Insights

Ah, video. It’s so shareable, so engaging, such a vital part of your tourism marketing strategy… And it can also seem like such a bloomin’ faff, can’t it? All that hassle of: And all that before you’ve even tackled the knotty problem of what on earth you’re going to say! The thing is, if you’re a tourism professional you really need to be making video a key part of your marketing strategy. Bet you know that deep down, don’t you? The power of video marketing in tourism 1. You can tell great stories We all know that storytelling is an important part of creating that connection with potential customers. And video is an amazing way of doing this. Imagine the possibilities! With a short video, you can: 2. You can build know, like, trust Don’t underestimate the huge leap of faith people make when pressing that ‘Book Now’ button. They’ve never met you before, and now you’re expecting them to hand over their hard-earned dough on the basis of what they’ve read about you online? Seems like a big ask, doesn’t it? Obviously, anything you can do to make that leap of faith that little bit more manageable is a bonus. No amount of brand photos (no matter how amazing they are) can ever compensate for a lack of video. Only video can give potential customers that holistic impression of what you are really like: your voice, accent, mannerisms, way of speaking – all the things that make you you! 3. You can skyrocket your visibility Me neither (well, not until I was researching this blog post). But it does confirm my growing gut feeling that a tourism business without a video strategy needs to rethink, and fast. So how come the vast majority of tourism websites I visit have loads of great photos, but no videos? Common video creation blockers Last year, I went on a pretty major CPD drive. And one of the courses I took was a video creation course for educators. It was an amazing course, with a brilliant facilitator and a supportive cohort of fellow-students. I came away feeling inspired, and totally ready to start implementing all I had learned. So what went wrong? Well, lots of niggling little doubts started to creep in, namely: I know I’m not alone in experiencing these particular doubts. But they can be very persistent, can’t they? So persistent, in fact, that a friendly push might be needed from an expert video coach. Luckily, I’ve got one lined up for you! Ashley Griffiths is a confidence on video coach who supports his clients to put their personality and passion front and centre of their marketing. I know he’s going to have so many great tips and insights to share, so I’m chuffed to bits that he’ll be joining me on Tour Pro Talks next Wednesday, over on LinkedIn. Hope you can join us!