insights | 19.09.2025

How to use marketing to make your Bedford business stand out

Article topics

Why target tourists?
The anatomy of a tourist: what to think about
9 top tips for appealing to tourists

There’s so much to do in Bedford if you’re visiting.

Half an hour on the train from London, there’s The Higgins, The Bunyan Museum, and The Quarry Theatre, as well as lots of churches, parks, and markets.

(And of course, we’ll be welcoming Universal Studios to the area in about six years!)

If you run a shop, café, restaurant, or other local business, it makes sense to target the influx of tourists, both national and international.

Keep reading, and we’ll show you how to use marketing to make your business stand out to visitors.

What target tourists?

At this point in the article you might be thinking: ‘Why focus on tourists at all? They may only visit my business once, and then I’ll never see them again.’

While that might be true, if they have a good experience, tourists will go back home and tell their friends, family, and colleagues about you, recommending you if they ever visit Bedford.

Tourists may also review your business, providing you with free, valuable advertising that will encourage other customers to check you out. 72% of tourists say they read reviews before deciding where to eat or what to do on holiday.

It’s also important to remember that tourists come to Bedford with disposable income in their pockets. They’re looking to spend their money on food, drink, clothing, and souvenirs, so it makes sense that they spend it with you rather than a competitor.

Between July and December 2024, overseas tourists spent nearly £18 billion in the UK!

The anatomy of a tourist: what to think about

If you want to appeal to tourists, it’s vital to bear in mind that they may think and act differently from customers who live and work in the Bedford area. This will affect how you market your business to them.

Here are some key differences to consider to get you started:

	Tourists	Locals
Product range	Want to see unique, location-specific items that are easy to pack and transport.	Want essential goods that are competitively priced.
Opening hours	Prefer extended hours to accommodate their busy itinerary.	Prefer regular, consistent hours that align with their working schedule.
Staff training	Encourage staff to understand the local area and provide recommendations to customers. Being multi-lingual can help too.	Encourage staff to understand the local community and build long-term relationships with key customers.

In summary, tourists value a welcoming, exciting experience, while locals are more interested in convenience and familiarity.

While this article can offer you a few pointers in regard to what to look out for, it’s always best to do your own research. Identifying your target audience can help you determine what your specific customers are interested in, what marketing channels they use, and how your products and services can benefit them.

A good place to begin is to poll your existing customers. Ask tourists to complete a short survey when they buy something – you can offer a discount on a future visit as an incentive.

9 top tips for appealing to tourists

Now that you understand the benefits of encouraging tourists to visit your business, how can you get them to check you out?

Here are nine ways you can use marketing (both online and offline) to get tourists to spend their money in your store.

1. Understand your unique selling points

The majority of tourists want a unique and memorable experience when they travel. Discovering your unique selling point as a business can help you create meaningful and engaging experiences that your visitors will love.

Your unique selling point, or USP, is something that you offer that your competitors don’t.

It’s important to dig deep to find this out – if your USP is something your competitors could easily implement, it’s not necessarily a USP.

The first step in the process is to understand your target audience and analyse the competition – what are their strengths and weaknesses? You want to identify gaps in the market you can easily fill.

Next, it’s time to list the benefits of your business. Your USP will lie at the intersection of what your audience wants, what your competitors don’t offer, and what you do well.

For example, let’s say you run a coffee shop, and you sell award-winning coffee that’s grown on a family-owned farm. This appeals to tourists looking for an authentic and unique experience, and shows why they should choose you over a coffee chain.

2. Stand out in the search engines

91.5% of Google users never click past the second page of Google.

This means that getting (and staying) on the first page of the search results can mean more traffic and engagement for your business.

The good news is that there are a lot of things you can do to make sure your business ranks as high as possible. Here are some ways you can improve your search engine presence with search engine optimisation (SEO).

Sign up for a Google Business Profile. This provides Google with more context about your business
Focus on local keywords like ‘coffee shop in Bedford’ and ‘coffee shop near me’. These are usually easier to achieve, and help tourists already in the town
Create content that provides value to your customers and showcases your knowledge, for example, in the shape of a blog
Make sure your website loads quickly and works well on mobile

Want to know more about how to use SEO to promote your business? Check out this guide!

3. Build up your social media presence

While it’s still important to rank well in the search engines, more and more people are turning to social media as a source of information. 89% of travellers use social media for travel inspiration, with 59% using it to plan their itineraries.

Not only this, but travellers, especially younger ones, are using social media as a search engine, with half of 16 to 24-year-olds using social media to search instead of Google.

This means a well-established social media presence can help you stand out to prospective customers, especially if you don’t have a website. Here are some ways to make the most of your social media accounts.

Focus on the social media platforms your visitors are most likely to use – it’s better to do one platform well than have a muted presence across all of them
Establish a regular posting cadence – the social media algorithms favour frequent content
Work with relevant influencers – 80% of social media users follow travel influencers for recommendations
Create in-store experiences to encourage customers to take photos – like neon signs, image backdrops, and quirky props
Engage with your audience – like their comments, answer their questions, and share the photos they take (with their permission of course)

Looking to get started with social media? This comprehensive guide will help you see success!

4. Consider retargeting

While pay-per-click (PPC) advertising isn’t the right choice for every Bedford-based business, it can pay dividends if you have the budget and resources to dedicate to it.

For example, you can use geographic targeting to make customers aware of your business before they set off for Bedford.

Another smart way you can use PPC is for retargeting. This is when you use ads to target customers who have already interacted with your store.

For example, let’s say you run a restaurant. A customer visits your website to check out your menu, but doesn’t make a reservation. You can show them ads for your restaurant to encourage them to come back and book.

Alternatively, say a potential customer signs up to your email marketing list. You can use Google Ads’ Customer Match feature to show them targeted adverts that follow them across Google and the websites they use.

This can be an impactful, personalised, and cost-effective way to encourage tourists to buy from your business.

5. Make interacting with you as pain-free as possible

Did you know that over 57% of travel reservations are now made online? If you’re short on time or speak another language, booking things online can make planning your holidays a lot easier!

If you sell products or services, allowing tourists to buy or make reservations through your website can make things less stressful for them. You can implement eCommerce functionality on your website (for example, by adding WooCommerce to WordPress) or appointment scheduling software like Calendly, Acuity, or ResDiary.

Removing stumbling blocks doesn’t just apply to your online presence. Implementing a clear layout in your store and providing multi-lingual support can go a long way too!

6. Partner up with relevant businesses

There are over 13,000 businesses registered in Bedford. This means you don’t have to go it alone when it comes to promoting your business.

Joining forces with a relevant business in a similar niche means you can showcase what you do to audiences you may not have initially thought of.

Not sure where to begin? Think about the points in the town your ideal customers interact with. Do they check into a specific hotel? Visit a particular bar or restaurant? Walk past a certain point of interest?

You can even extend the net a little further if you need to. For example, if you know many of your customers make their way to Bedford via Luton airport, consider the route they take!

7. Tell a story

Going on holiday is all about the positive emotions. Spending time with loved ones, taking time away from work, and trying new things.

And here’s the interesting thing – those positive emotions come into play up to eight weeks before the holiday even begins!

Tapping into those emotions through your marketing campaigns can endear potential customers to your business and encourage them to check you out.

Good storytelling is reliant on understanding your target audience. Do they want to hear stories that make them smile, laugh, or cry? Then, it’s a case of weaving those emotions into your marketing.

If you’re struggling, call upon your existing customers. User-generated content connects your prospective customers with your current customers, showing them why they should buy from you.

8. Showcase your dedication to sustainability

You may not think it, but sustainability is a hot topic in the world of travel right now.

Tourists are becoming more aware of the carbon footprint they generate through travelling, and want to take steps to lessen the gap.

83% of tourists say sustainable travel is important to them, with 71% saying they want to leave the places they visit better than they arrived.

If sustainability is a cornerstone of your own business values, promoting your efforts to tourists who visit your business can drive sales and leave them with a positive impression.

This can involve:

Selling local produce
Going paperless (for example, using digital receipts)
Using renewable energy sources like solar panels and heat pumps
Opting for eco-friendly packaging
Supporting sustainable initiatives in the town

Want to make your online store sustainable? Check out nine ways you can become more green!

9. Take advantage of trust signals

If a prospective customer hasn’t heard of your business before, you need to take decisive steps to show them that they can trust you.

Trust signals are pieces of information that indicate that you’re reliable, credible, and authentic. Two out of three people say that trust signals can convince them to make a purchase.

Not only this, but trust signals can boost your SEO efforts too. Google is more likely to rank websites that score well in expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trust higher than those that don’t.

We’ve already talked about user-generated content and customer reviews as trust signals, but here are a few more trust signals to consider, both online and offline:

Case studies
Customer endorsements
Product guarantees
Accreditations and qualifications
Return and refund policies
Local partnerships
Payment methods accepted
Press mentions
Awards won

Xigen: Customer-led digital marketing

Tourists can be an untapped source of income for your business. Plus, if you make them happy, they’ll encourage the people they know to come and check you out when they’re in town!

Let us leave you with one final tip to help you with your marketing – keep on top of the latest trends, news, and developments. That way, you’re always aware of what your target audience wants to see from your business, and how new developments (like Universal Studios) may affect who buys from you.

The best way to do this is to follow relevant social media accounts – here’s Bedford Borough Council’s Facebook account to get you started!

At Xigen, we have over two decades of experience helping businesses drive customers to their stores using bespoke digital marketing strategies. Whether you want to appeal to tourists or drive loyalty amongst local shoppers, we’re here to help.

Best of all, as we’re based in Bedford, we’re invested in helping our hometown to grow!

Want to make 2026 the year you transform how you market your business to customers? Get in touch, and let’s work together to get you seen.

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