Content Strategy Starts with a Podcast
By: Adam Stoker, Relic
When working in the marketing sphere, you quickly hear phrases like “content is king” and “great content is the best sales tool in the world.” In the book “Touchpoints: A Destination Marketer's Guide To Brand Evaluation And Enhancement,” it’s stated that it is of utmost importance to get the “right message to the right people at the right time.” Content is the lifeblood of marketing. It is important to have a plan about how you are making your content available to your audience.
Content drives awareness and engagement. Everything from a website to travel guides count as content. It’s what fills your blog, social media posts and magazine articles about your destination. This is how potential visitors discover your brand, and how your audience keeps up-to-date with what’s goings on in your destination.
While “content is king,” distribution is queen. As you develop your marketing plan consider podcasting as the center of your strategy. Podcasts can be tailor-made to fit your audience, you control where they are published, they’re passively consumed and they are able to be repurposed to build your mountain of content.
The Changing Landscape of Content
Neha Shah, the director of the Pittsboro-Siler City Convention & Visitors Bureau, said it best when she stated, “Information is a CVB Director’s currency and it’s critical for us to reach the visitors.” A DMO should be acutely aware of its audience and explore ways to produce messaging that will best reach them.
Content, like social media and many other marketing tactics, is constantly changing. It is up to you, as destinations, to keep up to date with the changing tides of new content and content formats.
With all of the content you release, you need to consider your target audience and medium of communication. More and more destinations are focusing on their audience’s optimal user experience when it comes to content. However, the optimal user experience is changing with time and technology.
As technology is evolving, so are the public’s preferred media channels. Gone are the days when a newspaper article is sufficient content for a destination. To most effectively reach your audience, DMOs should consider podcasting as a central element of its plan.
