Skift Take
As travel returns, location marketing organizations are trying to find new and ingenious methods to connect with possible visitors. In this video, Dan Holowack, co-founder and CEO of CrowdRiff, shares why leveraging visual stories across the web is both an effective marketing method for locations and a popular channel for tourists looking for unique experiences.
CrowdRiff
As numerous destination marketing organizations (DMOs) emerge from the pandemic with tighter budgets and continuous staffing problems, they’re trying to find marketing solutions that stabilize innovation and cost-effectiveness. As they attempt to do more with less, a tested approach continues to be extremely reliable– engaging with tourists on mobile-first social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, where they’re already finding motivation for their next journey.
These platforms are ideal for highlighting travel because the content is short-form, aesthetically appealing, easy to take in, and highly experiential. More significantly, user-generated social posts typically reveal genuine people taking pleasure in authentic experiences, which assist tourists imagine what it would be like to go to the destination.
SkiftX spoke to Dan Holowack, co-founder and CEO of CrowdRiff, a visual location marketing solution, to understand how destination marketers can harness the power of visual storytelling to drive awareness and engagement. Here are the leading three benefits:
1. Empowers Genuine Storytelling
Building a presence on social media platforms is important for DMOs to have an impact on travelers, however these efforts shouldn’t diminish or sideline efforts to create appropriate, search-optimized web content. Localhood, a location management solution that leverages Google Web Story innovation, takes visual storytelling for travelers to the next level.
“Localhood Stories can be embedded straight into your DMO website, which indicates that your site can gain from the easy-to-consume, authentic material that travelers currently like on the apps and platforms they use today,” Holowack stated. “These stories motivate with beautiful visuals, however tourists can also swipe up to get more information, like the opening hours of an area, the Google Maps area, and even a link to the appropriate site.”
CrowdRiff introduced Localhood in 2019, not just to assist DMOs produce compelling, evergreen material for their websites that is discoverable on Google and can be repurposed throughout their social channels, however likewise to engage with partners and regional developers. “DMOs can easily team up with their partners, locals, and influencers to develop and disperse material that resonates with tourists as more genuine,” Holowack said.
2. Increases Discoverability
In spite of the benefits of dispersing material on social platforms like Instagram Stories, there is a drawback: The material vanishes after 24 hr and is locked within the social media networks’ environments. Localhood Stories are evergreen, implying they can reside on the web forever. They’re likewise visible on Google, appearing at the top of Google Browse and on Google Discover, an increasingly visible mobile experience on the Google app that customizes material from around the web to a user’s interests.
“This is a substantial opportunity for locations to boost their SEO efficiency,” Holowack said. “By embedding Localhood Stories on their sites and taking advantage of Google Search and Google Discover, they can reach countless people every day.”
Certainly, Google wishes to keep users glued to its residential or commercial properties as much as possible, so it has actually changed its search algorithm to focus on direct question responses and visual material like Localhood Stories.
3. Strengthens Partner and Material Ecosystems
In addition to improving a location’s content presence, Holowack thinks that “Localhood Stories can strengthen relationships with partners and stakeholders, who can weave together engaging stories under a unified theme, and provide vital visitor data that can empower destinations to make educated choices about marketing spend and resource allotment.”
Tapping into timely, word-of-mouth visual material can be a key motorist of awareness for DMOs as they market their destinations– and a more genuine expression of a location’s appeal than a tourist sales brochure or article. Made use of to their complete potential, Localhood stories can coalesce into a cost-effective marketing network that drives significant outcomes.
Check out Localhood to read more about how your location can collaborate with your partners and content creators to share authentic stories that motivate travelers.
This material was created collaboratively by CrowdRiff and Skift’s top quality content studio, SkiftX.