Is there anyone who doesn’t like traveling these days? Sure, your closest friends might be all getting married and thinking about buying a house, if you are a Millennial my age. But, ask most people what they’ll do if they won the lottery and ‘travel the world’ will probably be the answer you hear the most. Yet, we don’t all travel in the same way and when it comes to marketing a business in the travel industry in 2019, it’s important that your web content writers know exactly how your customers do it.
Welcome to Part 2 of my travel content trend series, where we are going to explore exactly that: technology and personalization.
Technology
Tech-savviness is no longer a choice, it’s the rule
Making your content mobile-friendly is kind of yesterday’s news. Today, we are talking about technological advancements on another level. The innovations shaping and changing the travel industry have been doing so for the past 10 years. The recent growth we see in technology is just a result of the overall global trend to digitalize everything.
Remember these awesome ways to approach your content strategy in 2019 that Teo from the 411Writers team covered recently? More specifically, how the 360-degree videos, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and virtual reality are slowly but steadily going to become an integral part of the content creation mix.
It makes perfect sense. Since we already established in Part 1 of this article series, the visual appeal is the main factor that draws people to a destination. Using video that takes them on a tour around the place is like a 100-times better version of Google maps. If technology offers such a powerful tool for immersion, it should be leveraged for the needs of your travel business to its fullest potential.
The best thing about this trend? It’s just kicking in but once more companies start investing in it and harnessing the benefits, it will transform our travel experience significantly. I mean, if there are selfie-taking robots in 2018… who knows what’s in store in the new year. I am personally thrilled to find out.
How about the old means of content distribution and marketing?
They are still around. Brands haven’t stopped investing in printed magazines and analog marketing, it’s not all digital (just yet). Take for example Airbnb’s magazine, Easyjet’s Traveller, and Away’s Here Magazine.
Personalization
The journey matters just as much as the destination
Rather creating content to engage and inspire wanderlust, you can take another approach to it. You can try to differentiate your brand based on the solutions your content marketing provides. Put in simple words, how can you make life easier for your core customers or target audience? Have your web content writers look at everything with the magnifying glass of a problem-solver.
But, as we already touched upon, the pain points of your customers are as unique as their traveling styles are. You can always look for ways of identifying and addressing them one by one. Here is where personalized content creation can be key. For example, when creating your next e-mail campaign, ask yourself this: based on what I know about each consumer type and their interests & habits, what would each want to see in their inbox?
It doesn’t have to be a completely different message, just tailored to the data you have managed to collect. You can’t utilize this method of personalization if you don’t have enough information about your website visitors. Which means you first need to identify the right data collection and analysis tools you will need. Skift offers an interesting piece on travel personalization and why tracking your users’ activity is crucial.
Some businesses build their whole model around individualized experiences, not just their content marketing strategy. Take, for example, the beautiful concept of having your trip itinerary all taken care of by locals. Sounds authentic and exciting, isn’t it? That’s exactly what the company kimkim does for its clients.
If you clicked on the link, you will also spot how they have taken on another trend. Namely, storytelling and video content – it helps them explain what they offer in a visual, engaging, and simple way. A winning recipe if you ask me.
To sum up the take away from these two trends, the expectations towards your content will be to either facilitate as much as possible or to strike an emotional chord through visuals and narrative. This is where the choice of a quality content writing service becomes your opportunity to ride these trends and make the most of them.
