A few simple tips to promote your outdoor and adventure activities

Our advice will mainly revolve around simplifying and accelerating the customer experience. We're focusing on these two areas because they're Manawa's two key added values, which customers regularly tell us about in over 22,000 reviews 😅

11 tips to promote your outdoor and adventure activities

Number 1: Answer the phone and redial missed calls

At Manawa, we only talk to +/- 35% of the customers who book with us, and today over 50% of the customers we have online buy even when the calls are out of season. Every missed call is a call that could end up going to your competitors, to another activity in the region, or worse, by the loss of an outdoor activity sale. What's more, the vast majority of customer calls are for reassurance questions or very simple and quick technical information: "Can I do it?", "How does it work if it rains?", "Are shoes included?", "Can I book in advance?", etc.

Number 2: Updating your voicemail

My advice is to have a simple voicemail that guarantees you'll call the customer back within X hours, also inviting them to give you the reason for their call, their contact details, and possibly write to you OR book directly by redirecting them to your website. The response time is important; it's what will make the customer wait for your callback before contacting other outdoor professionals in the region.

Number 3: Reply to all emails and/or create an automatic reply

Many customers book with Manawa because we respond quickly to their requests and queries about the activity (less than 3 hours). Responsiveness is one of the most important elements of the customer experience. But there are times, in both high and low season, when it can be more complex. So to limit customer frustration, we suggest you create an automatic email thanking them and giving them the maximum response time they can expect. You can even take advantage of this automatic email to ask the customer for more information or invite them to book online directly on your site (if you have online booking). For the same reasons as the telephone, if there is no rapid response, they will send their e-mail to other outdoor activity sellers near you.

Number 4: Completely update your My Google Business profile

Google is constantly changing without telling anyone, and its priority is for customers to find what they're looking for quickly. So it's very important to update your My Google Business page every season. Fill in all the fields, check your contact details and GPS coordinates, fill in the opening times (even just for telephone bookings), remember to add and update photos, take the time to respond to your customer reviews (even historical ones with a simple thank you), if you book online, link your products directly to your account, etc.

News April 2022: For a few weeks now, My Google Business has also redirected directly to your competitors, so you need to have as much information as possible to make them appear as low down as possible 😎

Number 5: Enhancing your photos and giving them "meaning

Visuals are increasingly important for promoting and selling your activities. Customers who buy on Manawa.com today spend an average of 40% of their time on photos. This is the only recommendation where we invite you to invest a little money if necessary. 💰

The important thing is obviously to have good photos, but above all to make sure that they really show your different activities and your infrastructure. In 2022, positively (or negatively, that's another debate), customers should be able to project themselves and buy your activities without reading the text on your page. The most effective way to do this is to have a bank of photos showing how the activity unfolds: car park and/or base, briefing with instructor/customer exchange, fitting out customers with their own equipment, start of the activity, highlight of the activity, unmissable view of the activity, customer/instructor debriefing at the end of the activity, purchase of photos, removal of equipment, changing room, shower, toilets, equipment park, etc.

Number 6: Suggest dates and times to your customers

We are aware that this often seems complex for many outdoor and adventure activity professionals because it depends on the weather, group sizes, instructors, etc., but you must have a calendar with departure times. If it's not live because you don't yet have online booking, add it on the contact form: dates and times are necessary to sell your activities so that the customer can plan to come to you! You multiply by 2 (if not by 4 or 5) the number of people who will buy directly or fill in your contact form. ⌛

Number 7: Ask your customers to leave you 5-star reviews

Customer reviews, and star ratings in particular, have become a necessity in online sales, whether of activities or anything else. It's not always easy during the season, but insist that your teams ask all customers to leave you a review, make a tablet available at the end of the activity to make it easier for customers, send an email once a month to all the month's customers with the link to leave you reviews, or create an automatic email with your booking tool. ⭐

Number 8: Hire a trainee to help you

You all have exciting jobs in regions that make many people dream during your peak seasons. Take advantage of this and take on motivated trainees who want to learn: it's not expensive and they'll be very grateful because they'll grow and develop alongside you. Before and after the season, they can canvass companies, write articles, manage your social networks, take photos, work on logistics, follow up with suppliers, do the accounts, update your reseller pages, etc., and during the season, they can answer the phone for you and why not, if you train them well, even manage your schedules.

Number 9: Be more precise in your descriptions (activities, appointments and durations)

Customers (and also Google) need to be able to project themselves into your activities: the best way to do this is to write down clearly what customers will do, see and feel during the activity. Our advice is to record yourself recounting your activity aloud from A to Z, as if you were telling it to a journalist, and then to write it down almost as it is afterwards. When we say from A to Z, we really mean from A to Z, as customers don't like surprises (unless it's a detail like a coffee, a specific jump or photos): meeting at such and such a time, at such and such a place (precise GPS meeting point), presentation, discovery of the equipment, preparation, approach walk/shuttle, activities, you'll see such and such a thing, feel such and such a thing, X-minute break, you'll be able to do this and/or that, walk/shuttle, de-equipping, purchase of options, then end of activity at such and such a time.

Number 10: Improving your search engine optimisation (SEO)

Here, it's a little more technical and time-consuming, but it can give you enormous benefits in the medium to long term. Here are a few ideas:

1. Create a FAQ (frequently asked questions) on your site, note down each customer question and answer them: this creates a page with answers to questions that customers could type into Google directly.
2. Create a separate page for each of your activities and emphasise the sport + spot in the title of each page.
3. Create a blog/article section and write in-depth articles about your sport and your spot (start "sport in spot", what to do in "spot", weekend/holidays "sport in spot", etc).
4. Ask your partners (hotels, restaurants, other activities, resellers like Manawa, etc.) if they can put a redirect link to your site.
5. If you speak several languages, make this known and create one or more articles in the blog/article section in the language in question. We recommend that you create a page about your flagship activity with the title ACTIVITY + SPOT, followed by a description of the activity. The important thing, of course, is to highlight the "destinations" keywords you are looking for in the target language.

Number 11: If you haven't already done so, find out about online booking

I won't insist on it here, but today it takes 3 clicks to make an appointment with a cardiologist: I really can't imagine the new generations picking up the phone or, worse still, writing an e-mail to buy your activities. Facilities that are not equipped by 2025 will lose a significant number of bookings year after year! At Manawa, we are currently connected with Resamare, Yoplaning, Fareharbor, Ready, Trekksoft, Booking Kit, Activitar, Regiondo and Bokun and are working on other connections. There are many other tools available on the market.

Please feel free to share this article with your friends/contacts in the sector if you think it may be of interest to them and contact your regional manager if you have any questions. If you are not yet a Manawa partner, the link to join us is still the same: Join us on Manawa.com 😎.