In my recent posts, I have discussed why brands need a content strategy, 5 Content Marketing Do’s and 5 Content Marketing Don’ts. Obviously, creating content to tell your brand’s story is something that I am passionate about and feel that all brand’s should be doing. Storytelling is a part of our everyday experiences, from the news we watch, the sports we consume, to our conversations with others, etc. Every brand has a story to tell, and telling those stories allows them to connect with consumers through shared experiences. Storytelling isn’t just about writing a blog post or adding content to a page on your site, it’s about extending that story, through memes, photos, videos, and connecting with the audience. Consumers like to connect with and share stories that tug at their emotions. In tourism, by telling the story of spring break or summer vacation in your destination, you are hitting on the consumers emotions of what they envision their vacations to be.
Marketing
How to Properly Use Hashtags – The Do’s and Don’ts
It’s 2017, and hashtags are every where. They are on television shows, award shows, sporting event telecasts, advertisements, etc; for viewers to connect with other people around the world on their social media accounts who are watching the same show. Basically, allowing you to connect with and engage other online users bases on a common theme or interest. In today’s world, hashtags have a place on all of the popular social media channels, including, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Utilizing hashtags is the most popular means of categorizing content on social media. It allows for your own content to be discovered, and makes it easier for you to find relevant content from other people and brands. Still, the most effective use of hashtags has become the organization they provide online; tracking and participating in social media discussions.
The Do’s of Content Marketing
Content marketing is a huge component of today’s marketing strategy. It is become more difficult to connect brands with their customers. One of the best ways to break through the clutter and add value is through content marketing. Content marketing is the creation and sharing of relevant and unique content to attract consumers, promote engagement and build brands. Earlier this year, I wrote about 5 reasons why you need a content marketing strategy. If your brand / organization does not have a content marketing strategy in place, you are falling behind your competitors.
5 Reasons Why Your Brand Needs A Video Marketing Strategy
With the rise of Virtual Reality, 360 video, Facebook Live, etc, video marketing isn’t just the next big thing in marketing, it’s here and it’s exploded in popularity. If you haven’t started to build your video marketing strategy, there is a very good chance that you are falling behind your competitors. This trend is not going away and it will evolve extremely fast. We have seen our Facebook feeds be dominated by more video and live video, virtual reality is finally going to make its mark this year, major brands are already using augmented reality and 360 video is becoming increasingly popular by marketers. Plus, people are now watching 1 billion hours of YouTube videos per day.
No matter the industry in you are in, 80% of your customers’ time spent online is watching videos. What does this mean for you? It means that if you’re not creating videos now, soon enough you’ll be missing a serious opportunity to better engage your consumers.
Here are 5 Reasons Why Your Brand Needs a Video Marketing Strategy
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5 Reasons Your Organization Should Blog (Regularly)
The longer I am on the agency side of things, the more often I witness marketers missing the boat with blogging, at least in the tourism industry. Granted, the majority of the websites I visit have a blog, it is then when I click on it, I notice that it hasn’t been updated in months, sometimes longer. Wait, what? One of the first things that I did when I started at Visit Lake County back in 2007 was launch a blog that was regularly updated. It was the back bone to my content strategy.
A blog doesn’t have to be 1,000 words or even 500 words every post. It can be several pictures with brief captions, videos, etc to tell the story of your brand. Many tourism organizations go on their local radio station to talk about upcoming events. I would think the person going on the radio would have their talking points about the events written down. BOOM! There is a blog post. Just like that. Already written, just put it on your website. For many execs who don’t “get it” when it comes to content marketing, their immediate response is, no way, we don’t have time. But for us marketers that have witnessed the power of a blogging regularly and a strong content strategy, the answer is; absolutely, you should be blogging regularly.
Here are my 5 reasons your organization should blog regularly.
How Tourism Organizations Can Use Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging technology platform that Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) must embrace as it continues to evolve the next few years. The biggest opportunity that VR will present to DMOs is inspiring meeting planners and helping consumers make decisions about where to travel. With the virtual reality market predicted to increase to nearly a billion units sold by 2020, now is the most opportune time to get on board with the VR and 360-degree video technology.
Tourism marketers everywhere have an opportunity to lead their destinations with cutting edge technology. The tourism industry is all about selling experiences; a feeling, a landscape, a vision of what spring break or family vacations should be. This has been done through compelling imagery and content, but now VR can bring the destination to the consumer before they even book their trip.