This brief article takes a quick look at ways of promoting to overseas’ visitors without the expense (or glamour) of travelling to find them. There are essentially two ways of doing this:

a) get some-one else to do the work for you – preferably without paying them too much
b) target visitors once they’re here

Get some one else to do the work for you

Yes, thought you’d like this option! The first port of call is to see what markets your regional tourist board (or marketing consortia) is targeting and systematically examine every way in which they do this so you can take advantage of their efforts.

With so many products to promote, it’s hard for the tourist boards to know everything they need to know about you and to promote your product every time.

By and large they focus most on products that are great examples of their key promotional themes – so make it clear where you fit in (don’t leave the thinking to them, they don’t have time), and products promoted by really nice and grateful people who appreciate their efforts or by really persistent people who simply don’t give up. The latter approach works but leaves a residue of resentment so perhaps try the nice guy approach first….

Familiarisation and press trips can work if you really take the time to follow up but there’s little you can do if the buyers and journalists aren’t up to scratch. Why not do a little research and make it easier for your tourist board to bring you the right people by actually suggesting who you’d like to receive and how you’ll give the trip the “wow factor”? This doesn’t have to be expensive – something quirky can work equally well as pulling out all the stops.

And use the opportunity to get some local press coverage at the same time by sending captioned photos of the happy “delegation” to your local papers.

Work through websites targeting overseas visitors and don’t just ask for a link to your site - suggest where it’s appropriate to add one and offer to provide a reciprocal link.

VisitBritain’s new industry website www.visitbritain.com/ukindustry has plenty of details of how to target overseas visitors, including many free and low cost opportunities. With the right product and story, you can get your details featured in press releases sent to journalists around the world, be included in newsletters going to international travel trade and frequent Britain visitors.

Make sure your details appear on the consumer site www.visitbritain.com and within appropriate publications and make entries work harder. Think about every word in your 30 word product description and don’t be satisfied with using a photo you took 10 years ago.

Don’t just snap photos for publicity, set up the photo so it tells its own story. If you’re promoting restful stays in a nice hotel “dress” the room with the tools of relaxation – open book, glass of wine, discarded clothes – so potential guests can immediately imagine how it would feel to relax right there.

Target visitors once they’re here

This method doesn’t work quite so well for accommodation providers but other tourism businesses can target visitors once they’re here via tourist information centres, piggyback promotions and the plethora of free visitor magazines that Mark describes opposite.

Once you attract visitors from overseas, it’s important to make sure they either come back again or recommend you to their friends.

Take a look at the market profiles for each nationality on the VisitBritain industry website to make sure you understand the motivations, likes and dislikes of your visitors and can cater for them accordingly. Adapting your product in small ways can reap large returns.

A very simple way to encourage visitors to recommend you to their friends is to hand them free postcards (you can get 1000 full colour postcards printed for less than £95) ready stamped to reach their home country. If you make sure there’s a short message about your product on the postcard and it’s an attractive picture, you’ll be offering a helpful service and using your visitors enthusiasm to promote your product on your behalf.