Want more bookings? Then, this Facebook group is for you.

Yes, you – for all you small-business owners in travel & hospitality. For the hotels, the vacation rentals, the travel & tour agencies, and all you other tourism and hospitality businesses that want to fill your calendars.

This is for everyone who wants to grow a business through a better website, better copy, and better content marketing.

For anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by all the you-musts and you-shoulds of building, maintaining, and growing your own website.

This group is dedicated to all things travel copywriting and travel content marketing – from creating killer calls-to-action and writing for organic (unpaid) SEO goals, to sending more effective email marketing campaigns and blogging for bookings.

Ask questions. Share challenges. Revel in your istanbul escort successes.

Because this group is for you.

The post Just Launched: Facebook Group for Travel Copywriting & Content Marketing appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.

No more teasing, no more waiting: you’ve made it! Over the past few months, you’ve fleshed pendik escort out your travel personas; developed your hotel or travel content strategy; chosen the best travel content delivery channels; run an audit on your current content; and had a look at some exceptional examples of travel content marketing. You’ve been patient (thanks for that!) and now it’s finally time.

Yes, it’s now time to create compelling, actionable travel content. It’s time to use your words to paint vivid mental pictures with brushstrokes so bold, they’re almost fluorescent. And it’s time to leverage the principles of travel copywriting to guide your site visitors to click, to sign up, to book, to call – whatever it is you want travelers to do, it’s time to get them doing it.

But before I release you into the writing wilds, I’ll leave you with this travel content marketing checklist – 11 essential elements to include in every piece of your content marketing:

Travel Content Marketing Checklist: 11 Essential Elements

#1: Write Well

In all the do this and do that of content marketing, we hear a lot avcılar escort about calls-to-action, social sharing, and even quality content. But what you rarely read about is şişli escort quality writing. (More on those below.) In travel, it’s not enough to merely share good information: you must write well. Bring your destination to life with your words. Put your readers in the moment. Create gaziantep escort bayan a picture so striking, so completely irresistible, that anyone who reads your words will be convinced – convinced that you are the one, the only answer to the question, “Where should I travel next?”

#2: Pinpoint Your Target Persona

Your content strategy may target more than one travel persona, but each individual marketing piece – each blog post, each travel guide, each newsletter article –  should target just one. Before you write one word, choose your target persona and then write for avcılar escort that, and only that traveler.

#3: Define Your Goal

You should have a specific goal for all your content. Perhaps you want people to sign up for your email list; maybe you want travelers to download an itinerary; or you might want them to click the darn book button already. Whatever your goal, define it clearly before you begin writing a blog post, a newsletter article, or a travel guide. Remember: your end game will define what you write and how you write it. taksim escort
beylikdüzü escort

#4: Insert a Call-to-Action

And speaking of your goal, all content should have a call-to-action (CTA) that guides visitors to fulfill the goal of your content.

#5: Add Internal Links

Link to other blog posts, guides and content on your website – and choose your anchor text (linked words) wisely; the best anchor text is natural (read: not strange phrasing written for the search engines) while incorporating targeted keywords and phrases.

#6: Choose Incredible Photos

Content is better with images, so always add one (or a few) to your blog posts, newsletters, guides and other content.

#7: Forget the Hard Sell

Never, ever forget that your content isn’t about you: it’s about travelers. We live in the sharing economy, and travel content marketing is all about sharing the best of your destination, your hotel, your offerings – but in a natural way.

#8: Boost the Quality

Strategize everything you write to be high-quality. Don’t just parrot what others have already said: pioneer. Write something that hasn’t been written, or improve on something that has already been written a thousand different ways. And after you’ve written something, go beyond simple edits: ask yourself how you can make your piece an even better resource for travelers.

#9: Run the AIDA Test

AIDA is a time-tested copywriting formula; it’s acronym stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. You don’t have to become a top-notch copywriter to do content marketing right, but it is a good idea to keep AIDA in mind as you write. Your headline, your introductory paragraph, your content and your CTA should all pass the AIDA test.

#10: Optimize Your Content

For blog posts, travel guides and other content that lives on the web, be sure to do some basic search engine optimization (SEO): choose your keywords and key phrases wisely, and write optimized titles and meta descriptions. Then get started on check point #8, so other websites will link to your content (backlinks are one of today’s most important factors in boosting your search engine rankings).

#11: Share, Share and Share Again

Content marketing is no Field of Dreams: even if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. You must spread your content across the interwebs – share on Twitter, post on Facebook, add to LinkedIn. You should comment on popular related blogs, especially those that show comment love (share your latest blog post with your comment). Participate on related forums. Leverage your email list, and share new blog posts, latest news, and other tidbits as they come. Build relationships with bloggers, media, and travelers. Wash, rinse, repeat. Never stop.

And that’s all, folks! You’re ready to write targeted content that gets shares, builds loyalty, instills trust, and drives bookings. Good luck, and please let me know how it goes!

Other installments in The Zen of Travel Content Marketing series:

Part 1: Get to Know Your Target Audience
Part 2: Define Your Travel or Hotel Content Strategy
Part 3: Choosing Your Content Channels
Part 4: Run a Content Audit
Part 5: 9 Examples of Exceptional (but Doable) Travel & Hotel Content Marketing

SaveSave

SaveSave

The post The Zen of Travel Content Marketing, Part 6: 11 Essential Elements of Travel Content Marketing appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.

Well, you’ve done it! You’ve developed your travel content strategy. You’ve dug deep to develop your guest personas. And you’ve discovered where travelers congregate online. Believe beylikdüzü escort it or not, it’s time to actually talk content.

Exciting, I know! But just a hot second. Close that blog prompt. Step way from Twitter. We’re not to content creation quite yet. Before you write one new word, you must first review everything you’ve already written – your existing content. Because unless your company is brand new, chances are you have some good content already floating around – brochures, newsletters, attraction information, and other text just begging for some attention.

This is the week of the content audit: the week you sort through all your raw materials and evaluate each on its performance and effectiveness. This is the week of repackaging, reworking and rewriting the best of the best. This is the week your content ataşehir escort marketing team puts their heads together. And this is the week you ask yourselves:

• Does our content speak to travelers’ pain and passion points?
• How engaging is our content?
• Is our content sharable?

What is a Content Audit?

So what, exactly, is a content audit? In a nutshell, a content audit consists of: eskişehir escort

1. Inventorying your current content, or content “assets”;
2. Analyzing content performance; and
3. Evaluating content potential

The goal: Understand what kinds of content you’ve already created, determine whether this content is effective at driving sales and engagement, and figure out what content gaps must be filled.

Inventory Your Existing Content

The first step of a content audit is to take an inventory of your existing content. mecidiyeköy escort And I mean that literally – an actual accounting of all your content.

Gather up ever scrap of content – digital and paper – your company has ever created:brochures, travel guides, packing lists, destination & attraction descriptions, blog posts, welcome emails, videos, photos, etc. (Do remember that content is not just text; it includes photos and video, too.) Everything. Then call a content team meeting and spread your content assets out in front of you. Now begins the inventory.

If you have a great database system already in place, go ahead and use that. If not, any spreadsheet program (MS Excel, Google Drive, Libreoffice, etc.) will do the trick. Create columns to account for:

• Unique ID: You can give each content asset its own ID, or categorize by type. For example, blog posts could be 1.x; videos 2.x; brochures 3.x, etc.
• Item Type: Blog post, pdf doc, Word doc, image, video, etc.
• Item Title: The title of your document, image or video
• Location: Web address, central database file, or physical location
• Age: When the content asset was first created
• Update Status: Last update. At the very least, you should update travel content at least once a year.
• ROT Status: A content ROT status determines whether content is Redundant, Outdated, or Trivial.
• Page Views [all time]: From Google Analytics
• Page Views [last month]: From Google Analytics
• Total Unique Visitors: From Google Analytics
• Goals: Every piece of content should have a goal or purpose, whether it’s to drive newsletter signups or direct sales via the Book button.
• Notes: A field for any notes/thoughts your team may have

There are many other fields – reach, social shares, conversion rate, etc. – you could include on your spreadsheet. Here’s a good overview, complete with a downloadable spreadsheet already pre-loaded with some great fields.

Analyze Your Content Performance

When it comes to content, there’s a big difference between quality and quantity. Simply having content does not mean that you have effective content: in order to be effective, your content should always work for you.

A major goal of your content audit is to gather the information you need to make good content decisions – in other words, to determine what types of content work best for your business. Several metrics can help you determine content performance, among them:

• Engagement: Does your content touch on travelers’ passion and pain points, to the point that they comment, ask questions, and otherwise interact with your brand?
• Searchability: Does your content rank well in Google, Bing and other search engines?
• Sharability: Do travelers share your content on social networks or via email?
• Branding Consistency: Does your content adhere to your brand goals and message?
• Accuracy: Is your information accurate and up-to-date?
• Awesomeness: Yes, this is a stick you must use to measure your content: how awesome is it? Does it kick your competitors’ content butts? Because if you’re not dedicated to creating absolutely incredible content, then you should spend your time and resources elsewhere.

Evaluate Your Content’s Performance & Potential

The next step in your travel content audit is to evaluate current performance:

• Internal Links: An internal link strategy is integral to link-building: where does your content currently link, and where else could it link?
• Broken Links: Run a URL validator to find broken links – then correct them.
• Meta Information: Make sure to optimize your on-page SEO, including meta description, title tags, and meta keywords.
• Keep Current: You should update travel guides, destination & attraction info, and other content at least once a year. Do the required legwork – call attractions, double-check phone numbers & emails, etc.
• Calls to Action: Be sure that all your content has strong calls-to-action that target your current goals.

Once you’ve checked and corrected any problems with your content performance, it’s time to talk potential. Brainstorm with your team the who, what, where and when of your content:

• Which personas will each content item best engage?
• How should you repackage each item into content that touches on traveler pain and passion points?
• Which content channels are most appropriate for distribution?
• When should you roll out your revitalized content?

Now ask yourself, what content performs best? What has the best conversions or sign-ups or social shares? And what content needs more development? What are your content weaknesses – do you blog too sporadically or do your travel guides need a complete overhaul?

Because these questions – your best performances and greatest weaknesses – are the foundation of new content creation. But that’s a story for another week…

Homework

This week’s homework is pretty straightforward: do a content audit. Organize a meeting with your content marketing team, and go through the above bullet points one-by-one. Let me know how it goes!

Other installments in The Zen of Travel Content Marketing series:

Part 1: Get to Know Your Target Audience
Part 2: Define Your Travel or Hotel Content Strategy
Part 3: Choosing Your Content Channels
Part 5: Exceptional (but Doable) Travel Content Marketing

The post The Zen of Travel Content Marketing, Part 4: Run a Content Audit appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.

By now, you know your audience. You’ve started developing your travel content strategy. So it’s time to talk content types and distribution channels. We’re getting close – so very, very close! – to actually ataköy escort writing, snapping photos and shooting video. I promise.

First things first: You absolutely, positively must keep your content goals in mind throughout this process. What is the purpose of your content marketing? One of them must be to build your email database. Remember that with social media accounts and even RSS followers (if you still have any), you don’t own your follower list. You don’t have access to their direct email addresses or phone numbers.  But with an opt-in database – say, when customers exchange their emails for travel guides or their phone numbers for customized itineraries – you slowly build this incredible, amazing business asset: a list of warm leads from travelers who have sought you out.

The second thing to always keep in mind is that your content strategy for each channel is a miniturized version of your overall travel content strategy. Before you launch (or revamp) your blog, your newsletter, your travel guides or any other content channel, ask yourself these halkalı escort questions: hatay escort

1. Who is my target audience? These are the personas you developed back in Part 1.
2. What are my personas’ pain points? These are your audience’s concerns and anxieties – the problems that you will solve.
3. Where are my customers? What social networks and other distribution/marketing channels are ideal for this type of content?
4. What is my story? This is the message you want to communicate to your readers.
5. What’s the point? What are your goals for this content? sakarya escort Do you want to attract subscribers, build your reputation, or promote your destination?
6. Are you passionate? I mentioned back in Part 1 that 80 percent of corporate blogs fizzle out before reaching 5 posts. Find topics and channels that make you excited to write – or, at the very least, passionate enough to hire a writer.

Once you’re clear on your answers to these questions, it’s time to talk content channels – and decide which ones will work best for you:

Your Blog

Blogging is one of the most versatile content channels in existence, and is especially powerful for travel and hotel content marketing. It is an informal, fun and visual platform that allows you to build community and rapport, establish thought leadership, promote your destination and services, execute sophisticated SEO strategies, and so much more.

Done right and leveraged well, blogs are an incredible tool to reach the traveling masses. düzce escort  I promise we’ll get into the nitty gritty of your travel blog in a future post, but for now, here are a few pointers:

• Write killer headlines: Don’t know how to write a must-click headline? Check out Jon Morrow’s genius headline hacks.
• Focus on pain points. These are the problems your blog posts will solve.
• Weave in your keywords. Keywords aren’t dead, and a blog is great way to create awesome content about target keywords and phrases.
• And whatever you do, don’t forget your call to action! Ask them to sign up for your email list, leave a comment, download a travel guide, request a brochure/itinerary quote, etc. Remember that most of your blog visitors will never be back. Find a way to capture their contact information.

Travel Guides & Other eBooks

Travel guides are a spectacular way to market your business and destination. Almost every, single traveler reads a travel guide, in some form, somewhere along the travel-planning process. Creating these guides –how-tos, top 10s, insider secrets and destination information – help you help your travelers, while you build authority, establish trust, and get the word out about your business.

And the great thing about your blog and other content channels is, you may be able to repackage them as travel guides. Just remember, these informational treasure troves are a little more sanitized/formal than a blog, and are often much longer.

Email Newsletters

Travel newsletters are a type of permission-based marketing: regular communications that travelers opt-in to receive. They’re usually emailed weekly or monthly, and may also be available online. And more and more often, e-newsletters are a way to redistribute your blog posts (as I do with The Travel Copywriter). They can be informational or promotional in nature, and are a wonderful way to stay in regular, direct contact with prospects.

But just because e-newsletters are opt-in doesn’t mean you don’t need to make an effort. An incredible, amazing, pull-out-all-the-stops effort. There are lot of travel newsletters out there today, so you have a lot of competition. Remember to write killer subject lines (headlines) so that your newsletter gets opened, and fill your newsletter with valuable content your readers won’t find anywhere else. Don’t be spammy. And always, always offer an opt-out at the bottom of every newsletter.

Testimonials

Testimonials are social proof. You can’t brag about yourself (well you can, but it’s not very attractive), but you can certainly let your travelers do so on your behalf. Then, scatter your most glowing testimonials all over your site.

So how do you get customers to consistently write testimonials? You need to develop a process to encourage testimonials, and even to reward your loyal clients for their service. One of my clients, the awesome Costa Rican Vacations, runs a monthly $100 Amazon gift certificate raffle for clients who have posted a Facebook testimonial that month. Needless to say, they get a lot of testimonials!

Other Content Channels

Content marketing for the travel industry is incredibly diverse and a lot of fun. If you can imagine it, you can probably do it. Here are a few more channels you might consider:

• Podcasting
• Video Publishing
• Guest Blogging
• Custom Print Magazine (or the digital Flipboard alternative)
• Print Newsletters
• Contributed Articles & Brand Journalism
• Mobile Apps
• Printed Guidebooks
• Infographics

Outsourcing Your Content Marketing

According to the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs research, nearly 50 percent of all companies outsource at least some part of their content marketing (North American | U.K. | Australian benchmarks).

Why? Because while content marketing is a major task, it’s also one of the most cost-effective to outsource. You can get your travel blog off the ground for as little as $500 a month. You can publish a short monthly newsletter for under $1,000. In traditional marketing terms, where one print advertisement can easily run you five figures, content marketing is cheap. And very, very effective.

Homework

Woohoo, assignment time! This one’s fun: Tell me, where do your travelers live online? What do you think are the most effective content channels for your business?

Other installments in The Zen of Travel Content Marketing series:

Part 1: Get to Know Your Target Audience
Part 2: Define Your Travel or Hotel Content Strategy
Part 4: Run a Content Audit
Part 5: Exceptional (but Doable) Travel Content Marketing

The post The Zen of Travel Content Marketing, Part 3: Choosing Your Content Channels appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.

If you think this is the week we gallop into content creation, whoa izmir escort there. I hate to disappoint, but the truth is, developing a thoughtful – and successful – content strategy for your travel biz takes time. And not the kind of time you can squeeze into the commercial breaks during your favorite shows: I’m talking hours, days and probably weeks of brainstorming, refining and consideration.

But it’s worth it. I promise.

This week, we’re delving into the details of your content strategy. Not content marketing, but content strategy. (Say what? Is there a difference?) Mais oui, there is!

Content strategy is not the same as content marketing. Think of it like an orchard: every seed you plant is the promise of a future harvest. If you sow haphazardly, your orchard will grow up to be a crowded, poor producer. But if you plan your orchard carefully and nurture it along the way, you can create a space – big or small, depending on your goals – that is fruitful for years to come. The way you plan your seed-sowing and and ankara escort nurturing is content strategy; how you use the fruits of your well-tended orchard is content marketing. So let’s get into it:

What is Content Marketing for the Travel Industry?

Before you can define the strategies and goals for your travel content, let’s clear this elephant out of the room: just what is travel content marketing?

There are many definitions of content marketing. Most of them are good, so choose whichever calls out to you. A few of my favorites:

• “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” (Content Marketing Institute)
• “Content marketing is a pull, rather than a push, strategy. trabzon escort Content doesn’t interrupt, it attracts.” (Rebecca Lieb, Advertising Age)
• “Custom publishing marries the marketing ambitions of a company with the information needs of its target audience. This occurs through the delivery of editorial content – via print, Internet, and other media – so intrinsically valuable that it moves the recipient’s behavior in a desired direction.” (Custom Content Council)
• “Content Marketing is creating or curating non-product content—be it informational, educational, entertaining, etc.—and publishing it to contact points with customers to get their attention, to focus on the topic around your solution, and pull them closer to learning more about you.” (Sam Decker, Mass Relevance)

Travel content marketing is the content you create – blog posts, travel guides, photo slideshows, newsletters, etc. – to build relationships with travelers, nurture leads (and lead conversion), create brand awareness, and promote your travel experience. elazığ escort

Notably, content marketing is not inbound marketing. Inbound marketing gets visitors to your site, usually via sources like search engines and your social media accounts. Creating great content certainly gives you great fodder for inbound marketing, but the goal of content marketing is not to create inbound links. (This is a very rize escort important distinction, when it comes to both strategy and metrics like ROI.) Inbound is complementary to content, but they are not identical.

So What’s Content Strategy?

Content strategy is not a single solution. It’s not a content marketing deliverable, like blog posts and travel guides and posting your links on Twitter: travel content strategy is the entire process, starting from the beginning – the mission statement, your raison d’être, the editorial calendar, all of it. Travel content strategy is the why and the how of creating information that is eminently sharable and completely inspirational.

Developing Your Content Marketing Strategy

Now that we have that sorted out, it’s time for some action.

1. Define Your Content Marketing Goals
Your content marketing goals are the foundation of your content strategy. Ask yourself, why am I making the investment in content marketing? Why do you want to reach your target audience, and what do you  hope to achieve? Do you want to build brand awareness – get your name out there? Do you want to build your email list, so you can nurture and convert warm leads? Are you trying to establish yourself as a market leader? Or do you simply want to up your guest engagement?

Your goals are the key to defining your content strategy. Going back to my orchard metaphor, this step is the equivalent of mapping out your orchard before the first seed is even purchased.

2. Take a Content Inventory (a.k.a. Content Audit)
Chances are, you started creating content before you even heard the term content marketing. (That’s a good thing; it just shows how natural this kind of marketing is.) Now’s the time to organize all of your previously created content, from travel guides and blog posts to newsletters and photo galleries. There are some great (and free) content inventory templates floating around; I like this one and this one.

3. Get Your Team in Place (or Hire a Team)
There are many keys to successful content marketing, but none is as important as your team. A good strategist and talented content marketer can make the difference between rock-the-world travel stories and humdrum content that never achieves lift-off.

Start by looking to your in-house employees. They know your company well and, hopefully, are passionate about your business. But if they don’t have the time, vision or writing chops to fully commit, you probably need outside help. Remember, content marketing is not about quantity (oh hey, look! we have a blog!); it’s about quality. You need to create inspiring, kickass content that furthers your goals. So if it comes down to saving money by sacrificing quality – e.g. delegating to a current employee who really isn’t up to the task – make the investment in a content marketer with travel industry experience. 

4. Brainstorm Your Deliverables
The travel and hospitality industry was made for great content: blog posts, photo slideshows, travel guides, wish-you-were-heres, and everything in between – these are natural stories inherently interesting to your target audience (remember those personas you created in Part 1?).

Don’t take on everything at once. Define a few areas for content implementation – say, a travel blog and a slideshow series – and take it from there. Starting small allows you to devote more energy and resources into creating a few pieces of truly inspirational content, instead of creating oodles of boring sludge that never gets any traction.

5. Get Social
If content is king, then social is its crown prince. That makes social sound important, right? Well, it is, but here’s something you’ll probably love: the secret to social is, you don’t have to be on every social network. In fact, you probably shouldn’t be.

Each social network has its own personality, so choose the ones that your audience frequents. Keep your chosen networks pared down, so you can really rock each. Study how each works – e.g. Pinterest loves photos while Facebook likes to chat (albeit often about photos) – and devote yourself to building an engaged audience on your networks. If you can’t do a network right, don’t do it at all. (After all, is there anything more blah than Liking a Facebook page with 3 Likes and no posts for the past six months?)

Homework

Ha ha, I got you again. Another assignment! It’s pretty straightforward: reread Steps 1-5 and jot down your answers. Sleep on them, then go back and refine them. Discuss them with your coworkers. Ask your employees what they think. Then let us know how it went!

Other installments in The Zen of Travel Content Marketing series:

Part 1: Get to Know Your Target Audience
Part 3: Choosing Your Content Channels
Part 4: Run a Content Audit
Part 5: Exceptional (but Doable) Travel Content Marketing

The post The Zen of Travel Content Marketing, Part 2: Define Your Travel or Hotel Content Strategy appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.

Did you know that, according to IBM research, 80 percent of corporate blogs have fewer than five blog posts?

Take a moment to digest that number. It’s pretty sobering, don’t you think? And sad, since a travel blog is the perfect way to spark conversation with your guests, provide dynamite information, and really showcase your company’s personality. Not to mention, build industry authority, snag great links, boost your search engine position, and… well, you get the drift.

And that’s why the only thing worse than not blogging is abandoning your blog. It screams of defunct business – or neglect. Can you imagine letting your hotel lobby fall into disrepair? Or failing to send in housekeeping before new guests gaziantep escort arrived? Or not familiarizing yourself with tours and hotels, before recommending them to travel agency clients? No, I didn’t think so.

So we’ll start at the very beginning. If you don’t yet have a blog – or if you’re reviving a lifeless one – the keys of successful travel business blogging are simple: commitment and consistency. Now let’s talk details:

In Part 1 of The Zen of Travel Content Marketing, we’re focusing on the behind-the-scenes but ultra-important details of launching your business’s travel content marketing and strategy. These steps may not seem as glitzy as glamourous blog design or snazzy writing, but they’re essential to building a blog that you enjoy writing (that’s commitment) and can nourish for years to come (that’s consistency) – and that your clients want to read and share.

Define Your Audience

Before you type one word on your newsletter, website or blog – before you install bursa escort WordPress, even – you must ask yourself, “Who will read my content?” This isn’t a creative writing prompt, my friends: it’s critical thinking. Create real, live personas (the marketing version of imaginary friends) that describe your core demographic(s). Define a few distinct personas, but try to keep your total under 10.

For example, if you run a travel agency in the family travel niche, two possible client personas would be: 

• Jacob Frazzled: Jacob is in his mid-30s and works in the financial industry in NYC. He has a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old. Between work and family, he’s always tired. He and his wife are planning a getaway with the kids. Their focus is on kid-friendly hotels and activities, but they also want some alone time.
• Susie Empty-Nester: Susie is a middle-aged career woman whose adult children now have their own families. Once a year, they plan a multi-generational vacation, with Susie and her husband, their children, and their grandchildren.

Flesh Out Pain Points

Pain points are your customers’ real or perceived problems and concerns. Travelers have many, many pain points – everything from travel logistics (what’s the cheapest/shortest/easiest flight?) to packing the right activity-relaxation balance into their vacation itinerary. Chances are, you’re already intimately familiar with your clients’ pain points – the questions they ask, over and over, in phone calls, emails and other communications.

Travel pain points are the foundation of your blog. This is what you’re going to write about, every week, because solutions to common concerns will keep your customers coming back for more. So let’s pop back up to your personas: What are the pain points for each?

• Jacob Frazzled: Jacob is in his mid-30s, so he’s in the early stages of his finance career. He receives little paid vacation time. He makes good money, but he lives in New York where cost of living is high. He has limited disposable income. He has two young children, who demand as much of his time and energy as he can give. He is frazzled. He is tired. Jacob is in desperate need of a vacation escape for rejuvenation and stress-relief. He enjoys family vacations with the kids, but he also values alone time with his wife.
• Susie Empty-Nester: Susie’s children are adults with families of their own. She wishes she could see more of her children and grandchildren, so she cherishes every moment of their multi-generational vacations. She has an established career and plenty of disposable income, so her vacation experience is more important than cost. (Although value is still important.) When they travel together, they prefer activities that involve all three generations. 
  

Develop Your Solution

Your opportunity lies between your personas’ pain points and your solutions. Solutions create value for your clients – they’re the reason they read your blog, subscribe to your list, and ask you to stay in touch. As you develop your personas and explore their pain points, you’ll find plenty of areas of opportunity. These are your blog posts.

Remember, blogging is all about sharing. Free and open sharing. Don’t hold back  or provide half-solutions or keep secrets; that’s a sure way to alienate everyone. Providing solutions builds trust and goodwill, and gives potential customers a reason to keep coming back – and to think of you first when they start planning their next vacation.

• Jacob Frazzled: Jacob would love to read posts about the best values in travel, hotels that offer low-cost babysitting, kid-friendly cruises, romantic daytrips, and relaxing weekend getaways (for those rare, three-day weekends).
• Susie Empty-Nester: Susie, on the other hand, would love to hear more about the top destinations for multigenerational travel, the world’s most memorable vacation experiences, and unforgettable activities for both the young and young-at-heart.

Homework

It’s probably been a long time since you had homework, but I promise this assignment’s worth it. Carve out some time to get to know your audience (personas), explore their pain points, and develop solutions. You don’t need to flesh out your solutions, just jot down a few post titles like the above.

And if you’re game, please post in the comments what you come up with! (Or just post your questions; I’m happy to help.)

Other installments in The Zen of Travel Content Marketing series:

Part 2: Define Your Travel or Hotel Content Strategy
Part 3: Choosing Your Content Channels
Part 4: Run a Content Audit
Part 5: Exceptional (but Doable) Travel Content Marketing

The post The Zen of Travel Content Marketing, Part 1: Get to Know Your Target Audience appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.

Happy 2014! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and are transitioning well into this new year of travel marketing, copywriting, content marketing, and all that jazz.

This week’s roundup is probably what you’d expect from a first-of-2014 post: lists, roundups, and reflections on 2013. But don’t write these articles off as banal: there are a lot of fascinating stats, interesting insights, and inspirational thoughts in these mersin escort posts. And if a new year is what you need to jumpstart new initiatives, run with it.

So again, Happy New Year! Here’s to a 2014 filled with joy, success and greater profits.

14 Hotel Marketing Trends for 2014

A few weeks ago, Netaffinity rolled out an infographic on 14 etourism marketing trends for 2014, and now Frederic Gonzalo is following up with some discussion on each of those points. Have a look, and see what you think about these predictions – and how you can prepare for each.

How to Produce Killer Content in 2014

My goodness, there is so much to love about this post. In 2014, we need to be innovative. We need to think differently: the email marketing we’ve written for years doesn’t work anymore; keyword-stuffed copy isn’t hip (or effective) anymore; and no one has time to read 1,500-word blog-post novels anymore. Search Engine Watch’s Erin (gotta love her name) delivers big with five ways to revitalize your content and kick some tush this year.

4 Tips for Renting Your Vacation Home – Stress-Free

Vacation rentals often fall through the cracks of travel marketing: if you’re a rental owner, you may not have the big budget of a hotel or the manpower of a travel agency. Not to worry, Cottage Blogger Heather offers up four budget-friendly, low-stress ways to rent your adana escort vacation home (and keep guests) happy.

Email Marketing Works (40x Better than Facebook & Twitter)

Is your inbox as stuffed as mine? Probably, because marketers know that email marketing just works – at a rate 40 times better than Facebook and Twitter, combined. The key, however, is that not just any email will do. Nora Aufreiter, Julien Boudet, and Vivian Weng of McKinsey & Company deliver some great insights on what works best in email marketing.

Position Your Travel Brand Through Memories

Derrick, of Branding Strategy Insider, discusses the direct relationship between frequency of contact and guests’ memories of your brand. In travel, we don’t often see guests on a day-to-day basis, so these memories need to be stronger and more enduring… but how do you do that? Click on over to share your thoughts.

7 Tips to Renovate Your Content to Better User Experience

Don’t hate me for throwing yet another essential into the fire, but Ricardo Bueno makes a point that travel businesses just can’t ignore: design is just as important to content as your actual content. Though his blog is targeted for real estate, we can glean a lot of goodies from what he says about usability and intuitive design.

Six Brands Rocking Their Content Marketing

You know that travel content marketing is key; you’ve read the books and the blogs; but you’re still not sure of how your brand should do it. That’s okay – sometimes we just need to be inspired by a few good examples of actual implementation. Shanna of Hubspot dishes up six companies that are doing right by their content marketing efforts.

SaveSave

The post Travel Copywriting & Tourism Marketing Roundup (January 9) appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.

We can summarize this entire post in just one sentence: Your travel company needs a business blog.

But why? I know you need reasons. Proof. Statistics. Because realistically, starting (or growing) a travel blog represents an investment of time, energy and resources. To be effective, you should blog at least once a week. You must commit to producing well-written posts with illustrative photos. Don’t let the casual environment of travel blogging fool you: this is something you have to do right. Your company’s blog is customer relations, networking, and your public face, all rolled into one.

Still need convincing? The facts speak for themselves. Here are 7 convincing reasons why you absolutely, positively need a travel business blog:

1. Your clients are online: A few years ago, your future guests browsed the web from their computer. But today, they’re no longer tethered to a desk: more than antalya escort half of all Americans own a smartphone and consume your content from anywhere and everywhere. That’s lots of hours, everyday, to connect with potential clients.
2. Attract guests: Write what your future guests want to know, and you’ll have no problem attracting new and returning website visitors. (Here are 26 awesome ideas for everygreen travel blog content.)
3. Outshine your competition: You have a lot of competition. Be better. Provide the most inspirational travel resources. Laugh a little more. Showcase your company’s whimsical personality. Your blog is the perfect medium to show anyone why they should book with you.
4. Make sales: Blogs don’t make the hard sell, but that alanya escort doesn’t mean they don’t sell. They do. Your travel, destination or hotel blog provides essential resources and builds trust with your readers. Demonstrate your expertise, and a well-written blog converts online visitors into onsite guests.
5. Deepen guest relationships: Your travel business blog does more than just attract new guests; it maintains and strengthens the relationships you’ve already established. It inspires past guests and creates ongoing, meaningful connections. Your blog converts first-time guests into repeat clients.
6. Strengthen your natural SEO: Really good travel blogging is all about great content: travel guides, witty lists, and other insider information that travelers crave. People pass around those great posts, and that means inbound links – a driving factor in boosting your website SEO.
7. It’s cheap: Dollar-for-dollar, quality travel blogging is some of the cheapest marketing/SEO/customer relations you can buy. $500/month never had so much bang for your buck.

Want the cold, hard facts – the nitty gritty statistics? Subscribe to download your free Guide to Business Blogging & The Travel Industry.

The post 7 Reasons Why You Absolutely, Positively Need a Travel Business Blog appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.

Birlikteliklerinin en özel olması fikri, düşüncesiyle beraber hareket eden, alınacak memnuniyetin de her daim daha farklı boyutlar haline gelmesini arzulayan bakımlı hanımınız Melis olarak sunmuş olacağım ücretli seanslarımdan keyif alacaksınız. Böylelikle gecelerin daha da görkemli ve çok daha özel boyutlara ulaşacağı, en güzel anlamış olurun ve dakikaların yaşanacağı birlikteliklerini 27 yaşlarında ve 169 boylarında seksi bir hanım ile birlikte gerçekleştirebilirsiniz. Bu sakarya escort konudaki güvencim ve isteğim her süre tam olup alınacak memnuniyetin de devamlı daha güzel hale yetişmesini isterim. Dolayısıyla gecelerin daha da görkemli olması için çaba harcayabiliriz. Ben çoğu zaman sarışın bir kadın olarak otel odasında görüşmelerimi yapmayı yeğliyorum. Fakat beraber kararlaştıracağımız ve eğlencemizi nerede, ne zaman gerçekleştireceğimiz mevzusunda net bir karara varabilirsek böylelikle alınacak memnuniyet ve yaşanacak tat da her vakit daha da manalı olabilir. Ben görüşmelerini burada devamlı sizinle birlikte gerçekleştirerek alınacak zevkin daha güzel hale ulaşmasını da sağlayan, arzulu ve sakarya escort istekli bir kadın olarak burada sizlerle görüşmeler yapıyorum. Her yönden çok önemli bir gece yaşamak ve bundan dolayı de mutlu olmak istediğiniz vakit sitemizde yer edinen son derece kaliteli olan güzel hatunları sizlere her zaman yeterli olacaktır. Hemen hepsi son derece özel olan bu seksi hatunlar aynı zamanda da son aşama ateşli olan seçkin hatunlar olarak da kabul edilir. Sizlerde o vakit telefon edin ve bu kıymetli olan hanımefendilerin yanında yer alın. Her zaman için seksi olan bu kadınlar bununla beraber da bir tek sizleri mutlu etmek için bu işi yaparlar. Bundan da her zaman için kesin olabilirsiniz. Sizlerde en özel olan eskort bodrum escort hatunları arasından derhal seçim yapın. Onlarda her zaman için sizleri bekliyorlar. Bundan da her vakit emin olabilirsiniz. Çünkü yalnız sizler değil bu harika olan hanımefendi her vakit için sizinle doyum olmak isterler. Fakat her zaman için de son aşama de seçkin olan beylerin de telefon etmesini isterler. Bunu da her vakit için en iyi olan şekilde zaten sakarya escort yaparlar. Sizlerde o zaman derhal harekete geçin ve bu özel olan kızlarına telefon edin. Onlar her zaman için sizleri bekliyor olacaktır. Tek kelime ile muhteşem olan kızlarla mükemmel olan geceler için telefon etmeniz yeterli olacaktır. Muhteşem olan ve bununla birlikte da çok önemli olan geceleri yaşamak için sizlerde o süre hemen telefon edin. Bu son aşama özel bayanlar her süre sizleri bekliyor. Her süre temiz ve hem de da bakımlı olan bu hatunlar kaliteli olan olarak da kabul edilir. Siz değerli üyelerimizin de yapması gereken bir tek onlara ulaşmak olacaktır. Bu sayede de en iyi olan eskort bayan ile en mükemmel olan geceleri de yaşayacaksınız. Bundan da her zaman kararlı olabilirsiniz. Harekete geçin ve hemen telefon edin o vakit sizlerde. Çünkü onlarda her gece sizleri bekliyor. Bunu sizlerde her süre görecek ve bundan da her vakit sizlerde zevk alacaksınız. Yapmanız gereken alo serdivan escort demek olacaktır. Eğlenmek ve görüşmeler yapmak isteyen bir hanımım, bunun için de şehrinizdeyim. Seks mevzusunda çok deneyimli olmamla beraber cinsel arzularım da her zaman en üst seviyededir. Sizler de benimle burada her süre farklı şekildeki görüşmeleri yaşayabilirsiniz. Unutamayacağınız derecede anları, farklı dakikaları beraber gerçekleştirirken bundan memnun kalabilir, zevk alabiliriz diye düşünmekteyim. Aynı şekilde düşüncesi olan, zevk almayı isteyen hepimiz ile görüşmemizi yaşayabilir, alacağımız hazzın de eşsiz olmasını sağlayabiliriz. İsmim değişikliği yaşamaktan zevk alanlar var ise ve burada zevk almayı da isterse o zaman konya escort bunu direkt olarak bana söylemeniz mümkündür. Sınırsız ve keyifli bir halde görüşmeler için zevk alıyorum. Sizin de zevk almanızı istediğimi bilmenizde fazlaca yarar bulunacaktır. Aynı şekilde düşünen, zevk almayı isteyen herkes ile birlikteliğimizi burada gerçekleştirebiliriz.

The post 4 Tired Travel Clichés that are Killing Your Sales (and What to Say Instead) appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.

Do you remember back in kindergarten, when your teacher used to dole out life lessons like tiny appetizers – small, sweet and easy to digest? Some of it was fluff, but other things hold true decades later, like the Golden Rule, don’t shove, and lead by example. The first two are definitely lessons to live by, but we’re going to talk about the third today. Instead of my normal roundup, I’d like to point you to five excellent kayseri escort examples of travel copywriting (business blog posts) and five great examples of tourism marketing. May

they inspire you to write well and innovate.

Top 5: Travel Copywriting

1. The Oyster Blog kicks off with its post, Grand Dames: 11 Illustrious samsun escort Hotels Around the World. Note the fun headline, excellent photos and thematic roundup. This post blends just enough whimsy and reality to make me want to visit all 11 hotels. And that’s exactly the point.
2. Intrepid has another type of travel blog post that works really well: a traveler’s diary. A Hairy Neck in Peru has an interesting headline – it raises questions that make you click – but the true value lies in the narrative. David is funny and enthusiastic, and his words will no doubt inspire others to travel – and to book through Intrepid, of course.
3. There’s no doubt that travel and food are inextricably linked, and Luxury Retreats nails it with their post on What to Eat in Provence. Mouth-watering food photography, bright colors, and detailed descriptions make readers wish they had boarded the plane yesterday.
4. Your company’s travel blog posts should serve as inspiration to past, present and future travelers. The Backroads blog does just that with this week’s post on 5 Hikes with Unforgettable Scenery. An epic photo rounds it out.
5. Often, striking contrast can be all that’s needed to spark interest and encourage clicks. Take Venere’s post on the Top 3 Summer Ski Destinations – snow in the summer? Downhill enthusiasts missing their adrenaline fix will definitely click, if only to be sure they haven’t missed an opportunity.

Top 5: Tourism Marketing

1. If you’ve ever wondered how you can work a product launch (or a contest or a new amenity or a new room or …) into your social networks, the Social Media Examiner delivers with 9 creative ideas.
2. Imagery is important in travel marketing, and video can be very powerful. Costa Rican Vacations has an excellent YouTube channel – and it just got better, with their new, inspirational Costa Rica travel intro. Great videography, especially that whitewater rafting shot!
3. Need a little Pinspiration? Look no further than the Four Seasons Pinterest boards, which feature spectacular images, travel ideas, and yes, self-promotion. But they do it in a way that is natural and not off-putting.
4. Have you ever considered designing a travel infographic? TravelHouseUK offers up a great example with its Visit Cape Town infographic.
5. This also comes from the Four Seasons, so maybe I’m cheating, but check out this easy-to-create resources for yoga lovers – a simple, visual DIY series on relaxing yoga poses.

gaziantep escort
gaziantep escort
erotik film izle

The post Travel Copywriting & Tourism Marketing Roundup (July 18) appeared first on The Travel Copywriter.