Once you've obtained ticket sales information, revenue, and visitor feedback, determining your performance takes time. However, it's vital not to become isolated from the bigger picture, so benchmarking your attraction is essential in ensuring long-term success and addressing internal concerns that other teams may raise. In this article, we will explore the best ways for you to benchmark your attraction regarding marketing. 

Gather as much data and information as possible about your marketing. Ideally, you'll have access to live visitor data; daily visitor numbers are good, weekly are ok, and hourly are best! It's great to have the annual visitor numbers for the last five years, from 2019 for a "normal" year to the pandemic years and then 2023 for balance. Next, pull stats on website traffic, conversion rates, and return on investment amounts. Then, be across budget amounts, how much you're spending, what percentage is digital, and how much did this budget make directly trackable?

Once you've got all of this information, you'll have a clear picture of where your attraction currently is. You'll need to put this information in one easy-to-reach place (or memorise some key information). You might only want to share some of this information with others, but the more you can share (in the right places and with the right people), the more you'll receive back. 

So, what's the best way to get information to benchmark against?

There are many associations in the world of visitor attractions. Knowing which ones are worth investing budget and time in can be challenging. But the best associations will give you so much information and guidance in return that you'll be glad to invest. 

We're proud to be the marketing partner for the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA). Their members are the most visited attractions in the UK, with millions of visitors annually. How do we know they're the most visited? They publish yearly member visitor numbers via their website, so this can give you a good idea of where you sit. Why not look out for the prominent attractions near you? How do you compare? 

We're also the marketing partner for the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums. If you're a wildlife attraction, you'll no doubt already be a member, and the team holds fantastic events across the year to network with other members and learn how the sector is performing. 

Another inspirational association to consider is the Association of Cultural Enterprises. This is another fantastic community. It offers impressive training and member benefits and runs events that members can attend to learn how other members are doing. 

There are many associations, no matter what type of organisation you are. Themeparks at BALPLA, Farm Parks at Farm Attraction Network, and Science Centres at ASDC. It's important to do your research; if you're joining these associations, you must make the most of them. Whether it's the support they offer or the resources they have access to. A good association will empower your whole organisation, so picking the right one is essential.

Plenty of organisations and consultants are doing fantastic work to get to the bottom of where marketing resources sit in the sector. One example is the Annual Rubbercheese Website Survey, where the team asks core marketing questions from ticketing providers to average visitor engagement rates. They stack all this data up and then produce a report with all the benchmarks for you to compare yourself to, plus information on how that compares to last year and the previous year. 

The survey was the brainchild of the inspirational Kelly Molson, and now, three years in, Paul and the Rubbercheese team are continuing the data to give back to visitor attractions. 

If you'd like information on where you sit against other attractions that fill in the survey, get involved here (view survey)

A while ago, when talking about visitor attraction marketing, people would focus on "competitors". Years later, although there might be attractions nearby that you "compete with", people are becoming more aware that the real competition is in home entertainment (hello Netflix and PlayStation). 

While you might not want to reveal your deep, dark secrets, there's no harm in connecting with your "competitors" once a quarter to discuss how things are going, how numbers are looking and what you've got coming up. Not only might you realise that you're all trending similarly with visitor numbers, but you might be able to team up and offer a multi-ticket offer or a discount to visit multiple attractions in one or two days. 

Also, if your competitor is hugely up but you're still down on numbers, it might be time to freshen your approach, your price needs to be corrected, or your marketing needs to work harder for you. Knowing that you're all lower than expected might mean a local issue or data point is happening, so you can speak to your local destination marketing organisation. 

You may be short-staffed, under-resourced and given tasks some attractions have multiple teams to do. However, one of the key recommendations for anyone working in a visitor attraction is to get out of the office, away from the day-to-day, and attend an inspirational, relevant event. 

The talks will first give you new data, research, and ideas. You'll hear case studies of other attractions, how they've overcome challenges, and new ways of doing things. Most importantly, you'll be in a room with people doing roles like yours. You can talk "shop" till the cows come home. Share stories, challenges, and ideas with people who understand what you're trying to do. You might even be looking for a solution that others have experience in. Maybe a supplier or contractor that you'd recommend/ avoid. Connecting is a great way to do that. 

I've been to and recommend the National Attractions Marketing Conference and the Visitor Attractions Conference for broad visitor attraction marketing inspiration. If you're a member of an association, they'll likely hold yearly conferences and events to attend, too. Get out, get inspired, and most importantly, try to take what you've learned and share knowledge back at the office. 

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received when I worked internally at a visitor attraction is only to use freelancers, agencies, and consultants to do things you don't have time for or that they are specialists in. Well, at Navigate, we're specialists in visitor attraction marketing. We currently have 30 visitor attraction clients, from 20,000 visitors annually to 1,000,000+. We have a range of indoor and outdoor, some paid for, some free entry, and all dotted around the UK. 

So, when a client comes to us to ask how they're performing, we can use the data from our partners at ALVA, BIAZA, etc., and real-time data from our clients to understand the market, visitor sentiment and where things are. Knowing how others are doing is good if you're below targets. Of course, we only talk in percentages and don't reveal confidential information, but having a partner you can talk to and who can help you benchmark is a strength. Choose your partners wisely!

These are some ideas on how to get to grips with your marketing. By benchmarking, you can understand the direction of travel for the future.  As our CEO Anthony Rawlins often will remind our teams, "data is historical". Yes, it's essential to be across your data to help make decisions but don't let it blind you to opportunities and ideas from your gut. 

At the end of the day, working in a place where society visits during their "free time" to make memories is a privilege. We're proud to specialise in visitor attraction marketing, as the community and sector are a passionate and friendly bunch. Hopefully, you've had a cracking summer holiday, but if not, finding out why (and not just reaching for the "it was the weather" reason) can be crucial to working out what happens next.

If you want to find out more, get in touch with me at olly@navigate.agency or fill in the form below.