Content Style Guidelines

The overall objective when writing content for Vacayit is to use descriptive language to paint an enticing picture of your product/experience without the use of visual imagery. This can seem quite challenging at first, as tourism marketing traditionally relies heavily upon imagery to convey its message and promote sales.

However, language is rich! With carefully chosen words and thoughtfully formatted content, the inability to rely on imagery isn’t such an issue. In fact, it can open your mind to innovative approaches to product marketing as you explore the other multi-sensory sales points of what you have to offer.

First paragraph

Consider this the equivalent of your ‘hero image’ or the front page of your marketing brochure. In this brief 1-2 minute segment, your key mission is to capture the listener’s attention and provoke their interest in hearing more.

You should consider including key marketing messages (where relevant) and highlighting signature experiences or features that set your product apart. This is the introduction to what you have to offer but will also be pivotal in determining whether listeners choose to hear more and/or book. This is your opening pitch, so as with any marketing content, it’s in your interest to make sure the material here is engaging, relevant and tailored to the audience. Try to be descriptive enough to entice the listener to want to know more but succinct enough to provide an overview of what you have to offer.

NB This first paragraph may be all that’s required for most cafes/restaurants etc.

The content of the second paragraph (or clip) may depend upon the type of experience or product you are describing. E.g. for tour operators or experientially based products, this paragraph may describe what you experience (hear, smell, taste, feel, see etc.) on arrival and in the initial stages of the tour.

This paragraph provides the perfect opportunity to employ rich adjectives (describing words) and vocabulary to guide listeners through the initial stages of what they can expect. In this way, it may serve as both a marketing tool and a brief verbal guide for use either before OR during the tour.

If this will be your final paragraph, be sure to end with an invitation or key call to action to encourage listeners to take the next step to book or undertake the experience.

Once again, content in the third or subsequent paragraphs or clips may depend upon the nature of the product being described. It may include more descriptive content about the final stages of the tour/experience, or it may provide further key details about facilities, opening times, sustainability initiatives (if a key focus), history (relevant to the experience) and so forth.

If your audience has chosen to swipe through to a third or subsequent clip, they are obviously quite interested in what you have to offer, so will likely be more receptive to the details.

The key tip for this paragraph is that no information is better than the wrong information. Information about facilities at the destination needs to be up-to-date and relevant. People often choose their holiday based on the facilities provided, and if they aren’t available upon arrival, it means they may not be able to participate in the activity.

Try to think of what you might love about the experience if you had to do it with your eyes shut. Does your product offer a unique ambience, highly interactive accessible experience, or multi-sensory highlight?

It’s fine to still mention visual things like views or lush scenery, as this helps the listener to envisage what they are/will experience, but purely visual highlights shouldn’t be the key or only focus.

Blind and vision-impaired travellers are much like any other consumer. They are discerning, and they will only be enticed by content that is rich and engaging. Where possible, try to use the sort of language that you might find in mainstream marketing materials.

For example:

‘Let your spirits fly as you tune in to the calls of free-flying birds as they soar in the skies overhead.’ It would be more appealing than ‘Come and hear whooshing sounds in the sky.’

As these clips will be audio recorded for the audience, we usually find that extra-long sentences (3 or 4 lines long) don’t convey the message as effectively as sentences that are slightly shorter. Adjectives are great, and the text should be as descriptive as possible, but sentences that are too long become confusing. (Readers can easily re-read a convoluted sentence, but it’s more time-consuming for listeners to have to replay the whole clip to capture the meaning).

No matter the length of your content, always remember to end on a strong note, either by summarising your experience and/or inviting the audience to experience it for themselves. Your final sentence is almost as important as your opening one, as both have the power to make or break a potential sale.

Thank you for choosing accessibility; if you have any questions about the content, please email content@vacayit.com