Our Travel Soup
Our Travel Soup Site Launch
Client
Role
CEO
Writer
Photographer
Content Strategy
Branding
Visual/UI Design
Social Media Marketing
Writer
Photographer
Content Strategy
Branding
Visual/UI Design
Social Media Marketing
Overview
Our Travel Soup is a family travel blog I launched in November 2018. This project is a labor of love which I started from scratch. My mission is to inspire other 9-5er's and families to get outside their cubicle and explore the world. I also want to help others plan their trips with detailed guides, personal recommendations, reviews and tips. As a bonus, it's an outlet for my photography passion, and a way to grow as a writer.
View project
View project
My Process
As I'm building this project, I am continually managing tasks to accomplish my goals. This has been my journey since the beginning.
The Logo
Now that I had a name chosen, I had to do a logo. I originally thought about a bowl of soup, but wasn't feeling it. Then I thought, well what about my daughter? She's the central core of why we travel, to share with her everything about this world. Her name even means earth! It was perfect, so I started by drawing a character of her face. I then created a simplified vector of it and it was ready!
Site Design
Next up was the site design. With my limited capabilities in coding, I had to work from a template. My blogging preference is always Wordpress, so I found a theme that worked for my needs. Since I do know how to edit code, I was able to completely customize it to meet my visual design goals. The end product is unique, and not completely out of the box.
The Content
With the site design complete, I now had to start building content. I had a few recent trips so I started with those. I started publishing articles on a consistent basis up until the actual launch date of my site. I now maintain it on a weekly basis. Since we are not full-time travelers I also write local travel content in between.
Social Media
While building the blog, I also had to start building a social media presence. I setup accounts on Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram. These three are my primary focus. As of today I've reached a total of around 4k followers between these. I'm continually working on maintaining and building my engagement and following.
Pinterest Marketing Content
So far, Pinterest has been great success for me. My impressions, engagement, and link clicks have stayed fairly consistent and are steadily rising. With this I've spent some time creating and testing out various graphics. I've reached a defined style, but continually testing imagery and copy.
Instagram Highlight Icons
In order to keep my instagram more professional, I've created some vector icons for the highlight covers. With each country we visit I plan to keep creating these in order to keep the branding consistent.
Opt-In Freebie
I've been starting to put more focus on building my email list. I've created an opt-in freebie for anyone who subscribes. I thought about what things would be helpful for me while planning a trip. So I created a basic Travel Planning Kit. My list is slowly growing, and I'm working on other freebies to test out in the future.
Photography Presets
Currently I'm developing a photography preset product aimed primarily at travel and lifestyle influencers. My style is to keep photos more natural, but with an added flavor of magic. I'm developing packages based on themes and inspiration from the places that we travel.
See more on Instagram
See more on Instagram
