Over the last year, we've spent quite a bit of time helping airports develop what we call a Related Content Series. On the surface, it's a fairly straightforward idea. Research the questions travelers are already asking, create thoughtful content around those topics, and optimize it so it's discoverable through both traditional search engines and the growing number of AI-powered search experiences.

That's become a pretty common conversation.

The part I don't think gets talked about enough is what happens after the article is published.

Coming from an e-commerce background, I've never been a big believer that content should serve a single purpose. Some of the highest-performing content I've worked on over the years wasn't successful simply because it ranked well in Google. Its real value came from how many different ways we were able to use it after it was written.

One of our consumer brand clients has become a great example of this. Over the past several years, we've built an ongoing series of educational articles designed to answer the questions their customers are already asking. Those articles certainly perform well organically, but that's only one piece of the equation.

Instead of treating them as blog posts, we've integrated them throughout the customer lifecycle. They become part of welcome series, post-purchase flows, seasonal campaigns, and product education emails. Rather than leading with a promotion, many of those emails simply lead with something useful.

The interesting part is the performance.

When we compare those content-driven emails to more traditional product or promotional campaigns, the content consistently outperforms. On average, we're seeing nearly a 20% increase in revenue per send, along with stronger open rates and engagement.

I've always found that interesting because it challenges a pretty common assumption.

We tend to think customers open emails because they want an offer.

More often than not, I think they're opening emails because they expect value.

Sometimes that value is a discount.

Other times it's simply learning something they didn't know five minutes earlier.

I've started wondering if airport parking has an opportunity to borrow that same mindset.

Take something as simple as an article explaining the differences between economy parking and a garage. Yes, it should perform well in search. That's probably why it was written in the first place.

But why stop there?

If someone books economy parking for the first time, that same article could become part of their pre-arrival email, helping reinforce that they made the right decision. Before a busy holiday travel period, it could be shared again alongside practical travel tips. Six months later, it might introduce another parking product that's a better fit for the type of trip they're planning.

The article hasn't changed.

The customer has.

That's one of the biggest lessons e-commerce has taught me. Good content isn't tied to a channel. It's tied to a customer need. Once you've answered that need well, the content becomes remarkably flexible.

I also think it changes the conversation around email.

One of the concerns I still hear is that airports don't want to communicate too frequently. I understand that. Nobody wants to become another unread message in someone's inbox.

But in my experience, frequency is usually a symptom—not the problem.

The real question is whether the email is worth opening.

If every message simply asks someone to reserve parking, eventually they'll tune it out. If the message helps them prepare for holiday travel, answers a question about an upcoming trip, or introduces a parking option they genuinely didn't know existed, the relationship starts to feel very different.

Now we're not just promoting parking.

We're continuing the conversation.

That's why I think every parking article should have a second job.

Search may be where a traveler discovers it for the first time, but that shouldn't be where its value ends. The best content continues working long after it's published—supporting search, AI discovery, reservation emails, seasonal campaigns, and ultimately helping travelers make better decisions throughout their relationship with the airport.

In my experience, that's a much better return on the investment than publishing an article and hoping someone finds it.