Content marketers have roughly the same goals when it comes to creating and distributing content along the travel customer journey: Make consumers aware of their offerings, move them from consideration to booking, serve them well en route and in the destination, and continue the conversation after travelers return home to encourage a second visit, stay or journey.
This presentation, delivered by the Pace team at Content Marketing World 2015, focused on engaging an audience with different types of content suited to varying stages of the travel customer journey.
Key takeaways:
-Discover your audience and build a customer journey
-Focus on content that provides inspiration or information according to journey stages
-Find contributors everywhere—partnerships, community, professionals, staff
-Use channels independently and together to get your content out there
-Start small, measure success, and test and learn
No Cookies No Problem - Steve Krull, Be Found Online
Engaging, Entertaining and Retaining Your Travel Audience
1. Engaging, Entertaining and
Retaining Your Audience:
How to meet your audience where they
Dream, Plan, Stay, Enjoy and Share.
Juliette Reynolds
Director, Digital Strategy, Pace
juliette.reynolds@paceco.com
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
2. AGENDA
① Audience Insights and the Customer Journey
② Inspiring Dreamers
③ Satisfying Planners
④ Delighting Passengers/Visitors/Guests
⑤ Activating Sharers
⑥ Your Turn
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
4. I LOVE AN AUDIENCE. I WORK
BETTER WITH AN AUDIENCE. I
AM DEAD, IN FACT, WITHOUT
ONE.
Lucille Ball
American actress and comedian
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
5. KNOW ME
① Who are you talking to?
② Develop your primary customer journey
③ Consider the needs of repeat customers
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
6. • Research
• Behavioral data/observation
• Segmentation & personas
Understand your audience
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
7. All About Me
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
Consumers
expect a level
of recognition
and relevance
as they interact
with your brand
8. Travel Customer Journey
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
Inspiration
Planning
BookingExperiencing
Sharing
Identify a primary
customer journey for
your business as a place
to begin implementing
consumer-centric
strategies
10. MOVE ME
① Content that attracts and engages
② Formats
③ Influencers
④ Partnerships
⑤ Channel and activation strategies:
- Events
- Social
- Email
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
11. Consumers are becoming more discerning
The blog post has become commoditized and common; be judicious
Brands that build a content program with variety will be successful at content
activation and engagement:
• Short and sharable for cross-channel seeding
• Longer, immersive and/or serial content types (e.g. video series, multi-media
experiences, serial storytelling and long form narratives) for deep engagement
Content evolution
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
12. Format matters – the long and
the short of it
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
13. THE PAST FEW YEARS HAVE SEEN
MARKETERS BEGIN TO REALIZE THE POWER
OF SMALL, DISTINCTLY INFLUENTIAL ONLINE
PERSONALITIES… INSTEAD OF LOOKING FOR
MICRO-CELEBRITIES WITH LOTS OF
FOLLOWERS OR LIKES, IT WILL BECOME
INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT TO TEASE OUT
THE ACTUAL COMPOSITION OF THEIR
FOLLOWING.
Brian Honigman
CEO
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
16. Email
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
Consumers are addicted to email. With
the rise of smartphones, our email goes
with us EVERYWHERE.
Study respondents spend:
• 6.3 hours each weekday checking
their email
• 3.2 hours spent checking work email
• 3.1 hours checking personal email
• Millennials check email more than
any other group
26. THE FUTURE OF STORYTELLING
ISN’T ABOUT TELLING ANYONE
ANYTHING. IT’S ABOUT
STORYMAKING, WHERE THE BRAND
FACILITATES AND TAPS INTO THE
STORIES PEOPLE ARE CREATING
AND SHARING WITH EACH OTHER.
David Berkowitz
CMO
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
31. SHOW ME YOU KNOW ME
① Just-in-time content that eases travel and delights
② Underused – easier for airlines, hotels, attractions and
anyone with booking; more challenging for DMOs, since
you don’t have a record of travel dates
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
35. OMG – CHECK THIS OUT!
① Content that makes people want to share
② Thinking outside the box
③ Crowdsourcing content
④ Cross-channel promotion
⑤ Non-stop invitations to participate
@PaceComm • #CMWorld
41. • Discover your audience and build a customer journey
• Focus on content that provides inspiration or information according to
journey stages
• Find contributors everywhere – partnerships, community, professionals,
staff
• Use channels independently and together to get your content out there
• Start small, measure success and test and learn
Key Takeaways
@PaceComm • #CMWorld