With the falling pound, inbound travel to UK from the US presents an opportunity for travel companies. Here’s how to market to US travellers.
The pound’s slide against the dollar may have hindered our spending power abroad, but it has also put the UK on the map as a cheap travel destination for American tourists. Combined with the recent passing of the Queen and the upcoming coronation of Prince Charles, interest in United Kingdom tourism has been piqued.
Americans can now get far more for their money, which gives British travel companies the opportunity to market to a motivated audience across the Pond. Now is the time to appeal to those potential customers by creating a US-focused travel contenting marketing strategy.
Where should you start?
Whether you represent a hotel or tourist attraction, a travel agency, DMC, or a tour operator, tourism content writing is one of the most cost-effective ways to boost your profile, connect with your target audience and drive interest in your brand. By combining in-depth and informative content with the best SEO keywords to help you rank in search engines, you can help your business stand out among the crowd.
Why content marketing?
Content marketing is the most popular online marketing technique because it is cost-effective and search engines love content. The more relevant, well-written, and well-researched content that appears on your site, the higher you’ll rank on the search engine results pages. This means that when potential travellers go looking for inspiration and answers regarding their trip using those top travel keywords, they’ll be directed straight to you. If you have a travel agency, you can outsource your content marketing strategies to experts like Catherine Nikkel who has helped a lot of businesses in creating their content strategies and methods.
A personalised strategy
A bespoke content strategy will drive sales, elevate brand awareness, and promote your company as a voice of authority. This is critical, as when deciding where to travel and with whom, potential tourists are faced with a sometimes overwhelming world of options. Make your brand stand out to a new American audience with a custom strategy that works for you.
Step One: Choose a focus
The first step to creating a quality content strategy is to narrow down your focus. Are you catering to an audience seeking history and culture, luxurious accommodation nearby, or cheap days out in the UK’s thriving metropolises? Whatever your perfect audience is looking for, it’s your job to know. Once you have settled on a primary focus, you can direct every bit of content towards this goal, resulting in a more cohesive and cost-efficient strategy.
Travel keywords for SEO
Once your audience and purpose have been defined, you can connect with potential leads by creating the content they are looking for. By incorporating cleverly placed SEO keywords into your content – whether that is by updating your website or writing regular blog posts – you’ll help direct these lost potential tourists to your pages. You can then answer their queries and resolve their doubts, converting your readers into interested guests.
How to find your keywords
SEO keywords are the key terms people type into search engines to find the information they need. By yourself in the shoes of your potential American audience, you can think of words they may use. There are also plenty of free and paid resources you can use for a more strategic and data-led insight into what terms you should be including. You can find the most popular search terms of the moment by using websites such as Google Trends, Ahrefs, Wordstream and Wordfinder. These websites allow you to track what people worldwide are searching for, so you can leave signposts to your content.
Step Two: Create a niche
Now you have your general focus, it’s time to create your niche. This means narrowing down that audience so that although you may get fewer views, each of those views is more likely to result in a sale.
Focus on specific places
When planning your content, don’t try to cater to the entire US. Choose your key markets, such as New York, Florida, or San Francisco, and focus specifically on the audience there. Whether you’re focusing on gap-year students or retirees, city dwellers or beach babes, your approach needs to be adjusted to that specific audience. When you’re searching for SEO keywords, make sure you narrow down your searches to your specific audience.
Opt for longtail keywords
A longtail keyword is more specific, less often searched, but more likely to result in a sale. It’s the difference between ‘luxury hotels UK’, or ‘romantic boutique hotels near Manchester centre’. The first search term will get more traction, but travellers searching for the second are likely to be closer to the point of sale. So by delivering exactly what they’re looking for, you’re more likely to convert that lead into a sale.
Get creative with your travel PPC campaign
These longtail keywords have less competition and are perfect for PPC campaigns, which are the pay-per-click advertisements that appear at the top of the search engine results pages. This form of advertising is one of the most cost-effective ways to get your brand out there. It is targeted and customisable, you can measure the success and see results almost immediately. Just remember, you need to monitor and optimise your campaign to ensure you don’t go over your budget.
Step Three: Create regular content
You now know who you are writing for, where they live, what answers they are looking for, and how they are searching for them. Your next step is to provide this information, positioning yourself as an authority and beginning to build a relationship based on trust. Here are some of the best ways to create this regular content.
Keep an up-to-date blog
Google loves regular content. It helps the search engine update what they know about you and gives them information about the kind of people who might like your site. This makes having an active blog one of the best ways to improve your ranking on the results pages. From deep dives into local sights of interest to reviews of the top restaurants, these blogs allow you to go into more depth while answering your guests’ questions, improving your authority and enhancing their trust in you.
Create a custom landing page
A landing page is a great way to welcome readers from your advertisements online, whether that’s PPC ads or any advertising you set up on social media, or even just to link to from your blog posts. A landing page can be completely customised for your US audience and targeted to selling exactly what you are offering in terms of UK inbound travel – it helps you nurture those leads and ultimately turn them into customers in a way that your more generalised website may not do.
Connect on social media
If your audience is on social media, you better meet them there. From TikTok to Instagram Stories and Tweets, social media is by far the best way to connect with a younger audience. However, these days even the older generations can be tracked down on Facebook and other popular social media platforms, so this is a worthwhile strategy for any travel company hoping to get their cut of that US outbound tourism. Analyze your target audience, understand the modes of communication and the platforms they use and meet them there with snappy, informative copy and inspiring imagery and videos to build a connection. You may even want to think about collaborating with relevant influencers.
Step Four: Email marketing for tourism
The most effective email marketing travel industry campaigns are pinpointed toward specific audiences, so if you can segment your US-based email contacts, you’ll have the best chances of a successful campaign. You need to start with a strategy, mapping out a whole series of emails so you won’t run out of ideas.
Captivate the reader
Your campaign needs to be attention-grabbing from the subject line, and keep that excitement roused until the final call to action. You could showcase the great reasons to travel to the UK, the best money-saving tips, and any other details that your niche audience will be interested in. If your email creates a sense of urgency, your audience will react.
Link your landing page
By linking your email directly to the landing page aimed at that audience, you’ll bring that sense of urgency right onto the site as well. Give them an incentive to click through, build on the relationship by sending regular emails, and keep their interested piqued by showcasing only the very best of what you have to offer.
Don’t hesitate
In the pre-pandemic days of 2019, the UK received almost four million visitors from the US alone. With the recent re-opening of the travel industry, the rise of the dollar against the pound and renewed interest in our monarchy, travel to the UK from the US is only expected to rise this year. However, the opportunity at hand will not last forever, so travel companies should act fast if they want to boost their profile among US tourists.
Whether you’re heading out alone or employing a travel copywriting agency, by creating a tourism content writing strategy that addresses the points above you’ll be able to advertise yourself as a knowledgeable, trustworthy and authoritative source of information. Your loyal readers will remember your name when it’s time to book their tickets, and you’ll be able to make the most of this rare opportunity.
This article was written by Contese Agency travel content writers.
Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash
