Marketing / Communications
Tools
“Five Low-Cost Ways to Increase Publicity for Your Byway,”
America’s Byways Resource Center; Vistas, January/February 2004
Marketing: Five Low-Cost Ways to Increase Publicity
You have a great travel product. You know it. The travelers who have driven your byway know it, but the rest of America needs to know it, too. Money is tight and marketing and public relations are not your forte. So, how do you tell the rest of America - or the world, for that matter - about the great travel experience that can be had on your scenic byway?
The good news is that this is the best time in a long while to be promoting your byway. Americans are staying closer to home, driving more often and looking for travel bargains. In the past two years, travel by car increased three percent annually. This past summer, 70 percent of Americans said they planned to take a driving vacation, according to the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA).
How do you ride this growing wave of interest in driving vacations? The most effective and least expensive way is through publicity - getting your byway mentioned free of charge in newspaper travel sections, travel magazines, Internet travel sites, radio travel shows and other media outlets. Publicity is free. It costs nothing to be mentioned in a reputable publication. Publicity is also much more effective than an ad because consumers will almost always believe something published as news over paid advertising.
To get your byway covered by travel writers and editors, it comes down to two strategies: being proactive, by selling the media about byway your byway is newsworthy, and being prepared when the media call.
Next, take a day and spend it looking at the online pressrooms of State travel offices, CVBs, foreign tourist offices and even other byways to see how they promote themselves to the media. Also, look at online versions of travel magazines, travel guides, motor club publications, Internet travel magazines and other media to see what kinds of articles they publish. It’s free, it’s easy and it might spark a great idea.
Here are five low-cost ways you can get media interested in your byway:
1. Work with your destination marketing organization. If you have not done so already get to know the people handling public relations for your State travel office or area convention and visitors bureau (CVB). These organizations are working daily to get more travelers to your area and their public relations staffs are always looking for interesting ways to get media to write about your State or region. Talk to them about interesting aspects of your byway that have not been written about before. Think of stretches that have unusually scenic views, area history, exciting roadside attractions, or quirky restaurants, signs or people. Ask them to draft a news release about your byway and include it in their press kits and on their websites.
2. Host a press trip. The media familiarization trip (fam trip) is one of the most frequently used devices in a travel publicist’s tool kit. Target media that you think might be interested in your area and invite them to take a trip along your byway. You can do this one of two ways. Plan scheduled dates for a group press trip where you drive three to five media representatives along the route, pointing out the history of the area and interesting locations while they take notes. The other way is to encourage media to travel the byway independently and offer to meet the representatives for a meal to answer any questions they might have about the area. The second approach is the one favored by the most respected travel writers and editors, who generally prefer to explore an area on their own.
3. Make your website media-friendly. Odds are you already have a website, but is there a section dedicated to the media? Generally speaking, journalists prefer to use a website to research an area before they write about it. Consider adding a button to your website that says “Press” or “Press Room.” Include the following in this section:
- News releases
- Area photos that can be downloaded
- History of your byway
- A map of your byway
- Interesting sites along the byway with phone numbers
- Links to articles written about the byway
- E-mail link that the media can use to send questions or request a travel guide or press kit
4. Be your own publicist. You don’t need a public relations agency to craft a public relations campaign for your byway. Go to the biggest newsstands and bookstores in your area and purchase travel magazines that write about driving vacations. Look at the kinds of articles they publish and see if your destination would be a good fit for the publication. Then, send a short “pitch letter” to the editor explaining why the magazine should do a feature on your byway. Also contact the travel editors of the major newspapers in neighboring States. Those are the papers that are most likely to be interested in writing about your area.
5. Join up. There are a few organizations that can help you get more coverage for your destination and put you in direct contact with media who write about travel. Contact the Society of American Travel Writers (www.satw.org), the Travel Media Association of Canada (www.travelmedia.ca), the North American Travel Journalists Association (www.natja.com), Public Relations Society of America (www.travel.prsa.org) and the Travel Industry Association of America (www.tia.org). All of these groups host media marketplaces where you can meet one-on-one with travel journalists and pitch them on why they should feature your destination.
One final note. The best place to get inspiration is www.byways.org. Look in the press room section of the site to see how the National Scenic Byways Program is promoting the byway experience. Read the fact sheets and releases. Look at the kinds of coverage scenic byways receive today.
Then, see how you can use these themes to promote your byway. If you have an idea but are not sure how to implement it, contact Patricia McNally at the pmcnally@byways.org or call 202-366-9766.