Three Simple Ways to Attract More Bicycle Tourists to Your Business

Those elusive bicycle tourists – Who are they? Where are they coming from? How do they hear about you and support your local business?

Attracting local cyclists to your business can be hard enough, let alone those visiting from who-knows-where. How do you possibly position your business and market to those visiting from all corners of the globe? Where are they? How do you ensure high ranking on Google searches?

Here are my three top suggestions for simple, cost-effective ways you can improve your marketing to visiting cyclists and position yourself front and centre as the go-to store in your destination.

Social Media

Make sure all your contact details are up to date on all your social media profiles, with a physical address and opening hours. Maintain a regular presence with inspiring imagery, and photos of you and your team offering great customer service. Include posts that will appeal to local cyclists and also to visitors. Don’t be afraid to write posts that are specific for each audience; it’s ok to recognise difference and different needs. Make sure you respond to any posts on your page or through private messenger in a timely manner.

Belgium has never been a destination I’ve been interested to visit. Until I started following Le Coffee Ride on social media. This is produced by a small, single location business. Really powerful advertising, yet very simple. An honest, coherent and compelling narrative of who they are, what they do; and no embellishment. Just great imagery, a great concept – accommodation, café, rides, people having fun. That’s it.

Make sure you’ve developed hashtags specific to your business; and that you encourage your customers to use those hashtags. Keep hashtags short and simple. Some ideas are:

#LoveYOURBUSINESSNAME | #YOURBUSINESSNAME,LOCATION #RideYOURBUSINESSNAME

Online Reviews

Ask your existing customers to leave reviews on your business Facebook profile, on Google and trip advisor. The more, the better. You could consider hosting a small competition to encourage your customers to write you a review; with entrants drawn from those who leave a positive online review over a certain period of time.

As you know, cyclists trust fellow cyclists. Reviews from happy customers will count for a lot when visiting cyclists are googling bike stores in your area. They want to go where the locals go and they’ll happily take a tried and true recommendation.

Website Performance

When did you last review your website? I’m not talking about updating the latest sale prices and discount offers, but what about all the back-end admin? What appears in the Google results when your business is listed on a search return? Is it an inspiring, compelling reason for someone to want to visit your store? If not, you can update your hero and descriptive text. Make sure you use common industry search terms, like ‘bike shop’. What about the hero image that appears? Is it high quality? Is it a good representation of your business? Is it time to update it?

Anna Gurnhill is Managing Director at Anna Gurnhill Consulting which provides a range of professional services in the cycling industry. Key competencies include audience research, content development, editing and copywriting, marketing, business and product development, and strategic partnership development. https://annagurnhillconsulting.com | AnnaGurnhillConsulting@gmail.com | 0400 843 858