How Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) Can Build a Winning Digital Marketing Strategy

Businesses in your destination are creating amazing experiences, there are amazing accommodations to stay over and the food in the restaurants is delicious.
But how do you make sure the right type of travelers are aware of these fantastic experience and how do your help the businesses in your destination getting booked the year-round? And how do you engage travelers and citizen to create content that will inspire people to come to your destination ?
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This is where digital marketing becomes essential. Plotting the strategies and tactics to makes this happen are defined in a digital marketing strategy. By creating a clear and aligned strategy with aligned tactics and actions , you can reach potential travelers worldwide who are already interested in the types of experiences your destination has to offer. However, in a world where travelers are constantly bombarded with marketing messages, how do you stand out?

To cut through the noise and capture attention, you need a compelling, clear message supported by extraordinary visuals. A well-structured digital marketing strategy can guide potential travelers from discovering your destination to booking their next adventure with you.

The Importance of a Simple Yet Effective Strategy

It’s more important to have a workable digital marketing strategy than to strive for a perfect one. With over 25 years of experience, we’ve seen many tourism organizations struggle with overly complicated strategies that never get executed. Keeping your strategy straightforward increases the likelihood of implementation and success. Focus on a strategy that reflects your unique strengths and passion for creating exceptional travel experiences. Authenticity in storytelling and staying true to your core values will help you build meaningful connections that resonate with travelers and ensure your brand stands out.

  1. Strategic Direction:
    • Start by defining your niche, mission, vision, values, and unique selling propositions (USPs). These elements will form the foundation of all your marketing efforts and content.
    • Understand your target market and audience deeply. Who are they? What experiences and products do they seek? What are their pain points?
    • Set your Key Messages: Develop compelling narratives and key messages that highlight the unique aspects of your destination. Your messages should resonate with your target audience's desires and needs while reinforcing your values and USPs.

Key Components of a Digital Marketing Strategy for DMOs

We share our 25+ years of knowledge in digital marketing and our experience working with DMOs to help you create a well-crafted digital marketing strategy. Your digital marketing strategy focuses on achieving your destination’s tourism goals through digital channels. Create a coherent plan to consistently communicate your core messages to your target audience while guiding them through their customer journey—from awareness to booking. A well-defined strategy prevents confusion and ensures a seamless experience for potential travelers.‍

  1. Define your Goals: Executing your digital marketing strategy is testing if your strategy works and refine it (learn) to constantly improve your process. You can learn what works by measuring if you are reaching your goals. Besides setting your goals its equally important to understand how you will measure and analyze them in order to learn.
  2. What content for who and when :
    1. What kind of content do you want to show to who and at which moment. Create story worlds and themes, content calendars and define customer journeys for your most important persona's. Gather content that guides travelers to the attractions, experiences and businesses of your destination.
  3. Choose the Right Digital Channels:
    • Identify which digital channels are most effective for reaching your target audience. Use a mix of owned (e.g., website, email) and borrowed (e.g., social media, OTAs) channels to maximize reach.
    • Ensure each channel supports your overall strategy and complements one another. For example, use social media to drive traffic to your website, where conversions happen.
  4. Boost what works with Advertising
    1. If the analysis of your data show that you are reaching your goals you want to amplify what works through advertising.

Content Curation: The Backbone of Your Strategy

Content is at the heart of digital marketing. Where businesses have a focus on creating content, the role of a destination is much more to organize that businesses, citizens and travelers in a destination create and share content that strengthens the brand of the destination.

As a destination you can then curate the best created content and repurpose the content.

Each piece of should be designed to inspire, assist, validate, and sell to your audience.

  • Highlights the Unique Aspects of Your Destination: Showcase must-visit places, events, and experiences that are unique to your location.
  • Builds Trust and Demonstrates Credibility: Use testimonials, reviews, and case studies from satisfied travelers.
  • Incorporates Personas in Your Content: Tailor your content to different demographics (e.g., families, adventure seekers) and origins (e.g., international vs. domestic travelers).

Create a Content Calendar: Plan your content for the year, focusing on key themes, events, and seasons. Think ahead—capture winter images now to use in promotions for next year’s winter season.

The most important content for DMOs is content that is created by users (USG - User Generated Content). Your role as a DMO is stimulate visitors to make content and to help you with the distribution, by giving guidance in hashtags.

In Nepal I was involved in the CBI backed up successful project #NepalNow that was launched after the earthquake in 2015. The project led to hundreds of thousands of USG content and still lives today.

Other useful content is made by businesses in the destination. As a DMO you have a big role in stirring that the content is in line with the Brand of the DMO and their partners which could be other DMOs on a regional-, state- or local level, but also partners like National Parks.

Help businesses through templates, brand guidelines and AI prompts.

Finding existing content works well with apps that scrape the internet for you like BuzzFeed and or USG platforms like SnapSea

Content Creation: Pushing new experiences and destinations.

New places and experiences need some help to get the right exposure. Analyze new products and think creative on how you can partner with these businesses to create great content that will help them and the destination.

Content Distribution: Reaching the Right Audience at the right time

Your content needs to be where your target audience is. Just like in traditional tourism marketing where location (place) is key, online, it’s all about being there at the moment, with relevant content. You need to adjust the distribution of your content to your customer journey, as well as to the seasonality of your destination.  

  • Website Optimization: Make sure your website is a high-conversion hub, optimized for SEO and designed to guide visitors from discovery to booking with clear calls to action.
  • Email Marketing: Develop a robust email marketing strategy to nurture leads. Share valuable content, updates, and special offers to keep your audience engaged.
  • Social Media Marketing: Use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and LinkedIn to build communities around your brand. Share visually compelling content and engage with your audience through comments, polls, and stories.
  • Online Travel Agencies (OTAs): Use OTAs to distribute your experiences and trips. Platforms like Trovatrip can help you reach a wider audience.

Integrating Channels for Maximum Impact

Your digital marketing efforts should work together seamlessly. While your website and email lists are owned assets (and therefore, under your control), social media platforms are borrowed spaces. Use them to drive traffic back to your website, which should be the core of your digital strategy.

Measuring Success and Adapting

The beauty of digital marketing is that you can measure everything. Key performance indicators (KPIs) can help you understand what’s working and what needs improvement:

  1. Discovery Phase: Measure visibility and awareness metrics like website traffic, social media impressions, and content views.
  2. Planning Phase: Track engagement metrics like time on site, click-through rates, and social media interactions.
  3. Buying Phase: Focus on conversion metrics, such as bookings, leads generated, and sales. As a DMO you can't see the products that are sold by the companies in your destination. But you can for example track scanned QR codes, tourism taxes, parking fees but also buy data from financial service providers like for example Mastercard.
  4. Post-Purchase Phase: Track repeat sales, user-generated content, and reviews. Engaging with top fans and brand ambassadors who share their positive experiences can help in spreading the word.

Conclusion: Realizing the Integrated Approach

An integrated digital marketing strategy ensures all your efforts—from your website to social media, emails, and OTAs—work in harmony. This cohesive approach amplifies your message and guides travelers from awareness to booking, ensuring sustained growth for your destination.

By keeping your strategy simple, targeted, and authentic, you can create compelling digital marketing campaigns that not only attract more travelers but also turn them into loyal advocates for your destination.