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Content marketing is at the core of digital marketing. But let’s understand and accept the fact that it requires a detailed marketing strategy and plan that needs to be executed methodically.
But why has digital marketing become an imperative? The answer is simple. Your customer is searching for you online. If you don’t have an online presence, the business will surely suffer. Moving ahead let’s look at the importance of content in digital marketing.
46% of businesses have decided to increase their content creation spending in 2022.
- Content Marketing Institute
So as businesses are encouraged to focus on content marketing, let’s understand what are the different types of content marketing that could be utilized by tour operators. Content triggers interest among consumers, it makes them curious and drives them towards taking an action. It builds a loyal customer base and continuously connects the audiences with your brand.
In the travel industry repeat customers play a vital role. Once customers connect with you, use your travel service and love the experience, they are bound to keep coming back to you.
Of course, the first step is to generate curiosity and drive them towards your brand.
What does content marketing do for a tour operator?
- It triggers interest in the services you offer.
- Represents your brand identity.
- Gives all the reasons - why consumers should prefer your tour operating services.
- Educates the customers about various destinations and travel plans.
- Gets feedback from customers.
- Builds a loyal customer base.
Tour operators need a strategy to ensure a high ROI, generate leads that convert and reach high ranking in search engines.
If you are wondering what are the best content marketing tools for tour operators, here are some unique ideas:
1. Identify and pen content for specific audiences
Not every traveller is your audience. The first step toward effective content marketing is to define your audience.
Let’s look at different types of target audiences:
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Generation Z
They are the outdoor explorer and are driven by ‘You Live Only Once’ or YOLO philosophy. A third of them travel for concerts, sports, or festivals. Gen Z spends less on hotels and would choose alternate accommodation. Their decisions are driven by social media, with Facebook and Instagram being the most influential.
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Millennials
They prefer worry-free vacations and love to visit beaches, islands and spas. Most of them like to stay at a hotel. This generation travels the most.
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Generation X
They travel the least and are deal hunters who travel domestically. Prior to travelling, they read reviews and their reason for travel are relaxation, vacation, sightseeing and family vacations.
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Baby boomers
They mostly travel to visit families, or for relaxation, and sightseeing. Also, try to understand if your target audiences prefer travelling solo, or are they traditional travellers who prefer to travel with family and friends. Do they stick to a budget or prefer luxury? Medical tourism is also on the rise. So, find out and determine, which audience you want to target.
The cue is to curate content for your target audience.
2. Be a storyteller
The advantage of being in the tour industry is your customers have a story about every journey they embark upon. Content marketing for tour operators is primarily a collection of these stories. Try to share their story through videos, blogs and images. This is user-generated content that brings enquiries and conversions. Consumers create content for you. This is probably the best way you can generate content.
Blogs
Ease your customer’s travel experience because people are wanting to hear from travellers about their journey. This is the best way to grab their attention which will lead to conversions. Your customers narrating their experiences would surely lead to more conversions. This can be a combination of photos and text.
Photographs (visual images)
Your existing customers click a lot of incredible snaps, which have a storyline. It’s almost like a travelogue so encourage your customers to share them on social media by creating a hashtag. These photos are quite often shared on travel agency websites so go ahead and share image-driven stories. Always create a collection of authentic, and beautiful photos. It’s your way of conveying to your target audience that they should not miss out on the travel experience that you offer.
Videos
Your employees and tour guides capture customer experience, which is the best marketing tool. These videos can be uploaded on your YouTube channel that can inspire people to reach to you. All said and done, the purpose of content remains to trigger interest, inspire, and move audiences to lead them to purchase.
User-generated content builds trust in your brand, which is extremely vital in the travel industry. People read reviews, and surf the internet to find information about your company prior to booking tickets or approaching you for booking a travel plan.
3. Google reviews
Request your customers to share their experience by using Google Review. These reviews are read widely and can generate leads that can get converted. Maximum positive reviews about your services are like a guarantee to prospective customers that you can deliver a delightful experience.
Research conducted by Findstack reveals that 72% of customers say they use Google Reviews to find businesses. So, for travel operators wishing to boost their business, Google Reviews are a must.
4. Podcasts
Tour operators can create podcasts by inviting frequent travellers to share their experiences. Moreover, you can also call travel experts to share their views. Statista has revealed that 120 million people listen to podcasts each month.
Thus, podcasts are the best way to reach out to your customer. It is a value add for customers as well since they get to listen to various trends in the travel industry and know about the best destinations.
5. Partner with travel bloggers
Travel bloggers are people who post content about various destinations they visit and share their experiences. Apart from being interesting, these blog posts give detailed information about the destinations and tips about travelling. They also let other travellers know about rare travel spots that could be explored.
These valuable tips and value-added information about various destinations, travel services, and reservations, are great marketing tools. Tour operators can tie up with travel bloggers to write for them.
6. Embrace virtual reality
Enhance your content marketing strategy by keeping yourself abreast about the new technologies and content trends. Virtual content is getting popular and companies are using virtual reality to let customers feel the experience of visiting a place before they buy. The concept of ‘try before you buy’ is transforming the travel business.
ETOS a tour operator software has a 3D tour walkthrough which is the perfect Marketing, Presentation & Management Tool for Hotels! ETOS also has travel technology software solutions designed for tour operators and agencies of different sizes.
Content marketing is not a one-day job. It has to be created with careful planning over a period of time and should be in sync with your marketing and branding strategy. Tour operators have many exciting ways to promote their business through various types of content. These are not tough to use. In fact, they are available at your fingertips. You only need to plan and be consistent across various platforms while you promise a dream travel to your customers.
Make data-driven decisions while creating a content marketing strategy by defining goals, running focused campaigns, and monitoring & measuring the progress to keep regularly updating the content marketing strategy.
