Outdoor content marketing is a crucial part for any adventure tourism business, particularly for new ones. How to start from scratch? In this article, we will show Adventoured, an outdoor tour operator, as a case study. As their marketing partner, we have worked to develop their online presence based on content.
In some previous articles, we have highlighted case studies of already established tour operators. However, in this article, we will delve into the process of launching a marketing strategy for a newly designed website. We will examine the initial steps we took and the results we achieved.
Defining the target audience – Adventure Traveler
Defining the target audience is a critical step for Adventoured, as it helps to determine who they want to address, that is, their target audience. Adventoured is the ultimate outdoor platform that connects active holiday enthusiasts with local sports guides and offers adventure travel packages in the Dolomites and beyond.
Market Assessment
Adventure Travel has three components, which are physical activity, immersion in nature, and local culture. After COVID-19, this tourism type has emerged as one of the strategic segments of tourism. In Europe alone, 19 % of Europeans choose this type of vacation, with customers mainly coming from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands.
Adventoured’s ideal audience consists of adventure and nature enthusiasts who are interested in a diverse range of activities such as hiking, climbing, and skiing. Understanding the needs and desires of their users is important in creating a personalized and engaging experience.
Highlighting USPs
The core concept behind Adventoured is to create an expert community where local guides and Adventoured specialists can collaborate to design and promote niche tours that are not available anywhere else. These exclusive tours are not only unique, but also cannot be booked online through any other platform. Adventoured specialists are sport enthusiasts who know the area like the back of their hand and are passionate about sharing their knowledge and experience with other adventure travelers. This creates an atmosphere of authenticity and camaraderie.
Adventoured has a few advantages over its local and foreign competitors.
- Firstly, the platform incorporates cutting-edge technologies to provide a highly specialized and personalized product. This sets them apart from online travel agencies that offer a wide range of experiences but lack vertical specificity and rely on standardized products.
- Secondly, Adventoured has local knowledge, which allows for an authentic and original experience. Additionally, their geographical proximity to platform providers such as guides, hotels, lodges, and other services is another advantage over foreign competitors.
Setting up the Buyer Persona
A Buyer Persona is a fictional representation of the ideal user of a product or service. It is created by gathering demographic, behavioral, and psychological data about potential customers to gain a better understanding of their needs, habits, and expectations.
Creating a Buyer Persona is a big step for companies, particularly for newly formed ones, aiming at offering personalized and targeted products or services. After defining the Buyer Persona, companies can use this information to improve their marketing and communication strategy by selecting an appropriate and consistent tone of voice to communicate with their users.
Developing an Outdoor Content Marketing strategy
Our starting point in establishing a strong online presence for Adventoured was to create a content marketing strategy. Our process involved feeding the blog with relevant content, which we then distributed through social media and newsletters.
Keyword Research
To create an effective SEO strategy, we began by conducting keyword research to organize keywords effectively. We first focused on geographically-bound keywords specific to the Dolomites and area-specific destinations. We then followed a vertical approach and focused on the activities offered.
As the primary focus was on the Dolomites as a destination, we identified primary keywords such as “hiking in the Dolomites,” “outdoor activities in the Dolomites,” “climbing in the Dolomites,” and so on. These primary keywords are informational and tie into more general blog posts.
Selecting appropriate Blog Categories
Selecting appropriate categories for the blog is as important as organizing keywords, as it helps users to easily locate relevant content, improves their blog experience, and enables companies to create a balanced editorial plan.
- The “About Us” category allows users to learn about the company, its history, and mission. This section is crucial for building trust with users and conveying the company’s passion and experience in outdoor sports.
- Activity-based categories such as hiking, skiing, biking, and climbing were chosen to help users find information about the activities they want to engage in. These categories also aid in improving the site’s ranking on search engines by providing an organized structure of content.
- We included a vertical category on “Travel tips” to provide useful information for travelers who wish to visit the Dolomites. This section offers tips on what to see and do while visiting and provides suggestions for travel itineraries. This category is crucial in creating more interaction with users.
Drafting the Editorial Plan
So we then created the Editorial Plan by intersecting destination, activity, and seasonality. Some examples of content included hiking guides, interviews with outdoor sports experts, articles on travel destinations, and exciting videos of outdoor adventures.
Some Blogging Tips
- Blogging can be a vital component of a company’s marketing strategy, and it should be taken care of from the very beginning. It allows for the creation and sharing of useful, interesting, and informative content for clients or readers. This helps in building trust and authority with the audience by showcasing the company’s expertise and know-how in a particular field.
- Blogging can also improve search engine rankings through the creation of relevant, high-quality content and its optimization through images and metadata.
- Consistency in publishing is a crucial aspect of a successful blog. Regular publication of new content helps in maintaining audience attention and keeping the blog active and up-to-date. Moreover, consistency in publishing can help in building a community of loyal and passionate readers who can become brand advocates and share its content on their social media platforms.
Internal Link Strategy
After creating a comprehensive set of articles, it is of paramount importance to establish an internal linking strategy that connects various pages or sections of the site. Internal links can enhance the user experience by allowing them to navigate seamlessly through related content on the site.
Some Content Marketing Results
One year after publication, impressions (in violet) increased. This is the first indication of organic growth for a site, followed by clicks (in blue).
In Google Analytics, “impressions” refer to the number of times a website page appears in a Google search result. Impressions are crucial as they indicate the visibility of a website in Google’s search results.
On the other hand, “clicks” refer to the number of times a user clicks on a page on the website after viewing it in Google search results. Clicks are essential as they indicate the user’s interest in the content and their intention to interact with the website.
Organic traffic began to consolidate from October 2022, when we first began to see the benefits of our previous work. As early as October 2022, six of the keywords were in the first position, and four were positioned between fourth and eleventh place.
Do you also want to increase your website organic traffic through Outdoor Content Marketing? Are you kicking off your business and don’t know where to start?
