In a world where word of mouth has turned into hundreds of reviews and digital information, planning a vacation doesn’t start at a travel agency, but in the various online channels. For this reason, creating the right content is no longer enough, you have to know in which format and channel to distribute it.
Why is video the best format?
When planning a vacation, travelers are no longer limited to a single screen. As users we move across different devices to complete searches and tasks: to book the perfect vacation. And as you may already know, the content format that users consume best on all these screens is video.
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In fact, according to Cisco every second, one million minutes of video content will traverse the network by 2021. And globally, video consumption traffic will be 82% that same year. Impressive, isn’t it? The video will not only be ideal to seduce your potential customers, but it will also be a key element in any digital strategy you are going to implement.
With videos you can educate, highlight, entertain, excite, and of course, sell vacation experiences at any stage of the traveler’s journey (dreaming, planning, booking), even before your guests arrive at the hotel. How? Positioning with keywords.
To start with, you have to know your potential customers (your buyer persona). To attract visitors you need to research their needs and desires regarding their vacation and categorize keywords based on the stages of the Traveler’s Journey, i.e. how close they are to booking:
Dreaming
(exploration stage): keywords based on consumer preferences in the travel sector in your area.
Planning
(consideration stage): based on the different solutions and offers of experiences and activities that exist in your locality.
Booking
(decision stage): based on the purchase decision and therefore on the options that your hotel brand can offer.
You have to create an optimized video with the right keywords without neglecting creativity. Consider making a list of keywords and remember to research what are the trends in your industry and environment, comparing searches for these terms on Google and YouTube.
Each well-positioned hotel has a different offer, and each buyer persona has different needs. Don’t forget to analyze the search behaviors and trends of your potential guests on social networks and what your competitors are trying to position.
And what is the best distribution channel?
While it is important to include video content on your website, it is even more important to distribute these productions on the right channels. Social networks. More video platforms such as Vine, Snapchat and Instagram have been appearing in recent years. Curious, isn’t it? And social networks like YouTube and Facebook have been consolidating as powerful marketing tools.
On the one hand, according to Google, 106 million travelers consume videos on YouTube, 64% of whom watch videos when thinking about taking a vacation. In addition, the videos rank well in Google and sometimes include
rich snippets
with thumbnails, which on search pages (SERPs) can attract more than text content, promoting awareness of your brand.
On the other hand, videos on Facebook can increase the engagement of your followers. Today, there are more and more videos on your wall. In fact, Facebook has announced that video posting has increased 75% more than a year ago. This is because this content format is more eye-catching than text posts, hence the implementation of Facebook’s Autoplay and Playlist options.
As you can see, these two social platforms will be essential to distribute your content and reach your audience. In addition, both allow you to make announcements. And now you might ask yourself, for advertising, which is better: YouTube or Facebook?
Well, the best platform will depend on what your KPIs (key performance indicators) are, which you will have to establish before each campaign. Do you want your video to be seen by as many people as possible? Then you should opt for Facebook, since you can target your audience and get a large number of reproductions. Or do you want to pay less for the quality of time viewed? In this case, the best option is YouTube, where you will be able to build loyalty and delight your followers.
Keep in mind that, on the one hand, Facebook offers more watch time than YouTube when the autoplay part of videos is taken into account. But the complete viewing of your video has a higher rate on YouTube. This is because a YouTube ‘view’ is counted after 30 seconds (or the full length of the video, if shorter), while for Facebook the first 3 seconds count.
And remember that each platform has an optimal video quality. If on YouTube the 16/9 format and full HD quality works, think that on Facebook the optimal format will be 1×1, a 1200x1200px square will be fine.
