Across America, executives are deep into planning and budgeting, working on their destination marketing strategy for 2016. Well-meaning folks are gathering in conference rooms and laboring through conference calls to try, once again, to find the angle to market their little piece of the earth to potential visitors from near and far.

The marketing teams will consult with management to learn about the new exhibits, fresh initiatives, and refurbished properties that can be promoted in new campaign themes that will adorn websites, social media platforms, billboards, print ads, and brochures – all of which need to be created over the next 90 days.

Since we all know that “new” is the single most important factor in grabbing attention and driving repeat visitors from prior years, the lead focus in most destination marketing campaigns is almost always about exactly that – what’s new.

While that’s not wrong, it can be very, very off-base.

Because, quite simply, your “new” only matters when the target wants it. And the only sure way to understand what your target market wants is to ask them.

It’s the one thing that most marketers fail to do.

If you are not asking your current customers what they think of the “new,” then you are taking the chance that the “new” message will miss its mark. And you can’t afford to do that. The more content you create, the more important it is to know your customers.

Consider a tool called the Core User Study. It is the most direct and straightforward way to map out the thought process that led to the action steps that your current customers used to become current customers in the first place! A Core User Study, properly administered, will yield a treasure trove of information that you never knew. Even though you thought you did.

Most importantly, once you completely understand the mindset of the Core User, you can go about the task of finding more Core Users just like them.

Every destination has loyalists: Those individuals who are enamored with a place and continue to return year after year, month after month, sometimes even day after day.

Marketers knock themselves out trying to locate and communicate with new audiences (still an important effort), but their dollars would be more effective if they focused heavily on expanding their base of loyalists: their Core Users.

The answers are walking around your destination. If you went out and asked them what brought them to there, how they would describe your brand, and what they would tell a friend in order to convince them to come along next time, your 2016 campaign would be nearly halfway done.

We may be slightly biased, but the task is often better left to a third party that’s trained to ask the right questions and get the most meaningful answers.

There is still time to stop and ask the questions before 2016 is upon us…