How to Build Your Content Marketing Strategy
In the travel sector, content is vitally important. Creative, helpful, trustworthy content pieces are a big part of travelers’ pre-purchase experience.
Yet, what should those assets be, what topics do they want, and what messages should those articles/videos/graphics be communicating? A lot of marketing companies create a publishing schedule for content, but the content itself doesn’t solve customers needs nor interests them.
The most important thing about content strategy then is that we get into the heart/mind of the traveler, to make them believe we are the most important travel service provider — that’s branding with a powerful message of value. Because they want the offer from the travel company that’s in sync with them, and which they will trust.
Travel content strategy is a wide and deep topic so let’s get laser clear off the bat.
A travel content strategy is the process of developing and using a collection of impactful, valuable and interesting content pieces to attract well-targeted, high-quality customers in order to capture their travel intent and encourage trust and belief in your company
The type of content, marketing channel chosen, and topics/messages and offer you make depends on your target niche customer. There is no formula. It’s a custom-engineered brand experience for your target customer to make your brand/company the only one they will ever want.
The result is like a painting or song that resonates with their personal travel rhythms so strongly, they begin dreaming about your travel vision and humming to your tune.
Build the Travel Experience They Yearn to Have
As you read in the post on traveler intent, your ideal traveler’s dreams, preferences, wishes, habits, and how they decide to book their trip must be matched by your content. Just displaying your catalog of trips and tours isn’t enough to make them commit to your agency or destination.
Content strategy places content strategically on their path to purchase. That journey all begins with Google search listings and Facebook ads, etc., through to the impact of your website content and video content. Your travel blog is the device that differentiates your travel business, brand and offer to them. It makes it fresh, current and trustworthy.
No one trusts a catalog — they trust the brand you present to them within your content pieces from your about page, to your blog posts and your product pages.
General Process of your Travel Content Strategy
- clear statement your niche audience profile and needs
- clear statement of your brand, UPV, and selling offer
- best content types
- establish information/ideas the must be put across
- best content topics, scripts, and designs
- clear statement on impact needed
- clear statement on style of engagement
- clear statement on persuasion strategy
- map out traveler shopping journey with tracking to establish KPIs and conversion success
- establish content for email to stay top of mind with travelers
The Key Objectives of your Content Strategy
- communicate your uvp and brand clearly and strongly (they won’t buy from a weak brand)
- produce interesting sought after information, visuals, stories, guidance for your products (impact and engagement)
- give the visitor confidence in your company and to buy from you (trust and credibility)
- give the visitor confidence and validate their intent to travel (encouragement)
- choose and use the marketing channels you can afford and which will generate leads (cost effective, high performing)
- create content that keeps your customers loyal and repeat buyers (top of mind, new deal/destination/tour awareness, maintaining comfort)
- create content that’s quirky, fun with personality to build a genuine relationship, but also make it easy to consume
- create generalized content that answers practical travel matters and revs up their booking intent
- create potent expert-written SEO content that ranks well on Google (expertly designed to resonate with Google’s complex ranking system)
- build content that raises your domain authority and powers up key pillar content, which competes better
- create linkable and sharable content via Google and social media channels (outreach campaigns to industry publishers)
- create content for paid placements on top travel portals and for any PR you want to do
- keep revising your marketing content to nurture the sale and help complete the booking
Short articles with videos, that lead to a live event/podcast might be the winning mix!
Content Marketing Priorities
First things first, because everything is built on it. 7 easy steps:
- Establish your target audience profile with their pain points, preferences, habits, and travel desires is key. That profile helps you design the ideal content experience from tone of voice, topic selection, and your content experience.
- Establish your significant, personalized unique value proposition. Create a UVP statement for your target and lay out your offering specifically that makes your product/service “the only one for them.” It’s an exclusive engagement with your company.
- Research your best content topics, themes, assets, keywords, stories, narratives, and messaging that fits your brand perfectly. It’s all about the topics.
- Create your brand tone of voice(s), contributing authors, promotional strategy, key points of differentiation, and visual style.
- Redesign your website, graphics and blog layout to support this new communications strategy.
- Create trip stories, destination guides, videos, events, infographics, photos, and other collateral to complete your prospects’ pre-trip experience needs
- Set a smart publishing schedule that’s natural and in tune with audience availability/attention, at key times to cut through the intense advertising noise
Definitely Commit to This and Step it Up!
It’s likely that your current content, tone of voice, authentic authors/travelers, selling strategy need to be improved or augmented. Your product packages might need some revision too, as you discover they might not be impacting and resonating with the audience. The problem could be your travel products (especially when reselling).
Your analytics and ppc performance might help inform the strategy changes needed. We can discuss your current strategy, brand, assets, resources, talent, and opportunities and then decide on what improvements are best for you. Your own and your staff’s views and experiences are very important to inform a great content strategy.
CMI Content Marketing Stats
FYI, courtesy of Marketing Pros and the Content Marketing Institute’s most recent report, are some stats on channels, content type, performance and challenges that content marketers report.
Produce better content isn’t a strategy, it’s a tactic. Covering topics competitors don’t means those topics aren’t likely in demand. Actively promoting content is essential for success, and not doing so is the number one reason for content failure.
Brand awareness, trust, product awareness, loyalty are working, but leads and revenue continue to lag.
Respondents believe content engagement and sales conversions helped them understand their content performance the most.
B2B marketers are more focused on engagement, conversions, and quality of leads.
There are some staffing issues companies are experiencing, with respect to quality content producers, audience understanding, content strategy, social media skills, and subject matter expertise.
Given budget constraints, the real challenge is finding talent who have multiple skills, who would inspire finding funding to invest in content marketing seriously.
Budget remains the top problem (companies need more financing to compete) along with content marketing expertise which includes the right content in the right voice, designed strategically.
Adding travel authors might be helpful as long as they adhere to the narrative, branding, and sales strategy and don’t set it back. Cheap labor leads to low quality content that doesn’t really engage and build brand. If the company owner is the key voice in the marketing/branding/customer experience, then finding ways to improve their voice and grow their impact/engagement is wise.
Most travel companies are hiring travel authors (some digital nomads) to extend and empower their content — building on your agency’s current strengths. Leaving content ideas, topics, messaging, keywords/SEO, engagement, and tone of voice to your outsourced travel writers is unwise. They’re conflicted by their other clients.
Their contributions could actually erode your value proposition, even if the articles are fun and engaging. Because visitors need to be certain that the content is authentic and yours. It has to be intertwined into your brand and strategy, and not generic and easily credited to your competitors or other major travel sites.
Generic, generative AI, and cheap article producers actually harm your UVP and connection with customers.
In the end, it is the built-power of your unique brand that sells bookings. Travelers don’t immerse or buy unless they trust the voice of your brand and the messages your content sends.
There’s one last piece of the strategy: the content strategist who understands and loves all this strategy building, and who has the energy, patience, and precision to make all of it effective.
📞Call Gord now at 416 998 6246 to start building a unbeatable travel content strategy.
