Be Native Tours Website

Be Native Tours is an inbound group tour operator based in Oklahoma City. Be Native Tours offers pre-built and customizable tours anywhere in the continental United States and are driven by a culture of hospitality that is at the forefront of the Chickasaw Nation’s values. As specialists in Native American travel, they additionally can provide a tour guide services with expert knowledge of the area and inside information for all tours they offer.

CHALLENGE

Be Native Tours identified the need for an updated website. Their original website did not adequately reflect who they were, what they did or communicate their offering of both pre-built and customized tours. They wanted a new website that matched their identity, services and expertise, and effectively reached their target audiences. A key goal was to ensure the site’s functionality for other professional tour operators seeking personalized tour guides and individuals planning trips for groups, ranging from sports teams and church groups to corporate trips.

Be Native Tours also wanted a site that could easily scale to accommodate business growth. The site would need to be simple and functional with future e-commerce capabilities for online booking and purchasing built in, as well as compatibility with their marketing automation platforms. They knew they also needed to effectively tell their story to two different audiences.

STRATEGY

Koch Comm first sent key Be Native Tours stakeholders a survey to collect information about their needs, voice, identity, services and goals. Koch Comm and Be Native Tours reviewed those results together and refined the website’s objectives in a discovery session. Koch Comm then developed the creative design direction and content strategy that included key elements including a positioning statement and tone for the site. The site map was developed showing how the site could scale from phase one – a simple site – to phase two – a site with complete e-commerce functionality.

Koch Comm built out site mockups and wrote copy to directly address the client’s challenges. The site included a section created with the novice trip planner in mind and provided pre-planning questions to consider, a simple FAQ guide and a pre-planning form that asked leading questions to ensure the Be Native Tours sales team was collecting the necessary information prior to a booking consultation. Koch Comm also prioritized pre-planned trip content throughout the site, so novice planners weren’t overwhelmed by the planning process.

The site also included a section about Be Native Tours’ expertise in Native American travel tours in the south-central United States to speak directly to other professional tour operators looking to partner with a regional company.

The website was built in an open-source CMS so plug-ins could be added as needed and the client could have options for ongoing development and growth.

RESULTS

Throughout the design and development process, Koch Comm worked hand-in-hand with the client to craft a website that aligned with their goals of matching their identity, services and expertise, along with identifying and reaching their target audiences. The result was a website with the capacity and capability to grow with the client as they communicate their message of hospitality through native travel to both tour operators and ground travel planners looking to plan a unique travel experience.