ALL ABOUT YOU — BUSINESS ADVICE
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Amanda Schofield has joined TravelCube UK as regional account manager for East Midlands and East
Anglia. Most recently, Schofield worked for Classic Collection Holidays for three and a half years and before that spent four years at Travel Counsellors.
Carlson Wagonlit Travel has appointed Martine Gerow as executive vice-president and chief financial officer. Gerow, who takes up her position in September, joins from Solocal Group and has previously worked for Campofrio Food Group, Groupe Danone and PepsiCo.
Paul Pennicook has been reappointed tourism director of the Jamaica Tourist Board after an
eight-year gap. Pennicook, who held the same role from 2003 to 2006, has also held senior roles at Couples Resorts and Sandals Resorts, and was the first vice-president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association.
Turkish Airlines has appointed Ersen Engin as general manager of its Manchester office. He takes up the role following the retirement of general manager Cengiz Turksoy after 27 years. Engin has previously worked for the airline in Istanbul, Doha and Riyadh.
At a time when traditional marketing methods are losing their impact, content marketing is becoming more significant. Are you using it and are you creating the right travel content to market your business? Here, in the first of a
five-part cut-out-and-keep monthly series of tips for travel agents, Melt Content’s Dan Hart guides you through the process of travel content marketing, from taking stock of your assets to crafting your content calendar. For the first of these, Hart considers: what’s the point of content?
What is travel content marketing?
Travel content marketing is about creating relevant, consistent and engaging travel content to attract and retain customers. Examples of travel content include everything from blogs, infographics and image galleries to newsletters, viral videos and Facebook competitions. It should be incorporated into a wider marketing strategy, and can even work in conjunction with conventional campaigns, but it is vital that content is created to give added value – and not to sell products.
Business benefits
Unlike the vast majority of other marketing efforts, offering your customers free, engaging content means they will look forward to hearing from you, spend more time with your content and share it. Whatever the size of your business, you can use the valuable specialist knowledge of staff to generate content that gives you a reputation as an authority in your particular arena. This builds brand loyalty among existing customers and motivates prospects to contact you for an expert ear. Both of
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these routes can often lead to conversion.
Boost rankings Travel content has a big TRAVEL CONTENT MARKETING
role to play in search engine rankings. Google has updated its search algorithm significantly over the past two years, making content the absolute focal point of search strategy. Before, companies could use search
engine optimisation to manipulate the system to achieve high search
results; now, since Google’s Panda and
Penguin updates, it has cut spam (and spammy tactics) from the race for rankings. The latest evolution to its algorithm,
Advice from Dan Hart
managing director, Melt Content
called Google Hummingbird, has completely overhauled the way it delivers search results. Google now rewards sites that place user needs and intentions above high-volume keywords. So the best tactic is to focus on creating content that appeals to your demographic. If the content quality is high, the ranking will be too.
Cost-effective
The costs for travel content marketing vary dramatically.
Writing a blog post should cost less than producing a video. Yet travel content is considerably more cost-effective than the traditional forms of marketing – and often with better results. Creating an online article which is picked up by the press is far cheaper than an advertorial or a print advert, while filming an online video that finds an audience costs a fraction of a TV campaign. In short, travel content marketing can increase customer loyalty, bring in new prospects, boost your search engine rankings and save you a fortune.
Next time...
In part two of this series, find out how to use your assets effectively.
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!
YOUR CUT-OUT-AND-KEEP GUIDE PART ONE
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