The travel marketing industry has been widely affected by the spread of COVID-19 for more than 2 years. This is due to the travel restrictions by most countries. Moreover, the slump in demand among travellers is another factor that puts million jobs in tourism at risk. However, in the year 2022, some countries have declared to move COVID-19 from pandemic to endemic. Therefore, the country’s borders will be reopened to foreign travellers. This is going to boost the country’s economy, especially the travel industry. As a tourist guide, are you ready for the recovery?
Success will only come to those who are well prepared. Therefore you need to promote your business to outpace your rivals. So in this article, I am going to show you a free tool to attract more customers. You can boost your brand awareness with this travel marketing tool as well.
What is Travel Marketing?
Travel marketing is the process of planning, executing and monitoring a marketing program to promote travel-related products and services. In addition, it is a complex and diverse field that involves a variety of marketing activities. This includes brand awareness, demand generation, lead generation, conversion, and retention.
Below are the goals of travel marketing:
- Increase visitation to destinations
- Boost spending on travel-related products and services
- Increase awareness of the travel industry
In order to achieve these goals, travel marketers have to understand the needs and wants of travellers. Besides, he or she has to develop creative marketing plans that target those needs and execute those plans effectively.
Content Marketing Strategy for Travel Marketing
One of the most important aspects of travel marketing is attracting and engaging travellers. Therefore, travel marketers need to develop a content marketing strategy by creating engaging content. In addition, he or she has to build strong relationships with social media platforms. Last but not least, to develop targeted advertising campaigns.
Content marketing is diverse and it includes everything from blog posts, articles, social media posts, infographics and videos. The key to success is to create high quality and truly helpful content. So you need to think about the services you are going to offer to your customers. Always keep them up-to-date with the latest information. Also share knowledge about attractions, activities and experiences with them.
Existing Content Marketing Tools for Travel Marketing
There are many content marketing tools that can be used to generate leads and increase branding awareness. Some of the most popular tools are as shown below:
1. TripAdvisor
It allows businesses to create and manage their own travel-related content. Businesses can use Tripadvisor to promote their products and services. Besides, it can be used to connect with potential and current customers. Tripadvisor also provides businesses with analytics and insights to help them better understand their customers and the travel industry.
2. Facebook
It allows businesses to share content with a target audience. Businesses can use Facebook to share blog posts, articles, infographics, images, and videos. Facebook also allows businesses to target a specific audience with their content.
3. Twitter
It can be used to share news, updates, and other content with followers in real-time. Twitter can be used to promote products and services, and to generate leads and sales.
4. Instagram
It allows users to share photos and videos with others. It is a great way to connect with potential customers and build brand awareness.
5. TikTok
TikTok is a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create and share 15-second videos, on any topic. It is an excellent content marketing tool because it allows businesses to reach a large, engaged audience with creative and visually-appealing content. Additionally, it provides businesses with a way to connect with potential customers through influencer marketing.
6. Pinterest
Pinterest helps you easily curate and share content. With Pinterest, you can create boards where you can pin content that you find interesting or useful. You can also follow other users and see the boards that they have created.
7. Youtube
It allows you to create and share videos with a wide audience. You can use Youtube to promote your brand, product, or service. Besides, you use it to build relationships with potential and current customers.
8. WordPress
It allows users to easily create and manage their website’s content. WordPress provides users with a variety of features and options that make creating and managing content easy. This includes a drag-and-drop content editor, a media library, and a variety of plugins and themes.
A New Tool for Travel Marketing: GroundWorm
Now I’m going to introduce to you a new free content marketing tool called GroundWorm. It is a location based community social platform that keeps you updated with what’s happening around you. Just like any other social app, users can create new posts, write comments, like or dislike a post, share posts etc. What’s so special about GroundWorm is that every post created will be geotagged with a location name. Therefore you will only see posts which are created by someone near your current location.
As a travel marketer, you may execute your content marketing strategy by creating a new post. In the post, you may explain about your products and services that you are going to offer to your customers. In addition, you may upload beautiful photos to attract the eye balls of travellers to increase your brand awareness. Once you have created a post, GroundWorm will send out push notifications to the people nearby automatically.
Travellers will get the push notifications regarding the post that you have just created if he or she is within the geolocation of the travel marketers. Alternatively travellers can find out your posts in the homepage of GroundWorm. Since GroundWorm is a location based platform, it will only show posts created by someone near the current location. In other words, travellers will only see posts created by someone nearby. With this special feature, GroundWorm will automatically shows what is relevant to the travellers in terms of location. Travellers do not need to do any searching or filtering. Moreover you would expect your post to stay longer in the homepage of GroundWorm due to less competition from other posts.
How to Use GroundWorm for Travel Marketing
1. Download or Launch GroundWorm App
Android users may download GroundWorm app from Google Play Store or Huawei AppGallery. If you are reluctant to install mobile app into your phones, you may consider using the web version of GroundWorm at https://groundworm.com. For iPhone users, you will need to use the web version for now as the iOS version is still under development.
There is no difference between the mobile app version and web version. Everything that can be done at mobile app version, can be done at web version as well. However you are encouraged to use the mobile app version to have a better user experience and performance.
2. Grant Location and Notification Permissions
The main feature of GroundWorm app is geolocation posts. Every post created will be geotagged with location name. Therefore it needs to get your permission to access your device’s location. On the web version, you can only allow or block the app from using your device’s location. Meanwhile on Android platform, you have additional options to granting location permission while using the app or only this time.
If you just want to view the posts, you may block or not allow the app from accessing your device’s location. GroundWorm app will try its best to detect your current location from your network provider or internet service provider. In order to have better user experience with the app, you are encouraged to allow the app to access your device’s location.
On the web version, you will need to grant one more permission which is the permission to receive push notifications. GroundWorm will keep you updated with what’s happening around you by sending information to you via push notifications. However this is not required on the Android platform because it is already granted by default. Anyhow, you can turn it off in the app notification settings. The controls are always in your hands.
3. View Posts
At first, GroundWorm will try its best to detect your current location and display it on the top left corner in the Home tab. Below it, you can see the posts created by someone near your current location. What posts to be shown on the app depend on where you are. Therefore the posts that are shown to you at location A will be different from the posts that are shown to you at location B.
A post consists of the following:
- Profile picture of the creator
- Nickname of the creator
- Post creation date
- Location name where the post is created
- Message of the post (if any)
- Photo of the post (if any)
There is a translation feature in GroundWorm to translate the message of the post if it is different from the language that you have set in your application settings.
Currently GroundWorm can support up to 5 photos in one post. You may swipe left and right to view all the photos.
There is another feature in GroundWorm to block posts by users. This feature is to filter out the posts that are not related to you manually. In other words, you can prevent the posts created by annoying users from being shown on your Home tab. The control is in your hands. You can unblock the user later in the Me tab.
4. Sign In Without Account
You don’t need to register an account to sign in to GroundWorm app. You may just sign in directly with one of the following methods:
- Phone number (your phone will receive a verification code to complete the sign in process)
- Email (you will receive an email with a link to complete the sign in process)
- Google account
- Facebook account
- Twitter account
- Huawei ID
GroundWorm app will not reveal your phone number and email address to anyone. For more information, you may check out the privacy policy on the sign in page.
5. Set Up User Profile
After you have signed in, you may set up your user profile with your branding. You may edit your display name and upload your profile picture. These 2 user info are visible together with your posts to the public.
6. Interact with Posts (Like, Dislike, Comment, Share, Report)
You may interact with a post by giving a like or dislike, leave a comment, share a post or report a post. With this interaction, travel marketers are able to get feedback from travellers. In addition, GroundWorm is able to provide better service and user experience with the collected data as well. Even though the GroundWorm app uses a moderation tool to filter out improper content automatically, it might miss out sometimes. So a reporting feature is essential in order to provide positive, clean and healthy contents.
7. Create Post and Send Out Push Notifications
In the Home tab at the top right corner, there is a button to create new post. In order to create a new post, you need to sign in to GroundWorm app. Besides you need to grant location permission to allow GroundWorm app to access your device’s location. GroundWorm needs this to geotag the post in order to provide better service and user experience to the users. After that, you can start writing your post message. Meanwhile you can attach a photo to the post either by taking a photo with a camera or choosing a photo from the gallery. You may attach up to 5 photos in a post.
If the auto detected location in the post is incorrect, you can click the current location button to detect it again. In addition, you can set the visibility of your post by specifying how far it is from your current location. By default, it is 5 km. In other words, only those who are within 5 km radius from your current location will be able to see your post.
If your post is not ready to be published yet, you may save it as draft first. You may do the same if you are not able to send out your post due to unstable network connection. You can try to send it out later when you have a stable network or wifi connection.
Once you have created your post successfully, GroundWorm will send out push notifications to the users who are within the radius that you have specified.
Conclusion
You may check out the web version of GroundWorm at https://groundworm.com. Alternatively you may download the android app from the app stores below to have better user experience and performance.
- Google Play Store
- Huawei AppGallery
- Apple AppStore (coming soon)
If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, you may leave your comments below or email us at support@groundworm.com. GroundWorm is still in its infancy stage. You may shape the direction of this app by suggesting new ideas or any features that meet your needs. We hope that this tool is able to help you as a travel marketer to increase sales and brand awareness.
The travel industry is extremely competitive. Travel marketers must use the latest technology and marketing techniques to reach and engage consumers. With the right mix of digital and traditional marketing, travel marketers can reach their target consumers and promote their products or services effectively.