YouTube Marketing for Travel and Tourism - An Interview with Annemarie Strehl

YouTube is one of the oldest and most underused social media platforms for marketing. As the second largest search engine in the world, millions of people visit the website every day for news, entertainment, and information. With a broad range of audiences and recyclable content that appeals to almost everyone, this platform is a fantastic way to get your brand out there.

To explore the many uses of YouTube with us, is freelancer Annemarie Strehl. Based in Germany, Annemarie is an expert on YouTube marketing for the travel and tourism industry and works on visual storytelling for brands. Originally a travel blogger, she found a passion for videography and helping businesses tell their stories. She uses creativity to build brands through visual storytelling by portraying the company’s personality, coming up with marketing concepts, filming and editing it, and then putting it out there for everyone to see.

She uses her videography to ‘help connect people to the brand and build a community’, it’s a ‘heart-based approach’.

“Uniqueness, individuality, and passion-based businesses” are what Annemarie looks to work with. She uses her videography to “help connect people to the brand and build a community”, it’s a “heart-based approach”. Personality is extremely important to her when it comes to branding and by authentically telling your story and your struggle, you can show your audience the heart of your business. “Marketing trends are becoming more personal,” Annemarie explains, “Businesses are scared to show their messy sides, but your audience wants to see the real, imperfect parts. The companies I connect with the most are those that show their brand in a messy and authentic way. It’s not just about fixing my problems, it’s the people factor.”

How effective is YouTube as a marketing channel?

“If you are not found on YouTube, how will you be found?”

I feel like YouTube is one way to spread your reach. It shouldn’t always be just one platform but it is the second most used search engine as of now - TikTok is catching up - but it’s still one of the biggest. If you are not found on YouTube, how will you be found? I always find it very interesting that businesses in the tourism sector have a lot of people wanting to find them through visual cues, a trend that has been there for a decade. Whether that’s on Instagram or Pinterest, people want to find visual inspiration to feel immersed. If you are not on YouTube providing them with that experience before the actual trip so people can kind of gage what it is like to experience it then they will go for the competitor. This is because they feel that lack of information from your business and that’s the main point.

“They can gain a sort of emotional clue and get a feel for whether the space is right for them.”

People want information, they want a sense of knowing and security in what they can expect. Travel in itself is very unexpected. There are so many twists and turns and surprises that come up and people with rare vacation time treasure it, so they are focused on it being right and perfect. It can really ruin people’s moods because they’ll put so much pressure on the holiday to be perfect and if it isn’t, they are not satisfied. They need to know the information in advance to feel that they might have a good shot at it. If they can see the hotel upfront, maybe have a little walk through, maybe see employees in an interview, they can get an idea of what it feels like to be in that space. They can gain a sort of emotional clue and get a feel for whether the space is right for them. For example, is the bathroom as good as they say it is from this one photo or will different angles show different sides to it.

“Video can be even better than in person because you can direct people’s focus and attention to consume the information you want them to.”

There are a lot of different factors for different travelers. Some might want better lighting or certain amenities. So you can either read through all of these comments that address these issues or simply watch a YouTube video that answers all of your questions in 30 seconds. That’s why YouTube is very important because it can give you so much information in a video. Videos themselves are a condensed form of communication which gives you visual clues and auditory clues. It can also influence emotions through music, pacing, and colors because video is the next best thing to being in person. Video can be even better than in person because you can direct people’s focus and attention to consume the information you want them to. Video in itself is a major storytelling tool and if marketers can use that for YouTube then they have a huge advantage over other kinds of social media platforms. Where most social media platforms have short content with just one focus, YouTube has multiple.

Why should hotel/travel/tourism businesses invest in YouTube marketing? Why is it important?

Firstly for SEO so you can be found on the second largest search engine but also so you can interlink it with your blog posts. This boosts your content, getting more backlinks, getting more authority. You can collaborate with other people, you can use influencers to help you with your blog, and get creators to create some content. You can showcase your own employees and provide different aspects and different personalities of your brand in the video.

“YouTube’s reach and influence has been growing exponentially since its start and it's still growing.”

YouTube’s reach and influence has been growing exponentially since its start and it's still growing. The market is finding that there is a huge return in investment on using video in general and YouTube in particular because of the reach it has and the SEO factor that plays in it – for example with the backlinks. YouTube lets you create long and short content, which can then be shared on other social media platforms which saves companies tons of time.

“Through YouTube you can invite your audience in different ways to see the different aspects, moods, circumstances, and scenarios of your brand.”

YouTube still has a base of fans with different creators that you can leverage for your marketing. You can learn from these creators, connect with them, collaborate with them, to tap into the creative aspect of YouTube. This makes it less of an advertisement space that you can just post your sales image and more of an invitation into your space for your audience. You can really show them what you focus on which places like Booking.com cannot fully offer you. While these websites are generic only wanting you to upload pictures along with some text, YouTube doesn’t just want the bullet points, they want more information. Through YouTube you can invite your audience in different ways to see the different aspects, moods, circumstances, and scenarios of your brand.

For example, traveling as a family is different from traveling by yourself which is different from traveling on your honeymoon or an anniversary or a business trip. By showing all of these scenarios, you can have better leverage over your competitors as well as the freedom to express all of the facets that you need people to know. You can test different content out through YouTube analytics which are very insightful as well as use all the tutorials provided. You can also cut your videos and repost them on the platform, while YouTube has a longer shelf life, you can always test out recycling content.

“If you see that brands have an air of playfulness and fun, and that they love doing their job and working with people, then audiences will take that mindset on the trip with them.”

Hotels focus their personality into their architecture, their design, and their marketing, so why not translate that into a video? It’s not just an advertisement, but by having fun with it and creating a video with personality highlighting the brand’s flaws, your brand becomes authentic and real which is what people want. These videos can offer important insight into the personality of the brand. If you see that brands have an air of playfulness and fun, and that they love doing their job and working with people, then audiences will take that mindset on the trip with them. It shows that this brand cares, that they can deal with mess ups, and if they can share that with audiences, then it makes them feel special but also comforted because they know the business can deal with it.

How do you create your YouTube videos?

“People don't want to be talked at, they want to learn something in a fun and engaging way.”

Usually what I like to start with is research. I need to understand what the point of the video is before I start filming. The emotional purpose is very important to understand what I want people to take away from it. These are the essentials of storytelling. Do you want people to feel inspired or uplifted? Do I want them to take some action or do I just want to educate them? Usually for me it’s a fun entertainment approach. So I want people to be entertained, have a really fun time to get them to stay, and also learn something from it. My approach is to always mix humor in, that’s my form of teaching people something. People don't want to be talked at, they want to learn something in a fun and engaging way.

“I feel like if more companies show the messier sides to their business, to their story in a fun way, that can liberate people from feeling less pressure to have the perfect holiday.”

Humor is a great way to show things in my opinion. When you travel there are a lot of things that can go wrong. There can be a lot of unexpected issues, culture shocks, things going missing, things not working out. This tends to make people frustrated when they expect the perfect vacation. What I found that travel has taught me is to help be optimistic about it and find a positive spin on it and I try to help people with having a different outlook on each situation.

This way they can still get the positive vibe of it, so when something goes wrong they can still laugh about it. I want to show people that the entire trip is still worthwhile and enjoyable even if things go wrong. I feel like if more companies show the messier sides to their business, to their story in a fun way, that can liberate people from feeling less pressure to have the perfect holiday. It’s much more natural and easy going if you see a company do it, because you feel much more at ease in their presence. You know that they can get through any situation with humor and grace, so you are not as tense in fulfilling your expectations.

“ All of these aspects can also be chopped down into different shorts, into different vertical videos for different social media, so there is more from the content I create.”

So I like to take a kind of vlog approach where I narrate something, like in a travel show kind of way, to show people beautiful b-roll but also mix it with my own impression, information, and a funny skit. All of these aspects can also be chopped down into different shorts, into different vertical videos for different social media, so there is more from the content I create. It gets me this signature style where it is this silly quirky version of me being a travel guide for other people, and also showing them enough beautiful footage for them to feel immersed in it. It’s me guiding people through this experience, showing them the world, as a friend that they have in this online space.

What can YouTube offer hotel/travel/tourism businesses that other social media platforms couldn’t?

All of the social media platforms have their own distinct character and expectations that go along with it. YouTube is more narrative, travel show kind of content. It's been the most stable platform in that it wants to provide longer form content, almost like an alternative to a TV show, which they tried through YouTube Red. They’ve optimized their platform in a way that makes you stay on it for an insanely long amount of time. They can do this really effectively through the suggestions, SEO optimization, related video recommendations, and a personal feed.

“So through YouTube, you are capturing different kinds of people who process information in different ways all at the same time.”

You also have the SEO factor that gets traffic back on your side. It increases your authority on Google which also gives you more traffic through that engine. Google also has the option to show videos when you search for information on something, so if you have optimized your videos then you could show up on a text based search engine as well as the YouTube search engine. That way you reach multiple kinds of people. Some people just want to read something, some people want a quick visual stimulus, and other people want something running in the background like a podcast. So through YouTube, you are capturing different kinds of people who process information in different ways all at the same time. It has a wider reach and success rate, but it also can be very targeted if you look into running ads, optimizing SEO and analytics.

YouTube is much more in depth than TikTok for instance which is still working out the kinks. Even though YouTube is longer form content, it can really get you that engagement. If you are very successful you can also get ad money from it which is a huge bonus. With other platforms like Instagram, it is more of a very fast turn around platform where you always have to be engaging with it every single day. You have to create so much content and do the research to really optimize the platform. For YouTube it can be more profitable especially for smaller businesses if you leverage longer form videos and push them in a way that YouTube knows is worthy of engagement. This will give you more out of it from a long term SEO perspective than with short lived content that you constantly have to push out.

“There’s a wider reach, with less work to do.”

With YouTube you can push something out every week for instance, it’s about consistency and retaining the viewer in the video. It doesn’t matter as much if it's a shorter form or longer form video as long as the people sit through most of it. This engagement can be viewed through YouTube analytics where you can look at the drop off points or the most replayed section, and you can see what you can optimize and what works better for your channel. You can also only push out shorts to get more traction and guide your audience into your funnel. This content can always be put on other platforms as well. There’s a wider reach, with less work to do. It’s a great starting point for smaller businesses that don’t have time to be a social media manager but want to have a social presence.

What are the benefits of YouTube?

The main five benefits are SEO, personality, analytics, content that can be repurposed, and a mix of both short and long form content.

Can you give an example of how you created and executed a video marketing campaign for a tourism client?

First off there’s the briefing and the creative call where we go through the client’s marketing goals and their design guidelines about what they’ve done in the past, what they’ve learned from, and what they want to focus on. There are so many variables you can discuss, but you need to be very specific as to what you want. Who is the target audience? What do you want them to do? How should they feel? What numbers do you want to see? How long or short term focused will this be? Is it a quick campaign, is it a long campaign, is it stretched out over months or years? This talk is necessary to go through all of the aspects of the video and write it down into a condensed summary and brief. This will be reviewed later with everyone who will be involved with the video process.

“For me the most important question is what is the core emotion people should feel?”

When we know what we want to achieve, then we look at how this can be best translated into a video. Do you want multiple videos - should it be a series? Do you want people in it? If yes, how many? For me the most important question is what is the core emotion people should feel? Should they feel empowered, elevated, inspired? Should they feel informed? It can be multiple but you want to really focus on one main emotion. What will your audience leave with? You can take them on a rollercoaster if you want but there needs to be a final emotion at the end of the video.

“Think of it like a Hollywood movie, you would film a movie differently for horror than you would for a romantic comedy.”

After you’ve figured out the emotion, you need to decide on the call to action. Do you want your audience to book your hotel? Do you want them to check out your deals? Once you’ve chosen your call to action, we figure out how that can be visually captured. I always like to talk about genres. Think of it like a Hollywood movie, you would film a movie differently for horror than you would for a romantic comedy. While you can do a lot of editing to make your chosen genre work, it is better to know up front what the genre is going to be. This allows you to be productive and efficient in the production process for the concepting. This is essentially what the script will look like. Is it more of a vlog style where I show up somewhere and film some raw footage and then weave narration into it or is it like a hotel tour? I need to know what the story is going to look like, which is decided in the briefing.

Once I’ve been briefed on all of this information, I can start the filming. I need to know what the video will look like, so I have a shooting list with a set of locations, actors, and equipment line up. This information is what makes shooting quick and effective. The scenes I have available for editing are already optimized so it’s a quick process, a quick turnaround.

When the filming is over, there is at least one more round of edits, if not two, and then the client is usually satisfied. The first round is usually showing them the actual results in the order of filming and the general draft. This round doesn’t have many edits, effects, or colors. It’s to get an idea of what the final edit will look like. A lot of times things creep in later that you kind of expected but weren’t sure about on a surface level, so it can be a bit undefined. This is why multiple rounds of edits are important. At this stage you can re-edit it, optimize the content, and talk about how you want to use it on social media. This gives you a much clearer view of what you want the final product to be.

Finally, we have the finished video. It can also end up being multiple videos to spread across other social media platforms as well. We push it out at the optimized times, we look at the analytics, and then I send over a report. The client and I will review the enter project and see if we want to do a similar video or a different video which helps plan how we want to continue in the future.

What are your tips, tricks, and strategies for using YouTube as a marketing strategy?

“You need to have a specific visual trademark.”

The most important tip is to know your branding and design guidelines. You need to have a specific visual trademark. Then focus on knowing your core personality and how this can manifest in videos. Label three traits that you want your brand to be. Do you want to be fun and quirky or engaging and serious or elegant and fashionable? These should be the core traits you already have for your business and focus on those. Creating a vision board is also useful to see what visually equates to your core traits. You also want to think out of the box and try experimenting with styles. Associate your brand’s personality in different terms. For example: what movie era would it be from or what its favorite food would be. Own your personality. If you have a certain aesthetic, stick to that aesthetic. If your hotel has a 90s theme, market it as a 90s theme. There are travelers who will love niche personalities like that.

“You want to be less generic and more unique by tailoring videos to your brand personality. By showing your audience something they haven’t seen before, they will remember you over everyone else.”

Think outside of the box for visuals and see how this can translate in tone. This could be interviews with your employees. The chef could show you the restaurant or guide you through dishes. The concierge could talk to you about all of the amazing deals. You could give your audience room tours through a “you're checking in” point of view. By knowing what your personality is you can capture your employees in a natural environment and act out situations with clients in a scripted reality. There are hundreds of different ways to tell a story. In order to find the right way to tell your story, you need to look at your branding, marketing, and personality, and how that will be translated into video format. You want to be less generic and more unique by tailoring videos to your brand personality. By showing your audience something they haven’t seen before, they will remember you over everyone else. At the end, it’s really about personality and how you can show it in a humorous, interesting, and engaging way.

“It’s okay to spice it up every now and then by posting different videos every month.”

Use analytics to test out different things. Maybe the format you are using now doesn’t work at all or maybe the timing wasn’t right. You need to figure out when your audience is active and when the optimal drop off points are. Balance optimizing your analytics while experimenting with new content. It’s okay to spice it up every now and then by posting different videos every month.

Before you make any video you want to know the focus of the brand. This is important in order to work out the SEO before you do any types of videos so you know what kind of keywords you would like to rank for. This way you can make your videos around these keywords to give yourself a better long term success rate. At the same time you can still experiment with different forms of videos under the umbrella of it being already SEO optimized.

“You can have multiple videos for different kinds of people to give them the exact information they are looking for.”

You should also weave in your marketing guidelines into every video you make. With a long term marketing strategy, you can niche down every video to cater to one of your marketing goals. This will add people into a specific funnel if they are a specific kind of traveler looking for a specific kind of thing. You can have multiple videos for different kinds of people to give them the exact information they are looking for. This will avoid overloading them with information and direct their attention to specific parts of your website. It’s all about creatively strategizing your funnels and engaging with the actual people and how they would like to be talked to.

“The main approach to YouTube is that it is just a platform to communicate with people.”

The main approach to YouTube is that it is just a platform to communicate with people. Like a Zoom call but on static. It’s a form of communication, it’s not just a billboard. You want to take people on a journey with you. This idea will help businesses use YouTube as a tool in their box and not just as a channel that needs to generate RI. I recommend changing your mindset about YouTube.

It’s important to remember who your audience is. People want you to be real and you don’t have to do that in a way that panders to younger generations. You don’t have to change your brand personality which a lot of companies usually do. Don’t completely ditch your traditional ways of marketing for newer trends but try to apply those to the trends to find a synthesis between both. Things repeat, it’s always cyclical. If you’ve done traditional marketing, you can still apply it on social media with a twist. Learn from one another.

“People learn through stories which will create familiarity that they can remember you by. This familiarity will make people choose you over competitors.”

Marketing is about clear, open communication. Show me what you are going to give me and make me want it. Sell me, but tell me exactly what it is. If you aren’t authentic you will end up with unsatisfied customers who will give you bad reviews. If you own your aesthetic through storytelling, customers will remember it and appreciate it. For example if you tell your customers the tradition behind your design choices, customers may look at them thinking they are ugly, but they can still appreciate the story behind it. They will end up liking it more in the end because they have a personal attachment to it. By being completely open and transparent, people will connect with that and remember that because you are real and interesting. People learn through stories which will create familiarity that they can remember you by. This familiarity will make people choose you over competitors.

“People like personal approaches and this is what hotels are missing by constantly portraying a perfect commercial type of content.”

By keeping people on the journey of what you are creating then people will like your brand almost like a person and not just some corporate entity that they have no relation with or loyalty to. It’s okay to show people all of the stages, show them the different aspects to building your brand. People like personal approaches and this is what hotels are missing by constantly portraying a perfect commercial type of content.

The Main Takeaway…

YouTube is not just a trend. It helps retain more customers and gives you a space to interact with them. You want to get people of all ages and backgrounds, which social media helps cater to. Having multiple videos will help give your different audiences the information they need. Hotels waste a lot of money by not using YouTube to their advantage.

Your main goal on social need is to convince your audience not to scroll. Why should they focus on your content?

“It’s so important to show that you love your brand, you love your employees, and what your company stands for.”

Don’t underestimate how fulfilling YouTube can be for a business. Even if the video flops, your employees will see themselves in a video and see themselves as a part of something bigger. It’s so important to show that you love your brand, you love your employees, and what your company stands for. It’s important to remember why you created the video: to talk about how amazing your business is and why you love and value all aspects of it.

“Why should your audience care about your content?”

To have a strong YouTube marketing strategy, the main takeaway is to make the audience care. When creating your videos, ask yourself why should your audience care about your content and what emotions should they feel? Once you can answer this, you will find yourself creating authentic and unique content.

Thank you so much Annemarie for your time and insights on why YouTube marketing it important for travel and tourism companies.

Public RelationsQuinn DonovanOctober 28, 2022Hotels, YouTube, marketing, marketing trends, marketing strategies, PR, public relations