10 Facts about Content Marketing in the Travel Industry [Slideshow]

How do I succeed at content marketing for my travel company?

Sun, sea and content marketing from Axonn Media

There are few industries that lend themselves to creating custom content more easily than travel. The average consumer spends months planning their annual vacation – and you can bet this planning period is filled with consuming travel guides, advice, and other forms of branded content.

We’ve got to hand it to our friends at Axonn Research for taking a deep dive into how travel brands worldwide are approaching the art of creating content. Competition for customer acquisition is particularly fierce in the travel industry – and their studies found that the average website conversion rate was only 3%. While many of the travel marketing professionals surveyed were using an array of content marketing practices and landing pages, this stat indicates there’s a need for more. Better content offers, deeper understanding of the buying cycle, and superior quality will likely allow travel brands to capture more leads during the research stage, so they can convert them into customers when the need arises.

Whether you’re Director of Marketing for a travel services brand or simply curious about how these companies content marketing strategies stack up to your own, we present some of the most fascinating findings from the report:

1. The average website conversions in the travel industry are just 3%.

2. 52.9% of travel firms believe that video is valuable, but they’re not currently using it.

Axonn Research has found that many travel brands have chosen to approach content marketing with caution; however appreciation for video content marketing is growing quickly.

3. 43.7% of travel brands are targeting a global audience, but 71.1% create content exclusively in English.

An additional 12% of respondents had some minimal outreach in other languages, but viewed English as the primary platform for content marketing.

4. The most-popular buyer persona among travel brands is families.

Perhaps most surprisingly, family travel has overtaken luxury and high-end clients as the customers who travel brands hope most to attract the most. Eco-friendly and budget travelers made the bottom of this list, with less than 30% of companies actively working to connect with either via custom content.

5. 84% of travel brands display custom content on their website home page.

While social media was the most-popular platform for content distribution and creation, website home pages were a close second. Other platforms that trended in this study included blogs, landing pages, and various types of third-party sites and microsites.

6. 58% of travel brands believe travel guides and advice are the most engaging type of content.

7. 45% of travel content marketers believe that original content is most important, followed by 43% who believe SEO optimization matters most.

8. Over 40% of travel brands believe that user-generated and curated content are a “very valuable” part of their content marketing strategy.

9. Facebook is the most popular platform for brands to share their stories, followed by blogs.

10. TripAdvisor is far and away the most-popular website among travel brands.

All credit for these brilliant stats goes to our friends at Axonn Research, one of the world’s leading research firms dedicated to studying the science of content marketing. This report was provided to IMA for review, and copies of Sun, Sea & Content Marketing can be obtained through their website.

Which components of this research were most surprising or interesting to you? We’d love to hear feedback from both travel professionals, and content marketers in other industries!

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