Top tips for marketing your holiday park app

Congratulations on launching your Holidaymaker App!

Promoting your HolidayMaker App

Because we’d like to see as many of your guests as possible download and use your app, we have put together the following top tips to help you boost your app downloads.

Use your website and booking process

Customers can’t download your Holidaymaker app if they don’t know that it exists. So, a great place to start is with your website. Here is your opportunity to promote your app to your guests at every possible opportunity throughout their web experience.

Ayr Holiday Park App download our app page
  • Include a highly visible reference to your app on your home page and how to download it
  • Promote your app at the end of the booking confirmation page (don’t do it during the actual booking process as this could lead to customers dropping out to install the app instead of completing their booking
  • Create a landing page on your website dedicated to your app where you can highlight the benefits, list any new features, and mention the special offers that are contained within it
  • If you have a blog, why not add a regular feature that explores the different elements of your app to help users get the most out of your app. This shows potential users that you’re serious about giving them maximum value. It’s also a great way to promote all those cool new features that are available to your guests

Our Holidaymaker team will supply you with an initial promotional video and image assets to use on your own digital channels.

Email marketing

The email resources you already use on your holiday park will be one of the most effect engagement tools – so include it in your strategy for driving downloads.

Your Holidaymaker app is going to be primarily used by guests that have already booked a stay with you or are holiday home owners – so you will already have their email details and you can target them specifically with download messages.

Email interactions with guests leading up to a stay will also enjoy very high opening rates, which means your guests are in a prime position to see your app message.

You have an obvious captive audience within the transactional and pre-arrival phase of their holiday journey, so here is an ideal opportunity to drive app downloads.

  • Confirmation Emails: Make your confirmation emails do more than confirm their holiday booking. These are the emails that get the highest open rates and customers are excited about their pending holiday.  This is the place to promote the app to drive a quick conversion.
  • Dedicated App Emails: Before your guests arrive, send them a dedicated reminder of the great benefits the app offers and remind them of the download instructions. Promoting on-site convenience and benefits is key in this message.
  • Pre-Arrival Emails: Your will be sending pre-arrival emails within a few days of your guests arriving on-park. Our Holidaymaker app clients have found this is an especially good conversion point for driving app downloads – with some saying that upto 90% of guests are arriving on-park with the app already installed.  Your guests are excited to visit, now is the time to capitalise on the excitement and get your app in their hands.
  • Email Signature blocks: Any email that is sent out, whether it be from your back-office staff, your newsletter or even the payment confirmation email that doesn’t mention your app is a missed opportunity. Add a banner or one line in your company signature blocks to advertise your app. Include brief details such as what can be accomplished through the app and a link that directs people towards the download page. A simple email signature block example:
    • Our new holidaymaker app, helps you (insert what the app does). Click here (include hyperlink) to check it out!

On-site Promotions

Promoting your app in and around your park is a critical element of the app adoption process and helps guests download and use the app during their stay. Holiday parks are all about providing an amazing “guest experience” so here’s your opportunity to showcase how your app is such a valuable tool for your guests to use on-site and access additional services.

  • On-Site marketing collateral and signage: make sure you promote your app in prominent places around your park with clear signage and call to actions – in the reception, restaurant/bar and entertainment areas, tabletop displays and on your TV screens and electronic displays.
Beverley Holidays promotional cards
  • Invite guests to download the app at check-in: Don’t miss the opportunity to tell your guests about your mobile app when they check-in at reception. When guests arrive, they always ask questions about your holiday park, details of local attractions and the opening times of your facilities; they will appreciate if you let them know that you offer a mobile-friendly solution to give them all the information they need, whenever they need it, during their stay on their own phone.
  • QR Codes: QR codes are a great, cost effective and user-friendly way to promote your app and increase downloads. You can include QR codes almost anywhere – from product packaging to digital signage, posters, or use them to encourage users to leave reviews on app review sites, share experiences or take advantage of new offers. Position QR codes around your park to encourage downloads or even use them to deep link to sections of your app. For example, display QR codes in your caravans for sale and link to the holiday home sales section of your app, or display QR codes in your restaurant and link to the food and drink menu on your app.
Download our app flyer
  • Replace your welcome pack with a simple strut card: Your Holidaymaker app has the option to include everything your guests will need when they arrive – from arrival information, opening times of your facilities, on-site map to itinerary suggestions for local attractions. So, one of the advantages of having an app is that you can save the time and money of producing and printing your welcome packs. To drive even more downloads of your app, you can simply place a strut card in each holiday home or lodge, like in the photo above. Your guests will then know that all the information they need will be on the app and they can take it with them whether they are in or out and about.

Staff training and awareness

Staff awareness and buy-in is a critical step in promoting your app on your park to your guests. On-site promotion by your own staff should lead to a significantly higher guest adoption rate of the app.

  • Reception staff and guest greeters need to know that your app exists.  This may seem fundamental; however, it is key that your frontline staff are up to speed with how your app works so they can discuss the benefits with your guests in a knowledgeable way
  • Give your frontline staff additional assets and support to promote your app. Offer training on the app to your reception teams, food and beverage staff, guest services and managers so that they understand the specifics of your app. Simple promotional cards are a great tool for front line staff to have on hand to give to guests with download instructions or QR codes
  • Reinforce the importance of your holiday park app to your staff on a regular basis – perhaps even create an incentive programme to reward staff when they do a great job promoting your app
  • Just like you would review your website performance, make your app usage, downloads statistics and review numbers a part of your KPI measures.

App Reviews and Customer Feedback

Having happy users is critical to your app’s success. When was the last time you downloaded a 1-star app?

App store reviews

Having great app ratings (which means 4.0+ stars) and user reviews increases your download conversions. The more people see that others are already using your app and are satisfied with it, the more chances you have that they will try it too.

  • Ask for reviews and feedback: Ask your users to leave you a review on Google Play or on the App Store. Positive reviews drive download decisions and have a direct impact on the app stores algorithms – they enhance your credibility and position in search results. Use push notifications at the end of a guest’s stay to ask for reviews.
  • Don’t be tempted to take the shortcut of fabricating reviews: The app stores will have your app suspended if they notice that there’s foul play. Plus, you won’t get honest opinions about your app’s functionality.
  • Be open to receiving feedback: Your Holidaymaker app comes with a feedback form for guests to easily contact you and leave a message. Do your best to turn an unhappy or unsatisfied user into someone that understands there is a person behind the app that can be reached and cares about its users.
  • Replying to reviews: Do respond to the reviews that are left on the app stores for your holiday park app. Regardless of what your customers say, let them know you are trying to resolve the problem by listing out what steps you are taking to improve their experience. Replying to good (or bad feedback) gives potential users the assurance that you care about their opinions and are willing to take feedback.
  • Getting negative app feedback: Do bear in mind that you will inevitably get negative feedback on your app. Holiday guests will find the easiest method of leaving feedback – and it might not be feedback about the app – but their holiday stay in general. The smart way to do this is by answering / addressing their complaint swiftly but keeping your response to a minimum.
  • Don’t wait for negative reviews if you spot a bug or integration issue: The Holidaymaker App support team are on hand to address any technical issues you might have.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are one of the most effective tools within your holiday park app because you can send important information to your users and have them come back directly to your app.

Use your push notifications to:-

  • Share when new content is available
  • Tell your guests of special offers on-park or with your attraction partners
  • Cross promote availability on your events and activities
  • Drive enquiries for holiday homes for sale
  • Happy Hour and Restaurant Messages
  • Group specific messages like home owner updates
  • Alerts guest to weather warnings
  • Customised messages as you need them
  • Ask guests to leave a review

Your users don’t necessarily check out your app often, but if they still have it on their smartphone it probably means that they decided it brings enough value. And you shouldn’t hesitate to reach out to them.

Don’t abuse it by sending too many notifications – or they will soon consider you spam them and won’t want to hear about your app anymore.

Social Media

Promoting your app on your social media channels is a great way to show your followers that you are an innovative, technology-friendly park who caters to the needs of the modern holiday guest.

Select the socials channels that your audience is the most active on – whether that is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok. Share information how your holiday park app is there to support your guests with everything they need on your social media channels.

When promoting your app on social media, make sure you mention how useful your app is to your guests and any special offers that are available exclusively to app users to encourage more downloads.

See how Beverley Holidays guests are sharing their app countdown screens on their Facebook page before they arrive for their caravan holidays

Beverley Holidays Social Shares Countdown post

We encourage your social media teams to liaise with us when you launch your new app to take full advantage of your holiday park social presence. We can help with assets such as social media campaign ideas, launch videos, animated gifs and app screenshots.

Public Relations

PR plays a crucial role in launching your new holiday park app.

Don’t be put off approaching your local press with a launch story. Most journalists are pressured by deadlines to deliver new content for their publications – so if you can package up a PR piece with everything they will need you stand a very good chance of having your app launch covered.

A good PR pack for your story will include:-

  • Summary of your holiday app: a simple walkthrough of your app with the main features, and how it benefits your guests and your park business
  • Your press release: the press release is your main story (and pitch to the journalist) that hopefully will get published. Try to give it a bit of a story, why you are launching your app, what benefits and problems does it solve for your guests.
  • Photographs and screenshots: Be sure to include lots of screenshots of your app, and don’t forget to include some high-resolution lifestyle photos of it being used on your holiday park – by your guests and your staff. The more image assets you can provide to a journalist the more chance you stand of them being used.
  • Park logo: make sure you include a park logo that can help your story stand out.
  • Contact details: When you send off your PR piece make sure you include full contact details so you can be contacted for a follow up. And don’t forget a website link back to your app landing page.
  • Key PR Resource: Jon Boston of Stay UK News is a great contact for BH&HPA park members and crafts a mean PR piece ;0)

App Video introduction

A good walk-through or intro-video that highlights what your app can do works wonders to help people understand what your app is all about. By seeing it in action, they can make an informed and very conscious decision to download and use your holiday park app.

For your demo video, create a 30-second video showing how users can benefit from your app, and then promote it on your website and social media channels.

*A teaser video will be provided as part of your Holidaymaker App launch pack for you to use.

Influencers

Leveraging the power of influencers can drive lots of visibility for your park and app, but it is not the easiest of promotional tactics to use. The key to this strategy is finding influencers who align with your holiday park and target audience.

  • Micro-influencers: Think carefully about which influencers’ followers are most suited to your park and your app. Getting your app in front of ten smaller but highly relevant influencers’ audiences could prove more valuable than a partnership with a single mega-influencer whose audience is less sell suited to your app. Don’t forget to look closer to home with some of your local contacts or even your guests. Get them interested in your app, if they decide to use it and they like it, they might review your app and post it on their social media channels.
  • Guest blogging: Remember that many influencers have their own blogs, as well as social media accounts, so factor guest blogging into your influencer marketing strategy too. A well-timed, enthusiastic post about your app can do a lot to boost your downloads.
  • Invite a travel blogger: Travel bloggers are used to working with tourism, travel and hospitality businesses. If you are thinking about a campaign to launch your app this might be the perfect time for you to invite a travel blogger for a staycation and ask them to talk about the mobile app you offer

Targeted Adverts

Relying solely on the organic reach of your social media posts or website to drive downloads can be limiting – so a good strategy is to set aside some budget for paid advertising.

Facebook & Instagram Ads: Promoting your app on your social channels like Facebook and Instagram can be done with minimum set up if you simply boost one of your posts. However, you can create tailored adverts and show them to specific groups of people that fit your target audience profiles. You can set a daily budget to help control costs and set up your campaign to pay for only the actions you want, whether that’s impressions or conversions.

Retargeting Ads: Social media retargeting is an interesting concept. It centres on bringing back those who’ve already visited your website and then browsed elsewhere. You could for example, target everyone that reached the booking page with an app download advert and drive them to the site to download and receive exclusive offers. This cookie-driven approach is easy to implement on platforms like Facebook and Instagram and is well worth considering as part of your overall app marketing strategy.

Competitions

You have done all the hard work in preparing all the content for your app and launching it. Now you can have some fun. Running a competition is an effective way to increase app downloads and engagement.  In a few simple steps, potential users are given the chance to win a reward, while you benefit from new user interactions.

  • Scavenger hunts: get your guests to download and use it to collect things around your park. Use the form module to collect competition entries and push notifications to promote your hunt and announce the winner.

Measuring the performance of your app

A key part of any marketing campaign is measuring its performance. And your holiday park app is no different.

It is important to keep a track of app downloads, app installs, negative reviews, and anything else you need to identify areas for optimisation.

As part of your app implementation, you will receive access to Google Firebase and Google Analytics which will track usage of your app.

Your Holidaymaker dashboard also has a simple set of report for you to access:-

  • Current app downloads
  • Which platform – iOS or Android
  • Popular download days
  • User login statistics

Expert Advice from the Holidaymaker App team

It’s important for us to ensure you and your guests get the most out of your app. Yes, you will have to put some time and effort into promoting it but hopefully, you have seen above that there are lots of opportunities to ensure your app is successful and well used.

If you would like to get some 1-2-1 expert advice on promoting your app please contact the Holidaymaker App team who will be happy to help.

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