6 essential marketing tactics for theme parks

Whether you’re in the business of epic water slides, breathtaking safaris, or white-knuckle roller coasters – your theme park marketing strategy has the potential to make or break a season. Good news: we’ve put together a list of marketing tactics specific to the world of theme parks, which should help you to up your promo game, and sell tickets thick and fast. 

Let’s get stuck straight in 👇.

Harness the power of micro-influencers

Hold up, what’s a micro-influencer? If you’ve never heard the term – don’t worry. It is a little jargon-y. But the concept’s very simple: a micro-influencer is simply someone who posts about a brand or product online. Not because they were paid to – but just because they happened to feel like posting about that particular thing. 

Now let’s translate this to the world of theme parks: do a quick Instagram hashtag search of Disneyland and you’ll be greeted with hundreds of thousands of images. The majority of these will have been posted by unpaid members of the public; your average friendly folk who visited Disneyland and wanted to share it on their Insta – in other words: ‘micro-influencers’. The great thing about them is that their content is that extra bit authentic than paid influencers’ content (no #ad or #sponsored hashtags to be seen here). So people tend to engage really well with their posts.

To get the micro-influencing machine working in your theme park’s favour, you’ll want to make sure there are tons of great photo opportunities for fast-fingered social media enthusiasts. Having mascots strategically placed around your park for meet-and-greet opportunities can be one great way to do this. Other ideas include incorporating eye-catching backgrounds for people to pose against – think walls of flowers or balloons, huge pieces of graffiti art, or basically anything else that lends itself well to being photographed. 

Invest in high-spec promotional video

Whether they’re centred around brightly coloured kids’ activities or gigantic rides for grown-up thrill-seekers – theme parks generally lend themselves well to visual content. Which is why investing in some high quality promotional video can be one of the best ways to connect with your audience – giving them a glimpse into the wonderful world that is your park.

Statistics show that video currently dominates the content marketing landscape – for example, recent research shows that 91% of businesses use it as a marketing tool, and 87% of marketers feel that video has a direct, positive impact on sales – an all-time high.

So, while it might be a more costly marketing endeavour, it’s probably one of the most sound promo investments you can make.

Optimise your website

Making sure your website shows up in search engine results is one of the most effective ways to get your theme’s park’s name out there. For example, if your site shows up when people search ‘Adventure park in X location’, you can bet you’ll see an increase in ticket sales.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of doing just this – there are certain actions you can carry out on your website to encourage it to show up when people search for keywords relating to your theme park. 

This is a pretty big topic that deserves a guide (or several) in itself – but some of the basics of SEO to know are:

• Your website landing pages should also be optimised with keywords, which should ideally be used in headings (H1s, H2s and H3s) as well as throughout the rest of the copy on your pages. It’s important to keep things natural though, as overdoing it could see your website get penalised by search engines, which means it wouldn’t rank as well in results pages. Hubspot has a great article on researching keywords >
• Regularly creating high quality blog content helps your website show up in search engine results. Your content should include relevant keywords.
• When other reputable websites link through to your website, this improves your site’s chances of showing up in search engines. You can build up your website’s link profile in a number of different ways – through collaborating with other companies in the production of blog content, for example. 

Use social media to tell your theme park’s true story

Social media is a great tool for showing off your main attractions. But its benefits can go way further than that. Instagram and TikTok, in particular, provide the perfect porthole through which to give your audience a glimpse of what they can really expect at your park. From delicious food vendors to your great customer service, through to beautiful picnic spots and fantastic facilities – using social media to portray the finer details of your theme park could just be the boost you need to beat the competition. 

Work with online travel agencies (OTAs)

Working with online travel agencies can be a fantastic way to add another string to your marketing bow. While you will have to pay a commission to work with these agencies, this can be well worth the cost considering how much exposure you’ll be giving your theme park. Plus, with many OTAs, you only actually pay anything when a sale is generated.

When deciding which OTA/s to work with, you’ll want to look for those that relate directly to your theme park and brand. It’s wise to shop around to get a few different quotes too, to make sure you’re getting a competitive deal. 

Create loyalty programmes

Many theme parks offer loyalty programmes as part of their marketing strategy – including big players like Disneyland Paris and Universal Studios. 

The concept is pretty simple – fans of your theme park pay to join your loyalty programme, and in return, they get access to a range of cool features. Queue jumping is a big one (check out Disneyland Paris’ Premier Access programme for inspiration). But you could also give your loyalty members access to early-bird tickets, VIP areas, and basically anything else that feels fitting. 

And that’s a wrap! We hope these marketing tips for theme parks have been useful. Now to put them into action – good luck!

To find out how Ticket Tailor can help sell tickets for your theme parks online – with seamless time-slot ticketing and ticketing for recurring events – just head here >