What's one marketing technique you will try this coming year that is new for you (or was previously dropped but will be resumed)

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Morticia

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Do you have one brilliant idea for the coming year? Care to share?
We are increasing our marketing budget this year (out of thin air at this point) and were wondering what sorts of options there are.
 
I am considering an ad in Recreation News for the Bike N Winery Package. Since I have the stables here, will possibly do ads in horse newsletters again - have not for a while.
I am also considering taking a table at the Outdoor Show in the State Capital. Outdoorsmen have wives and girlfriends (sometimes both) and here many women enjoy the outdoors. I will be something VERY different.
I see you tell them what is 3 hours away, 2 hours - do you have Tourmalines near you that you could get permission for YOUR guests to hunt? How about doing routings for things that are 60 miles or less from your inn? Start the stop here to see within 15 to 20 minutes of your inn and go from there to make a circle. If you have tourmalines - a ad in a gemstone publication. As I said, I know of an inn that advertises in Railfan (magazine) and gets people who come to sit on her porch and watch the trains go by all day. (She says it is expensive but she would NEVER let that one drop.) Hope this helps stimulate the little gray cells.
 
No new ideas, but ones we haven't done before - I'm going to try to get them in place for the slow months.
Dinner package with a local restaurant that features organic, locally-grown, vegetarian and vegan options.
I have finally found a massage therapist who will come here, so I would like to offer in-room massages for most of the rooms (one room is too small, I think).
 
Bree, I had a brain cramp. I got the 2009 schedule today from the Lewis R French out of Camden. What about offering a get your land legs back package? After a couple days on the schooner, walking on a surface that did not move was interesting. While on board the schooner there is not much chance to shop for souveniers. so get your Maine shopping after the cruise. Or a before your cruise package and offer a list of things they will need (camera, extra towels, sun screen) and things they won't (hot rollers, curling iron)....
 
I am considering an ad in Recreation News for the Bike N Winery Package. Since I have the stables here, will possibly do ads in horse newsletters again - have not for a while.
I am also considering taking a table at the Outdoor Show in the State Capital. Outdoorsmen have wives and girlfriends (sometimes both) and here many women enjoy the outdoors. I will be something VERY different.
I see you tell them what is 3 hours away, 2 hours - do you have Tourmalines near you that you could get permission for YOUR guests to hunt? How about doing routings for things that are 60 miles or less from your inn? Start the stop here to see within 15 to 20 minutes of your inn and go from there to make a circle. If you have tourmalines - a ad in a gemstone publication. As I said, I know of an inn that advertises in Railfan (magazine) and gets people who come to sit on her porch and watch the trains go by all day. (She says it is expensive but she would NEVER let that one drop.) Hope this helps stimulate the little gray cells..
gillumhouse said:
I am also considering taking a table at the Outdoor Show in the State Capital. Outdoorsmen have wives and girlfriends (sometimes both) and here many women enjoy the outdoors. I will be something VERY different.
Not trying to derail the thread as the ideas are great so far, but how will you accommodate the wife AND the GF at the same time?
wink_smile.gif

 
Bree, I had a brain cramp. I got the 2009 schedule today from the Lewis R French out of Camden. What about offering a get your land legs back package? After a couple days on the schooner, walking on a surface that did not move was interesting. While on board the schooner there is not much chance to shop for souveniers. so get your Maine shopping after the cruise. Or a before your cruise package and offer a list of things they will need (camera, extra towels, sun screen) and things they won't (hot rollers, curling iron).....
gillumhouse said:
Bree, I had a brain cramp. I got the 2009 schedule today from the Lewis R French out of Camden. What about offering a get your land legs back package? After a couple days on the schooner, walking on a surface that did not move was interesting. While on board the schooner there is not much chance to shop for souveniers. so get your Maine shopping after the cruise. Or a before your cruise package and offer a list of things they will need (camera, extra towels, sun screen) and things they won't (hot rollers, curling iron)....
We have 5 year repeat guests who come here after their windjammer cruise. I'm contacting that particular boat and asking for a link on their website and I'll use what you said here as a good reason to include us. (The 'get the gear you forgot' beforehand and the 'great place to stop on the way home to regain land legs'.)
 
Bree, I had a brain cramp. I got the 2009 schedule today from the Lewis R French out of Camden. What about offering a get your land legs back package? After a couple days on the schooner, walking on a surface that did not move was interesting. While on board the schooner there is not much chance to shop for souveniers. so get your Maine shopping after the cruise. Or a before your cruise package and offer a list of things they will need (camera, extra towels, sun screen) and things they won't (hot rollers, curling iron).....
gillumhouse said:
Bree, I had a brain cramp. I got the 2009 schedule today from the Lewis R French out of Camden. What about offering a get your land legs back package? After a couple days on the schooner, walking on a surface that did not move was interesting. While on board the schooner there is not much chance to shop for souveniers. so get your Maine shopping after the cruise. Or a before your cruise package and offer a list of things they will need (camera, extra towels, sun screen) and things they won't (hot rollers, curling iron)....
We have 5 year repeat guests who come here after their windjammer cruise. I'm contacting that particular boat and asking for a link on their website and I'll use what you said here as a good reason to include us. (The 'get the gear you forgot' beforehand and the 'great place to stop on the way home to regain land legs'.)
.
I e-mailed Garth today thanking him for sending the info because I DO copy it for guests. Feel free to use my name. Tell him I sailed 4 times with Dan Pease. Add binoculars to the need list.
 
I am considering an ad in Recreation News for the Bike N Winery Package. Since I have the stables here, will possibly do ads in horse newsletters again - have not for a while.
I am also considering taking a table at the Outdoor Show in the State Capital. Outdoorsmen have wives and girlfriends (sometimes both) and here many women enjoy the outdoors. I will be something VERY different.
I see you tell them what is 3 hours away, 2 hours - do you have Tourmalines near you that you could get permission for YOUR guests to hunt? How about doing routings for things that are 60 miles or less from your inn? Start the stop here to see within 15 to 20 minutes of your inn and go from there to make a circle. If you have tourmalines - a ad in a gemstone publication. As I said, I know of an inn that advertises in Railfan (magazine) and gets people who come to sit on her porch and watch the trains go by all day. (She says it is expensive but she would NEVER let that one drop.) Hope this helps stimulate the little gray cells..
gillumhouse said:
I am also considering taking a table at the Outdoor Show in the State Capital. Outdoorsmen have wives and girlfriends (sometimes both) and here many women enjoy the outdoors. I will be something VERY different.
Not trying to derail the thread as the ideas are great so far, but how will you accommodate the wife AND the GF at the same time?
wink_smile.gif

.
but how will you accommodate the wife AND the GF at the same time?
That is HIS problem - we do have Rosi's & the Harris that share a bath. If they are sharing everything else........
 
Well, practically everything's new at this point.
I need to go to every office at the university and seminary with homemade candies or cookies and business cards.
Then I need to go to every business in town with the same.
We've had a couple of business travelers here and I want to get a lot more of them.
=)
Kk.
 
We are planning to do another magnet mail out to area subdivisions. We did one 4-5 years ago to the 3 subdivisions close by. It really has paid for itself several times over and are still being referred to. We included a neighborhood discount code which they could give to their friends, family or business associates to use when booking.
We will be sending to other area subdivisions this time and have been toying around with creating one for some area businesses too. We do get a lot of business guests but the main problem is the fact that the 'admin. assistant' working that job today, may be gone tomorrow. Sometimes there are notes left for the new one, sometimes not so thinking of the magnet idea for this dilemma with periodic stop ins with treats.
We are also in early talks with a radio station that broadcasts in one of our feeder areas about doing a promotion. Many radio stations do little 'give away' type promotions that provide free advertising for the donation of the prize. Don't know if this will pan out with this station or not, but we are looking into this as well.
 
We are planning to do another magnet mail out to area subdivisions. We did one 4-5 years ago to the 3 subdivisions close by. It really has paid for itself several times over and are still being referred to. We included a neighborhood discount code which they could give to their friends, family or business associates to use when booking.
We will be sending to other area subdivisions this time and have been toying around with creating one for some area businesses too. We do get a lot of business guests but the main problem is the fact that the 'admin. assistant' working that job today, may be gone tomorrow. Sometimes there are notes left for the new one, sometimes not so thinking of the magnet idea for this dilemma with periodic stop ins with treats.
We are also in early talks with a radio station that broadcasts in one of our feeder areas about doing a promotion. Many radio stations do little 'give away' type promotions that provide free advertising for the donation of the prize. Don't know if this will pan out with this station or not, but we are looking into this as well..
Copperhead said:
We are planning to do another magnet mail out to area subdivisions. We did one 4-5 years ago to the 3 subdivisions close by. It really has paid for itself several times over and are still being referred to. We included a neighborhood discount code which they could give to their friends, family or business associates to use when booking.
We will be sending to other area subdivisions this time and have been toying around with creating one for some area businesses too. We do get a lot of business guests but the main problem is the fact that the 'admin. assistant' working that job today, may be gone tomorrow. Sometimes there are notes left for the new one, sometimes not so thinking of the magnet idea for this dilemma with periodic stop ins with treats.
We are also in early talks with a radio station that broadcasts in one of our feeder areas about doing a promotion. Many radio stations do little 'give away' type promotions that provide free advertising for the donation of the prize. Don't know if this will pan out with this station or not, but we are looking into this as well.
Ooooh... I love this idea!!! What do your magnets look like? What do they say? What do you include with them when you mail them?
=)
Kk.
 
We are planning to do another magnet mail out to area subdivisions. We did one 4-5 years ago to the 3 subdivisions close by. It really has paid for itself several times over and are still being referred to. We included a neighborhood discount code which they could give to their friends, family or business associates to use when booking.
We will be sending to other area subdivisions this time and have been toying around with creating one for some area businesses too. We do get a lot of business guests but the main problem is the fact that the 'admin. assistant' working that job today, may be gone tomorrow. Sometimes there are notes left for the new one, sometimes not so thinking of the magnet idea for this dilemma with periodic stop ins with treats.
We are also in early talks with a radio station that broadcasts in one of our feeder areas about doing a promotion. Many radio stations do little 'give away' type promotions that provide free advertising for the donation of the prize. Don't know if this will pan out with this station or not, but we are looking into this as well..
Copperhead said:
We are planning to do another magnet mail out to area subdivisions. We did one 4-5 years ago to the 3 subdivisions close by. It really has paid for itself several times over and are still being referred to. We included a neighborhood discount code which they could give to their friends, family or business associates to use when booking.
We will be sending to other area subdivisions this time and have been toying around with creating one for some area businesses too. We do get a lot of business guests but the main problem is the fact that the 'admin. assistant' working that job today, may be gone tomorrow. Sometimes there are notes left for the new one, sometimes not so thinking of the magnet idea for this dilemma with periodic stop ins with treats.
We are also in early talks with a radio station that broadcasts in one of our feeder areas about doing a promotion. Many radio stations do little 'give away' type promotions that provide free advertising for the donation of the prize. Don't know if this will pan out with this station or not, but we are looking into this as well.
Ooooh... I love this idea!!! What do your magnets look like? What do they say? What do you include with them when you mail them?
=)
Kk.
.
YS - The magnets we had were 3x5 and contained color picture of B&B, name, address (as well as area) local and toll free #, our names, email address and website. At the bottom we had: ___% off _____________ Referral Code. We filled in with a Sharpie permanent marker the % and code. The code was unique to each subdivision so we could track them.
We sent this with a cover letter introducing ourselves and the B&B general details. We provided them with ideas of use: friends and family that they are unable to house during a visit, etc...... Since we also do weddings, reunions, parties etc. we included this info as well.
You will need to shop for best prices as we found a wide range in charges for this. Some realestate agents send these out so you could also contact one of those. We did our first set through a local Trade Exchange we are members of so it cut our out of pocket (green $) expense down a good amount as we used our stored barter dollars.
Another expense is the postage so be selective in the areas you decide to market. Think about the neighborhoods that best fit your target market then talk to the post office to determine the mailing.
 
We are planning to do another magnet mail out to area subdivisions. We did one 4-5 years ago to the 3 subdivisions close by. It really has paid for itself several times over and are still being referred to. We included a neighborhood discount code which they could give to their friends, family or business associates to use when booking.
We will be sending to other area subdivisions this time and have been toying around with creating one for some area businesses too. We do get a lot of business guests but the main problem is the fact that the 'admin. assistant' working that job today, may be gone tomorrow. Sometimes there are notes left for the new one, sometimes not so thinking of the magnet idea for this dilemma with periodic stop ins with treats.
We are also in early talks with a radio station that broadcasts in one of our feeder areas about doing a promotion. Many radio stations do little 'give away' type promotions that provide free advertising for the donation of the prize. Don't know if this will pan out with this station or not, but we are looking into this as well..
Copperhead said:
We are planning to do another magnet mail out to area subdivisions. We did one 4-5 years ago to the 3 subdivisions close by. It really has paid for itself several times over and are still being referred to. We included a neighborhood discount code which they could give to their friends, family or business associates to use when booking.
We will be sending to other area subdivisions this time and have been toying around with creating one for some area businesses too. We do get a lot of business guests but the main problem is the fact that the 'admin. assistant' working that job today, may be gone tomorrow. Sometimes there are notes left for the new one, sometimes not so thinking of the magnet idea for this dilemma with periodic stop ins with treats.
We are also in early talks with a radio station that broadcasts in one of our feeder areas about doing a promotion. Many radio stations do little 'give away' type promotions that provide free advertising for the donation of the prize. Don't know if this will pan out with this station or not, but we are looking into this as well.
Ooooh... I love this idea!!! What do your magnets look like? What do they say? What do you include with them when you mail them?
=)
Kk.
.
YS - The magnets we had were 3x5 and contained color picture of B&B, name, address (as well as area) local and toll free #, our names, email address and website. At the bottom we had: ___% off _____________ Referral Code. We filled in with a Sharpie permanent marker the % and code. The code was unique to each subdivision so we could track them.
We sent this with a cover letter introducing ourselves and the B&B general details. We provided them with ideas of use: friends and family that they are unable to house during a visit, etc...... Since we also do weddings, reunions, parties etc. we included this info as well.
You will need to shop for best prices as we found a wide range in charges for this. Some realestate agents send these out so you could also contact one of those. We did our first set through a local Trade Exchange we are members of so it cut our out of pocket (green $) expense down a good amount as we used our stored barter dollars.
Another expense is the postage so be selective in the areas you decide to market. Think about the neighborhoods that best fit your target market then talk to the post office to determine the mailing.
.
Another source to consider is your local Sheltered Workshop. My local Sheltered workshop only does textiles but they gave me the number of the Sheltered Workshop 80 miles from here that did promo items - it was 20 cents per item cheaper than I had found them anywhere else 5 years EARLIER.
 
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