Did you know that in terms of monthly active users when it comes to social networks, YouTube is second to Facebook? What this means for your travel business is that the time to capture an audience using highly engaging video content marketing is now.
Think of how easy it is to spend a few seconds, or even a minute, watching an engaging reel especially when it is travel related. The immersive experience is perfect for showcasing a tour or getting to know more about a team or product.
From telling your brand’s story to increasing your click through and conversion rates, here is why you should be using video in your marketing strategy.
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Why Use Video To Promote Your Travel Business
Effortless Engagement
Using video content marketing gives you access to a larger audience. It removes the need for reading, making it easier for travelers to engage with your content without having to wade through extensive copy.
Don’t get us wrong though, you do need text to explain the details of your tour or travel product as well as for SEO. Video simply provides an eye-catching way to capture the attention of a scrolling traveler searching for inspiration.
Have a look at this video made by Iceland’s official tourism information site. Right away it starts with a captivating image, followed by intriguing text to hook the viewer in.
Increase Visibility Of Your Brand
Because video is highly customizable, you are able to produce emotionally charged, inspiring and engaging content that stands out. It can also easily be shared on your social platforms or embedded into blog posts.
As soon as it is being shared, it signals that people resonate with the content your video contains and trust it. Think of it as social proof for your travel business every time it is shared.
Higher Click-Through Rates
Be sure to include some sort of CTA in your video so that you can lead the traveler to the next point once the video is over. Do you want them to follow you on Facebook or visit your website for example?
The CTA is key to create engagement with your audience and improve your click-through rates.
Intrepid Travel’s video includes a CTA at the end which calls for subscribers to join their YouTube channel. After watching their inspiring video, who wouldn't want to see more content like that!
Great For All Occasions
As video is so versatile and customizable, it can be used in a number of ways. Use video content marketing to showcase your new tour, provide highlights of a current one, introduce your travel team working behind the scenes, or interview a client to get their opinion on what you offer.
The format lets you achieve a range of marketing or PR related functions in a way that makes your brand both personable as well as authoritative.
Higher Email Click-Through Rates
Mention the word video in your email subject line, and you will increase the chance of it being opened by 19%.
This means that in addition to driving new traffic to your website, you can also use video to nurture the relationships you have with your existing clients.
How To Put Together A Video Content Marketing Strategy
Target Travelers Throughout The Funnel
We mentioned above that video is great to use for all occasions, whether it be for brand awareness or sales functions. Travelers access it at all points of the funnel, right from when they are researching a destination to looking for ideas of activities to do once they are there.
Skyscanner provides travelers with a short video guide of what to do in Edinburgh once in the city.
Measure Engagement
Metrics provide a measure of your success and allow you to better define your video content marketing goals. By testing and recording your success rates, you will be able to find out what resonates the most with your audience.
Each platform and format will provide you with various different insights specifically related to them. Here are a few to look out for:
View count is the number of times your video has been played. This means different things on different platforms. For example, on Facebook, it is 3 seconds but on YouTube, it is 30 seconds. Track this to measure brand awareness.
Video completions is the number of times it is played in its entirety. This can be a more reliable metric than view count.
Play rate on a video advert is how often your video was played compared to how often the ad was shown. This will determine how relevant your ad is to your audience. If no one plays the video, it is time to optimize your post.
Social sharing and comments are an indicator of how relevant your content is to your audience. If people take the time to comment on or share it, it is likely that you have created a great reel.
Click through rate is how often your CTA is clicked on divided by the number of views the video has. It indicates how effective your video is in encouraging people to take the desired action.
Time on page and bounce rate – take note of this metric before adding a video to your webpage. See if they improve after placing your content to determine whether you are adding value.
Parting Tip
As a final parting tip for your video content marketing strategy, we would like to remind you to keep it short and sweet.
You need to grab your audience’s attention and fast. But you also then need to hold it until the end of your video to encourage the click through on the CTA. People are busy and have a short attention span, so make sure that you don't lose your viewers interest along the way by making your reel overly long.
