07/23/2020

11 Content Changes to Make

Quest Digital Marketing Shares Best Practices Based on What They're Seeing Happening

“You have to think like a magazine editor,” says Jacquie Chakirelis with Quest Digital Marketing.  While talking about content marketing during this week’s OTA Travel Marketing webinar on July 22, Jacquie reminded all to think less about selling and more about telling a story.

She also said that the customer journey is far more complex these days and savvy marketers will respond. Customers are spending more time researching before buying, with much of that being online. Similar to what LocalIQ talked about two weeks ago when examining the customer journey, the post-coronavirus sales funnel is elongating - giving customers more opportunities to get to know you, and that might take 3 to 6 months or more.  

Jacquie offered 11 content changes you should make right now. We are sharing some of what we learned below:

1. Begin with empathy – Find the sweet spot between what your audience cares about and your area of expertise. Not sure what your audience is thinking? Play around with com, a search-based listening tool for exploring what your potential customers are thinking.
2. Listen more – 86% of people will hesitate to purchase from a business that has negative online reviews, and 91% of those 18-34 years of age trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Embrace online reviews. Learn from them. Jacquie recommends reading the book “Hug Your Haters” to better understand how you can use those who complain to improve your experience and your bottom line.
3. Context is everything – Adapt visuals for a coronavirus world. Pay attention to the number of people in your images, and make sure they aren’t close together. Before you activate, ask yourself, “Is this content appropriate for today?” Just because it might be on your schedule doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to use given our constantly changing environment.
4. Use content to inspire more – Lengthen your normal sales funnel by investing in content that inspires. Keep the wonder of travel alive. She talked about the success at least one destination has had in creating a Google Earth tours and said anyone could use this free to showcase traveler experiences. Remember a few weeks ago when Thunder:Tech talked about the importance of partnering along the route? This could be a great tool to do this.
5. Recycle your content – Re-promote content to keep it visible. Update existing content to keep it current and useful. Convert content into another format. Repurpose existing information into a new piece of content – divide bigger content into smaller chunks. Curate existing content. During the community chat on Thursday, July 23, Jacquie said recycling content is a great way to manage content with limited staff. Look at your existing content. Can you take bits and pieces out of what is already developed, make it more visual and give it a makeover? This would be far-less time-consuming that starting anew. She suggests exploring Airtable as a way of cataloging your content so it can be easily found later.
6. Update your bios – Make sure users can find your reopening plans and experiences with one click.
7. Shift What and When - While social media use has increased, how it’s being used is changing because our lives have changed. Take a closer look at your analytics. There are definitely shifts occurring in what works and when it works. Although there is an increase in engagement in video posts, there’s an even greater engagement increase with posts with no images or video. When you deliver content also needs reexamined; while 10 a.m. was the best time to post pre-pandemic, now it’s 10 p.m. Look at your insight data again. Buffer and Hootsuite provide free tools.
8. Lean on influencers and partners – Who are your influencers? They may not be the same as before; in fact, your employees and their families can be influencers for you right now. Consider reaching out to microbloggers on Youtube. SparkToro is a new tool for finding influencers by finding those who are talking about topics you enter.
9. Post with purpose – Ask yourself exactly why you are posting? A few things to avoid right now include the following:
   • Content around mass gatherings or events that cities have proactively canceled
   • Content promoting canceled events, programs or activities
   • Imagery that shows people physically touching
   • Captions and copy that could come across as insensitive
   • Copy that may spread misinformation, even if intended as a jokes
10. Weave in more user generated content – User generated content is said to be 35% more memorable than other media and 50% more trusted. Get your audience involved in creating UGC by creating contests, such as posing as Getty’s recreation of famous paintings. One great tip is to give contests time to work and support them early by ‘planting’ early participants.
11. Use content to help not sell – She said to view content creation from the eyes of a magazine editor and not a salesperson. She recommended looking at REI for inspiration.

Keeping with the content marketing trend, we will explore leveraging organic and paid promotional tools with Brian Matson of TwoSix Digital in our next Travel Marketing Webinar on August 5 at 10 a.m. In order to reach relevant audiences, every content marketer needs to know how to use the various content promotion tools now available to them. Brian will break down valuable strategies and explore the vast array of new options now available. Your business is going to need to be using the most powerful tools available during the recovery period. Whether you have $5 or $5,000 this webinar will help you choose the best strategies to promote your business. Seats are limited and we don't want you to miss this great information, so don't forget to register here.

Missed an opportunity to learn? Here are just some of the goodies we learned from previous webinars. 

Media Channels that are Working, Consumer Journeys and other Insights (LocalIQ)

Top Travel Experiences Most Sought-After (Midwest Living/Meredith Corporation)

Marketing Roadmap Shared to Guide Your Marketing and Messaging (Madden Media)

Getting Your Share of the Drive Market (Thunder:Tech)

Working with Media and Influencers (Inspire PR)

Thank you to our sponsors for making this webinar series possible.