10 Easy Ways To Create Travel Content

Content creation is the beating heart of travel marketing. If you can read it, watch it, like it, tweet it, pin it, share it, or ‘gram it, then it’s an asset you can use to build your brand and entice customers to your door.

Unfortunately, the endless demand for fresh, new content can put a strain on you and your staff. Even when you have a department dedicated just to marketing, keeping up with the Internet’s insatiable appetite for “what’s next?” can be overwhelming.

Here are 10 easy content creation ideas to help you stay atop of your travel marketing.

Behind-the-scenes videos

How can you incorporate content production into what you already do every day? Pick up your phone and show your audience what an ordinary day looks like for you!

You may think that the mundane activities that go into caring for guests is boring. But for your audience, it can be fun to “see how the sausage is made.” It’s also an opportunity to showcase the diligence and hard work you put into making their dream vacations possible.

Staff interviews

Another way to take guests behind the scenes is to let your team members shine. Sit down with a staff member and give them the opportunity to introduce themself, describe what they do, and share why they do it. This can be done in video, audio, or written format and is a great way to show appreciation for your team while at the same time putting a human face on your brand.

Interview other interesting people

Interviews make for great content because they’re relatively easy to produce and take a lot of the creative burden off of you. It’s also a golden opportunity to share diverse perspectives with your audience.

In addition to your staff, consider interviewing vendors, partners, local politicians, community activists, or industry influencers. Better yet, why not ask your customers to share their perspectives?

The side benefit of interviewing people outside your company is that they will usually help spread the word by sharing your content with their audience.

Tell your story

What’s one topic you know better than anyone else? Your own life story. For original content no one can duplicate, share with your audience why you got into business in the first place and what challenges you've faced along the way. Get real with your audience and show them your authentic self.

Curate other people’s content

Sharing other people’s content—while giving proper credit, of course—gives you a chance to build your brand without having to come up with something new.

Examples of curated content include:

• Lists of resources that your audience might find useful
• Articles in which you extensively quote subject-matter experts
• Newsletters that contain links to industry news
• Retweeting and otherwise re-sharing on social media

Update/re-purpose old content

If you take an inventory of your old content, you might just find a gold mine of inspiration for new ideas. Updating or re-purposing content is a tried and true method for filling up your content pipeline. You might:

• Bring an old blog post up to date
• Take several blog posts and turn them into an ebook
• Combine a gallery of photos with text to create a video
• Break up chapters of an ebook and publishing them as separate blog posts
• Pull quotes from interviews for social media content

Go live

Not everything you produce has to be edited to perfection. Sometimes it’s easier to simply start streaming and see where it takes you. Almost every social media platform has a live option these days. So play around with it and see what works for you.

Encourage user generated content

Your customers can be your greatest source of brand-building content. Especially because their opinions will be seen as less biased and more trustworthy than yours.

The simplest way to get fans, followers, and customers to submit user generated is to ask: “Would you mind sharing what your experience with us has been like?” There are even apps that help encourage guests to leave reviews for you.

Taking it a step further, you can create a forum for guests to interact with your brand (and each other), use your own branded hashtag on social media, or hold a contest rewarding the best photo, story, or video submissions.

Hire a freelancer to create content for you

Sometimes it pays to just let someone else do the creative work for you. There are tons of freelance writers, social media managers, photographers, and videographers eager to help you with your content marketing. A good place to source freelancers is on LinkedIn.

Partner with a travel influencer

Another way to outsource your content production is by engaging influencers to help you. The advantage of working with an influencer is that they will promote your content to their audience, helping to expand your reach.

Sometimes an influencer will create content about your business in exchange for a free trip. This is likely a short term arrangement. But other times you can work out an ongoing sponsorship in which they will promote your brand over time.

Don’t pay for crap content!

Download The 10-Step Guide To Hiring Freelance Writers