How does history work for your marketing success? Why would someone care about your history? Inquiring minds want to know, that’s the bottom line. Whether you’re a small business,
a tourist attraction, or a destination, people crave the details of the how, why and when. Your customers and visitors care about your history. How well you share those interesting slices of history that can add another, deeper level to your marketing efforts.
How to Market Your History
Here are a few things to think about when considering using your history in your marketing:
- Is your business one that has been in your family for generations?
- Did you start it after deciding it was your passion, and if so, how did this happen?
- Who settled your area?
- What interesting characters from the past can you bring to light to help highlight a living history?
- What products do you carry that have a great local history?
- Have you realized that your products and your marketing can help promote your community?
Writers of all sorts – bloggers, travel writers, print media – never stop looking for new stories. What part of your history can garner their interest?
The local angle is like gold in the marketing world. If you have a strong local history, historical figure, a business with a great local story, you need to highlight it and start having if work for you.
Be visionary here – look at what your history encompasses, look deep to see how it can be a marketing benefit to you in the future.
Share your history via your social media channels. Use hashtags to call out specifics in Twitter and Instagram to extend your marketing reach. There are people out there that cherish history and will go to the ends of the earth to experience and enjoy local areas, events and products that have a history. Bring your history to the world through social media and invite the world to visit your history.
An Example of a Community Marketing their History
When history is marketed in a community, it enhances the community’s sense of pride. It rallies everyone living in the area around that aspect of their history. A great example of this is the Ramona Pageant in the San Jacinto Valley in Southern California – www.RamonaBowl.com . The Ramona Pageant is the official outdoor play for the state of California and the longest running outdoor play in the United States. The pageant celebrated its 90th year this year. (Disclaimer – I am contracted with the San Jacinto Valley to build a multicultural tourism program for them so while I had attended the play several times in the past, this year when I went I looked at it through entirely different eyes.)
The residents of the San Jacinto Valley take great pride in this play. It’s tough to find anyone who hasn’t been part of the 3 weekend event at some point in their lives. It’s a true community effort celebrating the history of the community, a great sense of community pride, and a great revenue source for not only the valley but the local businesses too. The economic trickle down is immense.
How are You going to Succeed Marketing Your History?
So, what are you marketing that reflects your history? Spend a little bit of time thinking about it and I bet you’ll come up with some interesting facts and ideas to enhance your marketing. Have a good story about using history in marketing? Hope you’ll share it to help others with ideas!
Want to know a little bit more about Just A Small Town Girl? You’ll find it here: http://www.justasmalltowngirl.us/blog/why-leslie/