Feeding the beast: keeping your website up to date
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Transcript of 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