Less than five years ago, blogging was a huge marketing focus for the travel community.
Not only are SEO bonuses a big draw, but travel blogging is also a very popular format that promises a massive target audience if you find the right niche.
While most travel bloggers are still going strong, email marketing has also had a time in the past few years.
With its low cost, high ROI, and simple way of keeping customers engaged, questions have recently arisen about whether sharing content via email is better than posting it to a blog.
First things first: This is not a post comparing two approaches to crowning a championship.
Blog content creation and email marketing are two distinct content types, each with their own advantages.
However, if you’re a new travel brand wondering which format to focus on, or want to change your marketing strategy by putting more resources into one approach, it’s definitely worth considering a few different factors. Check each form in case.
This article will help you do just that.
The benefits of blog content
Blogging is a format that has been around for decades.
Whether you’re a large travel brand with a blog on your website, or a travel enthusiast who runs a blog exclusively to share your stories, there are many benefits to this type of content.
The first benefit applies more to brands whose websites offer products or services. Having a blog is a great way to drive more traffic to your website and attract potential customers who might not be affected by traditional advertising materials.
On average, a company with a blog sees 55% There are more website visitors than non-visitors, so the potential for your customer base to grow is huge.
From an SEO standpoint, having a blog that is regularly updated with new content can do wonders for your site’s ranking on search engines.
Not only can you increase traffic by generating content targeting long-tail keywords, but having a blog also helps indexing support the ranking of your business pages.
Blogging can also be a very useful tool in link building, which again helps improve your site’s rankings.
Blog content can help establish your brand as an authoritative source in your industry. By continually sharing valuable and engaging insights, you will gain a reputation as a reliable source of information.
This will increase brand awareness and help expand your customer base.
Finally, when it comes to brand image, blog content is one of the best ways to build a “voice” and tone of audience recognition.
Regularly sharing all new posts that embody your brand values on your travel blog will help increase awareness and strengthen your profile, especially if that tone is reflected in all of your other marketing channels.
Benefits of Email Marketing
Email marketing has as many benefits as writing blog content, whether it’s sending regular newsletters, moving prospects down the buyer funnel, keeping in touch with existing customers, or increasing engagement with your target audience.
More business brands tend to use email marketing to promote products and offers, but email marketing is often another channel in the travel industry to share content and communicate with customers.
One of the biggest benefits of email marketing is that it’s a fairly low-cost strategy, ideal if you’re a relatively small business or a travel blogger working alone.
If you are willing to put in the work at the beginning, you can also carry out the campaign without much effort, and this method is easy to implement even without much experience.
A key benefit of email marketing that is often cited is its impressive return on investment (ROI).
The exact number will vary depending on your industry and type of event, but on average, brands can About $36 per $1 Spend on email marketing, which is an impressive statistic.
The nature of email marketing means that recipients of your content must provide their contact details to join your mailing list, which means that everyone reading your content is already interested in what you share.
This means your audience is far more engaged with your content than any other channel, resulting in higher levels of engagement and more successful conversions.
Another benefit is that uninterested recipients can opt out, so you don’t waste time or resources marketing your content to people who won’t engage.
Engagement is a pervasive benefit of email marketing, both for existing customers and potential customers.
When you send email content, you send a (sometimes personalized) message directly to your audience’s inbox, which means they’re more likely to interact with this content than any of your other marketing efforts, And will feel closer to your brand because of that.
Sending regular email content is great for travel brands looking to keep their products in front of their audiences.
For example, when a potential customer decides they want to book a vacation, they first go to the brand’s website.
Email marketing ensures that you are in regular contact with your audience and builds a relationship with this communication, which promises to make customers think about your brand independently and increase conversions.
Finally, another major benefit of email marketing is that it is an excellent channel for distributing personalized content.
80% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy from a brand that offers a personalized experience, so tailoring your emails and delivering relevant content to your mailing list means you’re more likely to grow your audience.
Audience Engagement
Trying to pit email marketing and blog content against each other is futile. The two approaches have very different intentions and are often used together as part of a broader marketing strategy.
However, one area of overlap between the two is audience engagement, which provides some interesting points of comparison to investigate.
Engagement is an important part of the customer experience, and a good customer experience is the key to a positive brand image, repeat customers, and business growth.
Today’s consumers have more choice than ever when it comes to their content and the brands they support.
The travel industry is an especially competitive industry, so just about every brand is working hard to increase engagement.
Travel blog content can increase audience engagement if you take the time to create interesting, touching, and valuable content that your audience is really excited to read.
Once readers are on your website, use banners and calls to action to engage them with other blog posts and landing pages, build your brand more firmly in their minds, and hopefully start moving down the buyer funnel to Make a reservation.
However, you first need to get interested readers to your blog.
If they don’t make a purchase or inquiry on their first visit, you need to be impressed enough that they will automatically come back to your blog and read more.
It’s a hell of a challenge.
The state of the world we live in today means that brands don’t just compete with each other for the attention of potential customers. They are also racing to fill the limited time modern consumers have to read and engage with new content every day.
Most people don’t have time to find something new to consume; they want content to be at their fingertips and instantly engaged without much effort.
This is where email marketing comes into play.
Blogging certainly had its heyday and is still a very valuable channel that isn’t going away any time soon.
But in order to get the attention of customers as they commute, boil the kettle, or scroll before bed, reading emails that already have curated stories, ideas, and further reading in their inboxes would be a clear go-to, rather than seeking out a solution. blog post instead.
Are there still places where bloggers regularly publish long-form content for their audiences?
certainly!
But with reduced attention spans, increased device separation anxiety, and the desire for instant gratification higher than ever, email marketing has plenty of room to grow, making it the perfect form of reaching and engaging with today’s consumers.
When should blog content be created?
As stated at the beginning of this article, there is no “winner” when comparing blogging to email marketing.
In many cases, creating blog content is the best option in a travel marketing strategy, which we list below.
- You can make tons of content.
- Your target audience likes to interact with long-form informational content.
- You’re good at writing content that keeps readers engaged, resonates with them emotionally, and helps them communicate from the moment.
- You’ve built a blog with some repeat readers.
- You are a travel brand that values sharing unique advice and insights as much as you value bookings.
- You include long-tail keyword phrases as part of your SEO strategy.
- You want to increase traffic to your website.
- You want to establish your brand as a thought leader or reliable source of advice in your industry.
When should you create email content?
Several factors suggest that creating email content such as a newsletter or regular “rollups” would be the best approach.
- Your content writing resources are limited, which means making short email newsletters is more manageable.
- You have a limited budget to develop a marketing strategy.
- You have a knack for writing shorter, instantly engaging content.
- You want to create a sense of “community” among your customers and build a closer relationship with them.
- You already have a ton of content to share on your website.
- You’re looking for ways to move more leads down the buyer funnel.
the best way forward
If possible, the best approach is to spend time developing blog content and email content as part of your broader marketing strategy.
Email marketing can take many forms, from automated messages reminding customers that they are viewing content on a website, to more personal messages from brands sharing stories, insights, and recommendations.
Many brand newsletters include links to their blog content, which is a great way to tie the two together and encourage more website traffic, while also meeting customer demand for instant, easy-to-consume content.
The best way is to combine your methods and use blogging and email marketing in an integrated way.
Focus on creating engaging evergreen blog content first. Once you’ve got a lot of content, turn your attention more to email, where you can use that content to more actively build community and engagement.
If you’re a well-known travel brand, chances are you already have both techniques in your marketing strategy.
In this case, it’s worth considering the impact of your email content on customer engagement, and whether you can adjust the content you send to improve this, while keeping your blog updated and linking back to these new updates in your emails post.
If you are a new brand developing a marketing strategy, consider the above and decide where you want to focus your efforts based on your goals and abilities.
As this article highlights, both email marketing and blog content creation have their advantages. Both are very useful methods that travel businesses can use to build a recognizable brand image and engage their audience.
Rather than winning between the two, consider the value of each of these formats to today’s consumers and adjust your product accordingly for the best results.
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