As the owner of a travel website, you know that content is king. Engaging, informative content keeps visitors on your site, builds your brand, and drives conversions. However, creating enough high-quality content to satisfy search engines and readers is challenging. This article on adventure landing pages will explore proven content marketing strategies tailored for travel websites that you can implement to boost traffic, improve search engine optimization, build your mailing list, and increase sales. Whether you're just launching your travel site or looking to revamp an existing content strategy, these techniques are sure to capture the interest of travel enthusiasts and keep them coming back for more. With some planning and persistence, you'll gain a loyal readership and watch your business take off.
Content Marketing Strategies For Travel Websites
As a travel website, your content is key to attracting and engaging visitors. By implementing effective content marketing strategies, you can build authority, increase traffic, and boost conversions.
Focus on High-Value Content
Provide useful information that answers your audience's questions and addresses their needs. For example, publish ultimate packing lists, city guides, reviews of lesser-known destinations, or roundups of budget-friendly travel gear. This high-value content gives visitors a reason to return to your site again and again.
Optimize for Search Engines
Use keywords in your page titles, URLs, headings, and content. Include location names, activity types (e.g. adventure travel, luxury resorts), and phrases like “things to do in...”. Place important keywords towards the top of your content. Also, interlink to related content on your site. All of these on-page SEO techniques will help search engines find and rank your content.
Build Links
Reach out to other travel websites, blogs, and influencers to build quality backlinks to your content. Guest blogging, link exchanges, and influencer marketing are effective ways to gain more external links while also increasing referral traffic and brand awareness.
Engage With Social Media
Share your content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to increase social traffic. Engage with your followers by posting eye-catching photos, running social contests and giveaways, and starting discussions. Build relationships with social influencers in the travel niche to gain more exposure.
Continuously Improve and Expand
Revisit old content to update facts, refresh designs, improve SEO, and add or remove details as needed. Look for new topics to cover based on search trends and your audience’s interests. A blog with a large, varied content library has more opportunities to rank well in search engines and provide value to readers. Continuous optimization and expansion of your content marketing will drive the best results.
Using Stories to Connect With Your Audience
To connect with your audience, tell stories about the experiences your company offers. Describe in vivid detail what visitors can expect, highlighting things that make the destination unique. For example, discuss the local cuisine, cultural attractions, natural scenery, outdoor recreational activities, etc.
In addition to written stories, include high-quality photos and videos. Post compelling images of the location and activities on your website and social media. Create short video clips showcasing the sounds and sights. These visuals allow people to imagine themselves in the place you're promoting.
Affiliate marketing is another way to leverage stories. Partner with local businesses, tour operators, hotel chains, and activity providers. Ask them to include information about your destination on their platforms, and offer to do the same for them. Cross-promotion expands reach and fosters mutually beneficial relationships.
With stories and affiliate partnerships, you can tap into the enthusiasm others have for travel and adventure. People who are passionate about a location or activity are often eager to share details and recommendations with their own audiences. Leverage their stories and networks to spread awareness of all your destination offers.
To recap, here are some of the most effective storytelling strategies for travel websites:
- Share written stories, photos and videos highlighting experiences
- Partner with local affiliates for cross-promotion
- Repurpose stories from people passionate about the location
- Focus on the unique aspects of culture, cuisine, scenery and recreation
- Bring the destination to life with vivid descriptions and visuals
Using stories in these ways helps build connections that inspire travel. People can envision the experiences awaiting them, fostering an emotional motivation to visit. With stories at the heart of your content marketing strategy, you'll gain new audiences and increase interest in all your destination has to offer.
Creating Your Landing Page with Unicorn Platform
To create an effective landing page for your travel website with Unicorn Platform, follow these steps:
- Choose a template. Select from Unicorn Platform’s gallery of professionally-designed templates for travel and tourism websites. Some recommended options include their “Adventure Travel,” “Tropical Getaway,” or “World Explorer” templates which feature eye-catching images of exotic locations.
- Add your logo and brand colors. Ensure your company’s logo, brand colors, and fonts are prominently displayed on the page to reinforce your brand identity for visitors.
- Optimize for conversions. The goal of your landing page is to convert visitors into customers or subscribers. Include clear calls-to-action like “Book Now” or “Sign Up” buttons above the fold to capture visitors’ attention quickly.
- Focus on benefits and solutions. Use persuasive copy and vibrant images to sell the key benefits and solutions your travel services offer to visitors. Highlight things like stress-free travel, cultural experiences, adventure, relaxation, or affordability.
- Include social proof. Feature authentic reviews and ratings from satisfied customers to build trust and credibility. You can also include the logos of publications that have featured or recommended your company.
- Provide valuable content. Give visitors a reason to stay on your page by offering useful content like an inspiring travel guide, packing checklist, or blog post on trending destinations. This content should be visually engaging and match your brand’s tone.
- Mobile-optimized. Ensure your landing page is fully responsive and provides an excellent experience for visitors on mobile devices. Many travelers will first discover your website on their phones or tablets.
- A/B test. Try multiple variations of your landing page and see which one generates the most conversions. You may want to test things like different copy, images, or call-to-action button styles. Make data-driven decisions based on the results.
Crafting a high-converting landing page is key to the success of your travel website. By following these recommendations and best practices, you will create an landing page that captures the interest of visitors and inspires them to become your next customers. Utilizing a simple website builder like Unicorn Platform streamlines the process so you can focus on what really matters: connecting with travel enthusiasts all over the world.
Building an Email List and Drip Campaign
Building an email list and creating an automated email drip campaign is one of the most effective content marketing strategies for travel websites. By collecting email addresses from your visitors and customers, you can stay in regular contact with them and promote your latest content, deals and special offers.
Grow Your Email List
The first step is adding an email signup form prominently on your website. Offer an incentive like a free eBook or newsletter to encourage people to subscribe. You should also promote your email list on your social media profiles and in your content. Some other techniques for list building include:
- Running an email signup contest or giveaway
- Collaborating with other travel brands to cross-promote to each other’s audiences
- Allowing people to sign up during the booking process
- Placing signup forms in strategic locations like in your site header, footer and sidebar
Create an Automated Email Drip Campaign
Once you have subscribers, set up an automated email drip campaign to nurture them. This involves sending a series of emails over time with relevant content and offers for your business. For example, you might send:
- A welcome email with a discount or gift for subscribing
- Tips for planning their next trip
- Promotions for seasonal travel deals and packages
- Links to your latest blog posts, videos and other content
- Special offers only available to email subscribers
To maximize effectiveness, emails should be personalized, provide value to readers and have a clear call-to-action. The key is to not bombard your list with constant promotional messages but build a genuine relationship and trust with subscribers over the long-term through helpful and engaging content. With a well-designed drip campaign, you can boost traffic, increase sales and gain a competitive advantage.
Continuously optimizing your email marketing and drip campaigns based on open and click-through rates will help strengthen your connection with subscribers and keep them active and engaged with your brand. When done right, email marketing can be one of the most profitable strategies for travel websites.
Collaborating With Influencers in the Travel Niche
Collaborating with influencers in the travel niche is an effective way to increase visibility and drive qualified traffic to your travel website. Micro-influencers, in particular, can be very useful partners. These are influencers with smaller but highly engaged followings, often in a specific travel genre like adventure travel or food and wine.
Look for influencers whose content and audience match your brand and the experiences you offer. Do some research to find influencers talking about destinations you serve or the types of activities and accommodations you provide. Once you identify good candidates, reach out to them about possible collaborations. Some options include:
Guest Blogging
Invite influencers to contribute a blog post to your site. This provides them exposure to your audience and boosts your content output. Be sure to give them creative freedom and promote the post heavily to both audiences.
Social Media Takeovers
Have an influencer “take over” your social media profiles for a day to provide their followers with a behind-the-scenes look at your brand. This works well on highly visual platforms like Instagram Stories and Snapchat.
Brand Ambassadors
For long-term partnerships, consider bringing on select influencers as brand ambassadors. Provide them trip credits, media access or other perks in exchange for ongoing social promotion and blog coverage of your experiences. Ambassadors can become powerful advocates for your brand.
Cross-Promotion
Work with influencers on social media promotions, giveaways and contests that drive traffic and engagement for both audiences. For example, you could offer a free trip or experience to the influencer’s followers and promote it to your own audience as well. Cross-promotion leverages the combined reach of both followings.
Using these techniques, you can build lasting relationships with influencers in the travel space and significantly expand the visibility of your website. Be authentic, provide value for both parties, and make influencer marketing an ongoing part of your content strategy. With the right partners and outreach, influencer collaborations can become a key driver of new customers and brand awareness.
Working With Affiliate Partners to Drive Referral Traffic
Working with affiliate partners is an effective way for travel websites to drive referral traffic and increase bookings. Affiliate programs allow you to build partnerships with complementary businesses in the tourism industry to cross-promote to each other’s audiences.
Find Relevant Partners
Seek out affiliates with audiences similar to your own, such as:
- Travel bloggers and influencers
- Tour operators and activity providers
- Accommodation sites
- Airlines and transportation companies
- Destination marketing organizations
Build a network of partners at different points in the customer journey to provide value to visitors at every stage. For example, partner with airlines to capture users researching flights, tour companies for those planning activities, and hotels for accommodation bookings.
Create a Compelling Offer
Develop an appealing affiliate program that provides real incentives for partners to promote your business. Typical offers include:
- Commission on bookings and sales: Pay a percentage of the total booking value. Aim for 10-20% for high-quality affiliates.
- Flat rate payouts: Pay a fixed amount per lead, click, or action. This works well if you have a low average booking value.
- Hybrid model: Combine commission and flat rate payouts. Pay higher rates for more valuable actions like bookings.
Simplify the Sign-Up Process
Make it easy for affiliates to join your program. Provide a simple online registration with an approval process that moves quickly. Be transparent about the terms of your offer and provide marketing materials affiliates can use right away to start promoting your business.
Maintain Strong Relationships
Communicate regularly with your affiliates to keep them engaged. Send newsletters with updates, offers, and new marketing materials. Be available to answer any questions. Track the performance of different affiliates and increase commission rates for your top partners. Thank affiliates for their promotions and highlight the impact of referrals on your business. Strong relationships with affiliates lead to greater loyalty and higher referral volume over the long run.
Creating Useful Resources for Your Audience
Creating useful resources for your audience, such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, and free tools, is an effective way to provide value and build trust. When crafting resources, focus on topics that would benefit your target customers and support them in their journey.
For a travel website, useful resources could include:
- Destination guides: Write blog posts highlighting top things to see and do in popular locations. Include recommendations for attractions, food, nightlife, and seasonal events.
- Travel tips: Share advice for planning, packing, budgeting, transportation, safety, and any obstacles travelers may face. For example, a post on “10 Tips for Traveling on a Budget” or “What to Pack for a Beach Vacation.”
- Videos: Create video content like destination previews, “day in the life” vlogs, recommendations from locals, or answers to frequently asked questions. Videos are highly engaging and help to connect with your audience.
- Podcasts: Start a podcast discussing travel stories, experiences, news, and advice. Interview industry experts, locals from different destinations, and fellow travelers. Podcasts build rapport and loyalty with listeners.
- Free tools: Provide free resources to help your audience, such as packing lists, budget calculators, translation guides, or maps. For example, a “Must-See Attractions” map for major cities that your customers can download. These valuable tools will keep people coming back to your site.
Focus on consistency and quality over quantity. Choose topics strategically and make resources visually appealing and easy to read. Promote your content on social media using relevant hashtags and by engaging with influencers in the travel industry. Valuable, high-quality resources that provide real value to your audience will establish your website as a trusted source of information and guidance. With consistent effort, you can build a loyal community of followers.
Repurposing Content Across Multiple Channels
Repurposing your content across multiple channels is an easy way to maximize your content marketing efforts. By adapting pieces you have already created, you can reach new audiences and increase traffic to your travel website.
Reformat for Different Platforms
Take blog posts, videos, or other content you have produced and reformat them for platforms like Medium, LinkedIn, and YouTube. These sites have huge audiences, so repurposing content for them is an simple tactic that can drive major traffic. You may need to shorten or reword pieces to optimize them for each channel.
Turn Long-Form Content into Short Posts
If you have ebooks, whitepapers or other long-form content, extract key stats, stories or insights to create social media posts, blog articles or other short-form content. For example, pull out important quotes, travel tips or key findings and expand on them, adding images and formatting for social media or your blog. These snippets will capture interest and lead audiences back to the original, more in-depth piece.
Create Visual Content from Articles or Transcripts
Turn written content like blog posts, ebooks or video transcripts into visual content such as infographics, charts, travel tips or “listicles.” Eye-catching images and graphics are highly shareable on social media and an easy way to repackage information you have already compiled. They break up blocks of text and cater to visual learners.
Turn Blog Posts into Video Scripts
If you have blog posts with stories, interviews, or actionable advice, consider adapting them into video scripts. You can then film short video tutorials, behind-the-scenes footage, or explainer videos to share on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Videos are engaging and a dynamic way to bring your content to life for followers.
Repurposing content across platforms and formats is a simple strategy that can help maximize your content marketing efforts for a travel website. By adapting what you have already created, you can reach new audiences, increase traffic, and gain more value from the content you produce.
FAQs About Engaging With Affiliates In The Tourism Industry
As a travel website, working with affiliates in the tourism industry can be an effective way to increase traffic and revenue. However, there are a few key things to keep in mind when engaging affiliates:
Choose Relevant Affiliates
Focus on affiliates whose audience and content are closely aligned with your travel brand. For example, target travel bloggers, YouTube channels, and Instagram influencers in your niche. Their followers will be genuinely interested in the types of destinations and experiences you offer.
Provide Useful Resources
Give your affiliates resources that will make it easy for them to promote your company, such as professionally written blog posts, high-quality images, logos, and promotional codes. The more valuable tools you provide, the more inclined they will be to frequently recommend your services.
Offer Competitive Commissions
Compensate your affiliates generously and in line with industry standards. Most travel affiliate programs offer between 5-15% commissions. Be willing to negotiate commission rates, especially for influencers who can drive a high volume of sales.
Track Performance and Optimize
Use affiliate tracking software to monitor which affiliates are generating the most traffic and revenue. Then focus your efforts on building closer relationships with your top performers. You might offer them higher commission rates, exclusive promotional content, or the opportunity to collaborate on social media. Continuously optimize your program based on the results.
Provide Great Customer Service
Deliver an amazing experience for any customers who come through your affiliate channels. Affiliates will only continue to partner with you if their followers are satisfied with your services. Pay close attention to any customer feedback and work to continuously improve.
An affiliate program can be instrumental in gaining new customers and increasing brand visibility for travel companies. By choosing relevant partners, providing useful resources, offering competitive commissions, closely tracking performance, and prioritizing customer service, you'll develop an affiliate program that benefits both your business and your partners.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many effective content marketing strategies travel websites can utilize to increase traffic, build brand awareness, and boost conversions. Focusing on high-quality, relevant content tailored to your target audience, optimizing for search engines, and distributing your content through social media and email marketing are all proven ways to achieve content marketing success. By implementing some of the strategies discussed here on your travel website, you can gain a competitive advantage, build authority in your industry, and create a loyal customer base. With a solid content marketing plan in place, your travel website will be on the road to growth and long term success.
