My presentation on content marketing (assignment 5)

1. Content
Marketing
Billy Mooney
For a travel website

2. What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is defined by 'The content
Marketing Institute' as "a strategic marketing
approach that focuses on creating and
distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent
content to attract and retain a clearly defined
audience." To expand upon this, content
marketing is about creating content tailored to
your niche that your brand is attempting to
gain the attention of, rather than just directly
advertising to them in, let's say, a traditional
advertisement.
Content marketing is not a modern concept, it is something that has been used by brands since
John Deere started his magazine "The Furrow" in 1895. He was the pioneer of the new content
marketing which, according to stratwell.ca, had a viewership of 4 million in 1912. This greatly
increased the attention placed on his business and also bringing people into his niche from outside.
We are attempting to do the same with your travel business, so the following will be all about
content marketing, and how your niche and also not in your niche use content marketing to increase
attention into their businesses, and also what you can do to increase traffic using these principles
from the examples.

3. Different forms of content Marketing
Blogs
Video
Webinar Podcasts
Good content is needed for content marketing to work, but do not start creating
content without first having a plan set out on how you will attract your niche market. It
is important to create unique content aimed at your niche, content could be any of the
following:
Social media posts
Articles
Posting content relating to travel is a great way to gain traction to your brand, to keep people coming to your brand you need to keep yourself in their
feed- this serves almost as advertising to those who follow you.
Social media

4. Social media should be one your first thoughts
when it comes to posting content. Social media
gives you the best chance of getting people to view
your content and therefore discovering your
business. Social media is great for small businesses
to get their content viewed.
Posting to social media as a priority generates extra interest and attention onto
your brand- which also helps with growth of your business. It can also be a good
idea to make announcements for your business, such as this one- with Thomson
Family Travel being featured on the New York Times.

5. Blogs
A great example of a travel blog would be nomadicmatt.com. It is a blog designed for making travel cheaper for the average
person by giving some of the best things to do in a selected location. SEO should be used to find out what the travel industry
is searching for most and then tailor your blogs to find those people.
As you can see by the
images, this blog brings
much value to the
person who is looking to
travel.
The two images below are from
the travelblotg.org, which unlike
nomadicmac.com, it instead
focuses on the community posting
about their travel highlights. So
people instead can see images and
their description of where they
went etc.
The contrast offered between these two sights is interesting because they are both travel blogs but they go about writing in their blog very
differently. Nomadicmac.com is very 'top down' as in you cannot add to the page, whereas the travel blog is completely different in that aspect-
offering a much more community focus. Both work as they are both very popular blogging sights.

6. Videos
In terms of video there is so many different things that one could do. Videos should aim to be relatively short unless you deliberately need the video to be long form.
Certain topic such as 'what to do' type videos, or top places to go- do really well on the YouTube algorithm. There is so many different things you could do for video-
so you can be very creative.
As you can see
from the views on
the videos, these
types of videos do
extremely well on
YouTube, and if
your brand would
be interested in
becoming viral, this
is definitely a type
of video you could
create.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7vmHGAshi8
In this video, what I believe to be a
travel agent is talking about how she
can get cheap flights on Google. At
the end of the video she uses a CTA,
which is to follow her account for
more tips and tricks on how to save
money when travelling. This, in my
opinion, is a powerful form of
content marketing because you are
providing very useful information
and all you ask in return is for a
follow.
Some more YouTube content
marketing videos

7. Infographics
Infographics can be a great way to communicate information in an easily readable and digestible manner to the customer. These created images can
give a lot of value despite it only being a small image, and can actually help the facts be a lot more memorable.
Notice how the image on the right has the 'travel
trolley' logo, because of the design of an
infographic, the logo being placed on the image
makes it stick out significantly more without the
customer necessarily feeling advertised to.
Infographics can be used to explain complicated
information in one page.

8. Articles
Articles are a great way of creating content
For example, I was recently in Snowdonia
and articles such as these were incredibly
useful, as a brand it is all about providing value
to your industry which will, in turn, give you your
business.
An example of travel articles you could create
are things to do in certain places.
The articles should be written in a personal
tone, in first-person and conversational in
tone. For the reader, this makes it easier to
read and pick out the key elements from the
article.
This is an example of a brand that use articles for content marketing.
'Go World Travel Magazine' uses their content to gain attention for
their business.

9. Testimonials and reviews from customers
Many companies use testimonials as a way to show
customers who have had a good experience with their
service, they are extremely useful to show your credibility
and that people trust your company. This is a very direct
form of content because it says to the customer "you can
trust us, look at these people who have had positive
experience".

10. Podcasts
In social media today, podcasts have become increasingly more popular, the same can be said for the travel industry
also, presenting a very interesting content opportunity.
Podcasts are for those who are really
interested in a certain niche, so you
will be able to get the really
committed audience in your niche to
listen to your brand- or maybe even
bring new listeners to your industry.
'The Travel diaries' podcast
features interesting stories
relating to travel, such as people
who have travelled to every
country or how to plan a gap year.

11. eBooks/Books
Again we have Nomadic
Matt who wrote his
eBook/book "Ten years a
nomad" This book is
available either digitally or
online. It is definitely
important to target some
of your content to
readers because (1) they
will pay for the book and
(2) readers will be more
likely to check out all of
your content if they like
you as an author.
Furthermore, you can have
far more influence over
someone given they will
read at least one-
hundred+ pages rather
than a one page article or
blog.
'How To Start A Home Travel
Agency Business' By Sandra Day
Another example aside
from travel books or travel
guides, the other type of
ebook is a travel business
guide for those interested
in going into business
inside the travel industry.
An ebook can be used in content marketing to provide immense value- it should not be a 3 page advert, providing as much information as possible.
The organisation can then use a 'CTA' for the customer to give their email to receive this eBook, which then opens up another way to market to the
customer.

12. Tiktok and YouTube shorts/ GIfs and memes
Since the advent and rise of social media platform, TikTok, short videos have become increasingly mainstream. Therefore , this is now a very
important sub topic which you should create content in.
Shorts such as these
are very popular, which
are encouraging people
to go travelling. Your
company could
replicate similar shorts
featuring a certain
deals or countries.
A good example again is 'Nomadic Matt' who publishes content such as this on his Instagram
account, this form of content is very popular on today's internet. They are designed to be
relatable and entertaining to your audience. This is a great way to keep your audience following
you and may even help them get further along the buyer's journey.
According to LyfeMarketing.com, 52% of people prefer to watch a video before buying a
product. Keep this in mind in your content, as this statistic really shows how important
video is when marketing.

13. Guides and how-tos
Travel 'guides and how-to's' can come in different forms- they can come in forms such as physical books or in electronic form.
Here, Nomadic Matt, created travel guides for
countries based on people travelling on a budget. In
fact, his whole brand is focused towards that niche
within the travel industry itself. Because he has this
niche already set up within his company, he can
create many different forms of content towards that
same demographic.
Lonely Planet is another popular travel website. These books are set up
similarly, both books are paid. They are guides in how best to spend your time in
each country, but because they are £10 or more they really offer the reader
great substance.
Guides and 'how-tos' most commonly come in
article form and very much links to my previous
slide on the topic. One should definitely try to
focus on creating easy to read, helpful content.
In the 'remember your travels' section,
Nomadic Matt has a CTA. "Buy your copy
today" and it is also advertised as 'remember
your travels'

14. Bibliography
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(Accessed: 15 July 2023).
(No date) Login • instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/thomsonfamilyadventures/ (Accessed: 15 July 2023).
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Nomadic matt’s travel site (2021) Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site. Available at: https://www.nomadicmatt.com/ (Accessed: 15 July 2023).
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Sahni, H. et al. (2023) 42 engaging infographic examples for inspiration plus templates, Piktochart. Available at: https://piktochart.com/blog/infographic-examples/ (Accessed: 15 July 2023).
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