Zip Line Marketing Hits and Misses

Winner of the “Nailed it!” Award: Skyline Eco Adventures, Hawaii

Here’s a good test: Does your video communicate something you can’t say in pictures or words?

One zip line company really lives up to this standard. Kudos to the team at Skyline Eco Adventures, Hawaii, for seamlessly incorporating video in a way that’s immediately captivating and engaging. The video doesn’t merely restate something that could’ve been said in words or pictures, it actually adds something new with the power of moving images. (You can view it at www.zipline.com.)

Everything that I love about Skyline’s home page video circles back to being deliberate about video as a marketing strategy.

Here’s what works:
• The video lacks sound. Why? You don’t need sound when the whole point of a video is that it’s visual. The images entrance, not the audio. Plus, if a video on your home page runs automatically when a visitor comes to your site, using sound can ruin the experience for a casual browser.

• The video takes up nearly the entire page. That’s purposeful. If the video serves to primarily sell your tour, it makes sense to have it take center stage. Skyline’s incorporation of video makes it impossible for customers to miss it.

Skyline hit the ball out of the park. For other zip tours and aerial parks to do the same, it will take similarly purposeful planning.

MOBILE

After Google unleashed Mobilegeddon this spring, we can’t talk about marketing without talking about mobile design.

I know I’m preaching to the choir, because based on a recent (small) data sample, 80 percent of you already have mobile-optimized sites. So instead of distinguishing between optimized and non-optimized sites, let’s take a deeper dive into the nuances of mobile design.

Even optimized design can take a turn for the worse when it comes to the single-most important function of your website: online booking.

Winner of the “Going Off the Rails” Award: Kapalua Ziplines, Hawaii

Take a look at Kapalua Ziplines’ mobile site. All’s well until someone tries to book a tour.

Filling out that many fields, especially on an unresponsive mobile site, can have people pulling out their hair. That’s too bad, too, because the whole point of getting visitors to your website is to convince them to buy your tour. Checkouts like these stand directly in the way of that goal.

Even if you didn’t design your website’s checkout, it’s in your best interest to make sure it maintains the same clean, high-quality experience as the rest of your site.

Winner of the “All Your Ducks in a Row” Award: Zip Skamania, Wash.

The best mobile sites seamlessly incorporate the website and the online checkout, just like Zip Skamania.

Skamania’s site is no less beautiful once customers go to book. But looks aside, the checkout is simply more functional and straightforward for the customer. With fewer fields and a mobile optimized design, checking out is quick and easy—just what you want when your object is to maximize online sales.

Mobile is here, and the company that can best satisfy its customers when they are away from their desktops—and perhaps right in your neighborhood—will enjoy a leg up over the rest.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

We’ll take a break here so you can all pat yourselves on the back for creating industry-leading marketing standards for review sites, video marketing, and mobile design.

But tomorrow is another day, with a whole lot more marketing out there to conquer, and still too few zip lines and aerial parks firmly know what works and what doesn’t.

Remember, digital marketing is an aggressively moving target. Watch for novel campaigns and new ways to use the many online platforms as you learn from and apply the lessons here, and embrace the opportunities to reach and win over new customers.