You know content marketing is important for your travel business. You’ve made it a priority. You’re blogging and tweeting and instagramming. You and your team have worked incredibly hard to create a website with stunning images and a clever headline that is on-point with your brand.

But how do you know all this content you’re producing will actually engage your audience?

The very first place you should look for messaging is your customers, both current customers and the ideal guests you want. Forget what you want to say, and focus on what your best prospects need to hear. Listening to travelers and truly understanding what they are thinking, feeling and wanting to experience helps them to trust you. When they come to your website or visit your social media pages, they know that they have found exactly what they’re looking for.

Where do you find this information, you ask?

Gold Mines of Travel Content

• * Customer Surveys & Interviews
• * Reviews from Travel Sites (like TripAdvisor)
• * Social Media
• * Travel Forums
• * Emails from Customers

Use Their Words

The types of words and phrases you should look for:

• * The natural and conversational language people use when discussing your destination
• * Memorable phrases that stand out
• * Adjectives that are used most often
• * Descriptions that engage the senses
• * Specific benefits and amenities they want
• * What current customers love most about your business
• * Problems or pain points they mention, and how you can help ease their worries

Now What?

Once you’ve gathered your treasure trove of content, browse through it to find recurring themes. What are the phrases and ideas that travelers tend to repeat over and over? Pick the strongest 3-4 topics, and you’ve got a pretty clear picture of the exact type of message you should be communicating on your website.

For more ideas and articles on how to create compelling travel content that converts to leads and bookings, click here and enter your email address.

Specialize

In order for your travel business to be successful, you need customers…preferably great customers. Defining your ideal traveler is the first step to generating qualified leads.

Sometimes people resist identifying a target market because they’re afraid of limiting potential business. But trying to market to every traveler out there is exhausting and ineffective. When you know your ideal customer, your marketing becomes easier, quicker and more cost-effective. It doesn’t mean these are the ONLY people you work with, they are simply the ideal group you serve.

So, how do you figure out your ideal traveler?

• Who do you like working with? What types of guests have been the most enjoyable?
• Who is a good fit for your agency, destination, or business?
• What do your travelers want? What drives them and impacts their decision to book with you?
• Where do they hang out online? How do you reach out to them and how do they reach out to you?

Once you have a broad idea of your ideal guest, think about one person or group in particular. Get specific about age, personality, lifestyle, socio-economic status, occupation, etc. As you do this, you will begin to get a clearer picture of the type of customer you want to attract.

And once you know who you’re trying to reach, you can tailor your marketing to speak straight to them. Because now you understand their desires, needs and problems. Now you know what solutions to offer them.

Personalize

What makes you unique? Once you know your ideal customers and what they need, determine why your business is the most qualified to meet those needs. What is your USP, or unique selling proposition? A USP guides your marketing techniques and messaging, your customer interactions, and even your branding.

To figure out your USP, think through the following questions.

• What problem do I solve?
• What am I doing that no one else is doing?
• What am I good at?
• Does my business have any distinctive benefits?
• What is my personality, and how can I convey that through my business?

Don’t make your USP just a commodity. Use it to hone in on your ideal traveler’s emotional gratification. Touch on their problems and desires. Make them believe that you are the only choice for them.

Customize

You have defined your ideal customers and their desires and problems. You know how to solve those problems with your unique selling proposition. Now it’s time to bring everything together with a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

• Strengths. What strengths and characteristics do you have that make you stand out from your competition?
• Weaknesses. Where can you improve? Look for areas in your business that customers may have questions or concerns about and address them.
• Opportunities. Are there any trends or changes in the travel industry that you could use to your advantage? Is there anything happening in your local market that you could use as a selling point?
• Threats. Are there any changes in the industry that could potentially hurt your business? What should you do to prepare for or avoid the threat? What obstacles do you face in growing your business?

What Now?

Using the strategies of specializing, personalizing and customizing, you have created a clearer picture of what you need to do to grow your business. Identify three to five goals that are specific and achievable. Come up with action steps to take in each area, and put them in a prominent place that you will see every day.