The city of McMinnville is spending an estimated $189,000 to use digital marketing to promote tourism in McMinnville.
McMinnville Tourism and Marketing Manager Jordan Pupols said the digital marketing will consist of advertising tourist attractions on social media apps, Google Ads, YouTube, and TikTok.
“We’ve never done digital marketing in the past,” Pupols said. “It’s mostly been print ads and various magazines, so I think this is going to be a complete game-changer for our tourism efforts and I just cannot wait to see the return on investment.”
Many people think of McMinnville as a tourist attraction during the summer months. Pupols said the digital marketing will promote things to do in McMinnville year-round.
“The first one of those is Twin Falls,” Pupols said. “So it’s unlike other falls in that it is drought-resistant. It does not matter if there is no rain it will flow with the same power as when there is rain. So our waterfall is equally as beautiful every single day of the year, whether it’s spring or whether it’s December. Secondly, we have the second-largest cave in Tennessee and the longest show cave in Tennessee. The really neat thing about that is no matter the weather outside, it is 56 degrees in that cave, so in the winter, you can get out of the cold and go into a cave and warm up, or in the summer, you can go in and cool down.”
Pupols said the digital marketing will target visitors who live at least 50 miles away from McMinnville. Pupols said when visitors live that far away, they are more likely to stay the night in McMinnville.
“Our goal in targeting those folks, there is lots of data out there that it showcases that people that come to a destination and stay overnight spend about 186 percent more than people who just come and stay for just a day visit,” Pupols said.
Pupols said the tourism digital marketing plan will not only help small businesses but also make tremendous jumps in generating tax revenue.
