An easy guide to creating valuable content for travel businesses in 2019.
Travel and tourism is the worlds largest industry. It is needless to say that creating content that actually get in front of your potential visitors is hard. It is probably harder to be visible in the travel sector than in most other sectors. And, if you actually get good reach with your content, it is also hard to make people remember your brand.
I have now warned everyone that thinks marketing of a beautiful located travel business is easy. If you are not walking the extra mile, you probably should find other things to spend your time on. It would be far more useful.
But, for the ones willing to make a real attempt, I have good news.
You don´t need to reach everybody, all the time.
Narrow down, and focus on your target audience. There are a lot of strategies to reach the ones that you are interested in. The fact that internet is overcrowded with content doesn’t mean it’s crowded with quality content. It is not too crowded in every single niche either.
You have great opportunities my friend.
Find your target audience and serve them
You should really have a target audience for your content. Who do you want to reach? If you don´t have it yet. You must get one. Create personas, avatars or whatever you choose to call them. Analyze your existing customers and see what engage them. That should be an indicator.
If you run a small business it is likely that you have created something that you personally like and would use as a traveler. This makes marketing easier. You have a great example of your target audience right in front of you. Create content that give value to people like you.
In other words, writing for yourself can be a good idea. When I first started an adventure company, I made trips that I wanted to join myself and hoped at least ten other persons wanted to do the same. This made the content writing easier. That is a sure thing. I know what engage me.
There are many touchpoints and arenas to engage with your audience. And there are many pain-points that your business can help them overcome.
Try to think about content marketing in travel as an opportunity to build trust. Create moments in your stories that you think they will remember and always create value for the adventurers, families or business travelers you want to serve. Always create value, make your content worth their time. Then the chances are higher for this people to actually like you and your business.
Let’s, for now, say you know your audience. You have a good idea of who you want to serve. Now, you should try to identify their pain points. What is the things they want to learn, see or hear? I know someone will not like to hear this, but posting some inspirational pictures of happy people in the sun will not get you there.
Doing so can be a part of your strategy, but no way this is is enough. Still posting inspirational pictures of happy people in the sun is what most travel companies do. Even in Norway!
This means at least two things:
- There is a lot of competition in the storytelling space of happy inspirational pictures.
- Most companies do not have a bigger plan.
This is just more great news. Quality and effort are still working. Standing out is possible. The question is: “Do you dare to be different, over time?”
So, what is a good strategy then?
Some experts will tell you that people choose where they travel based on their interests and what they want to do, and that destination don’t matter much anymore. They are wrong. The digital revolution have made the world flat in many ways, but for travel, the location still matters most.
You can of course compete with activities, but if the destination is not attractive to the traveler it is really hard. You can be the worlds best skiing guide, but if you are guiding in an area that no-one visit for skiing, you will have a challenge getting them there.
What I mean is that in tourism your marketing success depends on getting people out of their homes, and actually visit the physical place you try to sell. Unless that happens you have not created more travelers to your concept.
Nothing is impossible. I have been skiing in Morocco, and was actually going partly for that reason. There are plenty of great examples of people traveling for an activity, but most travelers pick a destination before activities. You can change this with either a long haul strategy, and focused work over years, or a strike of genius and luck. It usually takes to establish the destination as a good place for a certain activity.
The long run works best though. Content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. If you manage to do this right you will generate traffic, and even more important, customers to your website for a long time. Once again, focus on giving people value and information. Increase their demand for the destination(s) you serve. I would recommend not focusing on your business or services. Make people like your brand, and like your destination. If you push products, it might help you with short time success, but it will not build your brand in the same way as great value.
Compared with other industries seasonality play a big role in travel. A ski resort has a very defined season, events have a more limited time range and so on. If you do your marketing around these, you have have to focus your efforts. Be strategic in figuring what time people are planning their trip. Be strategic when choosing channel. Spend time on learning where your ideal clients are. What websites do they visit, what type of content on different channels.
What I mean is that you should build your brand slowly, but also try to target customers in the right time before the seasons.
Who are you competing with?
The internet is filled with travel content. It appears that everybody like to write about travel. You have media, you have blogs, you have online travel agents, hotels, guesthouses, tour operators — both small and big and you have destination companies, rental car services, airlines and everybody involved in the tourism sector. But in addition banks, shops, insurance companies and actually everybody writes travel related content and share information. Especially everybody you know and their friends on social media.
It is hard for the reader to know who is trustworthy and not.
Because of this you really have to twist your brain and go further. You must try to create relevance and stand out from the crowd.
What is unique in your destination? Really, what is unique? There are so many beautiful photos of beaches, sunsets, mountains and popular attractions both on websites and social channels, especially on social channels, that you can not divide one from another anymore. Ironically every marketer in the travel industry always say that “come here, we are different”, but there are almost never anything in the content that actually show that they are different.
Of course you should communicate that “everyone” can visit your destination or company. You don´t want to exclude potential customers. But if you want to stand out and get competitive advantage you should target a niche and really focus on the things that are unique and give value to your niche. As example if you´re targeting hikers you could pinpoint specific trails, accommodations maybe, gear tips and other relevant info for them.
What is the impact of technology when it comes to content?
We are living in a time where technology make a huge impact on all fields. Brands can and should be more personal in their communication. In an ideal world, to increase your competitive skills you should talk directly with clients in real time and answer every question really quickly. AI and machine learning is changing a lot and also give you opportunities, blockchain and cryptocurrency is maybe the biggest leap in personalization ever, the user data generated from this can help you deliver perfectly fitted experiences and messages.
But, not all have resources to manage all of this. Pick some areas, and do it proper. Depending on your companys size you should focus on a few channels, but be really good on those.
If you are on a social channel you should use it, and you should always reply your clients. Always. If you are good in one channel, but poor at another it might leave a negative impression. Go all in or go home. Poorly handled customer service speaks louder than large amounts of great content.
Customer reviews can be a game changer for your company. One single bad review might ruin you whole operation if you are not good at answering. But it also have the potential to become the winner in your business.
Do you think the competition to hard in travel and tourism or do you still have a chance?
Of course you have a chance. New companies enter the market all the time. There has never been a time where you more easily can reach a targeted and global audience. The reach of Google, Facebook, Youtube and the internet itself is endless. You can sit in a cave and reach out to the world. Imagine that!
If you manage to produce relevant and useful content for your audience in a way that make their life a little bit better and easier, you have a great advantage. Most content out there is shit.
Since you are writing about travel you have the opportunity to reach a clients feelings and emotions, not only practical things. Travel is about dreaming and exploring, it is about creating experiences and memories. If you can make your audience get a little bit of that feeling and start their fantasy when they are at home behind their computers, there is a good chance they will appreciate you and your brand.
Just to wrap it up, here you have some practical ideas:
1 Create a strategy for your content and for the different channels
Without a strategy you really don’t have much of a chance. Plan your style, your focus area and what you want to achieve. Adjust when you see what works, and remember this needs your attention over a long period of time. If you are consistent and make great quality you will see your efforts succeed.
2 Find the reason why people travel and build the content around that.
What inspire people to travel, what is the reason they are visiting you? Find out. Talk to you previous clients and find their inspiration. People usually not book a hotel room to motivate themselves to travel, when they book the room it is because they will be traveling. Try to aim their motivation and create the content experience around that. If it is a business trip, have that in mind while creating content, if the motivation is a passion for adventure you should serve this passion in your content. If you manage this, you are closer to earning a loyal audience that can help you grow.
3 Inspiration and incentives.
Why do people read travel content? What do they get from it. The customer journey in travel is made of 5 steps. Dreaming, planning, booking, experiencing and sharing. The biggest consumption of travel content happens in the dreaming and planning stage. Not all, but most. This means travelers want their travel content to inform them, inspire them and entertain them while they are dreaming about a new trip, or while they are connecting the dots and planning and booking their vacation. If you can earn attention by sharing inspirational ideas, fun experiences, and useful content, you are better fit to have the travelers attention when they are booking their trip.
4 Spread the content in several channels
Tell the world you have produced new content,. Tell them you have something on your mind. Spread it and do what you can to get inbound links to the content. Remember that links need to be deserved. Do not get tempted to buy links from companies. These are in a shady business. If you get punished by Google you are in trouble. Different channels also mean different approaches. A lot of people publish in the same way in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. This is a bad strategy. The followers have different expectations to different medias. Often you have the same followers in the different channels also. They will get to much of you, and engage less. Try to be unique, and think about how to serve your audience.
5 Make it more easy for the traveler
A smooth planning process is what most people love, help them navigate in the jungle of activities, help them consider by posting opinions, help them compare. You will be a winner if you are the one making their life easier.
6 Involve the community in the destination you promote!
Share stories of daily life, happy moments, real people, facilities, surroundings and everything that can match your profile and strategy. This can really help you build trust and you have a big and untapped bucket of unique stories that will help your business stand out.
7 Design content for interaction
Use a language and style that invite people to take part in the dialogue. If you can get your audience to give feedback, share and engage in your content you have a winning formula.
8 Never focus on Search engines and SEO when you write.
Those days are gone. Search engines are getting smarter nowadays. Focus on creating value and good quality. Then you will win. But it takes time.
This story was first published on Travelopment