The travel sector is becoming increasingly digitised, prompting travel businesses to adapt their marketing strategies to keep up with changing online trends. One important and emerging way for travel agencies to showcase their unique services, destinations, and expertise is through video marketing. In this blog, we will detail 11 marketing tips for your travel brand to thrive in today’s face-paced marketing environment.
Why video marketing?
The first tip is simply recognising the advantages of using video for your travel brand.
Video marketing is a great way to better engage and interest your prospective customers. There are many advantages of using videos
in your marketing strategy, which can be described through Videowise’s list of the top 5 benefits of video marketing
1: Video can help improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
HubSpot’s research found that 66% of respondents to a poll said they visited a marketer’s site after watching a branded video. This shows that video content of high quality can increase viewer engagement and spark consumer interest, which can lead to traffic to your site. This is important because Google ranks traffic and click-throughs as major ranking factors. The higher the site ranks in search engine result pages (SERPs), the more visitors and clicks it receives… SEO is also easier with video because it’s responsive across different devices. You can reach a larger audience because many video platforms, such as Youtube and Vimeo, adjust to different screen sizes and are optimised to be mobile-friendly.
2: Video keeps users on pages for longer
According to TJ McCue’s Forbes article, the average user spends 88% more time on websites with video content than any other type of content. This means that adding videos to your website pages can increase visitors’ time spent on it. It could be because most people find videos more enjoyable than reading text. A second reason could be that video explanations are more effective at helping people retain information.
3: Videos are captivating
Videos are more interesting than text and keep viewers’ attention. Why? Videos combine both visual and auditory senses. Videos combine noise and movement… Also, most of the information that comes from the brain is visual, meaning that viewers will better retain a message through video than they will through text. And because of this, the average viewer remembers 95% of a message when it is watched, compared to only 10% of content that was read.
4: Videos convert more
Adding videos to a product page can increase conversions by 80% or more, according to the Top 16 Video Marketing Statistics for 2016 report.
Conversions will increase if an image is replaced with a video. Why? Video gives you a better idea of the product or service. Video viewers are more likely to remember the message if they are engaged. After watching a video, viewers are more likely to trust brands. Trust can lead to conversions.
5: Videos are easier to share
Social video gets 1200% more shares than text and image content combined, according to Wordstream data. On platforms like LinkedIn, video is shared 20 times more often than other types of content formats in the LinkedIn feed, according to Sales and Marketing Solutions. Why are videos so popular? They’re entertaining and offer practical value. If you are considering adding video to your marketing strategy, make sure to meet with your marketing team to discuss your budget as well as your desired ROI. To maximise your marketing budget, consider which types of videos are most effective for your brand.
Video for Travel Brands: The strategy
As a travel agency, your company is responsible for being a professional, trusted, and valuable source regarding the services you provide and the destinations you are offering. The most effective way to show off the knowledge your company has and to show how your tours stand out is by sharing unique information about what your brand offers. Marketing is a vital component of any successful business, and it is especially important for travel agencies. Marketing strategies are a business’s comprehensive intention for reaching prospective consumers and turning them into customers.
A traditional but winning travel agency marketing strategy centres around comprehensible objectives and achievable goals. A travel agency should preemptively and consistently conduct market research and maintain a current awareness of the latest travel trends. A marketing strategy must be able to adapt to the changing industry and reflect new ideas and improvements within the company and its services. There are several different types of marketing that videos can be implemented into for a travel agency to attract possible customers such as
- Social Media
Social media is one of the most powerful tourism marketing tools and allows you to engage and communicate with a wide audience with little investment. Videos can easily be posted to social media and are a great way to attract attention
- Paid Marketing
It offers a high return on investment and guarantees that your company’s message will be seen by its target audience. You can promote your videos in things such as advertisements and clickable content on websites
- Email Marketing
One of the most effective ways to promote your business and develop a relationship with customers to increase brand loyalty. Sending out videos will increase the amount of engagement you receive
- Word of Mouth
Word of mouth marketing is a wonderful tool in the tourism industry, and you can leverage this by encouraging your customers to leave ratings on trusted sites. If your videos are unique and informative, you can rely on this type of strategy to propel your brand awareness
- Content
Involves the creation of relevant, valuable and inspiring content, such as specialised videos, in order to attract and engage your target audience.
Examples of videos
There are countless types of videos that can be created to highlight the services, destinations, and unique features that your travel agency offers. Here’re some of the best ideas:
- Destination and Travel Guide Videos
- Travel Tips Videos
- Promotions Videos
- Customers Testimonial Videos
- Trivia and Games Videos
- FAQs Section Videos
How to create the video for travel brands
There are many easy-to-use tools that you can create videos. Apps such as Splice and InShot are great options for basic video editing where you can add pictures, video clips, and music. If you have a more advanced video marketing team, software such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro would offer more polished video products. Creating marketing videos doesn’t have to be fancy as long as you are implementing the advice given above. Using video templates, free music, and easily shareable content is a great place to start!
How to use and promote videos
Once you have your marketing videos created, it is important to know how to use and promote them in order to maximise the reach you have. Here are 6 tips to promote your video content:
1: Optimise your content
Place your videos in places where they will be best received. For example, if your video is shorter or created for a younger target audience, mobile content is the best option.
2: Craft effective thumbnails
When people are scrolling online, a short and catchy title or description of your video will increase the likelihood of prospective customers clicking to watch
3: SEO
Give your video a title that is SEO-friendly, and make sure that you use any appropriate tags and meta descriptions. Do everything you can to ensure that if people are looking for a video on a subject or topic that your video covers, you’ve given your video every advantage it needs to come out on top of those search results.
4: Use social media
Place your videos on different social media platforms in order to reach multiple target audiences. Utilise hashtags, effective thumbnails as mentioned above, and have eye-catching video covers that entice people to watch as they scroll through their feeds
5: Share
Include features that allow your audiences to share your video. This could include a provided shareable link or a clickable graphic that allows people to text or message your video to others.
6: Integrate with other marketing
While video content can be quite compelling on its own, video marketing, when paired with other marketing efforts, can be a potent combination. Tying in a video to a giveaway that is promoted on social media, for example, is one way to get people interested in winning something while at the same time watching the video.
Mistakes to avoid
Finally, for our last tip, it is important to recognise the mistakes to avoid when marketing travel brands with videos.
Although your video marketing can be simple and uncomplicated, there are certain mistakes that are crucial to avoid. Steering clear from these mistakes will increase the success of your videos and will allow you to spread better awareness of your travel agency:
- #1 – Making videos without a plan;
- #2 – Not branding your business and/or services correctly;
- #2 – Make your video too long;
- #4 – Not focusing on a single message;
- #5 – Not including a clear call-to-action;
- #6– Failing to implement SEO practices;
- #7- Expecting instant results;
- #8- Improper placement of selling points;
- #9- Failing to address a target audience.
As you can see, video marketing is a fantastic way to spread awareness and gain customer attention for your travel brand. As our society becomes more digitally oriented, it is vital for the travel sector to learn, adapt, and thrive in an online presence. Video marketing is an effective, eye-catching, and modern way for travel brands to grow and flourish.