Using AI in tourism marketing requires secrecy.

January 17, 2024

Picture of a small white robot with blue eyes and a smile holding out one hand like a greeting. Text on the image says "you will love it here trust me my program says so."

The successful use of artificial intelligence (AI) in tourism marketing rests on one key factor: secrecy.  Not secrecy from your colleagues or organization…secrecy from your audience.  You need your use of AI to be invisible to them for two main reasons:

  1. Blatantly apparent AI-generated copy is generic and robotic-sounding.  And even if it were written by a human, that kind of soulless, impersonal copy doesn’t engage the audience and wastes your time and budget.  The rest of your marketing will have to work that much harder to spark a sale, let alone close one.
  2. If they sense you’re using AI to influence their decisions – and done incorrectly, they will – you’ll lose their trust. People are increasingly sniffing out AI-generated copy and then doubting its credibility.  Humanity just hasn’t yet reached the point where we’re comfortable being persuaded to do something by a robot.

Let me be crystal clear.  Using AI in tourism marketing is smart.  Tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard can be useful in many ways.  But YOU have to be smart in how you use them.  Until you become proficient in prompting and re-prompting to produce successful output, you are at risk for – essentially – sending out a stoic, unfeeling salesperson to promote your offerings.

And that won’t end well for you.

As a tourism marketer, you’re trying to sell potential guests an experience that makes (hopefully) everlasting memories and creates (hopefully) a lifetime relationship with them.  Robotic-sounding, generic marketing copy is incapable of igniting the spark required for that love affair.  And when used incorrectly, that’s EXACTLY how AI-generated copy sounds…like a robot wrote it.

To guard against this, you need to be aware of six telltale signs that content was written by AI.

Jodie Cook wrote a fantastic piece for Forbes on the subject, calling out these six dead giveaways:

  1. Lengthy introductions (aka “throat clearing”)
  2. Inclusion of ethical considerations
  3. Generic thoughts and advice
  4. Lack of personal stories
  5. Specific go-to phrases
  6. Signature structure

You can read the piece for more information on all six, but the three most prevalent ones in tourism marketing are lengthy introductions, generic thoughts/advice, and lack of personal stories.  Let’s take a look.

Lengthy Introductions

I call this the “blah blah blah” introduction and AI is famous for churning it out.  A rudimentary AI-generated piece, like that of many unskilled human writers, puts a bunch of fluff at the start and takes a bit of time to get to the meat of the content.  Often it includes clichés (“Once you arrive, you’ll never want to leave!”), or broad-sweeping statements that mean nothing in particular (“Come experience the magic of the outdoors!”).  It’s usually filled with a lot of long sentences and densely packed with a quantity of adjectives that would make a thesaurus blush.  This is the written version of speakers who begin their presentation with excessive throat-clearing…it’s buying them time to get into the rhythm of their speech.

Generic Thoughts & Advice

OMG, if I see one more tourism organization proclaim “We have something for everyone!”… I’m going to scream.  Even if you truly DO have something for everyone to enjoy, that sort of vanilla claim has zero chance of actually luring a potential visitor.  Without specific prompting and sculpting on your part, AI programs like ChatGPT are likely to generate generic content like “breathe the fresh air as you wander through our beautiful forests,” and “hop on a boat to get out and feel the ocean mist on your face as you watch an orange-hued sunset,” and “sip and taste your way through our vibrant dining scene,” and – my personal favorite – “come away with memories that will last a lifetime.”  None of that is specific and unique to YOU, so why should it compel anyone to choose YOU?  It’s just…uninspiring.

Lack of Personal Stories

First cousin to “generic thoughts & advice,” a lack of personal stories isn’t meant so literally as in “a person telling a story about their experience with you.”  That’s part of it, for sure.  But on a broader level, it’s about your BRAND making a personal connection with the audience.  Doesn’t matter if you’re a destination, hotel, cruise line, attraction, or even just a travel service…whatever.  Sharing your quirks, your variety of unique Instagram-worthy experiences, and other stories that inspire them to feel a personal connection to you… THAT’S essential in successful tourism marketing.  And it’s something you won’t get from AI-generated content without training it to write that way. It lacks the ability to do that on its own because by default, its process delivers one-size-fits-all content that’s impersonal.

And that right there is the problem. In the world of tourism, people are choosing where to spend their precious time and money, and this is VERY personal to them. Tourism is a passionate and deeply engaging purchase decision that goes way beyond transactional.  They may not care if a robot wrote their appliance user’s manual (which is simply delivering information), but they sure as hell want – say – their honeymoon suggestions (which requires the dance of persuasion and has a lot riding on the outcome) to come from a credible source.

Which brings us to the best news of all, and a hilarious silver lining for tourism marketers.  A brand is now no longer the LEAST credible source for promoting its own offerings.  The “credible believability” pecking order currently stands like this, from most believable to least believable:

  1. Someone I trust.
  2. Someone I know casually.
  3. A stranger unaffiliated with the product/service, which could be a media outlet or a random person on social media.
  4. The organization itself.
  5. A robot.

Y’all, we’ve moved up a notch.  So don’t squander that gift by making it obvious you’re using AI in tourism marketing.  Make that your little secret.

Not sure how to get started doing this properly?  Check out these ChatGPT tips for tourism marketers.

Feel like you suck at writing and so you can’t properly judge AI’s output?  These two quick reads will help you:

How to stop being an impatient writer.

Write better copy with patience and a thesaurus.

ChatGPT tips for tourism marketers.

February 13, 2023

Here’s why tourism marketers need tips for using ChatGPT, an online program that engages in human-like dialogue based on a prompt:  because we’re all too damn busy to waste time.  And messing around with a new tool we’re not sure we’d even use feels a lot like wasting time.  Is it worth it?  Should you invest the time to get familiar with ChatGPT because that investment of time will pay off?

Short answer:  yes.  You need to know what this tool can REALLY do before you decide to embrace or reject it.  It has some uses that may surprise you.

So let’s jumpstart your learning curve with some practical tips for how tourism marketers can explore the benefits of using ChatGPT.

First, let’s get one thing straight.  ChatGPT is just a resource and a tool.  You’ve got a lot of tools to help you do your job.  Google is a tool.  Adobe Illustrator is a tool.  Semrush is a tool.  But the relentless media frenzy around ChatGPT has given it near-mystical properties that make it seem more potent than that.  Chill out, y’all.  It’s just a tool.  It’s one more resource in your toolbox to potentially help you do your job better, smarter, and faster.

And like all tools [she says sheepishly, aware that she barely knows how to use 5% of the available apps on her iPhone], its usefulness is only as powerful as your knowledge of how to harness it.  I’ll never forget years ago when an accounting mentor said to me, “If you’re doing any manual calculations whatsoever or taking a long time to manipulate data in an Excel spreadsheet, then there’s a shortcut, command, or function you just don’t know about. Excel is designed to make life easier.  If it’s making it harder, go learn more about Excel.”

ChatGPT is the same.  When you first try it out, you won’t be savvy at knowing how to coax the most effective results from it.  So you’ll plug in a few basic things and the outcomes will be unimpressive.  And then, because you’re super busy and there’s no mandate that says you need to use ChatGPT, you’ll dismiss it as unhelpful and go back to the familiar tools in your toolbox.

But what if I told you that…

  • You could paste a particularly legalese-sounding section of a vendor contract into ChatGPT and say “explain this to me like I’m an 8th grader”…and it does?
  • It could produce a style guide for all your team members to follow, after you feed it several samples of a brand’s voice to analyze?
  • It could take your 400-word bio and make it fit that directory listing’s 100-word requirement in just one click?
  • It could give you a substantive list of story ideas for your content calendar…and then organize them into a seasonal schedule…and then create first drafts of each piece of content, in different formats for social channels, blog posts, email newsletters…and even website copy that’s optimized for the keywords you require?

It can indeed do all those things and more…if you know how to prompt it effectively.

Janette Roush is Executive Vice President, Marketing and Digital, for NYC & Company, which is the official DMO/CVB for New York City.  And she’s one of ChatGPT’s early adopters and passionate champions who is learning to master the “art of the prompt.”

“If you want to get ChatGPT to give you useful answers, the key is in how you formulate your prompt,” Roush told me.  “I was once advised to think of it like an omniscient three-year-old.  It knows everything under the sun, but it doesn’t know who YOU are, WHY you need to know, and WHO you’re trying to talk to.  You need to prompt it with details like that for it to return a result that’s written in the context you need.  Otherwise the result will be very generic and way less useful to your purpose.”

Roush has honed her prompting skills through persistent trial and error.  In fact, she even documents her journey with ChatGPT on LinkedIn, making regular posts about prompts she’s tried for a wide variety of uses and the results they’ve produced.  (Pro tip:  Connect with or follow her there.  You won’t regret it.)

Inspired by Roush, I took ChatGPT for a three-hour test drive one morning, just giving it prompts for various tourism-marketing-related things.  One thing I quickly learned is that a generic prompt yields a generic answer and specific prompt yields a specific answer.  Case in point:  Look at how it adjusted its responses for social media captions based upon my specificity:

A screen shot of a ChatGPT dialogue about Lucy the Lobster in Nova Scotia Canada, as one example of ChatGPT tips for tourism marketers.

 

A screen shot of a ChatGPT dialogue that shows how it creates a caption to describe cider donuts, as an example of ChatGPT tips for tourism marketers.

 

And it did the same thing as I sought its help to generate story ideas for Northern California:

 

A screen shot of a ChatGPT dialogue that gives five general story ideas for travel to the region, as an example of ChatGPT tips for tourism marketers.

 

A screen shot of a ChatGPT dialogue that shows how specific prompts can yield more effective results, as part of ChatGPT tips for tourism marketers.

 

Are those story ideas all perfect with no need for tweaking?  Perhaps not.  But did it give me threads to follow where before I had none?  Absolutely.  And some good ones too.

So, in addition to writing copy, one use of ChatGPT is to think of it like you would a sounding board.  Or a brainstorming partner.  It can’t ideate on its own (it’s not designed to innovate) but it can work with the prompts you give it to hit you back with starter threads.

Roush shared some spectacular direction on how to prompt ChatGPT as a sounding board in one of her recent LinkedIn posts:

 

A screen shot of a LinkedIn post by Janette Roush that instructs how to prompt ChatGPT for the most effective results.

 

You may be thinking “well, why can’t I just Google stuff like that instead of using ChatGPT?”  And you can.  But Google (“regular” Google, not the emerging Google Bard version that’s trying to infuse AI into its experience but not quite succeeding as of this writing) will give you a slew of different links for you to go explore and assimilate all the information on your own. And ChatGPT will just…answer you.  Not with “here are ten sources you can read to find story ideas” or “here are ten sources to see how other destinations are making themselves an attractive esports destination.”  It delivers YOUR story ideas, and tells you how YOUR destination can achieve an attractive esports destination profile.

And then – mind blown – you can direct it to actually WRITE that story about ice skating in Northern California or OUTLINE that strategic plan to develop esports tourism in NYC.

Again…will they be final drafts that need no tweaking?  Absolutely not.  They will be FIRST drafts, but if you’ve prompted with care, they’ll be pretty damn good first drafts.

And THAT saves you time, which is the whole point of using ChatGPT for marketing assistance.

But wait, you say.  When I use Google as a resource tool, I can handpick from among sources on the results pages that I feel are legitimate and credible.  Without such references, how do I know the information I’m getting from ChatGPT is accurate?

Folks, I remind you again that ChatGPT is not supposed to be a mystical tool that sees all and knows all.  You’ll need to check your facts, just like you would using any other source.  Do you really think that something is accurate just because you got it from a source on Google that you consider “credible?”  News outlets get details wrong, websites have outdated information, and inaccurate stuff has a way of floating around and perpetuating online.  So, ChatGPT is no more nor less credible than any other source you use.  And you should do your due diligence on its output when necessary.

And while we’re at it, I should also remind you that most of the output you get from ChatGPT will need tweaking and polish.  Even with the absolute best of prompting, there will still be nuances and phrasing you’ll need to infuse.  So it can’t hurt to brush up on your writing skills, and these tips will help.

If you want to explore how ChatGPT can potentially help you with your tourism marketing needs but you’re not sure how to begin, Roush offers these four tips to get started:

  1. Commit to a finite time period for practice.  You won’t learn how to use any new tool unless you devote time to using it.  Roush recommends setting a challenge to yourself, with some kind of accountability built into the period.  Take two weeks or a month or whatever, during which you commit to prompting ChatGPT on at least one topic every day.  “I challenged myself to post a new ChatGPT insight on LinkedIn every day for a month, and it forced me to think of that tool daily,” she says.  “It didn’t come naturally to me at first, but after a while, as various needs arose throughout the day at work, I’d automatically say to myself ‘let me see how ChatGPT would handle that.’ And then I’d dive into prompting.”
  2. Don’t think of it just for help with writing.  With accurate prompting, ChatGPT is an excellent resource for organization, explanations, curation, and more.  Roush says it’s helped her structure her lesson approach for her work as an Assistant Professor at Hunter College, and it’s helped flesh out her vacation itinerary in Montreal by finding cool things to do nearby to her already-planned stops.  “I’ve also used it to help it explain things I don’t fully understand,” she says, “like when I understand 80% of a technical proposal and I want to understand 100% of it.  I can ask ChatGPT to explain it to me in layman’s terms.”
  3. Learn to become specific in how you prompt.  You won’t be good at this right out of the gate.  It takes time and practice to master the art of prompting.  When Roush first dabbled in using ChatGPT, she – like most folks – prompted it with “silly things,” just trying out generic questions and commands, and receiving lackluster responses.  “It wasn’t until I stumbled upon how to start being more specific that I began to see the possible uses of ChatGPT,” she says.  “I had asked it to create an itinerary for my vacation in Montreal and it was pretty vanilla, just hitting all the major tourist sites.  But when I fed it my existing itinerary and asked it to suggest enhancement additions using the right prompts for specificity, it really impressed me.”
  4. Let ChatGPT create a style guide for you, so it learns to deliver responses in your own voice.  Roush fed it around 40 of her previous LinkedIn posts and asked it to create a writing style guide for her… which it did shockingly well.  Now she can instruct ChatGPT to use that guide when asking it to write stuff on her behalf.  “It was surprising how well the style guide captured my voice,” she said.  “If I had tried to analyze my own work and write up my own style guide, it would have taken forever and probably been less accurate.”

The bottom line is that the more you use it, the more uses you’ll discover for it.  And with practice at the art of prompting, you can make ChatGPT something akin to a full-service virtual assistant who brainstorms, writes, organizes, and educates.

Or… not.  You may end up hating it, but until you REALLY take it for a lengthy and diverse test drive, how will you ever know?

Related reading: Issac Asimov’s I, Robot.  It was written in 1950 and well…here we are, folks.

Here’s how to stop being an impatient writer.

February 8, 2023

A woman wearing a black sweater with grey cuffs and collar holds up a clock and points to it, implying that time pressure is one factor in how to stop being an impatient writer.

If you’re a marketer, you can’t afford to be an impatient writer.  You think you’re saving time by just zipping through your writing, but actually you’re wasting time. So if you’re an impatient writer, you need to stop.  Here’s why and here’s how.

WHY?

Because a well-crafted piece does its job on first exposure, and a piece that’s been produced with cut corners needs further explanation and follow up.

Impatient writers often choose ineffective words because they came to mind first.  Something may not feel *quite* like the perfect phrase, but it’s “good enough” and the next task is calling.  So, they don’t take the time to better articulate their meaning.  What happens?  The audience is left to interpret the meaning however they wish.  Two examples:

  1. This weekend hotel package is great for families with kids of all ages.
  2. This weekend hotel package will have your toddlers laughing from wake time to bedtime, your teens producing TikToks their friends will envy, and your whole family making experiential memories together that last a lifetime.

Sure, example #2 is longer…but it’s also richer and more vibrant.  It paints a picture in someone’s mind. It gives a parent an aspiration:  That’s the kind of vacation I want to give my kids.

So why do we say that writing example #1 is “wasting time?”  Because it’s not descriptive enough to do its job, which is to inspire busy, scattered parents to click, ask, or engage to find out more.  That means you need to either write MORE copy to further explain your story (in which case, that first sentence is useless), or you need to bombard those parents with supportive and more descriptive marketing from several other channels and angles.  Lovely…so now you’re wasting money too.

If you’re a marketer, every sentence, phrase, and word you write should pull its weight in the persuasion department.  And it can…if you’re willing to employ the patience to make it happen.

HOW?

Patience is often in short supply, especially for a task we don’t like or a skill we lack.  And when we’re overstretched and crazy busy, patience feels like a luxury we can’t afford.  Here’s how you can transform yourself into a more patient, and therefore more effective, writer in four steps:

  • First, concentrate on changing your mindset. Treat writing like you would any other habit you’re trying to change…dieting, hydrating more, exercising, quitting smoking, whatever.  The first step is being committed to changing your writing impatience, and to surviving that uncomfortable phase when you’re acting differently and it feels weird.  The first few times it takes you 20 minutes to write something that would have previously taken you five…you’re gonna hate it.  You’ll feel frustrated and (yes) impatient, and you’ll be distracted by all the other things you know are awaiting your attention.  And you’ll feel like you’re wasting time.  This is normal.  Just like you should expect to feel hungry when you first start dieting, so too you should expect to feel uncomfortable when you set out to curb your impatient writing habits.  You’re acting differently, so naturally you’ll be feeling differently.  I repeat:  this is normal, so expect it to happen and you’ll be less frustrated when it does.
  • Second, adjust your planning to build in more time for writing.  We marketers tend to overfill our to-do lists, which handcuffs us before we even put fingers to keyboard.  That list – that you created, btw – forces you to crank through 47 things today (or else feel like a failure at the end of the day) and so drafting that email copy on your list has 16 minutes to become “good enough.”  Stop that.  You must acknowledge that effective writing needs time.  Allow yourself the freedom to spend that time.  If you’re an impatient writer, you might not even be forecasting how much time writing needs will take.  Rather, you just assume you’ll fit them in between more important things like – ahem – meetings.  Again, I repeat:  stop it.  Give your writing projects the space they need on your dance card.  And as someone who’s been there, take my advice.  Whatever time you think you need?  Double it.
  • Third, temporarily mute all distractions.  If you want to stop being an impatient writer, you’ll need willpower to ignore distractions.  Not forever.  Just while you’re writing.  Whether it’s an important three-sentence email to your boss, a marketing-oriented blog post, a newsletter blurb, ad copy, or whatever… surely the world can wait for a bit while you focus on that? Give your willpower some help. Turn off email, Teams, Slack, social media, and any other notifications on your desktop.  Put your phone on silent.  Even if that bit of writing only takes you 15 minutes, the seductive power of those dings and notification bubbles makes it challenging to focus.  This is especially true if you dislike writing or it’s not a top skill for you.
  • And finally, start using thesaurus.com or another online resource for wordsmithing.  I guarantee that even if you completely ignore the first three steps, just making this ONE simple change will completely transform your writing.  You will find more powerful, descriptive words and phrases than the ones your brain initially dumped out.  Your writing will be – as in example #2 above – richer and more vibrant.  And it will do a better job of achieving your objective on the first exposure to your audience.  See what the power of changing one simple word in a phrase can do here.

For more tips to help you stop being an impatient writer – and become a more effective one – check out these additional resources:

The power of 15 minutes in writing.

Five opening lines that sabotage your email’s success.

Four quick tips to strengthen your writing.

Take the “No I” challenge to improve your writing in one week.

 

 

Save time with the proper use of the email cc.

June 20, 2022

A meme poking fun at excessive "reply all" responses, as a lesson in how to save time with the proper use of the email cc.

Proper use of the email cc can save you tons of time and aggravation.  It’s a useful tool, but its power has been diluted by misuse in the workplace.  Here’s how to redefine your relationship with the email cc and give your productivity a boost.  The tips below will help.

First of all, why should you care about this?  An email cc seems like such an insignificant thing in the wide landscape of productivity and time management techniques.  And yet, proper use can:

  • Reduce unnecessary inbox clutter.
  • Reduce concentration distractions.
  • Free up mental bandwidth for other things.

It may seem like taming cc habits will only save you a few minutes a day, but in reality it’s more than that.  If you cc or get cc’d a lot – and I’m affectionately looking at you, tourism organizations, with your 74+ “necessary” stakeholders who regularly share information – you could face unnecessary distractions of 30-60 minutes a day.  You need to get that time back.  Just think about how many times someone has “replied all” just to say “OK!” or “Thanks!”…and you stopped what you were doing to read it.

Most of us have lost our way on the original intent of the cc:  it’s simply an efficient, passive way to inform people who are tangentially involved in the subject, without having to take an extra step.  (Note for all you young folk:  “cc” stands for “carbon copy,” which originates from the pre-computer days.  We had to type things on a typewriter and could put a piece of carbon between two sheets of paper to make a second copy simultaneously as we typed. Ah, the Dark Ages.)

However, the email cc isn’t always used solely for its simple, original intent.  Today, it can be a ridiculously complex concept fraught with psychological nuances, like being weaponized to prove a point, annoy, intimidate, or – yikes – tattle on others.

Tame the aggravation tail whip caused by email cc’s with these five practical tips:

  1. If you require a response from someone, they go in the “to” field. This is super important. Don’t put these folks in the cc field because it creates ambiguity and dilutes the accountability of who should respond.
  2. Anyone you don’t require a response from, they go in the “cc” field.
  3. If you’re cc’ing a bunch of people and you want to prevent unnecessary responses from them (because perhaps THEY don’t realize that when you cc someone, they’re not required to respond), lead with some version of “Those cc’d here, this is just an FYI. No need to respond.”
  4. If you’re often cc’d on emails that are unnecessary, respond only to the sender and say some version of “thanks for keeping me in the loop but I don’t need to be cc’d because (this).” “This” being the reason why… like you don’t need the play-by-play as it unfolds, you just need the punchline.  Or that topic isn’t really a focus on your radar.
  5. Sometimes, a more effective way to share your information with those tangentially involved is to send the original email without a cc, and then forward it with a message to the tangential folks. Psychologically, it can take the burden off them of feeling like they need to respond “because everyone’s watching.”

These tips will definitely help you save time and regain the proper use of the email cc.  But you can’t control how others tend to approach being a cc sender or recipient in their own lives.  So giving clear direction on whether or not they should respond to you – and when you personally should/shouldn’t be cc’d – will significantly streamline communications and cut down on YOUR email waste.

Yes, these seem like small things, but they actually add up to have an impact on your time.

It’s funny… we rarely think about how or why we use such long-standing digital communication tools like the email cc.  We often just use them out of habit, without deliberate purpose.  And so things become unwieldy and messy and we just keep allowing it to happen.  For other tips on digital communication bloopers that may be sabotaging your effectiveness, productivity, or success, check out this excellent book Digital Etiquette:  The Future of Good Manners.

And – cc’ing aside – to improve the quality of your emails overall, check out these five opening lines that sabotage your email’s success. Number one?  “I hope you are well.”

Four writing tips to make tourism marketing more persuasive.

January 25, 2022

If you do any form of tourism marketing – destination, hotel, cruise line, attraction, tour company, whatever – you know that your number one job is to inspire the itch to travel.  Further, you want to persuade people to travel to/with YOU.  This job is made infinitely harder by humans’ short attention spans.  You’ve only got a moment (or less) to catch their interest.  Here are four tips for persuasive tourism marketing writing, so you can leverage that precious moment.

Choose meaningful, rich descriptors that tell a story without you having to explain.

I’ll never forget this ad I saw years ago for the (former) corporate travel booking app Lola:

Ad for travel software Lola that says they help make business travel buttery smooth.

Buttery smooth?  That is the most delightful way of saying “no hassles, no mistakes, no friction, no inefficiency, and no logistical nightmares” I’ve ever seen.  It evokes a silky, luxurious feeling.  As a frequent business traveler, you can be damn sure I want all my trips to be buttery smooth.  Who wouldn’t?

If you choose words that – by their very connotation – help articulate the story you’re trying to tell, you’ll have to use far fewer of them to get your point across.  How do you find these descriptive gems?  It just takes patience and a thesaurus.  It’s worth investing the extra time to select the words that will hook your audience with a powerful image.

 

Skip the details and capture imagination first with a punchline that resonates.

The best example of this has GOT to be the marketing campaign Las Vegas, NV first introduced in 2002:

Billboard in Las Vegas that says what happens here stays here.

That single sentence says: “when you’re here, you can step outside your normal life and go wild, have fun, behave differently, be a little naughty, take a few risks, make outrageous memories, do things your friends and family would never in a million years think you would do.  And then when it’s over, you can go back to your uneventful life and we’ll keep your delicious secret.”  What happens here, stays here. says ALL THAT in just five words.

That “aspirational punchline” writing style works well in tourism marketing.  Many people use travel as a way to reset their lives, shed frustrations, experience new things, and escape tedious daily routines.  Marketing slogans used in campaigns are naturally one way to tap this style…slogans lend themselves well to punchlines.  You’ll never want to leave.  Find yourself here.  Come back new.  Paired with imagery that nods to the underlying story, this type of punchline crisply delivers the benefit you’ll experience with that journey.

But slogans aren’t the only way to leverage the aspirational punchline writing style.  Social media captions are a perfect channel for it.  I remember seeing an Instagram post a few months ago for a quintessential New England inn.  It featured a carousel of charming inn-and-surrounding-area photos…the covered bridge blanketed with fresh snow, the magical twinkling lights at night on Main Street, the horse-drawn sleigh rides, etc.  And the caption simply said:  Vacation in a snow globe.  I hate being cold, and yet suddenly I wanted to buy a pair of cute furry boots and catch snowflakes on my tongue while drinking hot cocoa wrapped in a plaid blanket during a sleigh ride.  But I read that sentence after seeing those photos and I literally pictured myself inside a snow globe.

 

Use FOMO wisely.

Fear Of Missing Out can be a huge motivator in any purchase decision, but it’s especially useful to writers in hospitality and tourism marketing.  One obvious place for inserting copy that pokes someone’s FOMO nerve is in the booking process.  Seeing that there are “only 5 rooms left” or that “47 people looked at this deal in the past hour” or that “only 2 dates remain at that price” really creates a sense of urgency.  If the person is wrestling with indecision, FOMO can nudge them over the edge.

But the booking process isn’t the only place in the travel decision-making journey where evoking FOMO is a useful writing tool. People will often play out in their minds how they’ll share an experience on social media with friends…BEFORE they’ve even booked the trip.  They picture themselves taking THAT selfie, or THAT food photo, or proving they were on THAT adventure.  Lean into that sometimes.  “Make your friends jealous.”  “We only have 10 cabanas.  Is one of them reserved for you?”  “Instagram was made for this view.”

In a more dramatic example, a restaurant in Freedom, ME puts FOMO at the very core of their entire marketing strategy.  The Lost Kitchen is an intimate seasonal restaurant that seats only 48 people per night.  And to snag one of those coveted reservations, you have to enter their annual lottery by sending in a postcard.

 

Dozens of colorful postcards sent to the Lost Kitchen restaurant requesting reservations.

The restaurant receives more than 20,000 postcards each year for those precious few seats.  Oh, and to know when it’s time to send it, you need to follow their socials and sign up for their newsletter.  FOMO marketing at its finest.  <chef’s kiss>

 

Pair words with imagery that tells most of the story.

If you look at these images of the Faroe Islands, what comes to mind?

Three dramatic images of the Faroe Islands that show rocky coastline, high cliffs, and rich greenery.

 

Using such images, they never EVER have to say things like this in their copy:  remote, peaceful, breathtaking, natural landscape, small villages, wide open spaces, the opposite of big city life, undiscovered, fresh air, enviable and memorable vacation photos, not a tourist trap, crashing surf, unspoiled, vast, and dramatic views.  I hate to say it, but they could even simply write “come visit” as the caption for these photos and it would still work.  Words can be powerful and persuasive, yes.  But in tourism, often the visuals do the heavy lifting on persuasion.  That isn’t even the official tourism account of Visit Faroe Islands and I still want to go.

While it’s true that the Faroe Islands has a built-in advantage on the dramatic imagery game, other types of visuals can lift the persuasive burden off words.  In a much less dramatic example, take a peek at Charleston, SC’s Instagram feed.  Every Wednesday brings a photo of a flower-filled window box that can be found hanging outside buildings throughout the city, using essentially the same exact caption: “Happy #WindowBoxWednesday from Charleston!”

 

Three images of Charleston South Carolina showing colorful, flower-filled window boxes outside homes.

That consistent pairing of photo-and-caption does several things.  It positions Charleston as a charming neighborhood where pleasant strolls can be taken.  It gives the impression that Charleston is awash with flowers at every turn.  It evokes the image of a welcoming and neighborly small town.

There’s something about window boxes that make a place seem more friendly and filled with personality.  A single window box does that for a single house.  So, collectively, hundreds of window boxes achieve that same goal for a destination.  And the copywriting team barely has to write a word about it.

Does it work?  You bet it does.  I’ve been dreaming about planning a trip to Charleston and – after following their Instagram for so long – it actually crossed my mind to try to go when the window boxes are at their most colorful.  And I’m not even a gardening enthusiast!

If you want to up your photography game to give your copy a better assist, see here to learn secrets of a great tourism photo.

And if you’re looking for more inspiration beyond these four writing tips to help make your tourism marketing more persuasive, here’s a handy resource:  Copywriting Examples.  Bless the gent who pulled all those examples together on one website and made all those teachable moments sortable.

Write better copy with patience and a thesaurus.

July 14, 2021

A meme featuring bilbo baggins with text about using patience and a thesaurus copywriting

If you’re looking to write better copy, I hope you possess patience.  Because that’s really what it takes:  patience and a thesaurus.  Here’s how those two things combine to make you a better writer.

First, what do I mean by “copy?”  For the purposes of this post, I mean the broadest possible definition of the word:  quite simply, any text in any form.  This includes ads, social media posts, email messages to colleagues, texts to friends, cover letters for job applications, and much more.  Literally ANY text.

Second, here’s a fact about writing:  shorter is always more effective because attention spans are limited.  What do I mean by “shorter?” I mean using the fewest words possible to articulate your point. Many folks set out to articulate their point.  But they don’t also strive for doing it in the shortest possible way.  Achieving both of those two goals simultaneously is neither quick nor simple.

I do NOT mean that your overall copy length can’t be long.  Heck, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is 870 pages long and I was glued to that book until the very last word.  But that actually proves my point.  J.K. Rowling is a master at descriptive, precise writing that evokes imagery with the fewest words possible.  870 pages from her doesn’t feel tedious.  Were she not such a master at this, it likely would have taken more than 1,000 pages to tell the same story, and THAT would be tedious.

The point is…you could zip through writing copy without investing the time to precisely articulate your words in the shortest possible way.  Maybe you used three sentences to communicate something that could have been said in one sentence.  Or you used a four-word-phrase instead of a single word because it came to mind first.

If you write your copy that way, here’s what you’re doing:  you’re putting the burden of time on the reader to sift through all the extra words to arrive at your point.  That likely matters less when you’re texting with a friend about your favorite TV show.  It matters a LOT when you’re trying to persuade a reader to do/think/feel something.

So, especially if you’re in marketing, you need to be the one who assumes the burden of time in writing.  The more time you take to make each piece of written communication shorter AND effective, the less time the reader is forced to invest in embracing your point.  If you make it too cumbersome for them, they’ll just tune out or move on long before your point has been embraced.

That’s where my advice of “patience and a thesaurus” comes in.

Nouns and verbs all have connotations.  These nuances give additional descriptive power to a single word by *slightly* altering the feeling/imagery it evokes.  For example, there are 44 different words in thesaurus.com to describe something as “difficult.”  So if you’re using that word in writing… do you mean – say – ambitious, problematic, arduous, immense, or challenging?  All of those words could be classified under the heading of “difficult,” but each one also nods to the reason why something is difficult. And therefore, each one tells a different story.

And that’s the secret right there.  You need to employ patience and a thesaurus to identify words that – by their very connotation – help you articulate the story you’re trying to tell.

Here’s an example I see a lot in the tourism marketing strategy work we do.  A lot of organizations use the term “boundaries” or “parameters” in conjunction with big plans, projects, and initiatives.  Those terms are meant to describe guidance given as the work proceeds to prevent straying from the plan.

But it’s possible in many cases that what the organization really means to describe are “guard rails.”  Boundaries and parameters imply limits and fences around the whole project, whereas guard rails connote a limitless, unobstructed path with some assistance to keep things moving forward.

Figuring out whether boundaries, parameters, or guard rails tells the appropriate story just takes patience to think it through and, if necessary, a thesaurus check for more precise options.

In a more marketing-oriented example, look how the connotation of the experience you’ll have differs depending on the verb chosen:

  • You’ll be amazed by your experience.
  • You’ll be delighted by your experience.
  • You’ll be inspired by your experience.
  • You’ll be transformed by your experience.
  • You’ll be tickled by your experience.
  • You’ll be giddy from your experience.
  • You’ll be left breathless by your experience.
  • You’ll be hypnotized by your experience.
  • You’ll be enchanted by your experience.
  • You’ll be moved by your experience.

All of those are far more descriptive than saying “you’ll have a great experience.”  That’s because “great” tells no descriptive story other than having a vague positive connotation.  I call it an empty word, and you can see why you should stop using it here.

You can also find four really great powerful tips to strengthen your writing here.

Even the word “better” in this blog post’s headline isn’t an ideal word choice.  “Better” is a nondescript, vague term that could benefit from a more descriptive upgrade.  In this case, it could be:  Write more persuasive copy.  Or write more effective copy.  Or write more descriptive copy.  Or compelling.  Or potent.  Or -ooooohh – how about irresistible?  There’s something delicious about evoking the vibe that your copy is something people can’t resist reading.

But alas…this is a blog post.  And “better” is a more appropriate choice to match searcher intent (not many folks are searching for “how to write irresistible copy”).  SEO writing is a whole different ballgame, so if that’s your goal, you should also check out these tips.

Your new year’s resolution? Better alt text.

January 13, 2021

OK, so this may not be the sexiest or most popular new year’s resolution, but here’s why it should make your list.

First, let’s be sure you understand what it is.  We’ve found through our consulting and digital marketing work that very few people DO understand it, even those that are responsible for writing the alt text on their own brand’s website.

Alt text – short for alternative text – is the text description applied to images on websites (and social media, but that explanation is for another day).  This isn’t the same as a caption, which can appear on your website with the image so that anyone can instantly see the words.  The alt text is hidden from the front-facing website and doesn’t appear unless it’s needed.  Think of it like writing a description on the back of a real-life photo that’s sitting in a frame.  When you look at the photo you can’t see the description, but if those details are needed, you can get them.

Now… when would such additional hidden details be needed?  Because if you’re looking at the photo on a website, you can clearly see what that photo is about… right?  Nope.  Not always.

The hidden text is vital in these three ways (all equally important):

  1. It gives search engines a full description of the photo, which makes it easier for search engine algorithms to see and understand images.  Using alt text on your website images means that a search engine can more easily find your photos and then show your website and/or images to people searching for relevant things you offer.
  2. When images on websites don’t load properly – when there are connectivity and/or internet strength issues, for example – the alt text will appear instead, so at least visitors know what you were trying to show.
  3. For those with vision impairment issues, or those who use screen readers for any other reason, the alt text is essential because it describes photos that the user physically CANNOT see.  A screen reader, if you didn’t know, is a program that reads content on a webpage aloud, and the alt text allows the screen reader to give information about the visual aspects of the page.  And by the way, ADA Compliance actually requires this of websites, so you might as well do it right.

Now, why won’t a caption suffice for all this?  Technical aspects aside (and there are some), the biggest reason is because a caption isn’t necessarily a proper description of a photo.  For example, here’s me trying to decide between my top two vices (since we’re talking about resolutions and all):

Chris Miranda holds prosecco bottle and coffee cup while deciding which to drink while giving a webinar.

The caption for this photo might be:  Chris decides between two vices.  But the alt text would be something like:  Chris Miranda holds prosecco bottle and coffee cup while trying to decide which one to drink while hosting a webinar.

So that takes us back to your new year’s resolution about committing to better alt text.  When you’re ready to dive in, here are nine brief but helpful tips for writing effective alt text.

And you can drink prosecco OR coffee while you read that article… no judgement here.

Looking for other ways to make your website easier to read and more accessible?  Choose your font and typeface wisely.

Words matter, but so does the font you choose.

November 5, 2020

A graphic of the word typeface using a magnifying glass.If you’re not a graphic designer or branding specialist, your experience with choosing typefaces is likely limited to the little dropdown box at the top of your screen, where you select from fonts like Arial, Universal, Comic Sans, and the whimsically-named Wingdings.  You may not even realize that a typeface is a design of lettering (i.e. sans serif), and fonts are variations within each particular typeface (i.e. Arial or Calibri).

Further, you probably choose your font for documents and emails based on your own personal preference of what you think “looks good.”  Is it pretty?  Professional?  Strong?  Does it reflect your personality?  Does it set you apart?  Or is it just the default font used by Word, Outlook, etc. and you never give it a second thought?

But in marketing and branding…typeface and font matter A LOT, and they can’t simply be based on your personal preferences.  Therefore, it requires a bit of knowledge to make wise choices.  Why?

First, because accessibility and legibility are essential in marketing, and not just because laws and the ADA say so.  There’s a large group of folks out there with poor vision, learning disabilities, and reading/comprehension issues, and you’re ignoring that entire audience if they don’t have access and the ability to comprehend your messages.

But second – and as importantly – the world is full of clutter and speed, which has reduced people’s attention spans to mere milliseconds.  Why would you risk wasting a precious point of contact using a typeface or font that’s even a tiny bit difficult to decipher?  You’ll lose ‘em, fast.

So here are eight super-smart tips for choosing your typeface and fonts wisely when designing your logo, brand identity, website and more.  This articulate gent Gareth Ford Williams succinctly details – in an easy 10-minute read – what you should consider.  And if psychology bores you, just skip right to the list of eight things you need to know:

A Guide to Understanding What Makes a Typeface Accessible

I guarantee after reading this, at the very least, you’ll forever beware of the mischief that “imposter letter shapes” cause.  Sneaky little buggers.

Got your typeface and font all sorted?  Now try these Four Quick Tips to Strengthen Your Writing.

How to make directions idiot-proof.

October 19, 2020

Whoever thought that watching someone try to follow written directions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could be so hilarious and entertaining?  Click the image to watch:

father daughter and son laughing over a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich

The dad’s deliberate insistence on following EXACTLY what was written feels absurd to watch… but only because we all know he knows how to make a PB&J.  His brain can certainly fill in the gaps in direction, and the direction writers just assume that he will.

But what about someone who’s never seen nor heard of a PB&J?  Or even a sandwich?

That’s how guests feel when your directions and instructions aren’t specific enough.  What kind?  Stuff like…

  • Directions from the nearest highway to your property
  • How to control the thermostat in the hotel room
  • How to connect to wifi
  • How to use any sort of mechanical or technological item in the room
  • How to set the *#$%@ alarm clock
  • How to get to various local attractions nearby

Basically, any time you’re telling a guest how to do anything, it’s just so much easier on them – and better customer service – if you’re specific to the point of absurdity.  You can’t assume they will use GPS (or that it will work well in rural areas), or that they’ll use their phone to be self sufficient for everything they need.  So spoon feed them every step of the way.

Because there are so many things you can’t control in their total experience… why risk causing frustration on something you can control?  Need more convincing on this?  See what happens when you don’t make enough chocolate chip cookies.

 

The power of 15 minutes in writing.

June 14, 2018

A red stopwatch with the timer set to 15 minutes, to illustrate the power of 15 minutes in writing.

Just 15 minutes can improve the power of your writing.  Want to know how?  Tell me this hasn’t happened to you:

You have something important to write…could be a sales pitch, press release, email newsletter, note to your boss, marketing program, ad copy… anything. It may not even need to be lengthy – just important in some way. So, you sit down to your keyboard at the precious time slot you’ve squeezed out of your packed to-do list and you force yourself to begin typing. And then…

You type a few words. Backspace over them. Type a few more words…keep going… then backspace over all of them too. Then you stare at your monitor trying to focus, while your to-do list sends invisible smoke signals to your brain, reminding you that you DON’T HAVE TIME for backspacing nonsense…you’ve got a ton of other things to do, and you’re running out of the window you’ve allotted to write this damn thing and youknowwhatyouwanttosaysowhywon’tthewordsjustflowout#*%#@?

People. Chill out. In reality, you DON’T know what you want to say, and that’s the trouble. You know what the assignment is, but you haven’t decided how to approach it. And so you sit down to write before mapping out a game plan…and then you freeze because you’re about to start the car for a road trip, and you have no idea where you’re going once you pull out of the driveway.

Here’s a tip that will make writing less painful and more productive. Before you write, sit quietly for 15 minutes and just think about what you’re planning to write.

Sounds easy, right? Nope. When was the last time you sat quietly in your office for 15 minutes and did absolutely nothing else? Not check email, scan your list, get sucked into social media, read something, jot down 15 things you remember you wanted to add to your to-do list… literally just do nothing but think. To very busy people, 15 minutes of complete stillness feels like a jitter-inducing eternity. And in a way, it is. It’s 25% of an entire hour.

Sitting still and thinking for 25% of an entire hour – when there are 200 tasks awaiting your attention – could, at first glance, seem like squandering productivity. Not so. In fact, investing that quiet time in thought will actually UNLOCK your productivity and make your writing more effective.

Try it. 15 minutes may feel like an eternity, but in reality, it’s not a lot of time. You probably squander that every day without even being aware of it… chatting about reality TV, doomscrolling on your phone, sitting through an unnecessary meeting, and maybe even just checking out your favorite Instagram dogs.

But see the pattern? All of those things feel like “doing something.” Somewhere along the way, “thinking” lost the right to be considered “doing something.” Reinstate it. You won’t be sorry.

Want more writing tips? Here…we’ve got a few.