Says it all really...

[Starchip]

What?

No posts in the "marketing" thread?

Everyone else must be very happy with this aspect of the business then.

I, on the other hand, have found this to be the most irksome of tasks - yes, even worse than ironing.

How do you measure the success - or otherwise - of your marketing costs?

Would it have happened anyway? Did that ad work? Where is my business coming from? Who should I target? etc etc and again etc.

Advice, anecdotes and unverifiable "truths" would be most welcome.

[Sue: White Horse Walking Holidays]

It's a tough one - I started my walking business/B&B last year and deciding on marketing has been difficult, I have placed a couple of ads in the Ramblers magazine (Walk), with a further one committed for the next edition. The first 2 ads have given me around 8 enquires, around 5 of which lead to bookings. It's not hugely cost effective but at least I'm not running at a loss on it so far. But I don't think I'll commit to a further ad. I contacted almost all Ramblers area secretaries with a survey and none recalled seeing my ad.

The rest of my advertising is done online - my own site, a few selected free links and through a number of others at varying costs. I get a fair number of hits on my site but bookings are still very slow. I think it's because I'm offering holidays rather than straightforward B&B and people are ore wary of that. However, almost everyone who has phoned to discuss what we offer has gone on to book.

I really don't know what my next strategy will be though. The majority of people seem to look online these days. I decided to go for Quality in Tourism instead of placing magazine ads (similar cost to placing a couple of very small ads!) and hope that might help translate web hits into bookings.

[_grockles]

Why don't you do your own survey. Ask everyone that phones in where they heard about you. If its in the net can they remember where?
Place a survey in each room. 1 A4 sheet of paper with not too many questions. You also get the chance to ask your customers how you can improve their stay. (for us this is usually the impossible, 'remove all slopes for ease of access' , only we didn't put the slopes there nature did)
We only ask 8 questions in total, then ask for any further comments. (Always interesting) We ask also for their favorite activity and their recommendations for other holiday guests.
This year to try and get and even higher return of surveys we are putting completed surveys into a draw for a large discount of their next holiday.
Why not look at the postcodes of your customers, see if there is a pattern advertise in that postcode area.
Give repeat customers a discount as recommendations are free publicity.

[Sue: White Horse Walking Holidays]

I always ask how people heard about us, and there's a bit on the registration form too. Since signing up with Visit Britain I've been getting quite a few referrals from a local B&B who are always busy. Since it's the walking holiday side I really want to get off the ground, it's been encouraging that many of the B&B guets are walkers and hopefully they'll return in future years. I do offer incentives for repeat bookings and referrals for the walking holidays too. The survey idea is a good one - my first marketing ploy was a competition for a free 3 night break - it remains to be seen if it will result in any paying guests though!

At the moment I seem to be busy enough without further advertising, which is nice.