Northumberland County
Digital Marketing Tips
Having an online or digital presence is key to promoting tourism businesses. Find ideas below on how to increase your followers, subscribers, engagement and - ultimately - your business growth.
| Digital Footprint 2020 |
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Helping You Increase Your Digital Presence Digital Footprint 2020 provides tourism operators in the County with a plan to help with digital marketing in today’s competitive tourism marketplace. It’s Free. It’s Invaluable. It's completed remotely. If you are a tourism operator, and you did not have the opportunity to participate in Digital Footprint 2019, you can apply for a FREE digital assessment of your website and social media platforms. You’ll get a plan to guide your digital marketing competitiveness going forward. This pilot project is led by Northumberland Tourism in partnership with Brighton-Cramahe, Northumberland Central, Port Hope & District and Trent Hills chambers of commerce. All assessments are confidential with recommendations shared with you through a discussion with your local chamber of commerce representative.
How to Qualify for Help Through Digital Footprint 2020 1. Your small business must be located in Northumberland County. 2. Your small business must be in one of these categories:
To see examples of local, tourism-related businesses, visit our tourism website. 3. You have operated your business for 18 months or more. 4. You have a current digital presence, i.e. website and/or social media presence. 5. You did not participate in Digital Footprint 2019.
The Timing of this Program • The assessment phase of this program runs from May to October 2020. Since it is conducted online, there is no need to be in your place of business. • The one-on-one meetings with your local chamber of commerce to discuss recommendations will continue until late fall.
How to Register Contact Angela Johnson at johnsona@northumberlandcounty.ca, or your local Northumberland-based Chambers of Commerce. Don’t delay. We're here to help. |
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Your business is for your customers. Build relationships with them, reach new people and drive sales using Facebook. Over 900 million people like and comment an average of 3.2 billion times every day. When you have a strong presence on Facebook, your business is part of these conversations and has access to the most powerful kind of word-of-mouth marketing -- recommendations between friends. Four Steps to Business Success on Facebook Step 1 Build Your Page. Everything starts with your Page Facebook Resources: Creating a Facebook Page |
| Instagram Stories |
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Instagram Stories has become the reason to use Instagram. It's why 50 percent of businesses have now created a story. Often, the unedited content that captures real-life outperforms the pristine photos uploaded to Instagram itself. Instagram Stories has had more than 250 million daily active users as of August 2017. Those under the age of 25 spend more than 32 minutes per day on Instagram, on average, while those 25 and older spend more than 24 minutes daily. It is worth your time to create Stories like these that are proven to perform. They're what your audience most wants! For more information, go to Instagram resources website. |
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Every day, millions of people turn to Twitter to connect to their interests, to share information, and find out what's happening in the world right now. Anyone can read, write and share messages of up to 280 characters on Twitter. These messages, or Tweets, are available to anyone interested in reading them, whether logged in or not. Your followers receive every one of your messages in their timeline - a feed of all the accounts they have subscribed to or followed on Twitter. This unique combination of open, public, and unfiltered Tweets delivered in a simple, standardized 280-character unit, allows Twitter users to share and discover what's happening on any device in real time. Go to Twitter's resource page for more information. To better understand how Twitter can help your business and to learn how to start using it free follow this link business.twitter.com/ |
| YouTube |
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Video marketing can be a critical marketing tool for your business. Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day, for entertainment, information and education. But how do you get started? YouTube hosts the Creator Academy where you can get a quick start guide, learn the basics and get information on how to brand your channel. Don't forget to review user guidelines and policies. Start with the Quick Start Guide to get your first video online and in front of your ideal client. There are also lots of articles online with extra details and facts as well as firsthand expertise on how to get your video seen. Check out this one from Inc.com. |
| Google My Business and Google Maps |
By creating their own business listing, business owners are helping drive traffic to their site as well as customers through their front door. Claim your business on Google My Business or view a video and increase your digital presence.
Listing your business on Google Maps Millions use Google Maps each day. Download the pdf with step by step instructions on how to add your business on Google Maps or watch this video from Google with step by step instructions. |
| Trip Advisor |
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TripAdvisor is the world's largest travel community.
The TripAdvisor Management Center is full of free tools to help you build your business. In order to access it, you need to register on as an official representative for your lodging. Go to www.tripadvisor.com/Owners, search for your property, fill in the required details, and confirm your association. Once registered, you will be able to access all of the Management Center resources. With a free business account you can:
Some helpful TripAdvisor hints: First Steps:
After receiving a review:
Follow this link to reference business opportunities and other features on Trip Advisor. |
| Voice Search |
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With voice search steadily growing, here are tips from which you will benefit and hopefully have your website displaying at the top of the search engine result pages. This is important because the top 3 results are what voice search will show. Points to remember:
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