You already know that digital marketing (AKA online marketing) is an essential factor in running a healthy business in this day and age… especially on Maui.

The Unique Obstacles & Opportunities of Digital Marketing for your Maui Business

Maui’s tourist economy brings in waves of new customers every year with people visiting Maui for the very first time, or returning on their annual dose of sunshine and aloha.

But the downside of relying on a tourist economy is both its predictability AND unpredictability.

You KNOW that for certain months of the year there will simply be less people on island… so you’re counting down the days until November, and getting more than a little nervous with March comes around.

Most businesses on Maui just don’t know what their sales will be since a lot of their customers are not local residents! These fluctuations are predictable.

But with over 160,000 residents and 212,000+ tourists visiting each month, even during slow season, there are more than enough business to capture with a digital marketing strategy that continually brings more awareness to your company, and provides consistent conversions of that awareness into customers, and customers into repeat buyers and promoters of your business.

The goal here is to create reliable growth using trackable tools so that business is predictable and it never feels like you’re burning money on your marketing efforts!

… and with advances in marketing technology (paired with proven strategy) you can target the perfect customer online, and do it in an extremely way, compared to the marketing of even 15 years ago.

The 8 Core Disciplines of Digital Marketing

When most people we talk to hear “digital marketing” they tend to think of… Facebook ads.

But there are actually 8 core disciplines of digital marketing that can work in concert to grow your business.

These Core Disciplines of Digital Marketing are:

1. Customer Value Optimization

2. Content Marketing

3. Customer Acquisition / Paid Advertising

4. Email Marketing

5. Social Media & Community Management

6. Search Marketing

7. Optimization & Testing

8. Analytics & Data

(don’t worry, we have an article coming soon that dives deep into each of these)

The job of marketing is to move prospects and customers seamlessly and subtly through each phase of the Customer Value Journey.

Paid Advertising (e.g., Facebook ads), Search Marketing (e.g., SEO), Content Marketing (e.g., a blog or Youtube channel), and Social Media Marketing (e.g., Instagram) all create awareness for your business.

Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Email Marketing create engagement between you and your potential customers.

Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Paid Advertising, and Conversion Rate Optimization allow you to build a list of subscribers - people who have raised your hand to hear from you again and again.

Paid Advertising, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, and Search Marketing also help you to generate conversions so that you can consistently move people along the Customer Value Journey - converting strangers into leads, prospects into buyers, buyers into repeat buyers, etc.

Email Marketing and Content Marketing help to generate excitement for you business and your offerings.

Email Marketing, Paid Advertising, and Content Marketing create ascension so that buyers come back for more again and again.

Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, and Search Marketing creates advocates of your business, helping to generate awareness, trust, and credibility with a wider audience—which helps you to get more customers and grow your business.

And finally, Email Marketing generates active promoters of your brand - those people who not only giving you reviews and testimonials (like advocates), but they’re actively telling their friends and network about you.

Again, what we’re shooting for in marketing campaigns is to create predictable growth in your business - instead of being a one-hit wonder or feeling the whiplash of peak tourist season into nothing but crickets.

6 Ways to Use Digital Marketing to Grow Your Maui Business

The following list includes six ways that you can use digital marketing to grow your Maui business, taking into account Maui’s unique opportunities and obstacles.

1. Content Marketing

Content is any information that helps you keep your marketing funnel full, taking your potential customer from the awareness stage to the evaluation stage to the conversion stage.

You have a lot of options when it comes to Content Marketing. Here are just a few ideas:

• Writing blog posts on Frequently Asked Questions

• Showcasing case studies of happy clients

• Building a website

• Launching a podcast or Youtube channel

• Social media updates

• Offer an online event

• Photographs of your location

• Demos

• Discount announcements

• Explaining how to use your products

Content marketing can be time consuming. It requires you or someone on your team (or someone you hire) to be consistent on carving out time in your schedule to actually create a video, an article, a podcast episode, a presentation, etc. 

It also requires you to KNOW your customer - their pains, their desires, what excites and inspires them.

And putting up not-so-great content just to put something up, can actually be detrimental this may be customers very first impression of you. (Of course, your content does NOT have to be perfect, it's about delivering the right information to your prospects at exactly the right point in their customer journey.)

But the rewards are so so worth it.

It creates intimacy quickly, allowing your potential customer to know, like, and trust you.

Here’s an example of content marketing from Maui’s own Paia Bay Coffee in Paia, HI:

Note: When you’re creating content, consistency is key. 

We love how Paia Bay Coffee is creating beautiful videos (they clearly know who they’re trying to attract to their business), but seeing those videos come out at least once every other week, instead of once every few months, would give them a noticeable boost in awareness and engagement.

2. SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of visitors to your website or webpage. It can help you boost your website’s traffic and visitors’ trust.

There are 2 important sides to successful SEO:

1. The structural side, which focuses on the technical details of your website rather than the quality of your content.

2. The content side, where you create well-optimized content, build links, and boost social shares.

Google isn’t the only search engine in town (even if it’s the dominating one). SEO applies to sites like:

• Youtube

• TripAdvisor

• Yelp

• iTunes

• Pinterest

• Google Maps

• Amazon...

You need to know the intent of your customer’s search to create assets that will best serve their needs. If they’re looking for inspiration for redecorating their ohana, posting Pinterest posts optimized for that search is a great option. If they want to read reviews of luaus then paying attention to your TripAdvisor page is important. If they’re driving back from surfing and are hungry then it’s a good idea to optimize your Google Maps profile.

For example, when I google “womens boutique paia” the first 2 hits that come up organically are Yelp lists, but then right after that is Sassabella Boutique. You can tell they know which keywords to use on their Facebook profile by all those bolded words in my Google results.

Or searching “maui beaches” on Pinterest brings me an amazing content marketing meets seo example from the Art of Scuba Diving, which is a site that reviews scuba gear and destinations:

Note: Most searches on the internet these days are on mobile devices. So if you’re not paying attention to how your website looks and functions on mobile, it’s something you need to address asap.

And getting people onto your site is only the first step in SEO… it needs to be paired with inviting your site viewer to take the next step. This could be to call for a quote, book an appointment, buy your product, consume more content you created, sign up for your webinar, download a free guide, etc...

… because a high search engine ranking can’t pay the bills. But increased sales from well-placed & thought out CTA’s can.

3. Social Media

Let’s be honest. These days if you’re not on social media, people think you’re weird.

And guess what’s one of the easiest ways to market to your customers… to be where they’re already hanging out.

It’s more than just posting on Facebook or Twitter. Social media marketing is an incredibly diverse and flexible area that when thought out properly, can address customers at all stages of their customer journey.

How to make the most of social media in your digital marketing:

1. Listen - Everyday your customers are talking to you. Make sure you’re listening & talking back.

2. Influence - Use social media to direct and lead your customer. Your influencing can increase engagement, site traffic, conversations relevant to your business, and people to retarget in your Facebook Ad campaigns.

3. Network - Share the valuable content you create on social media, and the valuable content of your peers. Engage with people in a one-on-one way to build relationships.

4. Selling - After listening to your potential customers, building authority, and building relationships through networking, you can start putting your offers in front of people on social media—and converting them.

Maui Preserved, an artisan, small batch foods company that feature in-season produce from local sustainable farms, demonstrates Social Selling here on their Twitter profile:

4. Facebook Advertising

Paid advertising is possible on many channels, but Facebook is one of the easiest to jump into with highly targeted ads. And by “highly targeted” we’re talking being able to show ads to people within a certain zipcode, relationship status, favorite sports teams, and if they own a dog.

… If you only wanted to show your ads to 31 year old men who work in the restaurant industry and live in Lahaina and like Chinese food, you totally could. (Not to say we recommend getting this granular with Facebook ads audiences, but that’s a lesson for another day)

Around seven-in-ten U.S. adults (69%) use Facebook, and with Facebook now owning Instagram, all the ads that you’re running on Facebook can also be run on Instagram.

With a well thought out paid Facebook ad strategy you can set up campaigns that: 

• Increase brand awareness, 

• Encourage engagement with your target market, 

• Increase website traffic, 

• Promote your valuable blog articles or videos, 

• Retarget product page visitors to address any objections they have,

• Invite people to message you,

• Captures prospects contact information so you can follow up with them, and

• … a whole lot more.

Here you can see how the Maui Arts & Cultural Center is promoting their events calendar in this video ad.

If you know the conversion rate of certain pages of your website (e.g., when X number of people hit my event page I know that X number of people will register for an event) then encouraging people to view that page is a smart strategy, assuming your cost per click is low enough for you to make a profit.

Ninja Tip: Want to see if your competitors are running Facebook ads? Go to their Facebook Page and click the “See More” on the Page Transparency section on the right-side of their page. You get to see all current and past ads that they’ve run on Facebook.

5. Reviews / Promoters

Think about how you buy something on Amazon. If you’re like most people then you probably are weary of items that have only a handful of reviews, and will totally avoid products that have less than 3 stars.

This is how people buy online in this day and age. They crowdsource their decisions by reading reviews and testimonials.

A part of your digital marketing plan needs to include asking for customer feedback and encouraging reviews on common sites like Yelp, Google Maps, TripAdvisor & AirBnB.

I mean, seeing 1,438 reviews averaging 4.5-stars on The Mill House’s TripAdvisor page definitely makes us want to visit…

6. Google Adwords

Another paid digital advertising option (other than #4 above) is advertising with Google using Google Adwords. According to Business Insider, Facebook & Google drive 80% of referral traffic -- more than all the other platforms combined.

With ads, we’re most often focusing on the Aware, Engage, and Conversion stages of the Customer Value Journey (as outlined at the beginning of this article), and we’re creating different ad copy & creative for different “temperatures” of your audience.

Quick Overview of Traffic Temperature:

• Cold Traffic - I don’t know you (Aware stage). Here you want to be introducing your business or the problems your business solves to make them aware of you.

• Warm Traffic - I know you but I haven’t bought anything from you (Engage stage). Here you want to encourage ways to continue the conversation. Get their email or phone number, or get them into a conversation with you.

• Hot Traffic - I’ve bought something from you or I’m ready to buy from you (Conversion stage). They know they have a problem, know you can solve it, and they’re ready to pay money to solve it.

With Google Adwords, you’re essentially paying to have your business in front of people searching for things (specific “keywords”) relevant to your business. Think Yellowpages.

Here’s an example of Google Adwords in action.

When I search “maui bike tours” on Google, 3 businesses pop up front & center: Maui Sunriders Bike Co, Skyline Hawaii, and Mountain Riders.

You don’t even have to scroll down the page at all before you’re given 3 great options. And many people don’t.

So there you have it! 6 ways that you can use digital marketing to grow your Maui business.

We know that this was a meaty article, so if you want us to email it to you as a PDF to reference later, enter your info below.

But before we go, one final note…

IMPORTANT: Marketing DOES NOT fix something that is fundamentally broken. That is, if what you’re offering is not great, then no amount of money is going to get you where you want to go.

As a wise person once said… don’t sell an eskimo a fan. (Sell a person on the beach in Lahaina a fan 🏝️😉)

Are you using digital marketing to help your business grow? Let us know what’s working (and not working) for you now in the comments below!