Internet Marketing for Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums
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This presentation was assembled by WhistleTix Chief Marketing Officer Eric Housh. Eric presented this information at the 2012 Railway Heritage Preservation Conference in Montreal, Quebec. If you have any questions or require any clarification, please contact Eric Directly at ehoush (at) whistletix (dot) com.
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Internet Marketing for Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums
- 1. Internet Marketing for Tourist Railways and Railway Museums What you need to know
- 2. What we talked about in 2011… 1. Big events generate interest 2. Use the free resources on the Internet to sell more tickets 3. Make sure you capture and use customer data from ticket purchasers 4. Build on existing customer relationships for year-over-year growth
- 3. What we’ll talk about this year • Most popular types of Internet Marketing (Free and Paid) • Setting Goals and Budgets • The Importance of Data
- 4. The Power of Internet Marketing An inexpensive, highly measurable way to TELL MORE PEOPLE about your railway or museum, and MAKE MORE MONEY by increasing attendance and ridership.
- 5. “Begin with the end in mind” SETTING GOALS
- 6. Where are You? Low Ridership / Attendance Capacity Ridership / Attendance Low Community Support High Community Support Few Volunteers Volunteer Corps Strong Shoestring Budget Profitable Operation Where do you want to be?
- 7. Define Your Goals around each Campaign, be SMART • Do you want to increase memberships? • Do you want to sell more tickets? • Do you want to get more social “followers”?
- 8. SMART Goals Increase Sell More Tickets Get more Followers Memberships Specific By how many? How many more? How many? Which network? Measurable How many do we Can we track How many have today? efficacy of this followers do we channel? presently have? Attainable Is this realistic? Is Internet marketing right for this goal? Relevant Does this really matter to our business? Timely How often do you measure results? Is that appropriate?
- 9. Setting Budgets • With Internet Marketing, it is OK to have smaller budgets – BUT – you must temper expectations and goals accordingly. • Example: A budget of $200. What should we expect? • When working with smaller budgets, continuous optimization is key. – Test, tweak, retest
- 10. “Where do you start?” POPULAR TYPES OF INTERNET MARKETING
- 12. PAID SEARCH • Providers: – Google, Bing, Yahoo • How it works: – You “bid” on certain keywords – The more you bid, the higher your “position” on the screen – You pay when someone clicks your ad • You should do it because: – Inexpensive, easy to target geographically, easy to manage, reaches the entire internet • Challenges you will face: – Choosing the right keywords.
- 13. How to Choose Keywords • Google Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool
- 14. Three Tips: • Think like a customer – What do they search for? • Select more general or more specific keywords based on your goal • Make sure your ads feature the keywords as well
- 15. Organic Search Organic Search
- 16. Search Engine Optimization • Providers: Webmasters, Press Relations, Volunteers, Attendees, Riders • How it works: – Websites are coded appropriately to make sure search engines can tell what’s on them and refer relevant traffic. – Credible websites that link to yours provide additional ”juice” for search engine visibility (inbound links) • You should do it because: – It’s the most powerful and effective internet marketing method • Challenges you will face: – It can be expensive. It takes constant focus and effort. It’s a moving target. – Optimizing for the right keywords
- 18. The Secret to Owning Google: Pages Google Pages
- 19. Owning Organic: Google Pages https://plus.google.com/pages/create
- 20. Focus on Your Website • Is it up to date? • Is it correct? • Is it easy to find tickets? • Is it pretty? • Is it mobile?
- 21. Social Media
- 22. Social Media • How it works: – Your brand connects directly with customers in a portal managed by one of the service providers. Each portal enables different functionality. – Your customers can “share” their interactions with you, spreading your brand influence to their respective networks. • You should do it because: – Inexpensive, easy to target, very popular, effective. • Challenges you will face: – It can be time consuming, and customers on these networks demand rapid interaction. – It may be tough to deal with criticism.
- 24. Facebook Fan Pages Cost: Free to set up, no annual support or hosting charges Use it to: Communicate with and engage your audience Try This: Use polls, post pictures, ask questions, create games Tip: Put someone in charge and make sure policy is defined. How do you deal with criticism? How quickly should feedback be addressed? How often should the page be updated? What kind of content is appropriate? Talk to other railroads, “Like” their pages, steal ideas with pride! Tip: Use the USERNAME feature to give your facebook page an easy-to- remember address Tip: Use your Facebook Page to Sell Tickets to your events
- 25. Social Media: Facebook Facebook Paid Ads
- 26. Facebook Paid Ads • There are two different types: Right Hand Column Ads and Sponsored (News Feed) Stories • Right Hand Column Ads can include Social Activity (when someone likes your page) • If your ad promotes a PAGE, APP, or EVENT on Facebook, Sponsored Stories are created automatically (you can opt out). You CANNOT buy sponsored stories on ads that promote websites. • Right Hand Ads do NOT appear on Mobile (33% of traffic to Facebook)
- 27. Targeting
- 28. Promoted Posts: New • By default, not all of your fans will see all of your posts. • Facebook enables you to pay to change that, and reach fans outside of your sphere.
- 29. What kind of posts should I promote? • Photos and videos: People tend to respond to bright, simple and attention-grabbing images, particularly of people using your product or service. For example, you could promote a photo of new products you want to sell. Keep in mind that your Page's profile picture will show up next to your promoted post so everyone knows it’s connected to your business. • Exclusive events or news: Promoting posts with exclusive content gets people to talk about your Page and encourages them to share your posts with friends. This could be a daily special on the menu, an in-store event or the launch of an upcoming product. • Questions: Promoting a question tells people that you value their opinion. For example, you could promote a question asking people to vote on a new product or service, which encourages people to have a direct impact on your business decisions. Source: Facebook
- 30. Twitter • 140-character updates • Automate it if you can – When Events are scheduled , – When Tickets go on sale, – Tweet from Facebook • “Mass Texting”
- 31. Banner and Display Ads • Typically “Cost per thousand impressions” or “CPM” • Expensive • Hard to Manage • Hard to Target • Increasingly Ignored • Intrusive
- 32. Blogger networks • “Mom” Websites • Usually feature coupons or deals • Can be fairly effective at reaching new customers • You should do it because: They typically have built in networks. It’s quick, easy, and inexpensive. • Challenges you will face: Finding them
- 33. Internet Marketing for Tourist Railways and Railway Museums THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA
- 34. The Cycle: It’s all about DATA It’s all about To spend more focusing here… Internet wisely here… Marketing Marketing Optimization Website To see Email Ticket improvement Subscribers Purchasers here!
- 35. Email Marketing • Your email list is an ASSET – Treat it with respect (don’t spam) – Continuously focus on growing it – At every customer interaction, ask for the email
- 36. Track What is Working, Optimize Print: 2% Radio: 1% Internet marketing Social Email: drives over 30% of Web Media: 9% 11% sales! Search: 13% Trends (compared to 2010-2011): Social Media +6% Word of Email +4% Mouth: Web Search -9% 63% Word of Mouth +14% Referral Source Data, 2011-2012 WhistleTix Clients
- 37. Internet Marketing for Tourist Railways and Railway Museums QUESTIONS? Eric Housh ehoush@whistletix.com 877-WHIS-TIX x 804
- 38. Internet Marketing for Tourist Railroad and Railway Museums ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- 39. Internet Marketing Check List • Basics: – Create a website for your railroad – Create a Facebook Fan Page for your railroad – Create a Twitter account for your railroad • Publish your event to the Internet (remember ticketing links!) – Publish event to your website – Publish event to Facebook • Events Tab on your Facebook page • Fan Page Ticketing from WhistleTix – Publish Event to your Twitter account – Publish event to eventful.com , upcoming.yahoo.com, and zvents.com – Publish your event to the web sites of local publications, newspapers, magazines – Email your existing customer list!!! • Make it easy for customers to find and buy tickets – Links on the front page of your website – Fan Page ticketing on Facebook – Mobile –friendly websites for Smartphone Users – Call Center to answer calls • Capture patron data during the purchase process – At LEAST the email address!!
- 40. Get started with Search: • For Paid Search: – Set up a Google Adwords Account • Great Step-by-Step: http://bit.ly/SeY0hB – Create Ads • 2 or 3 different versions – Set a Budget – Turn it on! • For Organic Search: Educate Yourself – http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo – Take one step at a time – Consult your network, ask others
- 41. Get Started Building a Fan Page • https://www.facebook.com /pages/create.php • Complete the Page as much as possible – Edit Page > Update info • Address • Cover Photo • Profile Photo • Username • Hours • Description
- 42. Tips to Build your Facebook Audience • Engage and provide interesting content • Link from your website • Signage at your Depot / Museum • Link on all printed collateral • Email to previous riders • Facebook Ads
- 43. Get Started with Facebook Ads https://www.facebook.com/advertising
Editor's Notes
- Source: Paul J MeyerSpecificThe first term stresses the need for a specific goal over and against a more general one. This means the goal is clear and unambiguous; without vagaries and platitudes. To make goals specific, they must tell a team exactly what is expected, why is it important, who’s involved, where is it going to happen and which attributes are important.A specific goal will usually answer the five "W" questions:What: What do I want to accomplish?Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.Who: Who is involved?Where: Identify a location.Which: Identify requirements and constraints.MeasurableThe second term stresses the need for concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of the goal. The thought behind this is that if a goal is not measurable, it is not possible to know whether a team is making progress toward successful completion. Measuring progress is supposed to help a team stay on track, reach its target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs it on to continued effort required to reach the ultimate goal.A measurable goal will usually answer questions such as:How much?How many?How will I know when it is accomplished?AttainableThe third term stresses the importance of goals that are realistic and attainable. While an attainable goal may stretch a team in order to achieve it, the goal is not extreme. That is, the goals are neither out of reach nor below standard performance, as these may be considered meaningless. When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. The theory states that an attainable goal may cause goal-setters to identify previously overlooked opportunities to bring themselves closer to the achievement of their goals.An attainable goal will usually answer the question:How: How can the goal be accomplished?RelevantThe fourth term stresses the importance of choosing goals that matter. A Bank Manager's goal to "Make 50 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by 2:00pm." may be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, and Time-Bound, but lacks Relevance. Many times you will need support to accomplish a goal: resources, a champion voice, someone to knock down obstacles. Goals that are relevant to your boss, your team, your organization will receive that needed support.Relevant goals (when met) drive the team, department, and organization forward. A goal that supports or is in alignment with other goals would be considered a relevant goal.A relevant goal can answer yes to these questions:Does this seem worthwhile?Is this the right time?Does this match our other efforts/needs?Are you the right person?Time-boundThe fifth term stresses the importance of grounding goals within a time frame, giving them a target date. A commitment to a deadline helps a team focus their efforts on completion of the goal on or before the due date. This part of the S.M.A.R.T. goal criteria is intended to prevent goals from being overtaken by the day-to-day crises that invariably arise in an organization. A time-bound goal is intended to establish a sense of urgency.A time-bound goal will usually answer the question:When?What can I do 6 months from now?What can I do 6 weeks from now?What can I do today?
- If current marketing efforts cost $200 and result in 200 ticket sales, your internet marketing efforts should aim to perform at least as well, but not unrealistically better.
- 1. PAID SEARCHProviders: Search Engines
- 2. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (Organic Search)Providers: Webmasters, Press Relations, Volunteers, Attendees, RidersHow it works:Websites are coded appropriately to make sure search engines can tell what’s on them and refer relevant traffic.Credible websites that link to yours provide additional ”juice” for search engine visibility (inbound links)You should do it because:It’s the most powerful and effective internet marketing methodChallenges you will face:It can be expensive. It takes constant focus and effort. It’s a moving target.
- If you have to choose only one Search Engine, Choose Google. It currently handles about 60% of internet searches.
- 3. Social MediaFirst: A quiz: How many of you can correctly identifiy the services associated with these logos?
- Facebook Fan Page: Cost: Free to set up, no annual support or hosting chargesUse it to: Communicate with and engage your audienceTry This: Use polls, post pictures, ask questions, create gamesTip: Put someone in charge and make sure policy is defined. How do you deal with criticism? How quickly should feedback be addressed? How often should the page be updated? What kind of content is appropriate? Talk to other railroads, “Like” their pages, steal ideas with pride! Tip: Use the USERNAME feature to give your facebook page an easy-to-remember addressTip: Use your Facebook Page to Sell Tickets to your eventsRailroads doing it right: Midland: https://www.facebook.com/midlandrailwayHeart of Dixie: https://www.facebook.com/hodrrmCuyahoga Valley: https://www.facebook.com/CVSRailroad
- While Search will allow you to target ads to a specific GEOGRAPHIC region, they don’t enable you to target any more specific than that.Demographic and Sociographic Targeting: A benefit of Facebook Marketing
- Twitter: Automate it if you canEvents, Tickets on sale, Hook to Facebook, etc.Display Advertising: decreasing in efficacy, but can be effective on locally-focused pages with concentrated runsEmail: Absolutely. An email list can be your most valuable asset.
- Tip: With Display advertising, tie ads to a specific landing page with analytics so you get REAL numbers.