The marketing plan 3.0 whitepaper

The Marketing Plan 3.0
<<PLANNING METHODS WHITEPAPER SERIES >>
1. Marketing Audit 2
2. Vision, Mission and Goals 4
3. Strategic Plan 5
4. Operational Plan 29
5. Implementation 32
CONTENTS
Jordi Pera Segarra
Envisioning Tourism 3.0 CEO
April 2016

THE MARKETING PLAN 3.0
w w w . e n v i s i o n i n g t o u r i s m . c o m 2
Introduction
Taking the Whitepaper “Envisioning Destination Marketing 3.0” as the reference where the
concepts are explained, the methods for crafting a Marketing Plan 3.0 for a tourism destination
are hereby presented. As the reader may envision, the methods may differ on some points
depending on whether or not they apply to DMOs or DMCs, though many ideas apply to large
organizations only. The goal of this Whitepaper is not to provide a comprehensive
methodological framework, but to explain how to craft all the contents that are different from a
conventional destination marketing plan, and to provide the key ideas for each of the
differentiated strategies and approaches.
1. Marketing Audit
The purpose of the Marketing Audit is to assess the adequacy of the current marketing system
to detect needs for refocusing goals, reorientating strategy and streamlining operations. This is
to be carried out through a sound analysis of its current performance, along with a market
analysis to analyze market trends. Then, from these trends, there should be identifiable
opportunities and threats to our destination, to which the new marketing plan has to adapt.
This analysis is to be divided in two sections: internal audit and external audit.
1.1 External audit
The External audit entails a sound market research to assess target markets attractiveness
and markets trends to identify opportunities and threats. When analyzing the industry and
market trends, every trend has to be classified according to its correspondence to one of the 5
competitive forces that shape the destination’s long term profitability: negotiation power of
suppliers, negotiation power of buyers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes and
competitor’s rivalry. This framework is to help the marketer with the strategic reflection on
analyzing the effects of the market trend on the destination.
Once classified according to its corresponding force, an assessment has to be made on
whether it represents an opportunity, a threat or it doesn’t have an effect at all. Furthermore,
a level of priority corresponding to its impact on the destination should be assigned, and the
following assessments should be carried out:
For every trend representing an opportunity:
 Assess the potential market value of the opportunity for the destination
 Assess the investment needed to take advantage of this opportunity. Consider many options
 Estimate profitability for many viable options
For every trend representing a threat:
 Assess the risk of the threat, considering likelihood, market value and strategic importance
 Assess the investment needed to neutralize that threat -if possible- and its profitability.

When assessing the markets & segments attractiveness, analyze for each of them:
 Market size, evolution and perspectives
 Public types and demand characterization: sociological profile, seasonality, length of the
trip, demanded services, trip organization, advanced booking, motivations, expenses and
price elasticity.
 Purchasing behavior: information sources, decision key factors, etc.
 Possibility of fostering customer loyalty, prestige and multiplying effect
 Quantitative and qualitative trends of both supply and demand.
 Key players, prescribers, opinion leaders and other trendsetters.
 Associations, publications, events, fairs, portals, forums, blogs and social networks.
 Key competitiveness factors and requirements.
 Best practices benchmarking in improvement of management and destination
competitiveness, marketing, products, business models and technologies.
 Marketing strategies and actions. Minimum investment recommended.
 Tour operators, travel agents and web portals working with this segment. Positioning and
market share of each one, segment concentration, entries and exits. Estimated share of FIT.
 Segment attractiveness: analysis of the 5 competitive forces and potential.
 Analysis of competitiveness/price, distribution and offer variety compared between
destinations. Positioning of each destination.
 Knowledge and assessment of the destination by the tour operators and travel agents.
The market information may be obtained through existing market intelligence reports and
complemented with ad-hoc research if necessary.
1.2 Internal audit
Once the market analysis is carried out, it’s time to assess the marketing system’s
performance and its adequacy to the new market reality. Firstly, the current results according
to the marketing KPIs have to be analyzed. The following factors should be at least considered:
 Seasonality of demand (occupancy rates throughout the year)
 Average expenditure per target/segment
 Marketing costs associated to every target/segment and profitability
 Client satisfaction and intention of recommending the destination
 Market share and growth in every segment, considering also the segment growth
 Destination positioning for each segment (core value proposition, attributes & values)
Secondly, many internal aspects related to strategy and efficiency need to be assessed. In the
case of DMO the key stakeholders should be interviewed:
 Feasibility assessment of current vision, mission and goals; stakeholder’s support
 Adequacy of the current positioning, communication, product, sales and targeting strategies
 Organizational structure efficiency. Identifying possible over-dimensioned or under-
dimensioned areas, under-performing functions, or other organizational problems.
 Operational efficiency related to the cost-effectiveness of the marketing operations and
accuracy in the execution of the Marketing Plan.

Finally, there has to be a conclusion summarizing the main strengths and weaknesses:
 Every strength should be assessed according to the following parameters:
 Strategic value or importance
 Percentage of developed potential
 Cost & likelihood of developing its potential to the fullest
 Opportunity value
 Every weakness should be assessed according to the following parameters:
 Strategic value or importance
 Associated risk
 Cost & likelihood of neutralizing the risk
 Opportunity cost
2. Vision, Mission and Goals
If the Marketing Audit depicts the portrait of the destination’s present situation, the Vision
depicts the portrait of what the destination is to become upon accomplishment of the Mission,
and the Mission is the ultimate reason for the destination development. To define the Vision,
Mission and goals, it is convenient to engage stakeholders through the following steps:
1) Community leaders’ mobilization. The first step is to create awareness of the need for a
new destination marketing model, to boost the tourism business in favor of the community
in order to address critical issues and concerns, namely poverty and the environment.
Community leaders are the first to participate in the discussion as they should also be the
first to be engaged with the new marketing system, though in the following phases other
community members should also be consulted. These have to be defined:
 Current and future challenges affecting the local communities to be addressed
 Specific constituents of these challenges, namely those at the bottom of the pyramid
 Other concerns related to environmental and cultural issues
2) Voting proposal and opening participation. Once the community leaders agree upon a
mission proposal addressing the critical issues they consider as priorities, this should be
voted upon by all interested community members, who could also bring up their ideas.
3) Refining and approving mission. In accordance with the votes and suggestions, the
mission proposal may be refined and approved without voting if there is consensus.
4) Tourism experience value proposition. Then, there should be the drafting of the part of
the mission statement related to the tourism experience value proposition, which is
associated with the socio-cultural transformation connected to the life-changing
experiences. This step also requires the participation of industry leaders, influencers and
stakeholders in general, who are to become key brand ambassadors for the destination’s
development. This part of the mission statement intends only to orientate and inspire the
life-changing experiences of the product developers, and so does not need the approval of
the whole community, though their contribution should be encouraged.
It is necessary to highlight the importance of engaging as many industry leaders, influencers
and creative activists as possible from the outset, as long as the new destination marketing
development needs to leverage their influential power, especially at the beginning.

Therefore, by engaging them from the outset and giving them the chance to bring in their
ideas, and showing them somehow that their contribution has been incorporated into the
mission guidelines, they will feel as if they are co-creators of the new project and will establish
an emotional connection with the destination, which in turn encourages them to keep on
contributing, so long as they are willing to tell a story of success in which they took part. Such
engagement should be maintained by inviting them to participate in regular meetings to track
the evolution of the destination development and mission accomplishment.
Finally, the mission statement has to be turned into a set of goals to orient the strategy
formulation and into a set of specific and measurable objectives to optimize the organizational
efforts. This set of strategic goals is directly related to the strategies of the Plan:
 Targeting or segmentation goals: attracting a set of targets to optimize profitability,
balance demand seasonality, foster brand advocacy and contribution to the content system.
 Positioning goals: developing an identity that conveys the mission pursuit and the value
proposition related to the life-changing experiences, along with the destination’s attributes.
 Communication goals: developing a content marketing system to create and deliver
stories adapted to all targets in order to engage them in marketing the destination and the
mission driven purpose.
 Network engagement and development goals: developing a network of partners,
followers and brand ambassadors to fuel the content generation and contribute to the
mission accomplishment.
 Product development goals: developing memorable life-changing experiences according
to the mission statement to ultimately foster socio-cultural transformation.
 Business development goals: shifting towards a more cost-effective sales system and
expanding revenue streams with new business units
Furthermore, these goals have to be converted into a series of specific, measurable and time-
bound objectives which are to be the reference upon which performance is tracked throughout
the implementation of the marketing plan. These are to determine the key set of performance
indicators that is further explained in the Implementation section. Beyond the marketing goals
and objectives there should be consideration of the mission related goals and objectives to
orientate efforts and measure their accomplishment.
3. Strategic Plan
Transforming the destination marketing system entails not only changing some marketing
tactics, but also most of its strategies. As the upcoming sections explain, this shift in the
marketing system is carried out progressively in most strategies hence the strategy
formulation has to depict this transition process.
3.1 Positioning strategy
The positioning or brand strategy defines the identity that the destination intends to project in
the outbound markets, as a way to synthetically communicate the destination’s main
attributes, create an expectation in the mind of the potential tourists and set itself apart from

competitors. When formulating the positioning strategy there are three concepts to be defined:
 Core identity defines in a sentence the intended image of the destination brand.
 Broad identity encompasses all attributes that shape the destination’s personality and the
values that have to become the institutional standards of behavior.
 Value proposition describes the functional, emotional and spiritual benefits that the
destination is offering to its visitors.
Altogether this provides the destination executives with a structured set of ideas to be used in
the communication infrastructure and marketing activities.
In destination marketing 3.0, the positioning strategy has to embed the mission driven
purpose at its core, as the success of the destination is to come from the appreciation of the
business contribution to the community well-being and the positive cultural transformation it
makes on the visitors through the life-changing experiences.
As for the mission definition, the positioning strategy should be defined in the executive board
with the participation of the community leaders, main stakeholders and industry influencers, as
this is the strategy reflecting the spirit of the mission. Furthermore, as long as the positioning
strategy defines the set of values that are to guide the destination’s institutional behavior, this
is a key issue in which all leaders have to feel identified and committed.
Since the community leaders are the key decision makers on these issues, it would be
convenient to assess the fit of the proposed set of values within the community culture, so as
to evaluate the feasibility of the cultural change, as long as this is necessary. In that case, a
cultural change strategy also has to be drafted, to be enclosed with the network engagement
and development strategy.
In marketing 3.0, only originality, authenticity and honesty are effective, because the
reputation of the brand is under control of the creative activists and other like-minded
personalities holding the trust of their communities, and they are the first ones to spread the
stories throughout the social networks. The brand integrity, determined by the loyalty to the
stated values throughout time is an unnegotiable must in the path to success for destinations
embracing marketing 3.0.
3.2 Targeting or segmentation strategy
The formulation of the targeting strategy starts by analyzing the profitability of the current
targets and the occupancy gaps. First of all, from the results of the Marketing Audit, there
should be a table drafted featuring the occupancy rates throughout the year and the
percentage of tourists corresponding to each target, indicating for every period the average
profitability of every target, as a result of the relation between their expenditure and the
associated marketing costs for attracting this target.
With this table or graph, it may be easy to identify the profitability of every season together
with the occupancy gaps that could be filled in. Ideally, the diagram should also show when
the occupancy gaps correspond to specific weekdays, as in many cases the occupancy is
concentrated in the weekends.

The targeting strategy formulation is to be reflected in a diagram showing how the assigned
priority level evolves for every target over the period for which the Marketing Plan is
elaborated. The targeting priority roadmap should reflect how the highest priority levels are
assigned –and so is the bulk of the marketing budget- to the most profitable targets, as long
as there is significant potential for increasing their revenue streams. Secondly, there should be
consideration of the most profitable target groups with potential to fill in the occupancy gaps.
Having started by optimizing the combination of the current target groups, destination
marketing 3.0 is to increasingly focus its attention on a set of target groups identified under
the label of Tourists 3.0 or Creative Society. They are to be the ones who fuel the new
marketing system and therefore -regardless of their expenditure- are of capital strategic
importance. They encompass many groups:
 Special interest travellers: these are motivated for specific types of experiences (sports,
nature, hobbies, etc.), have a high education level, search for spiritual comfort, are values-
driven and are keen on telling stories about their experiences as long as they feel an
emotional connection with the destination they have visited. They also are among the
highest spending targets.
 Concerned travellers: these are the ones usually looking for ecotourism or responsible
tourism destinations, as they are concerned about the impacts of the tourism activity in the
destination’s environment and local community. They are to become active advocates for
mission-driven ventures addressing their concerns and embracing their values and ideals.
 Millennials: this is the new generation of adults –from 18 to 34 years old- showing
significantly different habits and values than their predecessors. They are also concerned
about the impact of business activities in the environment and the social communities, and
are active advocates in and outside the social media for the brands embracing their values.
 Teenagers and younger generations: these are the generations to be educated in the values
of sustainability, and to whom the destination experience has to convey an educational
message to raise awareness and concern about sustainability issues. Furthermore, they may
become active contributors in creating contents and storytelling through cooperation
programs with schools.
Over time, focusing the marketing efforts on the new targets helps the destination in gaining
these new clients, while retaining the most profitable ones, to achieve an optimized balance of
target groups. Apart from these, the continuous search of new profitable niches and segments
should be encouraged.
Beyond the target tourists, the segmentation strategy formulation should also consider other
groups and individuals who are not to become tourists necessarily but are also constituents of
the marketing strategies, as they are about to play one or many important roles in the
destination development. Hereby are explained all the types of roles that may be played by
some of these constituents:
 Tourist: occasionally or frequently visiting the destination
 Client: buys merchandise products
 Follower: follows the destination social media sites, shares content and votes in contests
 Contributor: actively participates in bringing ideas and creating content through the open
innovation system for non-qualified contributors.
 Professional contributor: cooperates with the destination by bringing in his professional
knowledge and skills to the innovation challenges reserved to qualified contributors. Here
there should also be consideration for those leaders participating in the executive board.

 Brand ambassador: actively advocates for the brands value proposition in all networks.
 Volunteer: participates in volunteer programs in cooperation with Non-profit organizations.
 Investor: brings in capital needed to financially support the destination platform start-up
 Partners & Sponsors: establish long-term cooperation deals with the destination
 Employee: works full-time, part-time or collaborates as a freelancer
To fulfil these roles there are many possible candidate profiles, some of which may play many
roles at a time. This is actually the goal of the marketing strategies, to engage these targets in
playing as many roles as possible, within their limitations. These are the following:
 Local community members: followers, clients, contributors, brand ambassadors,
volunteers and employees
 Local community leaders: followers, clients, professional and non-professional
contributors, brand ambassadors, volunteers and employees
 Employees: followers, clients, contributors and brand ambassadors
 Industry leaders and influencers (executives, experts, journalists, bloggers, politicians,
etc.): followers, professional contributors and brand ambassadors.
 Non-profit organizations & members: followers, clients, contributors, professional
contributors, brand ambassadors, volunteers and partners.
 Travel agents and Tour-operators: partners & sponsors, followers, brand ambassadors
and professional contributor
 Educational institutions (schools, universities & business schools): partners, brand
ambassadors and they could bring in students as followers, clients, employees, volunteers
and contributors.
 Local government: investor, partner & sponsor, brand ambassador and professional
contributor
 Value driven communities (organizations and creative activists): followers, tourists,
clients, contributors, brand ambassadors, volunteers and partners (in the case of
organizations)
 Communities of consumers: tourists, followers, clients, contributors, and even brand
ambassadors
 Financial institutions: investors, partners & sponsors, professional contributors, brand
ambassadors
 Skilled professionals: professional contributors, followers, brand ambassadors,
employees
 Private institutions: investors, partners & sponsors, professional contributors, brand
ambassadors
3.3 Communication strategy
With the new marketing system, communication turns into a two-way conversation between
the destination and all its stakeholders, who want to be listened to and want to contribute in
the brand control and development. Therefore, the goals, the contents, the channels and the
communication flows are to change radically overtime. However, digital marketing is not to
replace traditional marketing, but to integrate with it in order to enhance the marketing
system capabilities.

Firstly, there are many goals to consider when formulating the communication strategy:
 Increase brand or issue awareness  Letting stakeholders support your cause
 Getting feedback from your constituents  Telling stories
 Spur conversations about brand’s topics  Promoting events
 Recruiting contributors  Connect with like-minded organizations
 Getting people to participate in contests  Raising concern about a particular topic
 Recruiting volunteers, trainees and employees  Knowing what is said about the brand
 Building a community around a specific topic  Communicating mission achievements
When formulating the communication goals, it is necessary to state the target audiences they
refer to, as well as to prioritize both the goals and their application to every target audience. It
is also necessary to convert them into specific and measurable objectives.
The communication strategy challenge showcases the strategic shift that entails embracing
Marketing 3.0. As in the case of the targeting strategy, there first has to be a sound analysis
about the cost-effectiveness of every marketing tactic and marketing channel used to reach
the target groups, assessing also its strategic value in accessing the most profitable targets
and achieving other key objectives, to eventually streamline the operational system.
Once the objectives are formulated, it’s necessary to foresee the transition process and set
intermediate objectives along the path between the present starting point and the desired
achievement at the end of the period for which the Plan is elaborated. These intermediate
objectives are to be the turning points that determine when the communication strategy has to
leap forward to the next transition stage.
Therefore, the strategy has to determine all these intermediate goals and their corresponding
strategic shifts, which may consist of a change in the budget allocation –from one channel to
another, for instance- or a deployment of a new channel. This way, the new marketing
contents, channels and activities are to gain precedence in the overall budget, as long as they
obtain the desired results and manage to optimize profitability. However, there has to be
consideration of both the impact of the new marketing and its social media reach on the
current –and specially the most profitable- customers, as well as the need to find the right
balance between the new and the old marketing activities to keep on attracting the most
profitable current clients.
Along with the content marketing system, the strategy has to take into account that the
destination also intends to develop a business unit marketing branded products and to partner
with mission driven travel agents which are to create significant marketing impact on the
target audiences. Along with these channel partners, other mission driven partners should be
taken into account to reach the desired targets, considering also co-marketing agreements
with other mission driven destinations.
The communication strategy will therefore include a content strategy depicting the what, who,
how, when, for who and for what purpose for all kinds of contents to be created; a social
media strategy depicting which platforms to use, how to use them, for who, for what types of
contents and for what purposes; and the traditional strategies foreseeing a progressive
decrease in their budget allocation in favor of the new marketing powered by the open
innovation system.

3.3.1 Content Strategy
As the Content Marketing Institute defines, “content marketing is the marketing technique of
creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a
clearly defined and understood target audience, with the objective of driving profitable
customer action”. The marketing contents are created and delivered to educate, inspire,
entertain and ultimately to motivate sharing, interaction and engagement with the brand’s
marketing activities and its mission purpose. In destination marketing 3.0, the content
marketing encompasses not only images, text, audio and video, but also graphic designs to be
used for branded merchandise products.
Content system development stages. The content system has three development stages:
In the first stage, along with some professional writers employed for these purposes, the
priority is to engage the industry influencers who are more likely to contribute in content
creation for their expertise in doing so: bloggers, journalists, travel industry leaders, NPO
leaders, etc. It’s time to leverage the most skilled and influential stakeholders to start
developing the content creation and storytelling virtuous circle. As these are often busy
professionals, sometimes it may suffice to have a partial contribution within a piece of content,
as long as they feel it is their own creation, so as to deliver it to their follower audience with
their signature, guaranteeing a broad readership.
In a second stage, the circle of contributors should expand encompassing the corporate
employees outside the marketing team and the most committed community members.
Through storytelling training courses, all these non-professional but potentially skilled writers
and storytellers are to develop confidence and skills to eventually become talented
contributors. In this stage, there could be schools included whose teachers are interested in
developing these skills in their students, along with the motivation for the mission driven
purpose. In this stage, there should be also included the co-marketing partnerships, consisting
of a content delivery exchange with other mission driven partners, as long as both partners’
contents are relevant to both sets of audiences.
In the third stage, the network of contributors is to reach all kinds of profiles, and the content
marketing system starts fuelling itself through the aforementioned creative activists who
eventually take control of the brand. In this stage, the destination executives role is no longer
about pushing stakeholders to convince them to contribute, but mostly about tracking the
results and managing the operational system to streamline and develop communication and
sales tactics. In this point, it is necessary to remark on the importance of following the
conversations about the brand, the mission accomplishment and the stories, and prepare a
strategy for managing crisis in case some issues threaten to damage the brand’s reputation.
These development phases are closely related to the network development strategies
explained in the “Network development” section, where the specific strategies to engage every
profile are explained.
Research the target audiences with the goals in mind. When formulating the Content
Strategy, the first step is to refer to the communication goals in relation to each of the target
audiences. Then, from the goals for every audience, it’s time to decide what type of contents

and formats are more likely to effectively convey the intended message or to motivate the
intended action by the target audience. In this step it is necessary to conduct research on the
target audiences’ needs, concerns, preferences, motivations and habits to figure out which is
the appropriate content for every occasion. Together with the research on the social media
channels, it is necessary to find out, for every target audience:
 What kind of issues arouse their interest and attention?
 Which social media platforms do they use and for what purposes? What kind of content do
they read or view for every purpose?
 What supports do they use when using social media and reading or viewing contents?
 What types of formats and styles do they prefer for each type of content?
 Which is the preferred extension of the content pieces and their flexibility in this regard?
 Do they miss any type of content? Is there any type of content they would appreciate
receiving on a regular basis? What types of content are they most likely to share?
 How much time do they spend connected to the social media?
 What activities and contents would motivate them to interact with our brand in social
media: participating in contests, discussion forums, etc.?
Bear in mind that the content strategy should not only consider the different audiences and
different formats adapted to the social media platforms and devices, but also what is the
intended purpose of the content in relation to the audience: is it trying to entertain in order to
gain brand awareness and popularity? Is it trying to educate in order to create concern? Is it
trying to establish an emotional connection? Is it trying to encourage constituents in becoming
brand ambassadors? Is it trying to motivate contribution to the content system?
To map out an engagement process applicable to the majority of the target audiences, there
may be consideration of five main roles or engagement stages that most targets may take, so
the content strategy has to consider that engagement has a sequential process as follows:
Follower > Client > Tourist > Contributor > Brand ambassador
Design purpose driven content. Even if some contents may work for various purposes, an
effective strategy has to consider specific content to move the audience in taking a role:
motivating to become a follower, a client, a contributor, a brand ambassador, or a volunteer
requires different types of content, and some targets may need content adapted to their taste.
For instance a story about a tourist living a life-changing experience is to convince the
audience to become a follower or a tourist, whereas a story about a contributor’s experience
when making and telling his personal story is to engage tourists in learning how to make and
tell their story as a contributor. The same would apply for stories about volunteering or about
advocating as a brand ambassador among their community.
Furthermore, when designing the piece of content, also think about what specific action you
want the audience to take in order to direct them to the ultimate goal of the content: share or
retweet, comment or vote, engage in a conversation, click a link to your webpage or blog, sign
up to attend an event, buy merchandise from your online store, ask for further information,
make a booking, like a page, etc. and measure the success of the call to action!

When adding the “Call to action” to the content, make sure it stands out at the end of the
piece to catch the reader’s eye and that it is conveying the value that the user is about to get
by taking this action.
Establish a delivery calendar. In order to generate the desired impact and to keep our
brand in the targets mind without overwhelming them it is convenient to release content with
a pre-established frequency, and it is recommended to draft a content delivery calendar. To
properly formulate the content rhythm strategy, take into account the following tips:
 Be consistent. Commit to a rhythm you are sure to comply with, so your followers know
what to expect from you and never be disappointed.
 Accelerate over time. Once you are complying with the established rhythm, try to add
some more progressively, and monitor the reaction of the audience to see if some of them
are overloaded and how many of them are welcoming the new content. Try to adapt
accordingly.
 Find the right balance. By experimenting, listening to the audience and tracking their
engagement it is possible to optimize little by little the mix of content types and the
appropriate frequency for every sort of content.
 Create a stock. To guarantee the established delivery pace, it is convenient to have a
content stock that provides you with some room for dealing with the unexpected.
Furthermore, as long as the system depends upon volunteer contributors, the risk of
running out of new content is significant.
 Create a content creation calendar. Even if most of the content creators are free
contributors, there is a small team of professional content creators and many actions to
stimulate the content creation. Estimate when you need to take action to obtain the desired
results.
Content marketing phases. The content marketing system entails four cyclic phases:
1) Create, refine and deliver. Set content creation goals and guidelines, fuel your sources to
produce high quality content; control its adequacy and readiness for delivery and give
feedback on the necessary changes to make it suitable. Adapt to different formats or
cultural contexts, and translate into different languages if necessary. Then, once the
content is ready, organize the delivery according to the established calendar for each type
of content and deliver accordingly.
2) Converse and listen. Encourage your audience to comment by stimulating debate to
ultimately engage them in a conversation. Then, figure out what they think about the
destination, its mission purpose, its stories, life-changing experiences and the content
pieces. Get all the possible customer insights and find out about possible misconceptions
that they might have about the destination activities or that you may have about their
habits, concerns, motivations and aspirations.
3) Measure and learn. Track the results of the content delivery in terms of virality, generated
discussion, likeability, conversion and other parameters, and learn about what content
features are more effective in relation to each of these indicators for every target audience.
Learn about the extent to which there is a need or a convenience for micro-marketing or
tailored marketing for each target audience and identify new target niches.

4) Repurpose content in new formats. Having assessed the success of every piece of content,
try to envision if it could be reconverted to other content formats, it could be split into
smaller pieces of content or it could be somehow adapted to other target audiences. Create
marketable products out of the most successful content, like books, DVDs, calendars, etc.
Finally, research the market to find new formats or products to leverage your most
successful content. Ask the followers for ideas too!
General tips. Consider these tips when formulating the content strategy:
 Provide translated content for all your target audiences speaking different languages
 Use high quality images with your text content whenever possible
 Make sure you are informed about the hot topics and sensitive issues for each of your target
audiences, and that you only deliver relevant content for them. Content segmentation is
advised.
 When targeting different countries, try to collaborate with local influencers who know their
audience interests and sensitive issues, and who in turn can reach a broader audience.
 Make it easy for readers to find links to related contents, to the content source or to the
content version in other languages.
 Think of strategic keywords that should appear in your content when your target audience is
searching for information on their interests. Consider SEO in our content strategy.
 Make your content responsive to all the supports and devices your audience is likely to use.
 Consider the social media platforms where the audience is likely to view the content, and
adapt it.
Types of content pieces and formats. When designing the content strategy, it is convenient
to reflect upon what kinds of content pieces may interest the target audiences, as well as all
the suitable formats to leverage the created content through all the available marketing tools:
CONTENT PIECES CONTENT FORMATS
 Educational guides, adapted to many targets
 Thought leadership pieces
 Industry news
 Photos conveying emotions and experiences
 Destination news about events
 Mission related accomplishments
 Stories about experiences in all roles
 Announcements calling participants to a contest
 Designs for t-shirts, caps, umbrellas, etc.
 Designs for school material items
 Stories about other destinations
 Books
 Audiobooks
 Cartoons, comic book graphics
 Podcasts
 Webinars
 Blogposts
 Brochures
 Branded content tools
 Press releases
 Microblogs
 Mobile applications
However, despite the various types of content that may be created, the stories on the
destination’s life-changing experiences are to be the central and most compelling pieces of
content. Apart from the professional content creators and storytellers, it is convenient to carry
out research on the destination’s existing stories and train the local community members to
craft and make them compelling, before making up brand new ones. The Storytelling training
is to explain the techniques to craft and tell compelling stories, so as to leverage the locals’
talent through the open innovation system to create the best possible marketing content for
the destination.

The Whitepaper “Marketing destinations through storytelling” explains how to craft
compelling stories as well as other relevant facts about storytelling. Furthermore, the
Whitepaper “Envisioning Open Innovation in destinations” explains how the open
innovation could be deployed as a marketing content generator, among other outputs.
Beyond the goals and formulated strategies, the daily experience and tracking of the results
and conversations will determine what works and what doesn’t, what needs to be improved
and what needs to be changed to attain the desired results. Even when the intended results
are achieved, the needs and desires of our target audiences are to change over time and so
the strategies have to change.
3.3.2 Social Media Strategy
Even if Social Media Marketing is presented here as a new channel which eventually has to
replace the traditional ones, the best way to bring it in is in coexistence with the current
marketing system. Furthermore, social media channels are to be useful for communicating
with many of the current clients of the destination, for it is convenient to take them into
account when formulating the social media strategy, even if this Whitepaper focuses its
attention on the main targets related to destination marketing 3.0.
Social media goals. Social media platforms offer a great opportunity to connect with the
target audience not only to deliver content but also to create a two-way conversation, and
these conversations are the ones that eventually lead to their engagement with the
destination’s mission and brand. Among the many goals that can be achieved through social
media channels, the following may be highlighted:
 Generating traffic to the corporate website
 Delivering targeted contents to segmented audiences
 Tapping into new markets and segments through social endorsements and paid advertising
 Provide a customer service platform where customers queries and complaints are attended
 Operating many activities of the open innovation system, especially those for non-
professionals
 Facilitating the connection between tourists to let them share stories and information
 Enabling social leaders and creative activists to advocate for the brand in their communities
 Generating conversations and discussions about brand or mission related issues
 Interacting and building relationships with stakeholders to engage them with the brand
Market research. Every social media platform has unique features and therefore is suited for
different purposes and different targets, though most of them may be suitable for many
purposes and audiences. However, in formulating the social media strategy, it is necessary to
determine for every social media platform what kind of contents are to be used and which
targets are to be reached. It is therefore convenient to research the following issues for each
of our target audiences:
 How engaged are our target audiences in social media and on which platforms?
 What other brands or organizations do our targets follow or interact with in social media?
 What social media strategies are using our competitors?

Formulating strategy. Once the goals are set and the information on the use of social media
by our target audiences has been obtained, it’s time to formulate the strategy. Understanding
that the strategy is to convince a set of different target audiences to enrol in a certain type of
engagement (contributor, client, follower, etc.) through content delivery via social media
platforms, the formulation has to depict which social media platforms are to be used for every
target audience and for what kind of enrolments. Further, it might be convenient that some
target audiences or some enrolment purposes have their own page or account apart from the
others within one social media platform. A succinct way to formulate the strategy is to draw a
table to fill in the following data for every social media platform:
 Specific, measurable and time-bounded goals
 Target audiences, assigning a priority level to each of them and for each region
 Types of content –considering format and language- to be delivered, assigning a priority
level or intended frequency to each type of content
 Types of activities to be carried out
 Advertising for which target audiences, assigning a budget percentage to every one
 Number of pages or accounts to have in every platform, and for which audience or
enrolment purpose is every one
 Consider pages or accounts for different geographical markets and languages.
 How to manage content and conversation
 Development stage in which it is to be deployed
Furthermore, it is advisable to start using one or two social media platforms at the beginning,
and expand the scope of used platforms for as long as the stakeholder network grows.
Therefore, the social media strategy should consider several phases of network development,
stating which social media platforms are to be used in each phase as well as the turning points
at which to leap forward to the next phase. This way, the initial efforts in deploying the social
media throughout the stakeholder community are to be more effective, and as long as the
network grows and is more familiar with the social media tools, this network is leveraged to
also follow the other social media platforms.
Strategy recommendations. To provide some guidance in designing the strategy for each
social media platform, hereby are the suggested targets and types of content for every social
media platform, as well as some recommendations for each channel:
Facebook (used by 90% of B2C marketers and 80% of B2B marketers)
 Targets: All those to engage as followers, tourists, contributors, brand ambassadors,
partners, employees, clients and volunteers.
 Content types: videos, photos, text stories, forum discussions, text voting, etc.
 Spend time posting well-edited photos and well-written text. Prioritize quality over volume.
 Short messages stand out, though long messages work when they are compelling, so
communicate succinctly unless you really need the extra words.
 Facebook ads allow clients to target their audience segmenting by multiple variables:
interests, if they are connected or not to the brand, or have friends following the brand, etc.
 Find out which messages inspire action by measuring fans interaction
 Make sure your content is going to be relevant to your intended audience. Be selective.

Twitter (used by 69% of B2C marketers and 80% of B2B marketers)
 Targets: All those to engage as followers, contributors, brand ambassadors, volunteers,
employees, partners and professional contributors.
 Content types: photos, videos, text news, text voting, text stories, etc.
 Tell stories with your tweets, with compelling posts in a consistent tone
 Use hashtags with your tweets to make it simpler for people to find your content. Creating
an original hashtag and linking it to a campaign is even better.
 Use twitter as a testing ground, by tweeting your original content and keeping tabs on the
pieces of content getting more shares. Use this information to direct your content efforts.
 Create Twitter chats for every event and every issue which may be object of conversation
(contests, polls, and discussions on stories, product, mission issues, etc.) and integrate it
within the Mobile App.
 Twitter’s paid advertising allows marketers to target their audience by interest or username,
tracking who the user is following, talking about, and the keywords being used.
 Use it when launching contests to convey the participants contributions or votes
Youtube (used by 65% of B2C marketers and 61% of B2B marketers)
 Targets: All those to engage as followers, clients, tourists, contributors, brand
ambassadors and volunteers.
 Content types: videos
 Enable video embedding to allow users to post your videos on their websites
 Mix professional and homegrown videos to humanize your brand and convey authenticity
 Showing instead of telling: showcase the life-changing experiences in compelling videos
 Prioritize short videos to deliver succinct messages. After a minute, the attention decreases
 When creating longer videos, make compilations of short pieces of content which make a
coherent sequence rather than having the same speaker all the time.
 Include a call to action at the end of the video, to another video or to visit the website
 Use the sponsored YouTube channels to target specific audiences more effectively
Linkedin (used by 83% of B2B marketers and 51% of B2C marketers)
 Targets: All those to engage as investors, employees, partners and professional
contributors.
 Content types: text news and discussions
 Use it to connect with corporate partners and professional contributors
 Linkedin company pages offer a platform to share diverse types of content
 Encourage employees to connect with the corporate page so as to use the platform for
sharing information and contents among staff members
 Prioritize content quality over quantity so as not to overload the already busy receivers
 Participate in groups’ discussions to grow your professional network, build thought
leadership and stay updated with industry trends.
Google + (used by 41% of B2C marketers and 39% of B2B marketers)
 Targets: All those to engage as tourists, clients, followers, contributors, brand
ambassadors and volunteers
 Content types: videos, photos and infographics

 Offer a balanced mix of content media, as the platform allows the user to mix photos,
videos, infographics, etc. thus creating an eye-catching experience
 Find ways to use the symbols # and +, as hashtags help your posts get discovered through
search and the “Plus” feature catches the attention of individuals and brands.
 Share content from your employees, as a way to give them recognition for their content
creation efforts and showcasing the commitment of all staff members in their mission.
 Use archived content that may be appropriate for trending topics
 Share other’s content adding your comments as with a blog post
Pinterest (used by 35% of B2C marketers and 26% of B2B marketers)
 Targets: All those to engage as tourists, followers, contributors, brand ambassadors,
volunteers and clients
 Content types: videos and photos
 Mind that this platform mainly targets female millennials when deciding the content to post.
 Use it to post photos and videos to drive traffic to your website or YouTube channel.
 It has to be taken into account when organizing video or photo contests, as it is one of the
social media channels where users spend the most time, second only to Facebook.
 Strengthen relationships with stakeholders by highlighting their success stories, and drive
traffic by creating a board where their achievements are shown.
 Share book recommendations that may be relevant to your target audience. Leveraging
useful literature demonstrates dynamism and brand’s commitment with continuous
improvement.
 Show photos and videos of staff members and clients in action to convey the feelings and
the experiences that prospective tourists are to live when they visit the destination.
 Ask fans to pin their pictures in the destination and tag you. Then re-pin those images on
your own page to let potential tourists know how much visitors enjoy their experience.
These are the main social media platforms recommended globally, though other growing
platforms such as Instagram and Flickr should also be considered. Furthermore, in some
countries it may be convenient to adapt the social media strategy depending on the scope and
use of each platform, also taking into account that some countries have their own social media
platforms that are equally or more popular than the global ones. Considering all these factors,
it is convenient to get professional advice from a social media strategist with experience in
every market.
Apart from these social media platforms, it is highly recommendable to have a corporate blog
as the main hub where content is posted, where all social media corporate pages and accounts
are linked, and which is also available to all approved contributors to post their new content in.
Beyond using the social media channels to deliver content, as long as the system manages to
get the leads’ contact data, consider using a marketing automation tool such as Market, Act-
On, or Pardot to track these leads and deliver them specific pieces of content depending on the
actions they take. This is to help optimizing both the use of the content and the potential
engagement of your audience.

3.4 Network engagement and development strategy
As the reader may have already understood, the success of destination marketing 3.0 is based
upon building and engaging a large network of stakeholders. Furthermore, an Open Innovation
System has to be developed engaging both professional and non-professional contributors.
Such a challenge is not easy to tackle, no matter how compelling the stories are or how
motivating the mission accomplishment is, for a specific strategy should be designed to
enhance the chances of success.
This strategic challenge is particularly critical for DMOs, as long as they have to involve the
whole destination community and its DMCs. This should be structured in four sections:
 Internal marketing: selling the vision to the stakeholders to gain their support on the new
mission driven endeavour.
 Culture change: addressing all the attitudes, fears and other barriers that prevent
stakeholders from successfully embracing the social media tools, as well as the values of
collaboration and innovation.
 Network development: building the network, empowering and motivating stakeholders to
contribute to the content creation and actively advocating for the mission driven brand.
 Open innovation system development: building the network of contributors, with special
focus on the professional contributors, as they require specific strategies to attain the
desired results.
3.4.1 Internal Marketing
Marketing the vision to community stakeholders. The challenge of engaging the local
community stakeholders requires its own marketing plan, usually known as internal marketing
plan. This should be focused on the target stakeholders aimed at attracting in the first phase,
encompassing the key partners and the local community. The Plan’s goals are to explain the
vision, mission and the value propositions of the Destination Marketing Plan 3.0, encompassing
the community related issues to be addressed through the destination development, the
sociocultural transformation through life-changing experiences and the values that have to
drive the organizational standards of behavior and the stakeholder community.
The Plan should distinguish between the different target audiences to assess convenience for
targeted communication strategies. For instance, the professional audience and target partners
may require a business oriented presentation, whereas for the bulk of the community
members the presentation would be rather storytelling oriented.
Considering that many of the key partners and community leaders have been engaged since
the mission definition, most of the effort should be focused on the local community members
who have not yet been engaged with the project. For such purpose it is convenient to explain
to them the project vision through a compelling story that connects first with their emotions
and human spirit, to awaken interest for a deeper understanding of the marketing system.

Once these community members are interested, it is necessary to explain to them the
operational functioning for them as potential contributors, and a series of communication tools
should be developed to help them understand what their contribution experience is likely to be
about. Such communication tools could be brochures, CD with video showcasing contributor’s
fiction stories, web-based interactive presentation, social media based forums to solve queries,
customer service hotline, etc. Finally, co-creation and storytelling workshops should be
organized to empower potential contributors to participate in a first content creation contest
with prizes for contributions in many categories so as to reward all valuable contributors
proportionally and boost engagement.
To make a compelling story for this purpose it is convenient to use one main character similar
to the audience profiles as the protagonist. Such a character should have similar problems,
needs, concerns, fears and aspirations as most local community members, to allow them to
identify with him or her and connect with the story. Then, the story shows the character
finding out how the new destination model addresses all their needs and concerns, and how
the open innovation system gives them an opportunity to contribute, showcase their skills and
gain social reputation.
Marketing the vision to investors. Whenever the new tourism development requires some
significant investments, it may be convenient to attract investors instead of asking for credit
loans. To do so, it is also necessary to prepare specific contents and presentations. In this
case, it is convenient to present the business oriented Marketing Plan with the investment
projects and their feasibility study.
In some cases it may be that there are some clearly profitable investments and others which
are strategic or profitable in a less quantifiable way, because they affect all local businesses or
they are just “socially profitable”. In these cases it is recommended to offer the first kind of
investment projects to private investors and try to engage the government for the socially
profitable or general interest project. However, in some cases the government may not be able
to assume the investment or only a part of it, and then it is necessary to find imaginative
models and formulas to make the project profitable for a private investor and calculate its
estimated profitability.
Even if there may be these needs for external funding at the early stage of the project, in
expecting a successful development of the project it is desirable that local stakeholders
assume the ownership of these investments over time, to better guarantee a long term
commitment to the destination and the business’ engagement with the mission
accomplishment.
3.4.2 Culture change
The development of the new marketing project may present two cultural challenges:
 The need for developing a new set of values as organizational standards of behavior, as a
key success factor of the new values driven marketing
 The need to overcome barriers in the adoption of the social media and content marketing
engagement by the employees and the local community

Changing values and behaviors. Beyond the life-changing experiences and the related
stories, to keep the brand integrity and ensure the success of the new marketing endeavour it
is necessary that the employees and partners’ behaviors faithfully reflect the preached values.
Therefore, it is probably necessary to develop a culture change program, at least to harmonize
certain critical behaviors throughout the destination stakeholder community.
Designed upon consensus among the key stakeholders and community leaders, there has to be
a set of values underlying the behaviors to be promoted throughout the community. Such
values should be cooperation, innovation and openness to new ideas, integrity and
transparency, initiative, sustainability, solidarity, common good, etc. To convince stakeholders
of assuming the new set of values, it is recommendable to elaborate a Case for Change, which
contains the following pieces:
 Context: why changes are needed now, stating opportunities and threats that justify it.
 Changes: what has to change, who is to be affected and what does not have to change
 Process: how the proposed changes are to be implemented and expected timing
 Benefits: who benefits from the changes (destination, community, individuals, etc.)
 Consequences: what would happen if these changes are delayed
 Expectations: the role every stakeholder has to play
 Commitment: leaders have to present the Case for Change to the community, stating
their explicit commitments that ultimately make them accountable to the community.
Once the Case for Change has been defined, it’s time to implement it following five principles:
1) Train employees, partners and community members on how to apply the new set of values
on a daily basis, with especial emphasis on their relationships with tourists.
2) Putting the new values into practice by changing behaviors
3) Leaders have to preach by example, becoming the key role models that inspire everybody
4) Ensure that everyone is aligned with the new values and behaviors, and correct if necessary
5) Celebrate results achieved by any employee or community member to encourage others
The key ideas of driving culture change to understand are that this has to be started from the
leadership positions, well communicated to convince their organization or community while
listening, understanding and addressing their possible resistance, preaching by example,
achieving and celebrating results, and benefiting all stakeholders to prevent further resistance.
The Whitepaper on “Building a culture of collaboration and innovation” is to develop in
detail the key factors to a successful cultural change into developing the desired attitudes.
Overcoming barriers in the social media adoption. When introducing and trying to engage
employees and community stakeholders in social media platforms, there may be many
barriers, fears, concerns and attitudes that pose a cultural change challenge. Therefore, it is
necessary to research and listen to these employees and community stakeholders on their
opinions, visions and attitudes about engaging in social media to assess the need for a specific
culture change and internal marketing strategy to deal with these obstacles. For instance,
some of the barriers may be:
 Fear of negative reaction from customers
 Lack of time or internal resources
 Fear of extra workload for the employees

 Lack of knowledge and expertise
 Not convinced about its profitability
 Fear of losing privacy
Once all the barriers are well known, there has to be design and implementation of a Change
Strategy to overcome them based on the following sequential patterns:
1. Create a
guiding coalition
 Identify and engage change agents as social media catalysts
 Assemble a coherent group to lead the change
 Integrate this team into the affected groups
 Bring in champions in each group dedicated to social media success
2. Develop a
clear vision
 Create a catalyzing vision for the social media effort
 Develop strategy in line with the overall vision
3. Share the
vision
 Communicate the vision in every possible way to the community
 Commit executive and community leadership to supporting the vision
 Coalition members should be role models for the community
1. 4. Empower
people and
remove
obstacles
 Organize training courses on storytelling and content creation
 Organize training courses on social media adapted to all audiences
 Change structures, systems, compensation and any factors that
obstruct the social media effort
5. Secure
consistent
short-term wins
 Make public and visible performance improvements
 Celebrate victories in line with the overall program vision
 Reward and recognize those securing the wins
 Publicize the progress of the project together with the contests
6. Consolidate
and keep
moving
 Use momentum to gradually change all systems and processes that
don’t support the program’s success
 Enable change agents throughout the organization and community
 Energize the project with consistent flow of new content of all types
7. Anchor the
program in the
organization
and the
community
 New approach should be anchored in the culture of the community
 Real key to social media success is in transforming the organization
and community to the culture of a social enterprise
 Maintain consistent action to further embed behaviors and discipline
3.4.3 Network development
To build and engage a large community network is a challenging venture, for it will be
necessary to design and follow a thoughtful strategy to optimize the chances of success. Such
a pathway should be built upon the following principles:
1) Concentrate efforts: start with one social media platform and extend presence in other
channels progressively. Build an engaged community first in one platform –Facebook is
likely to be the best choice- and then leverage this network to the other platforms one by
one, considering which target audiences you are most likely to engage with in every
platform.
2) Be relevant and honest: building a network is about net giving and building trust, so be
selective and set high standards for the quality of your content, making sure it is
interesting to the target audience. Show transparency about who are you and what you do,
allowing community members to research and test on what you are claiming for.

3) Foster interactivity: posing questions, organizing contests and generating discussion is
the way to create buzz for the destination brand and ultimately engage the community
members. Further, promptly answer the questions and try to build personal relationship
with members, and especially with the community leaders. Let them take the initiative to
further engage them as active members.
4) Show your face: beyond the online connection, personal relationships need an offline
experience to build trust and cooperation. Start by showing pictures or videos of the team
members to show the human side of the destination brand, and then organize offline
events to let everybody know each other personally.
5) Take it easy: building a network requires time and patience, so track the evolution of the
network growth but do not expect great results in the short term. Set high objectives but
be prudent in your expectations. Prioritize consistency by engaging the right targets rather
than intending to grow fast disregarding the kind of people you are engaging.
Engaging different profiles. When trying to engage the stakeholder community it is
convenient to segment them according to how critical their contribution is, how they may be
selected and engaged, as well as depending on their expected contribution. Further, the
network development strategy should depict the sequential phases of this development and
the targets to engage in each phase. In this case, the suggested target groups ranked
according to their sequential priority would be the following:
1) Leaders and influencers
2) Employees outside of the marketing team
3) Partners
4) Local community members and value driven communities and individuals
The most strategic stakeholders to engage from the early beginning are the community and
industry leaders. These are the ones who are likely to become the most influential brand
advocates within the community members and stakeholders, as they hold trust and their
opinion is listened to and well considered within their circle of influence.
As explained previously, they are to be engaged in the project from the earliest stage when
defining the mission of the Plan. By engaging them from the outset and telling them how their
contribution has been useful to the mission definition, they establish an emotional connection
with the project as they feel as co-creators and are more willing to keep on collaborating as
contributors in the open innovation system and brand ambassadors to eventually tell a story of
success in which they had a significant role. When searching and trying to engage with
leaders and influencers, take into account the following tips:
 Determine who influences your target audiences and evaluate the likelihood of their
engagement researching on their interests and concerns to figure out if there is any
connection with the project.
 Evaluate their reach in the social media, their relevance in community or industry events,
how often they deliver content or participate in discussions, etc. Then, prioritize accordingly.
 Develop a relationship with them by following them in the social media, leaving thoughtful
comments on their blog, engaging in their discussions, sharing their content, etc.
 Introduce yourself formally by email or through social media and explain briefly what the
project is about and what kind of contributions we would like to obtain from him or her.

 Understand that they are very busy people and so it is mandatory to be patient with them
and make things the easiest possible for them to collaborate. Agree upon little
contributions.
 Thank them for their contribution and ask them to share the content to the audience in the
case where their contribution is about creating content. After a while, let them know the
results of the contribution.
A second group to engage are the employees outside of the marketing team, who should
convey the idea that content creation and storytelling is a shared responsibility beyond the
marketing department. Along with the shared values as institutional standards of behavior,
employees have to become community change agents leading by example in the local
community. To encourage employees outside of the marketing team in creating content,
consider the following tips:
 Explain them the value of content marketing for the destination and mission pursuit
 Train them at the beginning in creating their pieces of content until they start enjoying it
and feel confident to do it by themselves
 Ask the CEO and the top executives to include content creation in the annual goals and to
lead by example by giving ideas and co-creating content with the marketing team.
 Explain them how they can build their personal brands and become thought leaders
 Create in-company contests to stimulate employee contribution, offering some symbolic but
significant prize for the winners in many categories, so many can win.
 Encourage them to share their content within their circle of influence and spread the word
about the mission driven purpose, the new content creation and storytelling system.
A third group of key stakeholders to be engaged are the destination partners, all those
associated businesses and organizations with whom the destination will establish a long-term
business deal including also a co-marketing agreement. These should encompass all the
needed business partners along with other value driven institutions which may contribute as
brand ambassadors or in other roles (channel partners, NPOs, suppliers, educational
institutions, cultural institutions, etc.). To search and engage the most appropriate
partners, consider the following tips:
 Assess their technical capabilities, but also their scope of influence within their community
to evaluate their potential audience for delivering contents.
 Assess their reputation and their current practices and values to prevent them from spoiling
the destination’s brand integrity.
 Sense their concern for the issues that the mission intends to address, to evaluate their
potential engagement. You may do this when calling participants for the mission definition.
 Elaborate a pre-selection list of reputable partners to be engaged first in order to use their
name when trying to engage other partners.
 Invite potential partners to a business oriented presentation of the new marketing model to
let them know and assess the partnership potential of business development.
 Design at least two partnership formulas, like “Premium partner” and “Official partner”
offering co-branding agreements in exchange for delivering content, where the Premium
partner has an exclusivity deal within their sector but have to comply with more obligations
than the Official ones.

Finally, the last group of stakeholders to be engaged in contribution, content delivery and
brand advocacy are the local community members and value-driven communities and
individuals. This is the group with the highest potential in terms of dimension and
geographical scope, as they encompass all the consumer communities, and value-driven
communities led by the creative activists. As explained in the targeting strategy section, they
are the main targets to attract as tourists, but to engage them as contributors and brand
ambassadors the following tips should be considered:
 Develop many communication tools to convey the kinds of contribution they can make, the
rewards and the ultimate purpose of their contribution.
 Train them with storytelling, graphic design and product co-creation workshops to empower
them in creating valuable contributions.
 Monitor their conversations in the social media to find out possible mistakes or pain points
in the communication strategy or tactics.
 Identify community leaders to focus the communication efforts and prioritize attention and
support. Allow them to control the brand integrity by being transparent in all activities.
 Ask them about the prizes or recognition they are motivated by in order to develop an
effective incentive system for their contributions.
 Explain to them how to develop their personal brands with their content and build thought
leadership to communicate and to be convincing of their visions and ideas.
Apart from the specific strategies to engage each type of target, consider generic strategies
and tactics to foster engagement throughout the whole stakeholder community:
 Polls asking the stakeholders’ opinion, thanking them with some reward, and letting them
know how their opinion is useful to improve the destination performance. Further, it is a
way to spur discussion.
 Reward top content sharers as well as those who bring in new followers and engage them to
register for contests or workshops to become contributors or for volunteering programs.
 Asking about what types of rewards each target appreciates and designing an incentive
system considering many kinds of prizes to satisfy all targets, and also to reward all
valuable contributions.
 Letting contest participants invite their friends to vote for their content as a way to expand
the brand awareness, and the network of followers and potential contributors.
 Building an emotional connection with tourists with the life-changing experiences and
showcasing how their contributions have powered the destination towards the mission
accomplishment.
 Offering something valuable to users when they leave their personal contact data in the
landing page is to further encourage them in registering for certain activities.
To engage new brand ambassadors consider some guidelines for an advocacy strategy:
 Formulate specific goals for the advocacy program
 Maintain transparency to prove integrity
 Develop tools to track and measure success
 Consider that blogs, forums and networks are the most valued information sources
 Asking their opinion from the initial stages and letting them know how valuable their
contribution has been builds a sense of ownership and emotional connection.
 The way to cultivate influential advocates is to interact, listen and respond in conversations

 Using customer or stakeholder feedback to improve the destination’s services also
strengthens the potential for advocacy as long as you let them know how useful their
feedback has been.
 Consider that there are five types of advocates when drafting the advocacy strategy:
 Connectors are active participants in broad social networks
 Communities are groups of people with a common interest
 Mavens are enthusiasts who rate and review products and services in a specific category
 Experts are people with credentials and technical knowledge in a specific field.
 Endorsers are celebrities whose charisma enhances the brand reputation and awareness
Beyond the strategies to expand and engage new stakeholders, it is necessary to manage the
network members who are already engaged or supposed to be engaged. For such purpose it
is convenient to collect the network members’ contact data as soon as possible in the
engagement process, either by asking for their email when downloading a piece of content or
the mobile number to send information to their cell phone. Once the data is collected, there
are many ways to keep them engaged:
 Ask them about their preferred types of content, to send them only what they are interested
in. Ask them to update their preferences regularly, also to introduce destination news.
 Ask them about their opinions and assessment about destination content, activities and
various issues, encourage them to give suggestions and give them feedback on their ideas.
 Ask them about the frequency and preferred means of communication (email, SMS, etc.)
 Send them Christmas and birthday gifts depending on their contributions or other variables
 Try to identify disengaged individuals and ask them about why they have disengaged
 Give them daily visible gadgets or content materials such as calendars so as to make them
keep the destination brand and the mission purpose at their top of mind
3.4.4 Open innovation system development
Even if the bulk of the open innovation activity is expected to be carried out by the non-
professional contributors in content creation and product development, there are other outputs
and players to whom it is necessary to pay attention to for their key contribution in improving
the destination competitiveness and marketing system. As the Network development section
has explained how to engage most profiles for non-professional contribution in creating
content –though influencers’ contribution could be considered professional despite not being
rewarded-, this section is to focus on developing a network of professional contributors in
many fields.
In this point it is necessary to note that the open innovation system is likely to be applicable
only in the case of large DMOs and large DMCs, though simplified structures and formulas
could also be designed for smaller organizations. To envision the open innovation system, let’s
consider some of the outputs that may result out of it other than content and product:
 Innovation in marketing strategy: new marketing channels, targets, business units, etc.
 Innovation in marketing operations like new infrastructure and tactics
 Technological innovations to streamline operations or create more value
 Technological innovations to tackle environmental challenges
 Innovative strategies to solve socio-cultural issues related to the mission statement

The development of a network of professional contributors should entail the following steps:
 Set innovation goals and metrics to track results. Considering all kinds of desired
outputs, set innovation goals and objectives in accordance with the executive board and
innovation advisors. Formulate specific, measurable and time-bounded objectives, and
prioritize them to build the innovation system according to the real needs and guide the
innovation efforts. Then, design a set of metrics to monitor the project’s results.
 Draft a comprehensive list of the needed profiles encompassing researchers, idea
generators, producers and experts in all fields, as long as innovation is to be carried out by
groups including these four contributor profiles. Some of them may be Strategy consultants,
IT consultants, environmental experts, without disregarding some professionals for content
creation such as writers, graphic designers, photographers and audiovisual developers.
 Research networks and identify potential contributors. Get to know them well to
create a database including their skills, experience, education, achievements, professional
interests, associated network, and personal remarks regarding their concerns, values and
aspirations. Invite them to a business oriented presentation explaining the goals and
operation of the Open Innovation System, also to sense their interest and vision.
 Identify potential leaders. As the open innovation has to work as a decentralized system
with many leaders, it is necessary to have one in each field of expertise at the very least.
These should have collaborative mindsets and empowering leadership style to further
engage other contributors. Further, there should be some key influencers and destination
executives championing the open innovation development to involve new contributors.
 Market contribution as an opportunity to showcase their skills, connect with like-minded
professionals, build reputation within their professional community, get rewards according
to their contribution, achieve visible results that may bring them more professional credit,
etc. Collaborate with professional associations to search for contributors and to market open
innovation contribution as a professional opportunity.
 Design reward system. Research on the market fees for each type of contributor to have
a comprehensive fee list considering field of expertise, experience, achievements, proven
skills, and other relevant variables. As long as innovation challenges are to be driven by
collaboration among contributors, there has to be a way to assess the value of each
contribution, as the final result may be a mix of ideas coming from different innovators.
 Organize a kick-off workshop and open challenge to showcase how the system
works. Pose an easy challenge in which most contributors are likely to be rewarded. An
initial success story is crucial to motivate contributors in engaging further. Listen to their
opinions, reviews and suggestions for improvement. Thank them for their feedback and let
them know how useful it has been to streamline the system.
Beyond these initial steps, there are other key success factors that should not be disregarded:
 Building a culture of trust, innovation and collaboration
 Searching and connecting with external innovation networks to cooperate
 Encouraging contributors to travel to bring in new ideas from other destinations
 Organize workshops to train in co-creation, marketing, leadership and other subjects
 Identify needed infrastructure to facilitate and enhance collaborative innovation
Keep in mind as an innovation mantra that “those that will succeed are the ones that embrace
creativity and experiment with different ways of reaching and engaging their customers”.

3.5 Product and sales strategy
One of the main innovations of Destination marketing 3.0 is the development of new product
lines which require new marketing & sales channels. Further, some new channels are also
opened for the new and traditional services to gain cost-effectiveness in the sales process.
3.5.1 Product strategy
The product development strategy is to be based upon developing new product lines and
improving the current products’ competitiveness based on stakeholder contribution through co-
creation workshops and the open innovation system. There may be four distinguishable main
product development lines:
 Developing Special Interest Products
 Developing life-changing experiences
 Improving current products competitiveness
 Develop a merchandise product line
Special interest Products. These have to be developed in cooperation with expert
consultants and the Special interest Travel Agents who are to become our Channel Partners,
with the following method:
1) Assess segments & niche attractiveness: demand seasonality, tourist expense, associated
marketing costs, necessary investment, etc. (see the complete list in the “External Audit
section”) weighing all the factors to elaborate a synthetic index for each segment.
2) Assess destination competitiveness for each segment: assess destination compliance with
the segment key success factors, evaluate cost and capability of solving competitiveness
gaps, and elaborate a synthetic index out of the assessed factors.
3) Prioritize segments: draft the McKinsey matrix indicating competitiveness in one axis and
attractiveness in the other axis, as a bi-dimensional diagram where the zero point is the
minimum value for both. Then place every segment within the diagram according to the
values of their synthetic indexes to visualize the segments where the destination may
compete successfully and those that are most profitable. Finally, prioritize accordingly.
Life-changing experiences. As with the marketing contents, these are developed through
the open innovation system. Taking the value proposition and mission statement as the
inspirational mantras, along with some reference benchmarks, the product innovation
challenge is about leveraging the stakeholder imagination by stimulating contribution
permanently, through creative reviews right after the experience and also through product
development contests and co-creation workshops. There is a Product Manager in charge of
organizing these events and supervising the developed ideas to assess their feasibility and
adequacy, and eventually to put them into practice.
Out of the aforementioned events, innovation is constantly encouraged by rewarding well
elaborated ideas and customer reviews bringing in ideas on how the experiences could be
improved. Furthermore, the proposed experiences are flexible and customizable for every
client, hence generating a wider variety of stories and ideas for product development.

Improve Product Competitiveness. Beyond the new products development it is convenient
to keep on improving the existing ones based on enhancing value and reducing efforts for the
tourist. The value is to be brought by improving the experience, the feelings and the service
quality; whereas the efforts may be reduced by eliminating discomforts and uncertainties. The
Whitepaper on Tourism Competitiveness strategy is to explain all these factors in detail.
To assess and improve these factors it is necessary to listen to the tourists to know their
opinions. This may be done through polls on the site or more efficiently by stimulating and
facilitating interaction with them through their smartphones while they are living the
experience and right after to allow them to post critical and creative reviews on how to
improve the experience. For such purpose it is necessary that free wifi is available in the
critical spots.
Merchandise product line. Apart from the tourism products, the new marketing system
intends to leverage the open innovation contributors’ talent in creating attractive designs for
merchandise products such as t-shirts, caps, umbrellas, bags, school material, and other
souvenirs or gadgets. There is a vast potential of revenue streams so long as the brand
becomes popular and the marketing team manages to develop a portfolio of quality products.
For such a product line, there should be at least a Product Manager in charge of managing the
product line, searching for new designs and new product concepts to be developed with the
help of the open innovation system and its contributors.
3.5.2 Sales strategy
In accordance with the product development strategy, there are also some significant changes
in the sales or distribution strategy. In summary, the sales strategy may be synthesised in
three channels:
 Traditional channels for tourism products: travel agencies and tour-operators selling
commodity products, and direct booking to every service.
 New channels for the new tourism products: Special Interest travel agents and tour-
operators; mission driven travel agents and tour-operators marketing the life-changing
experiences to value driven customers; booking platform in the destination website
centralizing all services and leveraging the increasing brand awareness and interest.
 Distribution channels for the merchandise products: retail stores and online store.
The main power of the new sales system is not only the new product lines and channels, but
mostly the growth of the brand awareness that drives prospective customers to the
destination’s booking platform and online store, which in addition are the most profitable
channels, providing direct connection with the client and empowering the destination to control
customer satisfaction and collect intelligence data.
Needless to say this booking platform is applicable only to DMOs, as long as they hold the
destination brand and are providing service to all the destination’s businesses. Furthermore
this booking platform is intended to provide a low cost sales channel to the destination
businesses, charging them only a service to cover its cost, for it may be considered a non-
profit service.

Current
TA and
TTOO
Direct
booking
Special
Interest
TA
Mission
driven
TA
Online
store &
booking
Retail
channels
Current
products
••• • ••
Special
Interest
••• ••
Life-changing ••• •••
Merchandise ••• •••
While the travel agents are used to leverage their marketing influence along the initial stages,
over time the online channels are expected to become the main sales channel.
4. Operational Plan
In relation to all the new strategies to deploy Destination marketing 3.0, there are their
corresponding infrastructures and tactics to operationalize the strategic guidelines. As
explained for every strategy, the existing tools and activities are to keep on functioning as long
as they are profitable enough. Actually, one of the roles of the Open Innovation System is to
keep on streamlining the marketing operations. When drafting this Operational Plan it
necessary to explain for every infrastructure or tactic: its goals, its constituents, budget,
priority level, person(s) responsible for its implementation and key success factors.
4.1 Marketing infrastructure
The new infrastructure consists of website, web-based platforms and social media pages:
 Corporate website is the main communication hub for all stakeholders. This is the hub
where most of the “Call to action” featured in the content have to redirect, and so there has
to be landing pages for every call to action. Furthermore, it is also the hub where contents
are posted and linked to the social media channels for every target audience. It may include
a blog, a forum, and the landing pages. It also contains the Booking platform, the Open
Innovation platform and the Online Store.
 Open innovation platform is the hub where innovators are called to be registered and to
sign up for related events. In the case of non-professional contributors it is the place to
submit their content or their ideas, whereas in the case of professional contributors this
becomes an essential tool, as the innovation challenges for professionals are fully managed
through this platform and entail more complex procedures than the non-professional ones.
 Booking platform is one of the key infrastructures for the new marketing system as the
intention is for it to become the main sales channel for tourism products. Through the
delivered content, there is an increasing publicity of the booking platform –within the
website-, thus increasing the target audience awareness of the new online channel and the
overall sales through it. The goal is to make it the central sales channel as it is the most
profitable for the destination and its businesses.

 Online store is another new sales channel but for the merchandise products. Based also on
the website platform it is to become the main distribution channel for the new merchandise
products. Through advertising content in the social media and the expected popularity of
the destination branded designs, this is to become an important source of revenue streams.
It is also a way to collect data about the destination followers when they submit their order.
 Facebook page is to be a key tool for engaging tourists and contributors for its scope and
enormous functionalities. You may create many pages for different regions and languages,
but also manage all regions from the same page and also targeting each update by
language and region. Furthermore, you may use the micro-targeted Facebook Ads which
lets you show ads to specific audiences based on location, interests, age, profession, etc.
 Linkedin page is to be one of the main information hubs for corporate stakeholders. In
Linkedin it is better to have only one company page for all target audiences. However, you
can target each of the shared content updates by geographical area, in a way that only the
audience you specify will see the content update in their Linkedin newsfeed. You may also
create ads for your target audience just by creating an ad manager account, and then track
the results of the marketing campaigns.
 Pinterest page works like a board where the user pins her –most users are women-
favourite images and videos found on the internet. These can be liked, commented and
shared by friends. Pinterest is turning into an ideal tool for marketing brands, and also an
excellent platform for holding contests, though you need to publish the details of the
contest on your website or other social channels. It is also convenient for marketing
merchandise, showing corporate culture or doing market research.
 Twitter profiles need to be created for every language you want to work with. An effective
strategy requires not only quick answers but also continuous tracking of the trending topics
in the target region. In this regard, it is possible to run advanced searches so as to monitor
the conversation about your brand by language and region. In twitter there are promoted
tweets which you can place in the timelines of your target audience, as well as whenever
someone searches for its hashtag.
 Google+ page allows users to post and share all kinds of contents to make a very
attractive site. It is important to note that whenever someone searches something on
Google, the search engine uses information from Google+ pages in the results, including the
Google+ users contents posted in their account. Therefore, corporate marketers should take
this into account, as having a Google+ account is crucial to improving the brand’s SEO.
 Network database. This is a crucial infrastructure, as important as it is to know our
network members. As long as the followers, clients, contributors and other engaged
individuals establish relationship with the destination it is convenient to register their data
and add information on how they engage with the destination activities and contents. The
better we know them the better we can optimize the marketing strategies to engage them.
4.2 Marketing tactics
Tactics for Marketing 3.0 refer mostly to content or social media marketing, many of which
have already been mentioned either in the strategy section or within the marketing
infrastructure. As it is not the purpose of this Whitepaper to introduce a comprehensive list of
tactics –which are up to the marketers’ creativity-, hereby is a short list of simple but effective
tactics referring to all strategies.

4.2.1 General communication tactics
 Send creative Press releases providing all the key elements (photos, quotes, links,
chronology, etc.) in a different format and tone to make it stand out. PitchEngine.com is a
great tool for that.
 Use selective and accurately targeted advertising in social media, selected websites,
search engines, industry and special interest magazines, etc. Outbrain, StumbleUpon, and
Zemanta may help.
 Develop a mobile application to empower tourists and other stakeholders in connecting
with each other, searching and sharing information, viewing and producing content, and
booking or buying.
 Show the human side of the organization with images of the employees and partners
in some of the communication materials, to foster an emotional connection with your
prospect targets.
4.2.2 Content marketing tactics
 Create innovative storytelling formats such as comic books for the youngest target
groups to make the destination stand out in their minds and encourage them to become
followers and contributors.
 Use images instead of text whenever possible to convey ideas and emotions. Good
images catch the readers’ attention and create good expectations of the text. An image is
worth a thousand words!
 Tell stories about other destinations so as to be perceived as more authentic in your
claims as a values-driven change agent, and ultimately position the destination as genuinely
mission driven.
 Organize storytelling seminars to train all kinds of stakeholders in the art of storytelling.
Such empowerment is crucial to boost the content creation, and it is also a life-changing
experience!
4.2.3 Social media tactics
 Sweepstakes do not bring in ideas like contests but are a valuable source of followers and
data. Unlike in contests, the winners are chosen at random. Offer many prizes to generate
more leads.
 Encourage fan photos, comment on them and make fan engagement a central component
of your social media presence.
 Facebook places is a way of letting users “check in” to venues or places in a way that let
their friends know where they are, hence improving the destination exposure among their
network.
 Pinterest boards are a great place to showcase the merchandise products and redirect the
user to the online store. Also to upload videos and redirect the user to the booking platform.
4.2.4 Public relations’ tactics
 Participate in mission-driven-related and industry events and boards, to build the
destination brand prestige, market the destination as a truly mission driven initiative and to
make new connections.

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