Content marketing is storytelling to gain strategic advantage with target audiences

Castle Butte, Big Muddy Valley

A bit of background

For those who don't know where Saskatchewan is located, ours is a beautiful Canadian province located in the heart of the North American Plains region. Stunning in the diversity of its natural environments from grasslands to boreal forest environments, home to thousands of lakes and rich ecosystems. Generating awareness about Saskatchewan as a tourism destination among international audiences has always proved challenging. Awareness of Saskatchewan's tourism resources may be relatively high with audiences in neighbouring provinces like Alberta, U.S. states like North Dakota, and Saskatchewan expats who return each summer to visit friends and relatives, but the lure of Saskatchewan among potential medium and long haul visitors is still a work in progress.

Air connections have steadily improved with major U.S. hubs like Minneapolis, Denver and Chicago, making it easier for international visitors to get here but, but better known destinations with direct international flights and mightier marketing budgets bring considerably more clout in travel markets at a time when factors that affect tourism industry competitiveness worldwide make it difficult for emerging stars to play in the major leagues.

It is easy to understand why destination marketing organizations like the Canadian Tourism Commission would bet on winning horses like the Calgary Stampede, which has greater potential to generate a return on investment, than on a small town rodeo in rural Saskatchewan which would provide just as evocative an experience for visitors, but might be more difficult to get to and require a somewhat more "specialized" outlook on what a Canadian holiday might feel like in the client's mind.

For the record, I have been bringing clients from around the world who didn't know anything about Saskatchewan before getting here for quite some time, through my former tour operator activities with Great Excursions. The main resource I used to engage these clients is sharing with them:

• the authenticity of experiences they would enjoy while in the province;
• documenting the distinctive character of the journey they would embark upon;
• generating content and communicating that content to them.  

Storytelling - that is all it is!

I knew from available market research what my target audiences sought in terms of quality of experience indicators. I proceeded to look for these in the holiday products I would offer them, and I looked to incorporate the right partners as suppliers and agents in the travel trade that were in a position to capitalize on that kind of editorial content availability. Chronicling facts about places, people, communities, and about how hosts are grounded in their respective communities does makes a difference, as you will see.

An international tourism organization where content marketing is central

Perhaps the most vivid illustration of how I was able to harness the power of editorial content for partners, customers, and ultimately the corporate bottom line, is the partnership initiative I established with UK-based responsibletravel.comhttp://www.responsibletravel.com/ in 2002, a specialist online travel agency that uses content marketing tactics to sell accredited responsible travel products to discerning travellers around the world. That company came into being with the financial support of Anita Roddick, founder of  The Body Shop. They actually initiated the conversation with me, and likely found Great Excursions because content marketing was also a core strategy for us. RT.com was in a position to provide us qualified leads in difficult to access European markets. We were able to provide the content they needed to market our products in the segments they targetted.

Using available market intelligence, I conducted intensive research to identify Canadian product suppliers I might wish to establish a travel trade relationship with as an international wholesale tour operator. I conducted comprehensive interviews with company owners and staff about their business practices on environmental, economic and social fronts. The body of my research was used to craft responsibility policies documenting how each of these products was made possible and impacted favorably on local host communities, thereby creating a competitive advantage in the eyes of those customers for which travelling responsibly is an important consideration.

My company’s customer relationship management system required that the communication of these beneficial practices be shared with clients from the lead generation phase to the published independent review that was authored by the client at the end - enticing new clients to come on our trips.

In my next post I will elaborate on specific examples of tourism operations and products with which content marketing tactics proved a pivotal strategy.

A Saskatchewan web development studio with sound grasp of SEO realms

It has often been said that web site search engine optimization is the best way to increase traffic in terms of value for investment. This is something I have always believed in through my web marketing efforts with Great Excursions. I spent much time since I launched the first generation of the Great Excursions website in 1999 generating new visits by making the website more attractive to search engines with a great deal of success, thanks in part to ongoing conversations with my friend and partner in SEO Mike Ritchie of North Battleford.

Mike runs M.R. Website Development Studio. His firm has designed countless websites for Saskatchewan companies and organizations, as his client list will attest. He has also acted as a consultant for a number of clients, including Great Excursions. I remember been referred to Mike by Clint Krismer who used to run Tourism Saskatchewan's website early on in my tourism career. I had asked Clint who in his opinion understood best SEO in the province, and that's how I came to be in touch with Mike Ritchie.

I was impressed by the insight Mike gained in creating and operating Tradingcharts.com, a free charts and quotations website used by brokers around the world, on which advertising is sold through a major partner in the US. SEO was critical to the website's success then, just as it is today.

A conversation with Mike Ritchie is not one where off-the-shelf solutions are pitched to you right away, but rather, an investigation into how to build a website that will be optimized organically through its design. More importantly perhaps: how to built a website that does the job it is supposed to do... plain and simple.

It is hard to summarize a 13-year relationship into a short article, but I thought it might be worth letting people know that if you are ever looking for someone to take a look at your web products to explore new ways to improve their performance, you could do worse than give Mike Ritchie or any member of his team a call. To this day, I can't think of anyone in Saskatchewan with a more qualified appreciation of what a web presence can mean for businesses and organizations. These friendly Saskatchewan experts make a difference. 

Silicon Valley may be in Northern California, but there is no doubt in my mind that SEO Valley is located in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. 

This is a well-deserved plug by a fellow disciple of greater web marketing knowledge gained through hard work!

Visiting the Haida Heritage Centre in Skidegate, Haida Gwaii, BC, Canada

From the top of their pole, Haida Watchmen who might have been on the lookout for invaders from foreign lands centuries ago are now welcoming visitors to Skidegate. Master harvesters, carvers and navigators, the Haida were true masters of the sea.

A visit at the Haida Heritage Centre in Skidegate is the best way to start seeing the world through the eyes of a very successful nation with great knowledge, elaborate trade networks, rich material culture and a wealth of traditions.

There are as many histories of Canada as there are are First Nations. If anything, the Haida have reclaimed their history in an inspiring way -- one where they are again taking control of their destiny, their resources.

They are developing a tourism industry that is based on sound stewardhip practices.

And quite frankly, the Haida are showing the world a part of Canada that most Canadians know very little about and that most will likely never see. Because, to come here and to experience Haida Gwaii the way it should be experienced requires from visitors that they be prepared to be exposed to a world that has very little to do with what most of us were led to believe Canada was like when we went to school.

My first impression of Haida Gwaii was that of a land inhabited by a people who draw their identity from the place they inhabit with great wisdom.

It seems one of the lessons I learned is that material wealth can play a positive role in how a people grounds itself in the environment which nutured it.

My visit to the Haida Heritage Centre certainly opened my eyes. I'm OK with that. I am just along for the journey... just as long as I learn a little bit more every day from those I share my journey with.