Punting for clicks: Digital marketing for Cambridge tourism

Over eight million people visit Cambridge every year, enjoying the stunning architecture, exploring the world-class museums, and of course, punting on the River Cam!

If you’re a business based in Cambridge, it makes financial sense to appeal to tourists. But what’s the best way to go about it?

Whether you run a bar, B&B, or bakery, we’ve put together nine ways you can make the most of digital marketing to attract tourists!

Run a hotel in Cambridge? Check out our guide to ranking in Google!

Article topics

1. Understand who your target audience is
2. Capture people’s attention before they travel
3. Focus on social media
4. Adopt a mobile-first approach
5. Create localised content
6. Invest in video marketing
7. Encourage customer reviews
8. Make it easy for people to get in touch
9. Don’t forget your offline marketing strategy

Understand who your target audience is

The first step when it comes to promoting your business to tourists is to understand what kind of tourists you want to target.

Not all tourists are the same. For example, do you want to attract families on holiday, young people visiting their friends at Cambridge University, or solo explorers on a tour of the UK?

Knowing your target audience will help you identify the optimal marketing channels to use to bring customers to your business, as well as the offers that will encourage them to buy.

Data is key in determining the ideal target audience. Look at the customers who already buy from you, and conduct thorough market research to see who you could potentially be selling to.

Consider:

• The age and gender of your target audience
• Whether they’re travelling alone or with other people
• Which country (or area of the UK) they’re travelling from
• Their hobbies and interests
• How they buy products
• Which social media channels they use
• What time of year they’re most likely to visit

Top tip: As well as determining who your target audience is, think about who your target audience isn’t – this is known as a negative market segment. This will mean you don’t create marketing campaigns that target the wrong customers.

Capture people’s attention before they travel

According to American Express Travel, 54% of people plan their trips three to six months in advance.

This means you need to make potential visitors aware of your business, long before they board their plane or train.

The best way to do this is through search engine optimisation (SEO) – ensuring you rank in the search engines for keywords that your prospective customers are most likely to use.

Bear in mind that people not based in the UK may use different words and phrases to find your business online. Most keyword research platforms (like AnswerThePublic) give you the option to check how your keywords of choice will fare in different countries, as well as in different languages.

Once prospective customers find your website, make sure they can quickly get the information they want. Good starting points include implementing a simple navigation structure, adding FAQ sections, and optimising your homepage.

Four out of five people say it’s important that they can book every element of their trip online. If you offer a bookable service, make it as easy as possible for prospective customers to arrange it on your website.

Top tip: Adding trust signals to your site shows customers that your website (and by extension, your business) is reliable and credible.

Examples of trust signals you can add to your website include customer reviews, awards won, payment gateway logos, and links to your social media platforms. Try different combinations of trust signals on different pages and see which lead to the best results.

Focus on social media

Nearly half of people use social media for travel inspiration, with one in ten using it to determine where to stay.

It’s easy to see why people opt to use social media to plan their holidays. It’s full of inspirational photos and videos, as well as impartial content from people who have already experienced everything a particular destination has to offer.

(Plus, more and more people, particularly the younger generations, are using social media as an alternative to search engines!)

If you want to appeal to tourists, whether they’re planning their holidays or checking their phone while they’re looking for things to do in the city, a strong social media presence is a must.

While you may be tempted to establish a presence on all the social media platforms, this can often be counterproductive, as you may struggle to post consistently on all of them. It’s better to choose one or two social media platforms that you know your target audience frequently uses.

You can use your social media platform to tell customers about the products and services you offer, as well as give them a sneaky peek behind the scenes – this is a great way to showcase your authenticity.

As well as transactional posts, also promote the Cambridge area in general and nearby points of interest. This makes you more appealing to people who are researching Cambridge as a holiday destination.

Top tip: User-generated content (UGC), social media content that your customers create, can be a powerful tool in your social media strategy. Not only is it cost-effective and easy to acquire, but it also inspires trust – 79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions.

Adopt a mobile-first approach

When people go on holiday, while they may bring a laptop with them, chances are that they’ll use their mobile phone to search for things while they’re out and about. In fact, 64% of internet searches are now carried out on mobile phones.

As a result, it’s essential to make sure that your website is easy to access on a mobile device. We recommend using a mobile-first approach – where you design for smaller screens first, then adapt for larger ones.

This not only keeps customers happy, but it can improve your SEO too. Mobile-friendliness is one of a number of factors that can help your business in the search engine rankings.

Using a responsive design framework is key. This is when your website uses elements and placeholders which automatically resize and adapt, depending on the size of the screen they are being viewed on.

Also think about how mobile users use their fingers to scroll and click through your website. For example, if you have links that are too close to each other, mobile visitors may struggle to access the content they need.

Top tip: Don’t forget your page speed! Mobile devices don’t have the processing power that laptops and desktop computers do, so it’s essential that your page elements load as quickly as possible.

Quick wins for boosting your page speed include compressing your images, removing any plugins and extensions you don’t use, and getting rid of unnecessary redirects.

Create localised content

Local SEO is the process of increasing the visibility of your business in a specific geographic area.

For example, let’s say you run an Italian restaurant in Cambridge. You want to make sure that you rank well when people in the city search for terms like ‘Italian restaurants in Cambridge’ or ‘Italian restaurants near me.’

Good local SEO means more footfall and more sales. Nearly four out of five local mobile searches lead to an offline purchase!

Here are some of the things you can do to increase the odds of appearing in local searches:

• Optimise your website for local keywords
• Create location-specific pages if you have multiple business locations across Cambridge
• Increase the number of backlinks to your website
• Feature in trustworthy local directories (for example, Cambridge Local)
• Get more customer reviews (we’ll talk more about this later)

Top tip: One of the best things you can do when it comes to local SEO is to create a free Google Business Profile.

Invest in video marketing

Engaging content is vital if you want to grab tourists’ attention and show them why they should buy from you.

Video marketing is a brilliant way to appeal to tourists as it’s easy to understand, helps you tell the story of your business, and is highly memorable. Plus, when prospective customers are bombarded with hundreds of messages a day, a well-thought-out video can make you stand out.

93% of marketers who use videos report that they lead to a positive return on investment.

The best thing is that it’s easier to create a video than ever. Most smartphones come with a high-quality camera and editing software, meaning you can point, shoot, edit, and upload!

What kind of videos can you create to promote your business to tourists? Here are some ideas to get you started:

• A tour of your business, showcasing the layout, style, and atmosphere
• A focus on the specific products and services you sell
• A guide to the local area, showing tourists what there is to do nearby
• Fun facts about Cambridge and the history of the city
• A ‘day in the life’ of your employees, introducing them and what they do
• A guide to how to find your business
• Testimonials from satisfied customers
• A fun reaction to relevant memes and trends

Top tip: Don’t forget to add captions to the videos you create. Not only does this help with accessibility, providing a more inclusive experience, but it means people watching with the sound off can understand your videos too!

For extra bonus points, you can create captions in the languages your potential customers speak – find out more about our translation and transcription services.

Encourage customer reviews

When you’re a tourist looking for a place to eat or a place to stay in an area you’ve never visited before, objective feedback from previous customers is worth its weight in gold.

93% of people read online reviews before buying from a business, so the more reviews you can acquire, the better.

As we mentioned earlier, positive online reviews can help with your local SEO too. This is because they show your business is trustworthy, relevant, and prominent – all ranking factors in search engines like Google.

The best way to get online reviews is just to ask. Get in touch with customers after they’ve made a purchase, asking them to review them on your platform of choice. If you have a Google Business Profile, that’s a great starting point – 63% of people check out reviews there.

Alternatively, you can host reviews on your Facebook page or a third-party website like TripAdvisor, Yelp, or Trustpilot.

Top tip: Take the time to respond to all comments, both positive and negative. Responding to negative comments shows that you’re listening to your customers and are willing to take their feedback into consideration.

56% of people have changed their opinion about a business because of a response to a review.

Make it easy for people to get in touch

Before they plan a visit to your business, tourists may have a few questions they need to ask. For example, about food allergies, to ask for directions, or if you’re able to provide service in their language.

Offer as many different ways for customers to reach out as possible, including email, live chat, and social media. We like how Novi has a WhatsApp number, which people can use to text, video chat, or call.

While you don’t have to respond to customers immediately (especially if they’re in another time zone), it is important to answer their questions in a timely manner. According to Zendesk, 12 hours for email and 5 hours for social media should be the minimum.

Top tip: Why not take the questions that tourists ask you and transform them into valuable content? These questions are often fantastic inspiration for blog articles, videos, and social media posts.

Don’t forget your offline marketing strategy

You need to consider all facets of your digital marketing strategy when attracting tourists, but it’s essential to think about your offline marketing too!

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is any advertising customers may see in the real world, including posters, billboards, and street furniture. OOH advertising has the second-highest recall of all types of advertising – ideal if you want people to pay attention to your business.

You can even take advantage of digital OOH advertising, which uses digital displays in places like shopping centres and bus stops. This makes it easier to measure who is checking out your ads and to combine your offline and online marketing efforts.

Top tip: Consider your target audience and the journeys inside and around Cambridge they make. For example, if they are travelling from Stansted Airport, you can advertise there, as well as on the buses and trains travelling directly into the city.

Time to push the boat out on your digital marketing?

Marketing your business to tourists can often feel like you’re fighting against the current.

While you might be keen to jump in and start selling your services to everyone, it pays to plan ahead. Know who you want to sell to and which marketing channels they use – that way, you’ll create impactful marketing that resonates with the right people!

If you need a little extra help with your digital marketing, we have over two decades of experience providing marketing services to Cambridge-based businesses.

Our team will help you develop your marketing strategy, manage your campaigns, and create eye-catching videos and images that get tourists’ attention.

Get in touch today and get ready to ride the tourism wave!