Destination Marketing Data + Content = More Followers
Destination Marketing Case Studies from DMO Pros
An influencer in Clarksville, Tennessee shows viewers how she has fun in her town in a short-form video for the destination.
You likely have a lot of data about visitors to your destination. And, like most DMOs, probably create content for social channels – some posts and videos gain traction, while others do not. How can you leverage data to inform content strategy more effectively to increase fans for your DMO? In Destination Marketing Pro, we show you how Michelle Dickerson at Visit Clarksville (Tennessee) analyzed her Zartico data to inform new short-form videos that significantly grew followers for her destination’s most valuable travelers.
Pro Tip #1 — Determine the Group Spending the Most in Your Market
Using non-identified cell phone data, Zartico is able to separate profiles of residents from a market’s visitors and then determine the spending habits of visitors. Michelle could see in the data that visitors aged 18-24 spend the most per visit. This makes sense since Clarksville’s large army base and university, Austin Peay State, attract a lot of young adult visitors who spend more on tourism-related experiences than other visitors.
Tip #2 — Focus on the Channels that Speak to Your Target Group
In Visit Clarksville’s case, TikTok was the clear winner for this demo: More than 47% of TikTok’s users are aged 10-29, according to Statista. Also, Austin Peay State and its many clubs and departments have active, strong TikTok accounts.
Tip #3 — Build out Short-Form Video Content in the Your Target Audience’s Style
New South sourced two micro-influencers, one from an Austin Peay State University sorority, and another in ROTC at Austin Peay who helps draw in the Fort Campbell audience; both have sway in these groups.
To signal TikTok to suggest the Visit Clarksville content to a viewer, New South Creative edited 33 pieces of content from a one-day shoot, knowing that consistent posting on TikTok improves your standing.
New South posted the videos organically based on research that showed the best days for travel content for this demo. Included were hashtags to cross-pollinate with Austin Peay State and Fort Campbell, with New South determining which hashtags have larger followings than others.
The Results
Visit Clarksville saw a trifecta of the upward-trending graphs across KPIs:
- A 39.4% increase in followers
- A 107% increase above goal for video views
- An 80% increase in profile views
And the channel keeps growing.
“One of the first data pieces that stood out to me when we started using Zartico was the higher-than-average spending from 18-24-year-olds – consistently and significantly higher,” said Michelle Dickerson, Media & Marketing Director at Visit Clarksville. “We knew we had to find a way to leverage that. TikTok seemed the obvious choice. We were thrilled to partner with New South Creative, who effectively managed all of the details. And, the influencers they identified were exceptional! We’re excited to see our channel followers and engagement grow, but we’re also eager to see the longer-term results of even more visitors (and high visitor spending!) from these young travelers.”
With destination marketers under even more pressure to show a return on their investment dollars, a focus on the connection between data and content will help your DMO move from good to great. Just ask Michelle.