A deliberate content strategy helped Destination Lofsdalen set new records last year – never before have so many people visited the mountain village in the north of Sweden. The result is even more impressive considering that all the marketing and communication is managed by just one person using Mynewsdesk as the main tool.
Located in southern Jämtland, the small village Lofsdalen only has around 180 inhabitants. Despite this, Lofsdalen received a lot of attention last year – thanks to Lotta Anestedt, who has been the CEO and marketing manager of Destination Lofsdalen for just about two years. Although the company’s main activities involve arranging accommodation in the village, their marketing covers a much wider range – something that Lotta has put a lot of effort into since she took over the job as marketer.
In order for us to sell accommodations, people need to want to come here.
So the focus of our communication is not our accommodations, it’s destination marketing – with our main goal being to get more people to discover Lofsdalen, says Lotta Anestedt.
Turning the smallness to her advantage
During spring and summer, visitors can go cycling, hiking and fishing; while winter is mainly about skiing and snowboarding. Destination Lofsdalen’s communication follows the seasons both in terms of content and frequency of publication; during the low season, it’s quieter, while the high season means several publications a week – both via Mynewsdesk and social media. Until now, Lotta has done most of the marketing work herself, but she has recently recruited a marketing coordinator to help her gear up even further. For her, the small size is both an advantage and a challenge.
I worked as a marketing manager at a larger hotel chain for several years. We were a bigger team and could produce more. Now there are some limitations, but if you’re reasonably structured, Mynewsdesk’s platform is so easy to use that you’re still able to publish at a high rate. I can also be more effective now that I do a lot myself; sometimes I get an idea and publish a press release the same day as I thought of it, says Lotta Anestedt and adds: The development in Lofsdalen is on the rise and there are many of us who do a lot of work around it, meaning there is always news to communicate.
From the newsroom to the national news
In January, Lotta wrote her most successful press release to this day after she noticed that many people chose to work from Lofsdalen when the offices were closed during the pandemic. Once the press release was published in Destination Lofsdalen’s press room on Mynewsdesk, things snowballed quickly; the next day, local radio got in touch and the story was later picked up by Expressen – but the news would soon reach even further than that. A couple of days later, SVT’s Morgonsoffan chose to do a ten-minute feature from Lofsdalen, showing beautiful images from the mountain to viewers from all over Sweden.
It was incredible and very profitable for us. We are where the bigger mountain resorts were a couple of decades ago and for us, it’s mostly about getting others to notice us. With this in mind, national media attention is invaluable and it’s great that a press release can make such a difference, Lotta Anestedt concludes.
Lotta Anestedt,
CEO and marketing manager of Destination Lofsdalen
