Yesterday I talked about the Wall Drug strategy. The gist: find one marketing campaign that works (and can scale) and scale the heck out of it.
In this case, as many billboards as you can squeeze into I-90 real estate.
But if you’ve driven I-90 through the plains of South Dakota, you know that this strategy is now hardly unique to Wall Drug. Because soon after you pass the exit for that random roadside attraction, you’ll see an equally voluminous collection of these…
Once you pass the exit for 1880 town, you’ll start seeing and endless supply of these…
Not on I-90? On I-80 through Wyoming you’ll dozens see these…
Or, closer to the resort side of things, head to Steamboat and you’ll see smaller, but no less sparse, examples of this sign…
Yes, marketing is about creativity and knowing your market better than anyone else.
But sometimes knowing your market better than anyone else leads you to the realization that – like the middle-of-America roadside attractions with miles of open roads leading to/by them – there are other businesses and marketers in very similar situations as you.
Sometimes they haven’t cracked the code. Sometimes, they have.
If they have, it’s okay to be inspired. To learn from, to replicate, to try what they’ve found. You weren’t the first resort to have a Facebook page or use email or publish a tweet with emoji next to each line of your snow report.
Yet here we are. Here we ALL are.
Be creative, but don’t be afraid to take what works for others like you and see if it works in your situation as well.
About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010
with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider
Inntopia,
my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley,
and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.
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