Marketing is a critical element for almost any business, but it is especially important for small companies and nature-based tourism businesses. Marketing is a key method for communicating to the people interested in the experience you offer.

This type of communication is more than simply telling people about your product. It is a process that involves product design, pricing, advertising and promotion to sell a product or service. Businesses need to market not only to prospective customers but also to suppliers, market partners, travel planners, media, and other relevant organizations. The process includes researching consumer desires and then tailoring your product to best meet those needs.

Core concepts: The 4 P’s of Marketing Product

In the tourism business, the product is an overall experience. Your operation should include all the benefits that the customer expects to receive. In addition to the accommodations,

Marketing and Nature Tourism(Adventure, Agritourism, Fishing, and Hunting)

meals, or guide services, nature tourists often want to experience the outdoors, learn, socialize, and relax.

Look at your business from the customer’s point of view. Help your guests enjoy your location’s natural, cultural, and historical offerings.

• Is your location appealing and accessible? • Have you made the most of your site’s

natural scenery? • Have you provided clear directions for

visitors?• Is your information readily accessible to

potential customers?

Product vs. amenityIn most cases, the product is the object or

experience that has a price. An amenity is the object or experience that is available to the clients when they pay for a product.

For nature-based tourism operations, the product is often the lodging. Nature views and activities are often the amenity that helps people

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Miles Phillips Assistant Professor and Extension Nature Tourism Specialist, The Texas A&M System

decide which place to visit. In wildlife operations, the actual wildlife experience is more often the product, and the lodging is sometimes the amenity.

Place The place is where a service or product is

purchased and advertised. Making your product easy to buy through well-located advertisements and sale points can increase sales. This often means providing for online credit card sales and even gift coupons.

PriceThe price is what your customer must spend in

time and money to enjoy the experience you are offering. Set your price in relation to your costs (using a set profit margin or percentage over the cost of production), your competitor’s fees, and the quality or uniqueness of the experience you offer.

Price is an important aspect of your product and not independent from the experience. Being expensive can mean better sales with the right market; sometimes price is used as a measure of quality, especially in value-based pricing scenarios.

Knowing where your product fits in the following three pricing scenarios can help you properly market your business:

• Using comparable prices to set your prices• Using a set profit margin, or percentage

over cost of production (COP)• Using value to determine price

Cost of productionNo matter the price or pricing method, you

must know your cost to provide the product or service, including the dollar value of your own time.

The price should reflect how good the product is, where it is, and how it is promoted.

PromotionTo attract customers, you must tell them who

you are and what you offer. Promotion involves personal selling, advertising and publicity. Use

face-to-face opportunities as well as the media outlets that are most likely to reach your target customer. Build demand through messaging that tells potential customers how you can uniquely meet their needs.

Take advantage of technologyMarketing efforts can be challenging to plan,

implement, measure, and update efficiently. The Internet, however, offers a variety of tools that can help you compete more effectively.

Your website should showcase your business and inform customers about your services and facilities. You can tailor marketing campaigns more effectively by using services such as Google Analytics to analyze your Web traffic. Social media outlets such as FaceBook and Twitter are useful for communicating with existing customers as well as informing and attracting new customers.

When people travel, they often want to share their experiences and opinions. Social media allows people to share information about your business. Your visitors can immediately share their experiences and images of your operation with all their contacts. This type of communication is valuable to your business because it is highly credible and unlike a commercial advertisement, it is free.

In social media marketing, your role is to provide high-quality service and value. Monitor what is being said about your enterprise to ensure that the reviews are accurate. You can also thank your customers and respond to any inaccurate information that does get published.

Consumers also post reviews to commercial travel sites such as TripAdvisor.com and Kayak.com. Stay abreast of what reviews are saying about your business on these public travel sites.

Marketing plan basicsSpecific practices that will help keep your

marketing efforts economically effective include identifying your market, finding your niche, setting a budget, scheduling marketing efforts appropriately, gathering and sharing testimonials, and measuring the results of your marketing.

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Describe your target marketIdentify your customers; the consumer you

target will vary but you should identify the age, race, gender location, income, and education etc. of the people you wish to attract.

Customer psychographics can complement what you learn about your target demographics. Psychographic data describes what people want and why. Are your customers brand conscious? What are their spending patterns? What do they value?

Effective marketing relies on communicating the kind of experience you offer in a way that appeals to your customer’s personalities, interests, and lifestyles. Quality images of people enjoying your place are very helpful. The images should reflect the types of people and activities you are trying to attract.

Find your niche Determine what makes your business unique.

What aspects of your nature tourism operation set it apart from others? Think about what you can offer consumers that your competitors cannot. Do you have a better product, a better price, more convenience? Concentrate on specific desires that you are meeting or problems that you are solving for your customer.

Set a budget Because marketing is a critical to your overall

business plan, budget for marketing specifically. You can adjust this expense by measuring the impact of your marketing efforts. Social media, e-mail, and other Web-based channels can be inexpensive marketing tools.

ScheduleFind out when your customers typically travel

so you can schedule marketing efforts with media outlets. Some advertisers can require placements a year or more in advance.

Your plan should clearly set your marketing goals. These can include how many visitors you want to attract, what you will charge, how much you plan to spend, and what income you expect to generate. These goals can be projected by the month, by quarter, by the season, or even in

multi-year periods. Marketing is a continuous effort and you should regularly assess whether or not you are meeting your goals.

If you are not attracting the number of visitors you had planned for, consider changing the experience you offer, redefining your target market, or otherwise adjusting your media and messaging

Word of mouth/testimonialsBecause most people trust word-of-mouth

more than paid advertisements, it is important that your guests have positive things to say about your business. Look for ways to make it easy and fun for guests to share positive stories about your business.

Match feedback opportunities with the customer profile and the method of marketing you use. Some customers will be more comfortable giving paper feedback. For these customers, provide post cards featuring your business and self-addressed evaluation forms. Others will prefer using your website or social media channels. For them, include prominent links asking for reviews on your website, FaceBook page, and other sites.

When customers have had a problem and you have solved it, be sure to share how you have improved your service and product to better meet your customers’ needs.

MeasurementDetermine the effectiveness of each element

of your marketing plan. It is difficult to measure nontargeted advertising, and small companies usually can’t afford large-scale studies to determine market awareness. But there are less expensive ways to gauge the results of your marketing efforts.

It helps to differentiate general advertising from marketing efforts that target a specific time, place, or group. Print, radio, and online advertising provide opportunities promote your business on specific sites for specific periods; you can more easily track sales based on these media times and placements.

Free internet analysis tools such as Google Analytics, can help you measure the return on your investment in marketing efforts.

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ResourcesTexas Agrilife Extension Nature Tourism

http://naturetourism.tamu.edu TPWD Texas Parks and Wildlife Division

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us Texas A&M University Department of

Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences http://www.rpts.tamu.edu

Agricultural Marketing Resource Center http://www.agmrc.org

Strom Thurmond Center, Clemson University http://www.strom.clemson.edu

For more information see:http://naturetourism.tamu.edu

Or contact Miles Phillips, Agrilife Extension Nature Tourism Specialist at 979-845-1023, mdphillips@ag.tamu.edu