6 Types of Content To Engage Your Globetrotting Audience
Content marketing is all about building your brand and solidifying your message.
You’re not publishing your work to make an immediate sale… that’s what ads and direct response communications are for. Rather, by implementing a strategic content marketing campaign, you can use consistent messaging to portray your organization’s values, offerings, and capabilities.
Ideally, as your audience takes in your messaging, they will come to a deep understanding of what you’re all about.
In order to develop an effective plan, you can (and should) utilize a wide range of content TYPES. Yes, there are a lot of options! That’s why we’ve compiled a list of some to consider, along with suggestions on how to use each to your best advantage.
1. Web Copy
This is your most fundamental content and is often responsible for that ‘first impression’ impact. Your audience should be able to identify your main purpose just from reading your home page!
An old newspaper term, ‘above-the-fold’, refers to what viewers see on their screen before scrolling. Since most of your website visitors are likely to only stay on a page for less than one minute, you should focus on including the most important things right up front. Your Unique-Selling-Proposition (USP), some concise explainer copy, your brand logo, and easy-to-find contact information are all good things to keep above the fold.
Effective web copy will take things like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) into consideration but put User Experience (UX) as the top priority. That means it should be easy to read and interesting, even when you’re using keywords and phrases.
Check out this home page created for glpfilms.com by our team for an example of what to include for your own project!
2. Visual Content
Whether we’re talking about professional photography, videography, or infographics, using intentionally crafted visuals can play an important role in communicating your brand messages. These are great ways to improve your website’s readability, maximize engagement with email campaigns, and make a mark on your social platforms.
While all visual elements typically perform better than text-only content, videos continue to gain momentum as a high-impact player in marketing. In fact, 83% of brands report seeing positive ROI with their video marketing efforts. That number has exploded since 2015 when it was only 33%!
Video has proved incredibly successful for our clients. This project, done for the Georgia National Tourism Administration, yielded a strong ROI and has consistently drawn positive leads after completion.
3. Partnered Social Media
They say there’s power in numbers. That’s just as true in business as it is in our personal lives. Influencers do it, brands do it, celebrities do it, non-profits do it…Why? Because bringing people together to work in unison towards a common goal almost always yields exponential results.
A year after the travel industry faced monumental shifts from shutdowns, GLP partnered with service providers and agencies around the world to share inspirational success stories. Working together, we created an entire series of videos now shared as #TourismStrong: Lessons and Solutions for a Sustainable Tourism Future. The hashtag was used hundreds of times over the course of the following year on multiple social platforms, bringing together every partner’s audience and raising awareness of the entire team.
It may seem like a daunting task to manage a mutually beneficial social media partnership. But when done well, the outcomes are phenomenal.
4. Earned Media
Maintaining relationships with the right contacts at relevant media outlets should be a critical part of your tourism branding strategy. In nurturing these connections, you position yourself as both benefactor AND beneficiary. For your media contacts, you become a dependable source for all things tourism related. For your brand, you earn time in the spotlight, the value of which is hard to overemphasize.
Unlike all of your self-published content, earned media has the ability to reach your previously unreached audiences. Plus it’s someone else talking about you instead of you talking about yourself. That’s a good look no matter what business you’re in!
In August, one of GLP’s video productions for Portland, Maine was picked up and featured by Everett Potter’s Travel Report. The feature garnered hundreds of views within its first month on the site, and those views are worth so much more than what could have been gained through paid ads. Why? Because of the rapport that the host site already has established.
That’s the power of earned media.
5. Thought Leadership Content
Becoming a household name within your industry could be as simple as taking on the role of ‘Educator’ to help others grow.
Think of it this way… educating others about your trade not only grows your market but solidifies your place in it as an expert. When you know an industry well enough to teach others about it, you’re obviously competent enough to provide services in it, right?
There are several outlets for this type of content, and any one of them can do wonders for your brand.
Create travel guides, submit a guest blog post to a relevant site, produce a webinar to educate industry leaders, engage on LinkedIn, appear on a podcast or host your own… the sky’s the limit when it comes to this type of content!
6. Article/Blog Content
Finally, the fact that you’ve made it this far is proof that writing your own articles keeps people engaged. Some of GLP’s best performing posts over the years have been Combating Over-tourism: Destinations Switch from Marketing to Management and Pillars of Community Based Tourism.They’ve served not only as thought-leadership pieces (see that last bullet-point above) but also built our online presence by fostering backlinks, SEO strength, and consistency of posting.
Hosting your own blog on your website gives you owned real estate on which to build your brand. You get full control over what goes into it and it can be as robust as you want it to be. Publish travel guides for your locale, share local festival information, publish stories from your clients, inspire readers to responsible engagement in their tourism… whatever your ideal audience would want to take in! Simply keep it relevant to your ideal audience and get to work building your online presence.
Having a robust, well-thought-out content marketing strategy for your tourism brand will boost your presence both online and in your audience’s minds. It’s worth the time and effort to plan a sustainable approach and invest in making it all come together, regardless of which types of content you choose to use!
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About GLP Films
GLP Films (GLP) is an award-winning, full-service content marketing agency that empowers brands to accelerate growth, positive impact, and sustainability through strategic storytelling. Since 2008 GLP has been telling local stories globally through beautifully crafted video, engaging content and communications campaigns, and a people-first approach.
Want to inspire, create change, and embrace sustainability through storytelling? Send us a note at team@glpfilms.com and check out our work at glpfilms.com.