HubSpot Inbound 2012 and Chinese Tourists: Become the Prey

Today the Attract China team attended the HubSpot Inbound 2012 Conference in Boston, just steps from our offices. While there was not one seminar or session on the topic of Chinese online marketing and media, we agreed with the presenters we saw and enjoyed the discussions on inbound marketing.

Although Inbound 2012 focused on helping agencies, a lot of the same principles can be applied to destinations. There were some fantastic points being addressed, and while none of them had to do with online marketing in China, the Attract China team felt many of these points could be easily applied to destinations wishing to capture Chinese tourists.

We saw some solid seminars on simple inbound marketing, emphasizing the idea that rather than go after your target market, you should be creating a brand awareness that allows your target market to go after you. How does this work in relation to attracting Chinese tourists?

Let’s take a quick list of the points we extracted from some of the presentations (including Michael Gass’s – pictured right) we saw and apply them to destinations trying to capture Chinese tourists:

• Become the prey; you have to put yourself out there to be found
  • If a destination isn’t allowing Chinese tourists to search and find it on Baidu.com, read about it in Chinese, and engage the destination via Chinese social media, it simply can’t be found.
  • Being found is a lot easier than seeking out guests and tour operators.
• Scope your services to cater specifically to your target market. FOCUS.
• Rather than spread yourself thin, a destination should focus on exactly where their target market exists and engage them directly with what they want.
• There is no need to appeal to everyone, but you have to appeal to your target market.
• It should be easier to appeal to a focused target; it should be harder to try to appeal to everyone.
• Create buzzworthy content for your target market
  • There are great things happening at your destination – and a lot of it is buzzworthly to your target market. Promote that! Share it! Let Chinese tourists know!
  • Use your online media to be the destination you want to embody; it allows you to easily create a brand in the eyes of a consumer that knows nothing about you.
• Think “Outdoor Advertising”
  • A Chinese tourist is most likely 10,000+ miles away from your destination when he/she is making a decision to visit your destination.
  • You have SECONDS to let this audience know your destination is for them and they want this.
  • Chinese tourists are visiting your website to be attracted and enticed, not to find out what time the SPA is open.

Of course, it’s always important to remember there are many different types of Chinese tourists, so defining your specific target market is crucial before embarking on any online marketing and branding campaign.

We very much look forward to attending similar conferences that touch base with Chinese online marketing. With over 350 million users on Weibo, it’s definitely not a topic to ignore when it comes to inbound marketing. Hopefully it’ll include basic information sessions on Baidu and Chinese social media – we will see 拭目以待!