Unless you already have a tour that satisfies your audience’s interests, you’ll want to discover some themes and types of content that always give a guide greater appeal. I recommend that you try a couple of experiments to find your own.

Experimentation involves testing your ideas, measuring the results, analyzing the data and then refining the original idea. You can do that for determining your guide’s theme and content.

Guide Theme Idea Testing

To gain an idea of what your audience is interested in, just ask them. While you may assume that you know what people want, it’s easy and economical to get a wide range of input that you may not have anticipated.

Communicate with your audience through your social media channels, website and email. Tell them that you are conducting research to find what types of guide that they want. You can use online survey software like SurveyMonkey, SurveyGizmo or Google Forms to collect data and contact information.

Once you get a list of guide ideas, define the themes that pop out at you in the selection. You can then set up a survey for people to rank their favorites and market the link through all your channels. Having your audience rank them let’s you determine the scale of interest for the type of themes and let’s you even start planning your second guide.

Guide Content Testing

One of the things I always tell content partners is to start small. In the case of developing your guide, develop two different approaches or styles for one to two experiences. They should be distinctly different. For example, the words could be exactly the same but may be voiced with different personalities. You could use the same subject but create two different styles to convey the experience.

Your two sets of experiences can be distributed to your audience through the same channels you used with the guide theme testing. You can set the two groups of experiences up as MustSee guides, using the service, or you could post them on your website. Asking your audience to provide feedback about experiences they prefer is what is called ‘A/B testing’. You could create a third option and have people rate it against the first set winner.

From their feedback and choices, you can build out the rest of your guide. Once you publish your guide, your users can provide feedback within the MustSee app so you can determine places to refine the guide. You can update your MustSee guide at any time.

Experimenting with your guide’s theme and content will make it more effective for achieving your mission. It doesn’t take much extra time and the input of your audience will generate a sense of community and excitement among them. After all, who doesn’t like being asked their opinion?

Being successful with your guide will avoid the lost hours invested in a theme or style that won’t connect with your audience. Now: go be like Dr. Frankenstein and start experimenting!