Answer the 3 Ws: Why? Who? What?
by Tony Anderson

As smaller lodging properties prepare to make the most of their marketing in the coming year, an Eau Claire marketing specialist urges them to consider three questions:

Why do people come to your property?
Who is your target market?
What do you have to offer them?

Answering those three questions can help lodging properties lay the foundation for an effective marketing strategy, according to Elizabeth Fischer, owner of Profitable Sales and Marketing Con-sultants in Eau Claire. Fischer has worked with a variety of tourism-related businesses during the past six years including numerous lodging properties.

Fischer warns against taking the quick and easy approach.

“Resist the temptation to just reduce the price,” she said. “So many times everybody thinks, let’s just give a discount and people will come.”

Instead, Fischer urges small property owners to evaluate what it is that people are looking for at their properties. Once they do that, they can begin to evaluate whom they want to target and what they can do to entice visitors to come.

It all should relate to enhancing the experience, Fischer said, adding don’t just knock $10 off the price.

“With smaller properties, people are not looking for price, it’s the experience,” she said. So many time with marketing, people don’t evaluate who their customers are and what they are looking for, she noted.

Since it appears that vacationers will be looking for destinations that they can drive to this year, Fischer said, lodging property owners and operators need to keep that in mind when making marketing decisions. That’s good news for many Midwest destinations.

While folks are reducing the amount they fly, they are not reducing their recreating, Fischer said. This creates a potential for gaining some business.

She urges property owners to focus more on capturing neighboring business. Most of the proper-ties in the Midwest are already marketing to guests who are driving to their destinations. Heighten those efforts, she said. Anything that has worked for you in the past-heighten that, too.

The convention and visitors bureaus expect that business will be strong and we are already seeing an increase in driving traffic, Fischer observed.

“I think next spring and summer you’ll see that even greater,” Fischer predicted. Incidentally, she said, CVBs are a wonderful resource. Fischer encourages small properties to work with their local CVBs. Tap into them. That’s a resource available at no extra charge.

Last, but not least, Fischer said, do not forget your past customers. The people who have given you business in the past can be an essential resource for future business.

“I always recommend mining the acres of diamonds in your own backyard,” Fischer said. “The people who have been to your property are your best resource for additional business.”

Contact past customers and maintain those relationships, she suggested, noting that bringing someone to your property for the first time requires the costliest marketing. It costs less to bring someone back a second time then to get someone to your property initially, she said.

Fischer explained that once someone has stayed at your property, it is much easier to get a return visit, a business referral, or to get them to purchase a gift certificate for someone else.

When contacting prior guest, Fischer noted, you can go back to the original three questions-why, who and what-to consider what you want to promote. Think about the experience your property provides and remind them of those things that will entice them to come back.

Fischer started her business 7 1/2 years ago, and has been working with tourism businesses for six years, including lodging properties. Her book due out this August, is called “Mistakes I Made My First Five Years in Business.” Fischer also works on Midwest Notebook, a television series on tourism in the Midwest.

Reprinted with permission of the Wisconsin Innkeepers Association. Originally published in the January 2002 issue of Inn Touch Magazine.

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