feeding the beast: keeping your website up to date

Feeding the beastHow to keep your website up to date

Rogier Gruys, Canadian Tourism Commission

topics

• Why is content important?

• Knowing and talking to your customers

• Delivering your content

Product vs experience

Product is what you buy

Experience is what you remember

communicating experiences

Brand + unique selling proposition + target audience = Experience

The experience brings your brand and product to life

Communicate the experience to visitors through

content

Content is

Types of Content

• Experiences

• Supporting destination content

• User-generated content

Translate into

Words + images + video + maps + sounds

Push to potential visitors

Content channels - traditional

• Hard copy: brochures, posters, pamphlets, etc.

• Traditional media (magazines, newspapers, etc.)

• Website: brochure site, aimed at consumers

But…

Consumers are inundated with advertising messages

Don’t respond to traditional marketing lingo

Need to change our tone and channels

Know your customers

Content – new channels

• Your website: • Photo gallery

• Videos

• Blog

• media resources

• Social media: travel review sites, forums, Flickr, Youtube, etc.

your customer

Psychographics

Traditional marketing: demographics

Age, income, education, etc

But,

Travel decisions based on social values

• Do I like culture

• Do I love nature

• Do I want to get away from it all

• Or, do I hate travelling?

Who is our customer

People who:

• Participate in life

• Inquisitive

• Want to learn about themselves and the world

Curious travellers.

How do I sound?

Informal

Personal

Intimate

Straightforward

Concise

Tell a story to a friend – traveller to traveller

It’s about feeling

NO activities, events and places

Other places can also offer mountains, oceans and forests

Focus on the experiences

Take readers with you

What does the

• ocean sound like?

• forest smell like after a rainstorm?

• wind in the mountains sound like?

Let them feel as if they are there

Keep it simple

We’re straightforward; reflect it in the writing

Don’t try to make a hard sell

Bring the experience to life

The traveller is the star of the story

cycling vacation on PEI

3 night package, includes bicycle rentals, luggage

transfer, accommodation at heritage B&Bs, and all

meals. $450 per person.

the ultimate Canadian cycling vacation

Every morning, you’ll step outside your B&B, look out and be awed by the tranquil pastoral landscape surrounding you. You’ll smile, breathe deeply…and gasp, as the crisp sea air quickly reminds you why they call this place “breathtaking”.

3 nights/4 days, $450 per person

But

Do provide details

• How to get there

• What to expect

• What’s included

Photography

old

Photo credits: Tourism PEI

Tourism PEI /Russel Monk

Tourism PEI

Add photo from BC brand

Tourism BC/Tom Rya

But

Do have a gallery with detailed photos

• Your rooms

• People on your ski trails

• People on your trips

Can be user-generated

But keep quality high

Video

Short videos of experience

Tell a story

Keep them engaging, funny, decent quality

Keep it short! (2-4 min)

Sounds

Can add to experience

• Song from your festival

• Call of migrating geese over your resort

but don’t over do it

Maps

Very important for orientation

Thematic map:

• Distances

• Directions - printable

Topo map: Google map

• Keep standard interface

Channels

Website

Update your website

Fresh content

Fresh way of talking to customers

Channels

But

get content out to consumer too

• Set up a photo group on Flickr

• Post some videos on YouTube

• Look at travel review sites:• What do people say about you?

Travel forums

What do people say about you? Respond too!

Lonely Planet Thorntree

Trip Advisor

Realtravel

IGoUGo

Wiki Travel

Travel guides

Check out what the guides say about you:

Lonely Planet

Rough Guides

Moon Handbooks

Fodor and Frommers

Become a blogger

• Get a blog, be an expert in your area• Post about any relevant topic from your area

Why blog?

• Customers learn more about you

• You’re more trusted

• Search engines love fresh content

More ways for people to find you

http://Bayoffundy.blogspot.com

How to blog

Keep it relevant to your experiences

Short entries, often

Spread out postings

Choose titles for entries carefully

Link back to your main website

Example

You offer snowshoe trips near Vancouver

Blog topics

• Snow conditions in your area

• Why snowshoeing is easy to learn – video!

• Types of snowshoes (old vs new) – photos!

• Wildlife sightings on your last trip

• Links to cool snowshoe videos on YouTube

• Info on a local snowshoe race

Blogging platforms

Instant blog:

Set up your blog at www.blogger.com (no technical knowledge required). Ask your web designer to redirect the blog to blog.yourdomain.com.

Optional fancier and more expensive solution:

Take advantage of more advanced features by asking your web designer to set up Wordpress on the server where your website is hosted, and set up the blog as blog.yourdomain.com

Advice on blogging for small operators

Experts provide advice for a small Vancouver travel operator

Challenge: attract new, younger customers

Plan: become an industry expert through media outreach

Payoff: new generation of customers ready to travel

http://tinyurl.com/32b5u4

Experience toolkit

Download copy from

www.canada.travel/experiences

Questions?

Thank you