Cruel Summer? I Need A Vacation!

So far it’s been a cruel summer, just like the one Bananarama sang about back in ’83 or ’84, depending on where you reside.

It’s been so cruel, with WAY too much work and WAY too little golf and downtime, that I’m searching the ‘net for travel and vacation ideas.

The bad part of this is my marketing brain takes over and I see that most resort, travel and vacation websites are, shall we say … not very good for the reader and WAY too profitable for the designer who put those dang pictures everywhere.

Since I always try to find a lesson or two from my daily grind, I’ve got a few things for us to think about the next time we have the good fortune to work our marketing magic for a client in this industry.

Where’s The Social Proof ?

You want me to believe you guys are having all the fun ?

Prove it.

I’d like to see and hear from some of your happy, satisfied customers.

Sound not optionable, but absolutely necessary.

Testimonials would be nice.

The sound of your water splashing and the waves breaking on the sand would be nice.

How about some audio from some of your recent events ?

Got An Event ? Get Me An Interview.

Do you have special guests coming to an event next month ?

That’s great to hear. And hear is exactly what I’d like to do, so how about an interview posted as an mp3 or a podcast for me to listen to ?

Same goes if your having a musical event. Surely they have a sample of their work we can listen to before we decide to spend almost $4 per gallon of gas to travel to your money pit.

Make it easy for me to decide. Do all the deciding for me and make it a no brainer … which is exactly my style.

Sell Me On What I’ll Be Missing

I don’t really care about all your features, I care about what I can do with them, so sell me on the fun, not the feature.

Show and tell me about what everybody else has found to be fun.

The pictures your designer put all over the place are really cute, but they don’t “say” anything to me.

You need to use tried true and tested direct marketing tactics on me, not beat my eyeballs out with images.

Words, verbs, adjectives, audio, video, articles, content.

You’ve heard it before, sell the sizzle, not the steak.

I have a great analogy to prove to you that audio is more powerful than images or even text, but I’m saving it.

The only way to get it is to email me or use the Contact form and tell me you already were or are now a subscriber to my RSS feed.

I guarantee it will convince you … or I’ll refund the full amount you paid … which was exactly nothing but an email.

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