News: The Blackpool Marketing Toolkit
The toolkit, a 120-page step-by-step guide complete with CD, spells out exactly how to market the full spectrum of guest accommodations ranging from the smallest guest house to the larger hotel operation.
It has been designed to support the full range of businesses in the Blackpool area to improve their marketing knowledge and skills. The ideas and actions included enable them to become more creative and proactive in their marketing activities.
This practical document, with a range of graded actions people can take, has been technically led by Charter Solutions and then developed in partnership with Lancaster University and a team of people drawn from both the private and public sectors.
Charter Solutions, as the tourism and small business marketing specialists, were asked to identify key marketing benchmarks and then provide the design and development team with the outline for a detailed marketing toolkit.
In consultation with Lancaster University and others working on the ground with Blackpool’s tourism businesses, we identified a number of key marketing areas which needed development. The businesses could then use these to highlight marketing gaps and areas of need. The toolkit then provided them with a number of actions, working up from a base level of necessity, through to higher levels of marketing actions and activity.
The toolkit includes detailed guidance on everything accommodation providers need to promote their business and provide guests with good service. The pack even includes downloadable templates for businesses to use, ranging from sample menus to marketing plans and customer feedback forms. The aim is to raise the marketing understanding and abilities of as many providers as possible thereby improving quality across a number of businesses.
The toolkit has also been supported by workshops and one-to-one marketing consultancy to ensure that actions and marketing planning are fully embedded into the fabric of the business.
Independent research has identified some really significant results brought about by the toolkit’s use.