THIS is Your Digital Marketing Strategy for Tourism Business 2025

happy business owner from successful digital marketing strategy

Table of Contents

A Digital Marketing Quick Start Guide for Dummies (+ AI)

Ever feel like digital marketing is just a fancy term for ‘too complicated to handle’? Let’s change that!

If you run an outdoor activity, your or rental business, it’s likely that you don’t acquire most of your customers through a storefront or walk up. Well, at least not anymore. If this is true for you like the rest the majority of the activity, tour, or rental industry, than you probably have come to realize the importance of having a compelling presence online. But if you are asking yourself, “isn’t everybody in the same boat, how will my business cut through all the noise and competition online?”, than you are in the right place.

The truth is this, the ones that will rise to the top (of search results) in 2025, are those that take consistent action (from this guide) and the ones that don’t will unfortunately fade into the depths.

overwhelmed business owner trying to learn digital marketing

Keep reading, and you will find a summary of a wealth of knowledge broken down to the basics of digital marketing, explain why SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the best long-term strategy, and share actionable tips you can start using today. Ready? Let’s dive in!

Digital Marketing 101 and The Basics You Need to Know

Digital marketing sounds complex, but it’s really just about using the internet to promote your business. I always chuckle when I run into businesses asking for our help with their website, and come to find out that they are using their website as a personal page with pictures of their family and an intro that tells about their entire life story. DONT DO THAT.

Your company website and its marketing are business assets. A business asset as in; an investment, with an expectation of a return on that investment more than you put in. Keep this lens top of mind, for anywhere you put your business time or funds. This doesn’t mean you cant show your personality, but don’t make your business page about your life, it should be about how your business serves its community.

As a quick refresher on the most common types we’ll discuss today:

  • SEO [Longer Term Results, Less Expense, Higher ROI]: Getting your website to show up in search results especially when searchers are inquiring about services or activities your company offers, but they don’t know your company name.
  • Paid Ads [Short Term Results, High Expense, Lower ROI]: Paying for visibility at the top of search results using Google Ads or other social media promotions.

Why does this matter? Because most customers start their travel planning online. If your business isn’t showing up, you’re missing out on bookings for sure.

SEO Basics and Why It’s the Best Investment You’ll Ever Make

What is SEO again?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the on-going optimization and nurturing of your website and its content so that the search engines can both recognize what you offer, your experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, according to search engine land.

Why It’s Amazing:

  • Long-Term Benefits: A well-written blog post can drive traffic and sales for years with no additional cost.
  • Cost-Effective: Unlike ads, which stop working when you stop paying, SEO keeps delivering results over time despite the upfront cost or time to develop the blog one time.

A good metaphor for the SEO vs Ads approach is like a financial investment strategy.

SEO is like investing in Index Funds or Bonds

  • Index Funds grow steadily over time, providing long-term returns with relatively low risk. Similarly, SEO is a slow but reliable method of building organic traffic that compounds with time.
  • Bonds, especially government bonds, offer stable and predictable returns, much like the sustained and cumulative benefits of SEO.

Running Ads is like Day Trading or High-Interest Loans

  • Day Trading involves quick, high-risk decisions to capture immediate gains, reflecting the quick traffic and sales ads can generate but with no lasting effect.
  • High-Interest Loans provide a rapid influx of cash (traffic in marketing terms), but they come at a high cost (ad spend) and don’t build long-term equity.

Blend the Two for the Best Digital Marketing Strategy

Just as your financial advisor will probably tell you; a balanced financial portfolio often combines long-term stable investments (like index funds) with higher-risk, short-term strategies (like stocks or derivatives). Similarly, a balanced marketing strategy leverages both SEO for consistent, sustainable growth and ads for short-term boosts or urgent campaigns.

While everyone’s finances may look different, that means the blend and ratio may look different. Your digital marketing strategy is unique to you, your circumstances and current financial position. And its ok to be wherever you are, and start from there.

hands taking action on a digital marketing strategy

Fresh Ideas to Boost Your Online Visibility

How Google Rewards Hard Work

Google loves consistency and quality. Regularly posting helpful, engaging content builds your reputation and improves your search rankings. The key is sticking with it—SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. With that being said, many businesses find that its best to hire a Travel Marketing Agency to write SEO optimized, relevant blogs for you on a regular basis so that its something that happens in the background without the headache, distractions, and guesswork involved with doing it all yourself.

Other ways to help build a portfolio of Digital Content and Connections

  1. Virtual Tours: Use interactive 360° videos or augmented reality (AR) to let potential customers explore your ATV trails or boat tours from home.
  2. Local SEO: Use location-specific keywords, like “Best Jet Ski Rentals in Destin, Florida.”
  3. User-Generated Content: Encourage customers to tag your business in their social media posts. Share their photos and reviews.
  4. Seasonal Themes: Promote activities that fit the season, like summer beach tours or winter wildlife spotting.
  5. Influencer Partnerships: Find local influencers who love your type of activity and invite them to share their experience with your business.
  6. Personalized Marketing: Use customer data to tailor promotions and recommendations, like suggesting kayak tours to adventure-seekers or peaceful paddleboard rentals for families.
  7. Interactive Virtual Experiences: Provide more immersive virtual tours using AR or VR technology to give customers a feel for your services before they book.

tourism business owner working on digital marketing strategy

How AI Can Help (But Not Replace You)

AI is a powerful tool that can supercharge your digital marketing efforts. It’s great for brainstorming fresh ideas, outlining content, and even editing for clarity and grammar. AI can help you research keywords, analyze competitors, and suggest trends to keep your strategy sharp.

But here’s the catch: AI can’t replicate you.

Your personal experience, lessons learned, and the authority you bring as a business owner are irreplaceable. While AI can guide and assist, it lacks the authenticity, strategic vision, and deep industry expertise that make your marketing resonate with customers. And if you think AI can do both, well it can; however if you let it, its going to be creating the same dull content that all your lazy competitors are using. Which means, if your content isn’t adding any more value than your competitors, your basically back at square one. The content on your website, and how well you incorporate the unique, novel, personal experience information about what you offer, the better you will stand a chance at standing out from the crowd.

Think of AI as your reliable co-pilot—not the pilot. Use it to save time and refine your work, but let your unique voice and expertise lead the way.

Step-by-Step to Start Digital Marketing Strategy

There are volumes and books written about how to DO SEO. But in a nutshell, if you follow the following guide, you’ll 80-90% of there without all that reading, research, and ridiculous levels of details.

  1. Set Up Google My Business:
    • Click here to get one setup if you don’t have one already. It’s free and powerful.
    • Spend some time with it. Add your business details, photos, and contact info.
    • Fully fill it out, don’t rush or skimp on this.
    • Submit your newly developed website pages, and blogs for expedited crawling
    • Also, send this profile to customers after their experience and ask to leave a review.
  2. Set Up Bing Webmaster Tool
    • Click here to get one setup if you don’t have one already. It’s free and powerful.
    • Similar to Google, fully fill this out.
    • Also, submit newly developed website pages, and blogs for expedited crawling
    • It’s been said that ChatGPT pulls info from Bing as well!
  3. Keyword Research Made Easy:
    • Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, or paid tools Ahrefs, Ubersuggests, Moz, etc.
    • Example keywords: “Family-Friendly ATV Rentals,” “Top Kayak Tours Near Me.”
    • Never create content about the exact keyword twice. If you are writing about similar topics, change the keywords up a little bit or rearrange them.
    • Make sure your exact keyphrase is used in the title, meta description, and sprinkled throughout the blog in several locations. Feel free to also use keyphrase variations.
  4. Write Simple Blogs:
    • Using a keyword approach, type the keyword into google and see what comes up. Read the first 3-5 top ranking articles, try to combine their concepts with yours and begin developing your content.
    • Answer common questions like “What to Wear on a Kayak Tour” or “Best Times for Jet Skiing.”
    • Use at least one, if not several personally taken photographs relevant to the blog topic. Do not use stock photography because it is not authentic. Remember, authenticity is your superpower.
  5. Post Consistently:
    • Start with one blog post or social media update per week.
    • Consider sending out your blogs to your previous customers to keep your business top of mind, and maybe they will share it as well.
    • Sharing your knowledge makes you a domain expert, so people will tend to trust you and your business more.
    • Feel free to post your blogs on your favorite social media platforms as well and develop conversations with your audience about them.
  6. Ask for Reviews:
    • Reviews build trust and improve your search rankings. Don’t be shy about asking happy customers to share their feedback.
  7. Use Google Analytics or other tracking tools to regularly check which content is performing at its best, and follow those practices.

Taking Action on Your Digital Marketing Strategy to Get Results

Marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming, nor very expensive.

Like many things, you can save a lot a money by doing them yourself, but you must have the motivation and discipline. This may take planning, or support from others to keep you on track and accountable. It’s also considered disciplined if you know your weakness, and you hire someone else to do it.

Either way, consistency and progress is much more powerful than perfection in Digital Marketing your Tourism Business.

If you ever need help, or find yourself getting stuck, it’s our mission to support you on wherever you leave off. We will meet you wherever you are on your digital marketing journey, and can help guide, support, or even perform the duties for very reasonable digital marketing plans and ala carte prices.

Frequently Asked Questions

A digital marketing strategy involves using online channels—such as websites, social media, and search engines—to promote a business. For outdoor activity or rental businesses, this means creating an engaging online presence to attract and convert customers who primarily search for services online.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) enhances your website’s visibility in search results, leading to sustained organic traffic over time. Unlike paid ads, which cease to generate traffic once the budget is exhausted, SEO efforts can continue to attract visitors without ongoing costs, making it a cost-effective, long-term strategy.

Paid ads, such as Google Ads or social media promotions, provide immediate visibility by placing your business at the top of search results or feeds. While they require a higher upfront investment and offer short-term results, they can be effective for urgent campaigns or boosting visibility during peak seasons.

AI can streamline various aspects of digital marketing, including brainstorming content ideas, outlining articles, and editing for clarity. It can also aid in keyword research and competitor analysis. However, AI cannot replace the authenticity and expertise that a business owner brings to the overall digital marketing strategy.

  • Virtual Tours: Implement interactive 360° videos or augmented reality to allow potential customers to explore your services virtually.

  • Local SEO: Optimize your website with location-specific keywords to attract local customers.

  • User-Generated Content: Encourage satisfied customers to share their experiences on social media and feature their content on your platforms.

  • Seasonal Promotions: Tailor your marketing efforts to highlight activities that align with the current season.

  • Influencer Partnerships: Collaborate with local influencers to expand your reach and build credibility.

A successful digital marketing strategy typically includes:

  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Improving website visibility in search engine results.

  • Content Marketing: Creating valuable content to attract and engage your target audience.

  • Social Media Marketing: Utilizing social platforms to connect with potential customers.

  • Email Marketing: Sending targeted messages to nurture leads and encourage repeat business.

  • Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC): Running paid ads to quickly drive traffic to your website.

  • Analytics and Reporting: Monitoring and analyzing performance to inform future strategies.

Effectiveness can be measured by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, click-through rates (CTR), return on investment (ROI), and engagement metrics on social media platforms. Regular analysis of these metrics helps in refining strategies for better results.

Maintaining a blog allows businesses to share valuable information, establish authority in their industry, and improve SEO by incorporating relevant keywords. It also provides content that can be shared across social media platforms to engage with a broader audience.

Social media platforms enable businesses to reach a wide audience, engage with customers directly, and build brand awareness. They are essential for distributing content, fostering community, and driving traffic to your website.

Digital marketing is dynamic, so it’s crucial to review and adjust your strategy regularly. Monitoring performance metrics and staying informed about industry trends can help in making timely updates to ensure continued effectiveness.

Rockon Recreation Rentals partners with Commercial Tour, Activity, and Rental Companies  to populate the Largest Directory of Outdoor Recreation Rentals. 

In doing so, Rockon provides the tour, activity, and rental companies with Activity Booking Software that contains the  tools, systems, and processes that help manage bookings, accounting, communications, and record keeping.

Do you want

more bookings?

Hello there! Rockon has created millionaires from those that used Rockon’s Booking Software and Travel Marketing Services. Will you be next? Let us guide you!

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