Connecticut Office of Tourism: Content Marketing Program

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Insights

Research shows that potential New England travelers don’t think of Connecticut as a place with much to see or do. The truth is, Connecticut has all of the top activities visitors want, and its compact size allows them to have more diverse experiences in less time. Content marketing was an ideal tool to change perceptions and inspire visitation through the channels where our audience seeks travel inspiration. 

Ideas

We developed a content calendar of strategically selected topics based on multiple sources of data and then planned to develop 4-10 original pieces per month using experts, relevant influencers, and our own content creators.

The distribution strategy included hosting articles on CTvisit.com, and then promoting it using Google Adwords; promoted social media posts; paid YouTube placements; placements on TripAdvisor; content seeding via Taboola, and to our email base—segmented by interest twice a month.

Impact

The content marketing campaign won Best Content Marketing in Travel/Tourism by the Content Marketing Institute in 2019. It also: 

• Inspired 2.8 million readers of our content
• Drove 50% of all traffic on CTvisit.com
• Featured 1,000+ different Connecticut hotels, restaurants, attractions, events and towns
• Provided more than three million leads directly to Connecticut businesses
• Those exposed to our content marketing campaign in NYC, one of our key markets, visited Connecticut six times more than those who were not exposed and stayed 3.5 times longer.
• Earned $14 in incremental state and local taxes for every $1 spent on digital media supporting the content marketing campaign.