatever else you'd like to offer. This is a great way to get newcomers excited about your trails and make them familiar with your ski resort.
Need a Resort Sales and Marketing Software?
If you're looking for resort marketing solutions, sign up for a 14 day free trial of SimplyCast 360, our all-in-one marketing automation solution. It makes your ski resort communication and ski marketing much more efficient and saves your staff time. For more info, our sales team would be happy to speak with you at any time.
