Travel blog, yes or no?
Whether you run a travel agency or are a freelancer in this field, sooner or later – and more or less directly – you surely have relied on the power of travel storytelling to promote your project.
There is nothing more convincing to sell a trip than a good story.
Who hasn’t found themselves looking for offers on intercontinental flights after the incredible story of a friend returning from his latest adventure?
Due to this natural predisposition of travel to narration, in recent years there has been a real rebirth of the tourism thanks to Internet and social networks that make contents their real bargaining chip.
Digital formats, be they photos, texts or videos, are the money to win the user’s attention. Travel and tourism has to adapt: this is how Travel Marketing was born, making Storytelling its main strength.
Once the privileged digital space for travel stuff was the blog, then social networks took over (it is said that Instagram and Pinterest have even influenced the aesthetics of a certain type of travel) and today?
How worthwhile is it today to invest in a blog in the hope of creating a community and attracting potential customers?
We anticipate that there is no clear-cut answer to this question but a series of considerations to make before making certain choices.
More than the medium, the important thing is the content (and the trust of your users)
It has been 25 years since Bill Gates published his timeless essay “Content is king” to declare the centrality of content in the communication and marketing strategies.
The maxim is certainly still current: just think of the engagement rates and the ability to involve, entertain, inform that the contents have on social networks and on the web in general.
But there is another key factor in making your Content Marketing strategy work: loyalty. Users stumble upon of content but it is thanks to trust that leads you to real interaction with the audience and possible conversions.
Trust is a bond that goes beyond simple interest: it is built over time, thanks to a constant strategy of original contents that is consistent with your personal or corporate image.
Contents are the tool, trust is the main goal and you can choose the media (blog, social media, website) due to your resources and possible investments.
Make sure you have structured an effective content strategy for your travel enthusiast target, then choose the best medium for you.
Can social media be a valid alternative to travel blogging?
After the last outage of the main social networks, the age-old question about businesses that are maintained only through their social pages was rekindled.
The question relate around the dichotomy: proprietary channels vs social channels with the analysis of risks and opportunities that they bring out.
The proprietary channels have on their side a boundless possibility of customizing the communication through the format, the graphics and the contents.
In social networks, where the user experience is planned by others, the possibilities of distinguishing oneself from competitors mainly fall on the type of content.
There is obviously a question of investments. A proprietary channel will certainly (at least initially) have a higher cost than managing a page on social media which can also be do-it-yourself.
This is a very common thought but only apparently true. The costs of a site mainly concern the construction and optimization phase while in many cases the maintenance can be self-managed.
Conversely, the management of social pages in many cases requires subsequent investments both in terms of employment of specific staff and in the structuring of paid advertising campaigns.
Finally, a substantial difference concerns access to traffic data.
With an appropriate analysis of objectives and goals, the proprietary channel certainly offers more data to analyze on the preferences and behavior of your audience.
Social media, on the other hand, have limited insights that mainly serve just to understand how traffic moves on your channel.
Finally, as rightly pointed out by various travel bloggers and influencers, owning a proprietary channel protects you from any inefficiencies, service interruptions and radical changes to which social networks are arbitrarily subject.
Blog or website: what changes?
Usually the website is a space in which a project, a service or a product of a brand is told in a unidirectional way.
At one time it was called a “showcase” but this term has fallen into disuse because it emphasized too much the aesthetic aspect linked to the appearance of communication.
The website must never be “just” a showcase for your business, it must lead to conversions! (but that’s another story …).
A blog, on the other hand, is a digital space in which a person shares ideas, experiences and information with his audience.
It has a less strategic and more chronological structure with ample possibility for users to interact much more easily through the comments section.
Blogs and websites are not necessarily each other’s alternative: many websites have sections dedicated to Blogs (which also greatly facilitates the SEO) and many blogs have slowly begun to “behave” like websites.
The winning strategy is in fact to combine the advantages of one and the other formula in order to maintain an attractive appearance and direct and personal communication with the audience.
In summary…
To the question: travel blog or not, there isn’t (of course!) a definite answer. We have tried to provide you some questions to reflect on for your Travel Storyelling strategy:
- plan your content in the best possible way: they will always remain the kings of your communication
- Travel blog or social page? Think carefully about your investments
- Blog or website? What if they weren’t so different?
The travel blog can be a good solution to start experimenting with your communication, dialogue with your audience and build that relationship of trust we were talking about at the beginning.
It can help you become familiar with the art of effective storytelling and content optimization.
It can be the starting point of your travel marketing strategy and your travel business.
If you have any doubts, do not hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to chat together about your project.
Are you interested in the topic of Travel Marketing? Check out our Puresurfcamps Success Story!
