5 Keys To Doing More With Less

It’s been well over a year since the financial crisis laid waste to the psyche of our consumer republic. In that time, we’ve seen millions of people lose their jobs and watched as businesses of all stripes made cutbacks in people, capital investment, and especially advertising. Inevitably, consumer spending, the fuel to our economy’s fire, dropped to recession levels and talk of depression permeated budget and management meetings everywhere. Marketers shook in their boots, and waited for the other shoe to drop.

Many are still waiting. Worries of further budget cuts, reductions in marketing work force, and their own futures hang precariously over their heads. In our own little corner of the economy, we know that destinations, attractions, resorts, and other tourism-related marketers face an even more acute version of this anxiety as we see statistic after statistic roll in marking the decreases in our businesses.

Perhaps the single best antidote to this anxiety is to generate some marketing successes, some positive results to offset the gloom and doom. Knowing that a dollar invested in smart marketing will deliver a bankable return in business is key to making it through the valley and setting your sights on the next peak. As we endure doing our jobs with less – less media spend, less help from staffing, less time – it’s a good time to shore up the foundations of our marketing programs, and create some stability for ourselves.

In this issue of the Wanderlust Report, we’ll present five important ideas that will help your destination or attraction deal with a down economy, and make leaps when everyone else is crawling.