14 Top Reasons Why Blogging is an Important Content Marketing Strategy for Tourism Businesses
In the tourism industry, blogging and content marketing is one of the most important tactics for telling your story and engaging your ideal customers in your brand. All of your social media posts and email newsletters are essentially driven by your blog posts because they are a form of content marketing. Destination marketing is built on the foundation of storytelling. Communicating the story of your destination is more difficult than simply understanding it. Branding and awareness campaigns can help you get your message across, but the ‘real’ stories about your destination and the ‘actual’ experiences visitors can have when they visit are what will pique their interest and keep bringing them back.
In this article we’ve outlined the 14 reasons why blogging should be a key part of your Tourism Marketing Strategy that can complement your other channels and avenues of attracting visitors.
14 Amazing Reasons Why Blogging & Content Marketing Is Essential for a Tourism Business
1. Your Tourism Blog & Content is Yours
Unlike the content you post on social media, which you don’t control or can be taken, shared or plagiarised, your blog posts on your own website you do own and control.
Your Tourism Business’ blog content will always be accessible to your readers, whereas Facebook and Instagram’s constantly changing algorithms make it harder each year for your content to be discovered and show up in followers’ news feeds. With the reach of organic social posts diminishing all the time, your blog content does not suffer from the over-saturation and algorithms of social media.
2. Blogs and Content Marketing are Great for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
It is critical for tourist attractions and destinations to have an SEO strategy in place and to put it into action. Search engines love fresh content, and blogs are an excellent way to add that content to your website, which can help it rise in the rankings making your business more discoverable. Typically, the number of websites with blogs has increased indexed pages by 434% on average. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can help your articles show up in the results of your customers questions and searches typed into their smartphones before and while travelling. In turn, search engines will see your website as a valuable resource that needs to be discovered and help to increase your impressions.
3. Blog Content is ‘Evergreen’ Content
Social content disappears into the ether after 24 hours and email content is gone once it’s deleted, whereas blog content remains evergreen – content that is continually relevant and stays fresh for readers over time. Within a few seconds of receiving an email or seeing a social media post from you, your customers have already moved on to the next one. With evergreen content being discovered every month, this simply means that they are always available to new visitors on your website. As a bonus, blog posts can be easily shared by you or others, which is a great SEO strategy and helps even more people discover your brand!
4. Blogs Attracts More Visitors to Your Website
The core of SEO is content, and search engines are always on the lookout for high-quality, interesting, and authoritative content to populate their results pages. If you engage an agency for SEO work, a majority of that work is going to be writing content that sits on the pages of your website (but not a blog). As a result, having a range of content your website can be found by people looking for a variety of experiences, not just those looking for your destination’s name in the search engine results, because each blog post can target specific and relevant search terms. Blogs also help to bring your current audience to your site. In order to read a blog post you’ve shared via social media or email, your audience has to go to your website to do so. People (who are already interested in your brand) will be more likely to visit your tourism business or purchase your product if they visit your website, so take advantage of the opportunity while you have them!
There are many factors that go into search engine rankings, including the quality of your content and how much attention it receives on social media as well as your blog, as well as the number of shares and comments it receives. When your authoritative posts receive an increase in qualified visitors to your website, you have the opportunity to convert them into actual visitors to your destination.
Discovery Parks great example of a blog.
5. Blog Content is Shareable
As mentioned earlier, creating and sharing awesome blog content that resonates with your ideal customer will help spread the word about your product, destination and brand because it will bring more people to read your blog post on your website.
6. Blogs Build Trust and Loyalty
Keep in touch with your customers by writing a blog for both current, former and future customers. Blogs help to keep your business at the forefront of your customers’ minds (brand awareness and retention) and to remind them about your tourism business, product/service and destination. Whether they are ready to engage or visit for the first time or are repeat purchasers, be sure to share new blog posts on social media and send out eNewsletters to them, helping to achieve brand loyalty.
7. Credibility for Your Brand and Company
Blogs are an excellent way to establish yourself as an authority in your area and to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Suppose you were comparing two accommodation options, both of which had essentially the same product offerings, but one had a lot more helpful blog articles than the other, which would you continue to browse and potentially visit? It would be far more appealing to visitors if they could be greeted by someone who seemed to have an intimate knowledge of the area and its offering.
You can gain more credibility with your audience and enhance your brand image while also establishing yourself as an expert by using blogs to disseminate accurate and valuable information. Online, where building trust between a company and its target audience can take a long time, this is as good as gold. Writing a blog is a great way to quickly build trust with your audience. Remember there are a range of blog post styles; educational, informational, topical, transactional etc.
Taronga Zoo‘s Blog.
8. Blogs Are Low Cost, High Conversion & Time-Effective
Aside from the time and money it takes to hire a web developer to set up a blog on your website (or if you have WordPress, Shopify or another user-friendly platform, it’s quite easy to do yourself), blogging is a low-cost marketing strategy with a high return on investment. More leads will come your way, and you’ll save money and time doing it. It takes time and money to generate leads, but blogging is an efficient way to do so while also increasing the number of leads. Over time, blogs are also more cost and time effective than other forms of marketing; social and google advertising require continual financial outlay, while blogs only take time but recuperate this 10-fold.
9. Share Your Brand’s Knowledge, Opinion and Point of View
As well as sharing information on your products, destination and brand, your blog can also be used to share your knowledge with your audience. From topical news where you can share your opinion and point of view, to interests where you can share your knowledge and expertise, it is easy to craft and communicate your brands voice and message to your audience.
10. Blogs Build Brand Advocacy & a Dynamic Online Presence for Your Destination
The vast majority of websites promoting travel and tourism in Australia are two-dimensional or flat. In addition to a never-ending list of tourist attractions, these sites provide comprehensive details on the region, upcoming events, and the ability to search for and book accommodations, tours and services. A wish list or itinerary builder may offer a small amount of interactivity, but in my experience, these features don’t increase conversions. None of these features, however, are designed to inspire a desire to travel to a specific location.
Instead of just telling potential visitors “what to do,” destinations can use blogs to tell their stories and build relationships with them by showing them the real experiences they can have while visiting the area. Through great storytelling, brands can share real experiences, behind the scenes, tips and more that are all genuine to readers compared to tourism sites that just promote venues for affiliate purposes.
Blog posts also help brand advocacy by allowing readers to interact and respond to them. An additional selling point is the ability for readers to interact with real people who actually visit and live in the area by commenting on blog posts. This engagement will help the tourism businesses convert more visitors. A blog’s social value is enhanced by the ease with which it can be shared on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Adding social media share buttons to your blog can also encourage your readers to spread the word about your content, all in turn increasing online visibility.
11. Blogs Lead To More Links
Your blog’s SEO will benefit greatly if a high-ranking website and other websites links back to your blog post. As a result of high-quality blog content, companies that blog receive nearly 100 percent more links to their site than those that do not. Links help lead to more readers as well as increased ranking for search terms, and your blogs.
Meriton Suites‘ Tourism Blog
12. Content Marketing Leads To Brand Partnerships and Collaboration
Isn’t it true that “two heads are better than one”? In business, the same is true. As a business owner, collaboration is often the key to success in marketing your brand. With the help of collaborating with other businesses, you’ll be able to better accomplish your marketing objectives. In the end, both parties benefit from a mutually beneficial partnership in which they work together. Digital advertising can cost as much as 25% more than brand collaborations. Partnerships and collaborative marketing don’t mean both businesses necessarily need to go all out; you can start small with a series of co-posted blog articles, promoting each other, and then shared via social to help increase the visibility of both businesses. When you work together, make it about helping the audience and customer rather than making money. In the end, the result should be about creating connections.
13. Gain Audience Insights & Sign-ups With Blogs
Having a blog where readers can post comments and feedback, as well as subscribe, has a lot of advantages. In this way, you’ll be able to discover what people are interested in and why they’re there. When managing the content for your blog, part of your content strategy will include regular analysis to determine the best types of content for your blog. Blogs will also be able to build a database of subscribers and learn more about them.
14. Content Marketing Help With Your Business’ Competition
Most likely some of your competitors have a blog on their website, meaning they are taking advantage of all these advantages that you aren’t. Because they have a blog and you don’t, your competitors have better SEO, more leads, a larger network, more links, and most likely more customers. Blogs can help your business stay competitive online through traffic acquisition, keyword ranking, visibility and advocacy. Check out our case study for Auski Australia here, in one year, blogs helped to bring in an additional 130,000 readers to the website, increasing brand awareness as well as revenue.
The Key to Destination and Tourism Content Marketing is creating Exceptional Content
Content creation is what attracts and influences customers in the consideration stage of their purchasing funnel. Blogs, reviews, and customer comments are among the top 10 sources of information people use before purchasing a product or engaging with a business. Because of this, destinations and tourism businesses should focus their efforts on word-of-mouth marketing, as well as the creation of unique, engaging, and relevant content on a blog.
Why all Tourism Businesses & Destinations Should Be Doing Content Marketing & Blogs
It’s a smart way to invest money on blogging and content !
Many tourist businesses destinations are pouring resources into building a presence on third-party platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Social media isn’t a waste of time; on the contrary, it provides an excellent opportunity for interaction. However, because of the short shelf life of social content, no content should be created specifically for it.
Evergreen content on your blog means that it will always be accessible and can therefore be re-posted, ensuring that it will have an infinite lifespan. Consequently, all content should be developed, posted, and then disseminated through your blog and other social media channels. You can continue to share your fantastic content while also encouraging people to visit your website in order to access it, increasing the likelihood that your destination will be considered as a prime choice to convert by potential visitors.
Setting up a Blog for Your Tourism Business
Instead of using a subdomain like ‘blog.tourism.com’ or a separate domain like ‘www.tourismblog.com,’ you should always host your blog in a subfolder of your main domain, such as ‘www.tourism.com/blog.’ Because your blog is a subfolder of your main website, search engines will treat it as a single site and rank your posts higher because of the authority of your main site. Inbound links and social media activity on your blog posts will also help your website because they are all pointing to your main domain.
Have any questions about how blogs and content marketing can help your business? Get in touch today (we respond quickly :P)!
Pink Lemonade is located on the traditional lands of the palawa people, the Traditional Owners of lutruwita (Tasmania). We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.
Pink Lemonade Social is a proudly inclusive organisation and an ally of LGBTIQ+ community and the movement toward equality.
Definitely has me thinking and planning how to incorporate a blog for our tourism business. Thanks for this handy article!
Glad it helped Martin!
We are hoping to increase our web traffic for our accommodation, and this article is so helpful. Now to just start planning and writing 🙂
Best of luck Sam!
This is an excellent blog post. Your writing style is engaging and the content is well-researched. I particularly liked your analysis in this. Keep sharing such valuable information.