Skift Take
In an age of ever-shrinking attention periods, location marketing companies (DMOs) need to rethink their engagement techniques. In this video, Dan Holowack, co-founder and CEO of CrowdRiff, shares how visual stories can distinctively make it possible for destination storytelling and drive significant outcomes.
CrowdRiff
This sponsored content was developed in partnership with a Skift partner.
According to a popular study from Microsoft, the typical human attention period has dropped to just eight seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000. Capturing the attention of today’s traveler can feel like a consistent battle for DMOs. With an apparently limitless variety of niche social media manages to follow, travelers have also grown more selective about the content they take in.
“They state a photo deserves a thousand words,” stated Dan Holowack, co-founder and CEO at CrowdRiff, a visual destination marketing option whose Localhood Stories are providing DMOs with new opportunities to reach possible visitors. “Our company believe a Localhood Story that integrates images, video, text, CTAs, and audio can communicate far more than that.”
1. Increase Organic Traffic
Localhood Stories are constructed on the technology that powers Google’s Web Stories, which resemble social media stories that survive on the web. Tailored for travel, with a swipe-up function that helps tourists find more details, Localhood provides locations a way to take advantage of this brand-new organic channel for visual content.
Each Localhood Story is basically its own mini web page that is crawled and indexed by Google Search, which features a devoted section for stories on the very first results page, as well as on Google Discover, as we talked about with Holowack in our last post.
“Localhood Stories can improve a destination’s natural exposure, and likewise link back to their site, driving more organic traffic,” Holowack said.
2. Promote Smaller Partners
Localhood Stories are a simple and reliable way to support smaller sized partners and provide equivalent exposure. Destinations can easily release Stories that include their partners or motivate partners to produce their own, from local stores, hotels, and destinations to other locations within their area.
“Localhood Stories can appear on the destination’s site, so the partners can leverage that audience.” Holowack said. “Louisiana Travel just recently bought Localhood and made it available to all of its partners, huge and little. Now, the city of Ponchatoula, a one-person DMO located in rural Louisiana, is developing Localhood Stories that show up on Google.”
3. Motivate Sustainable Tourism
Sustainable tourism is a growing area of tactical value for numerous locations. “Localhood Stories are an effective method for DMOs to promote their sustainability strategies straight to potential visitors in a friendly, easy-to-consume format,” Holowack said. “DMOs can use the swipe-up function on each panel of the Story to supply extra information or links to websites if travelers desire more info.”
For instance, a just recently released story from Butte County, California, advises tourists in an enjoyable and friendly way to “Leave No Trace” when visiting their location, and after that provides a course for more information.
4. Magnify Regional Sentiment
Numerous destinations are looking for ways to work more carefully with their regional neighborhoods and take advantage of local proficiency, character, and credibility. “Localhood Stories are an innovative way for destinations to deal with locals to highlight their preferred tourist attractions and experiences,” Holowack said. “After all, who knows a destination much better than the residents? It’s marketing through individuals and not to people.”
Go to California created a series of Stories including regional individuals giving personal recommendations and revealing a few of their covert gems. For instance, a regional San Diego citizen just recently offered a guide to Checking out San Diego: 8 Tips from a Local.
5. Repurpose Influencer Material
Influencer marketing continues to be an effective way for destinations to harness today’s shorter attention periods and raise awareness. “Locations are utilizing Localhood to get more bang for their dollar and convert their influencer content into Localhood Stories, which then live on the web and are evergreen,” Holowack stated.
Amelia Acedo, editor at Tasting Victoria, shared 6 ways to “stay local and support regional” in Victoria, with recommendations on where to opt for tea and coffee, search books, experience regional gardens, order a flight of seasonal cider, and explore British Columbia’s history and culture. “The Story was developed by Location BC and resides on their website, in addition to being included on their Instagram,” Holowack said.
Standing out in today’s attention economy may be significantly challenging, but locations that discover to use story-formatted visual content in authentic methods will break through– and influence travelers to reserve their next fantastic experience.
Check out Localhood to find out more about how your destination can collaborate with your partners and content developers to share authentic stories that motivate travelers.
This material was created collaboratively by CrowdRiff and Skift’s top quality content studio, SkiftX.