It’s never too early to start reaching out to your potential customers. Usually, we recommend starting researching a little about the potential of your spot as soon as you’ve ordered your tent. That way, when your tent arrives, gets installed and is ready to be decorated, you have a better idea on how to suit your customer target market.
The glamping industry customers are known to be “NEOs” – highly progressive individualists, who don’t mind spending a little more in order to get the best and authentic experience. Read more about Neo’s here.
Now, let’s get started! We hope that the following tips will help you attract potential customers to your glamping business.
Define your target market
Defining the target market of your glamping business can be very easy, but most people do not spend much time actually thinking about who they want to attract. However, understanding your customer – and specifically picking a niche customer – makes your marketing strategy so much easier. This step should be part of your glamping business plan and we recommend doing a little bit of research about the people you are trying to target. Where do they live? How old are they? Do they have children? What do they think is important? How would they find out about you? (read paper / social media?)
Have a look at what others are doing
Don’t reinvent the wheel, but try and get inspired by what others before you have done. What do you like about their Instagram? Find nice decoration ideas on Pinterest. Scout potential influencers who are close to you that you’d love to work with.
Also keep an eye out on the language they use, the hashtags, the platforms where they advertise themselves, and try and find what suits you most.
The best Glamping hashtags that you can search on in order to find inspiration on Instagram are #glampinglife #glamping #glamping #glampaustralia
Pinterest is also great for glamping-ideas. Here you can type in “glamping projects” “glamping ideas” and “glamping inspiration”.
Turn your space into an experience
Suit your glamping experience to your target group. For example; when setting up a tent for couples, you can add some romantic flowers and a small bottle of massage oil. It does not have to cost a lot, but even the smallest touches will become beautiful memories for your customer.
If your target market aims for families and children, think of providing some fun games for them to play with. Even little items such as high chairs or a little step for the bathroom sink are thoughtful touches that give your customers a warm feeling inside.
Have you got a strong passion for sustainable living, food, knowledge about nature, or are you a massive cat lover? Interact with your guests and involve them onto your property! Pick fruit from your tree or offer locally produced snacks. Use your passion to sell your experience. NEOs love personal touches, even if they are quirky or weird. They are what makes the experience different from any other!
Set the right price for your nights
Glamping is an experience; it’s something different, it’s something special. NEOs are willing to pay for that! Don’t undervalue your business, and set the right price for your accommodation. Do a little research about what others charge (use Airbnb search function) and if you don’t have anyone to compare to in your region, we advise you to use this guide “How much do I have to charge for a night glamping?”.
Sign up with Airbnb & Glampinghub
Of course, Airbnb is important to sign up with in order to attract potential customers. But also consider others! Glampinghub for example is a website that solely focuses on unique stays in Australia, and it suits to have your experience marketed on these platforms. When you upload your profile, make sure your photos are of good quality, and most importantly: Accurate! If there’s a dead tree in front of your glamping tent, you might not want to hide this in the photos as this can create disappointment with your customer.
TIP: Don’t forget to check for your region’s local website! (e..g Daylesford VIC has their own version of Airbnb called “Dayget” or regional VIC has “Riparide”)
Get online
Depending on the size of your glamping business, it’s recommendable to look into your online presence in order to attract potential customers. Do you need a website for your glamping business? Or is an Instagram account or Facebook page enough?
Your involvement online will depend on the target group you are trying to reach. Maybe families are not so active on Instagram but would love to discover more about you by visiting your website. Also, keep in mind: a website does involve a little more work. You will have to write content and make sure images/videos are added correctly. If your glamping business is just a side business, this might take too much of your time.
Use social media to your advantage
Your Facebook or Instagram page is kind of like your “portfolio”. It’s the best way to give an impression about who you are, and what experience the customer can expect. What does the tent look like at night? What is the view like? What kind of people will stay at your site? Your customer needs images to visualise what experience they will have. Apart from images, don’t forget to use hashtags to reach out to new customers. Hashtags you can use: #uniquestays #letsgoglamping #sleepunderthestars #luxurycamping #getbacktonature
In order to grow your profile even more and attract potential customers to your glamping site, it’s important to keep researching hashtags and reply to people who have posted about the topic. This way potential customers see your name and will click on your profile.
NEO’s love authentic social media and many influencers can be considered NEO’s as well. Things that are of importance for them are eco-friendliness, sustainability and locations that “no one can get to”. So besides spreading your message and living your passion, your influencers can also help you generate content. Often they will reach out to you, but you can also try and locate them yourself by researching local influencers. To find a glamping influencer in your neighbourhood, try using these tips from Brightlocal.
Don’t be scared for reviews
And last but not least, don’t be scared of reviews! Reviews are important for any business as they reflect the experience from your customers.
If you to stick to the following, you should not receive any bad reviews
- Make sure your glamping accommodation is always clean
- Make sure that your pictures are real, and do not oversell your glamping stay
- Communicate with your guest, and reply within 24 hours
- Add some thoughtful touches and local tips about the area
- (Airbnb only) ALWAYS write a review back
TIP: If you find that your reviews are not constructive enough, provide your customers with a short (maximum 5) list of questions which they will need to answer in order to describe their stay.
We hope that these tips have been helpful for you and you now have a better idea of how to attract customers to your glamping business! If you need more information, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our glamping experts, they’d be happy to help!