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Trethek Studio for Tourism and Hospitality
by Hannah Danson
There are a lot of tourism and hospitality-related businesses in Cornwall, and it’s not hard to see why! The variety in the scenery, the opportunities for different activities, the gorgeous local produce, and the weather that is often better than elsewhere in the UK… all these combine to make a great tourist location.
So how do you make your hospitality business stand out from the crowd? Why is your hotel, or café, or attraction better than the next one?
Some of that is down to your product – have you found a niche no-one else is occupying right now perhaps, or are you offering something superior, or priced differently than your competitors? But there’s more to it than that.
Selling a lifestyle
For a lot of businesses in this sector, you’re selling to people who wish they could live here all year round. You need to sell a lifestyle, of endless beach days, surfing, barbeques, and the rest, (or pick your preferred daydream) and all your imagery needs to match that.
We have great product photographers, for still work on location or in a studio, for videos, and also drones, to take eye-catching photos that will appeal to your target audience. And we also regularly use a stylist, to make your products or property really shine.
And that’s not just about your images. Your website and other publicity materials need to reflect your ethos, and the aspirations of your customers, with colours and designs that fit in.
Marketing strategy
In addition, you need to be appearing in the right places, not just putting pretty pictures of your holiday park onto your website and socials and hoping for the best. You can be really strategic about how you target your potential customers, to get the most out of your advertising budget.
Soggy Sheffield in March is a great place to be selling sunny St Ives in August (although we’ve honestly got nothing against Sheffield) but you can be a lot more refined than that these days!
Our marketing expert is on hand to help you think about who you’re wanting to talk to – and saying ‘anyone and everyone’ isn’t good enough. You’ll waste a lot of money talking to ‘anyone and everyone’ where you maybe need to be talking to people of a specific age, in a certain area, who love dogs and the outdoor lifestyle. And we can help you find them.
Year-round customers?
For many tourist businesses, the dream is a steady stream of customers throughout the year, rather than massive peaks that coincide with the school holidays, and absolutely nothing in between. Attempting to maximise the term-time income, or winter income, or bad-weather-day income is partly down to you being creative about your offer, but also about maintaining a consistent presence online and on your website as well.
If your last Facebook post was in October, then your Easter customers may not know you’re still trading. And if you don’t blog about and promote your amazing winter menu, or special offers for January, then people won’t visit at those times, or have you at the forefront of their mind when booking for July either.
Regular, appropriate social media and blogging is something that Trethek Studio can offer, alongside all our photography and web and graphic design, and marketing support, and we’d love to chat with you about what your tourism or hospitality business needs.
We’re priced for the small business, and the local market, so we can offer you something to suit your budget, however small, so do get in touch. And most importantly, we live in Cornwall, we have chosen this place – we GET it!