How Blogging for Business Is an Effective Travel Promotion Tool

by Michelle Salater on July 30, 2010

CheapOair

As part of our newest blog series, Blogging for Luxury Travel, where we interview and spotlight travel companies who are successfully blogging for business, this post focuses on the successes of online travel company, CheapOair.

Offering one of the largest selections of airfares, hotels, car rentals, vacation packages, and travel deals, CheapOair works to bring the best value to their customers.

In the interview with the social media team of CheapOair, they share the company’s effective strategies for blogging for business.

Below is the interview:

1. What is the purpose of your blog? More specifically, who will benefit from it and what does it provide?

The CheapOair blog was created with the intention to engage both our existing and new customers in the online space, by offering important travel news, special CheapOair promotions and deals, expert travel advice, and much more. Within the highly competitive online travel space, we want to provide travelers with valuable and useful information about our great deals and services. Our ultimate goal is to create an interactive online travel space together with our customers and build the CheapOair brand as one of the best sites to purchase travel.

2. Why did you decide to blog for business?

In today’s competitive market environment, it is crucial for any type of transactional online business to be part of the online community and to connect with its customers. Our blog not only offers great content for our readers, but it also helps to address reputation management that concerns our brand. CheapOair is dedicated to building an online community presence wherein we listen to our customers’ feedback and share industry-related news.

3. Do you believe that blogging for business has helped you to express your brand message?

Blogging has definitely helped promote our brand message. By offering exclusive fares with ‘Today’s “O” Deal’ on the main blog page and a special “blog15” promotion code, blogging has helped us spread our message virally and position CheapOair as the authority in providing savings on travel.

4. How does blogging fit into your overall online marketing strategy? Where does your blog rank in terms of the most successful marketing strategy you have?

Blogging is an important part of our overall marketing strategy. We firmly believe it is imperative to provide and engage customers with good and meaningful content and so enabling them to pass on and share our message throughout the social media platforms. As such, our blog is a perfect portal to achieve these objectives very effectively. For this very reason, blogging has become an equally important component along with SEO and SEM within our overall marketing strategy.

5. You began the CheapOair blog nine months ago. How have your online marketing strategies evolved over time? What has been your most effective online marketing strategy thus far?

Since the launch of our blog nine months ago, our online marketing strategies have evolved by becoming more interactive with our current and prospective customers. The key point of our social media presence—whether through the blog, Twitter, or Facebook—is to let the travel consumer community know that CheapOair has open ears and is very interested in learning what customers are looking for, and should they have any issues, questions, or concerns, they can always reach out to us for assistance and help.

Additionally, we have seen great interest from our readers about our blog content since the launch of our blog. Meanwhile, we have grown substantially and now have several contributing bloggers offering interesting content for readers.

About CheapOair:

CheapOair is a 7-time award-winning travel website, ranked #7 amongst travelers by Hitwise.com. We offer one of the largest selections of airfares, hotels, car rentals, vacation packages, and travel deals obtained from multiple sources, including three of the most respected and widely used reservation systems and fifteen other negotiated rates data sources to bring the best value to our customers.

Our vision has always been to develop and enhance the latest technologies into scalable travel solutions for today’s savvy traveler. CheapOair provides 24/7 toll free (866-636-9088) call center support to offer reliable and consistent quality service.

blog: http://blog.cheapoair.com/

website: http://www.cheapoair.com/

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  • http://www.carolinanomad.com/ spencerspellman

    CheapoAir is a great example of a travel company doing blogging and social media right. So many people now are turning to these outlets when planning their trip. I read this week that a study was done that showed that 25% of travelers now turn to blogs when planning a trip.

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  • http://www.writtenbysumer.com/blog webcopywriter

    Where did you read that study? It doesn't surprise me one bit. Our clients' travel blogs are well trafficked and posts are shared in-mass across the Internet.

    Why do you think so many people are turning to social media / blogging when planning their trip? Do you think it's because they're receiving info from their “peers” or what? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

  • HillsofAfrica

    Spencer,

    You're absolutely right about travelers turning to blogs to help plan their next trip. Travel blogs that are run by travel agents or professionals in the travel industry provide detailed and trusted accounts of destinations which can help travelers decide what destination is right for them.

    Also, when traveling to an exotic place, finding the right resources to plan the perfect trip can be a struggle. But when you turn to travel blogs as a resource for your planning, you can find recent travel tips, questions, concerns, and experiences all in one place from the people who know travel best.

    And you're right. CheapOair is doing it right!

  • Want To Go Travel

    I think they turn to blogs and social media when planning their trip because it is easy and convenient, it reachs a wide audience of experts (and some not so expert) people; and it is timely in that you can find last minute information about the destination. I would caution relying on a single person's information unless you knew they were an expert in the field. And I agree peer influence is a big factor.

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  • http://www.thetravelingphilosopher.com/ spencerspellman

    I'm working on trying to dig up the study that I heard that 25% of travelers now use blogs. I think where blogs succeed often is in that personality and connection that just going to a travel website doesn't quite do. Also, many travelers have been burned by reviews on a site like Trip Advisor where there is a failure in transparency and you have companies and PR firms padding reviews. People want authenticity and trust and they're finding that in the voice of travel blogs.

  • http://www.writtenbysumer.com/blog webcopywriter

    I completely agree, Spencer. I think travel blogs provide travelers with the real deal and provide readers with a deeper insight into unique elements of a particular destination. Let me know if you find that stat!

  • http://www.thetravelingphilosopher.com/ spencerspellman

    I found the study. It's actually a snapshot of a larger study by Ypartnership about family travel. Here's the quote and link: “Fully nine out of ten (90%) have a page posted on facebook, and one out of four (23%) has visited a blog to seek or preview information about a vacation destination or travel service supplier”. http://blog.ypartnership.com/?p=310

  • http://www.writtenbysumer.com/blog webcopywriter

    Thanks so much Spencer for sharing this information with Copy Doodle readers! This is some really great information that is very useful for any professional in the travel industry who is looking to expand their marketing reach.

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