Less than five years ago, starting a blog was a huge marketing focus in the travel community.
Not only did SEO bounty give a lot of traction, but travel blogging was also an incredibly popular format that promised a huge target audience if you found the right niche.
While the majority of travel blogs are still going strong, email marketing has been having a moment in the past few years as well.
Because of its low cost, high return on investment, and simple way to keep customers engaged, questions have recently arisen as to whether sharing content via email is better than posting it in a blog.
First things first: This is not a post that compares the two approaches to crown an overall winner.
Blog content creation and email marketing are two completely different types of content, and they both have their benefits.
However, if you’re a new travel brand wondering what to focus on, or want to change your marketing strategy by pouring more resources into an approach, it’s definitely worth examining each one with a few different factors in mind.
This post will help you do just that
Benefits of blog content
Blogging is a format that has been around for decades now.
Whether you’re a big travel brand with a blog on your website or a travel enthusiast who runs a blog to share your stories, there are a lot of benefits to this type of content.
The first feature is more applicable to brands that have websites that offer a product or service. Having a blog is a great way to drive more traffic to your site and reach potential customers who might not have been affected by traditional advertising materials.
On average, you see companies that have a blog 55% More website visitors than those who don’t, so there is huge potential to grow your customer base.
From an SEO perspective, having a blog that you update regularly with new content can do wonders for how well your website ranks on search engines.
Not only can you increase your traffic by producing long-form keyword-targeted content, but having a blog also helps indexing support the rank of your business pages.
A blog can also be a really useful link building tool, again helping to boost your website’s ranking.
Blog content can help establish your brand as a source of authority in your industry. By constantly sharing valuable and engaging ideas, you will build a reputation for being a reliable source of information.
This will increase brand awareness and help grow your customer base.
Finally, when it comes to brand image, blog content is one of the best ways to create a “voice” and tone that your audience will identify with.
Regularly sharing fresh posts on your travel blog that embody all of your brand values will help improve recognition and enhance your image, especially if that tone is reflected across all of your other marketing channels.
Benefits of email marketing
Email marketing has as many benefits as blog content writing, whether it’s sending out regular newsletters, moving potential customers down the buyer’s funnel, keeping in touch with existing customers, or increasing engagement among your target audience.
More commercial brands tend to use email marketing to promote products and offers, but email marketing is often another channel for sharing content and communicating with customers in the travel industry.
One of the biggest benefits of email marketing is that it’s a very low-cost strategy, ideal if you’re a relatively small business or a solo travel blogger.
You can also run campaigns without much effort if you’re willing to put the work in first, which makes implementing this approach very simple even without much experience.
The main advantage of email marketing is often mentioned is its impressive return on investment (ROI).
The exact numbers will vary depending on your industry and campaign type, but on average, brands can do About $36 for $1 each It was spent on email marketing, which is an impressive statistic.
The nature of email marketing means that recipients of your content have to provide their contact details to join your mailing list, which means that everyone who reads your content is already interested in what you share.
This means that your audience is more engaged with your content than any other channel, which leads to higher levels of engagement and more successful conversion.
Another benefit is that uninterested recipients can opt out, so you won’t waste time or resources showing your content to people who won’t interact with it.
Engagement is a general benefit of email marketing, both with existing and potential customers.
When you send email content, you are sending (sometimes personal) messages directly to your audience’s inboxes, which means they are more likely to engage with that content than with any other marketing efforts, and feel closer to your brand because they are from it.
Sending regular email content can be very beneficial for travel brands that want to keep their offerings in front of their audience.
When potential customers decide they want to book a vacation, for example, that brand’s website is where they go first.
Email marketing ensures that you maintain regular contact with your audience and builds a relationship with that connection that will hopefully lead to customers thinking about your brand independently and increasing your conversion rates.
Finally, another major benefit of email marketing is that it is a great channel for distributing personalized content.
80% of consumers said they’re more likely to make purchases from brands that offer personalized experiences, so personalizing your emails and providing your mailing list with relevant content means you’re more likely to grow your audience.
Audience engagement
Trying to pit email marketing and blogging content against each other is unproductive. 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 interaction, which provides some interesting points of comparison to investigate.
Engagement is an essential part of the customer experience, and a good customer experience is key to a positive brand image, repeat customers, and business growth.
Consumers today have more choices than ever before regarding their content and the brands they endorse.
The travel industry is a sector where competition is particularly fierce, so engagement is something that almost every brand strives to improve.
Travel blog content can improve audience engagement if you take the time to create interesting, emotional, and valuable content that your audience is really excited to read.
Once a reader lands on your site, use banners and calls-to-action to get them to engage with your other blog posts and landing pages, making your brand more sticky in their minds and, hopefully, starting the buyer’s path to booking.
However, you need to get the readers interested in coming to your blog in the first place.
And if they don’t make a purchase or inquiry on their first visit, you need to make a strong enough impression that they will come back to your blog on their own and read more content there.
This is a hell of a challenge.
The state of the world we live in today means that brands are not just competing with each other for the attention of potential customers. They are also competing to fill the limited amount of time modern consumers have each day to read and interact with new content.
Most people do not have the time to look for new things to consume; They want the content to be right at their fingertips to interact instantly without much effort.
This is where email marketing comes into its own.
Blogging has certainly peaked and continues to be a very valuable channel that isn’t going to be published anywhere anytime soon.
But to catch your customer’s attention while they’re on the go, boiling the kettle, or scrolling before bed, reading an email already in their inbox containing an eclectic collection of stories, ideas, and further reading will be an obvious first choice when looking for an off-blog to engage with instead.
Is there still a place for blogs that regularly post long-form content for their audience?
Definitely!
But with attention spans dwindling, anxiety about disconnecting devices growing, and the desire for instant gratification higher than ever, email marketing has a lot going for it that makes it the perfect format for reaching and engaging today’s consumer.
When should blog content be created?
As indicated at the beginning of this article, there is no “winner” when comparing blogging to email marketing.
There are plenty of cases where blog content creation is the best option in your travel marketing strategy, which we have listed below.
- You can produce large amounts of content.
- Your target audience enjoys engaging with long-form informational content.
- You are skilled at writing content that keeps the reader engaged, resonates emotionally with them, and helps transport them from the present moment.
- You already have a blog with some repeat readers.
- You’re a travel brand that values sharing unique tips and insights as much as bookings.
- You target long keyword phrases as part of your SEO strategy.
- You are looking to increase the amount of traffic coming to your website.
- You want to establish your brand as a thought leader or trusted source of advice in your industry.
When should you create email content?
Some factors suggest that creating email content such as a newsletter or regular “round-up” would be the best approach.
- You have limited content writing resources which means producing short email newsletters is more manageable.
- You have a limited budget to build your marketing strategy.
- You have a knack for writing short and instantly engaging pieces of content.
- You want to cultivate a sense of “community” among your customers and build closer relationships with them.
- You already have a fair amount of content on your website that you can share.
- You’re looking for ways to move more leads down the buyer’s funnel.
The best way forward
If possible, the best way forward is to take the time to develop blog content and email content as part of your broader marketing strategy.
Email marketing can take various forms, from automated messages reminding customers of what they saw on a website to more personal messages from brands sharing stories, insights, and tips.
Many brands’ newsletters include links to the content on their blog, which is a great way to tie these two approaches together and encourage more website traffic while appealing to a customer’s need for instant, easy-to-consume content.
The best way forward is to combine your approaches and use both blog and email marketing in an integrated way.
Start by focusing on creating engaging and lasting blog content. Once you have a good stock of content, shift your focus more to email, as you can use that content to build a community and engage more actively.
If you’re a well-known travel brand, chances are you already have both approaches in your marketing strategy.
In this case, it’s worth considering the impact your email content can have on customer engagement and whether you can adapt the content you submit to improve this while also keeping your blog fresh and linking back to these new posts in your emails.
If you are a new brand developing a marketing strategy, consider the above terms and decide where you want to focus your efforts based on your goals and capabilities.
As this post has shown, both email marketing and blog content creation have their advantages. Both are incredibly useful methods that travel companies can use to create a recognizable brand image and engage their audience.
Rather than crowning the victor between the two, consider the value each of these formats has for today’s customers and adapt your offering accordingly for the best possible results.
More resources:
- Content Reformatting for Travel Brands: A Complete Guide
- 5 tips for more engagement and influence with branded travel content
- Completely optimized content from start to finish
Featured image: ra2 studio / Shutterstock
