Introduction

Are you old enough to remember when travel agents were an essential part of your life? To book a vacation you had to go to a travel agent. There was no other choice. Every town had at least one, and in the big cities travel agencies were on every corner.

First, before you set foot in the travel agency, you might do a little research about the sort of vacation you had in mind. Warm weather at a beach? Or perhaps a week of skiing? Maybe a cruise? Did you want to go somewhere exotic and far away? Or nearby within driving distance?

Doing the research was really, really difficult.

You would ask friends for recommendations, but they knew only so much. You could read a travel magazine, but with only a limited number of pages in each issue, it was hardly comprehensive. Guidebooks helped, but because of the book publication cycles, they were inevitably dated. If you wanted to compare different destinations, you needed more than one guidebook. And by definition, a book is just one person's opinion-the author's. No matter how much research you did, it was never enough to get a total picture of a potential holiday location.

Sooner or later you had to go into that travel agency, and that's when you surrendered control of the already imperfect process: You had to put yourself at the mercy of a salesperson. As she sat behind a terminal, she tossed out destination options, quoted prices for flights and rental cars, and suggested hotels. Perhaps she loaded you up with a bunch of brochures to look through.

The best travel agents were adept at matching destinations, experiences, and properties to a traveler's needs. They built a loyal following and made a good living via repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals.

But too often, agents weren't very good and just sold what was most convenient. They would steer clients to the easy sale in Florida instead of the more complicated booking at a small resort on an obscure island in the French-speaking part of the Caribbean. Worse, unscrupulous agents would sell crappy cruises simply because they earned additional commissions from low-end operators desperate to fill their ships.

The bottom line in booking a vacation 20 years ago was simple: The travel agent was in charge of the sales process because she had the information. The unfortunate traveler was limited to her recommendations and her prices.

And it wasn't just travel. This was the case for nearly every sales situation one transacted.

It's a new world now. The way we book travel today is so utterly different from being tied to agents as to be unrecognizable.

Recently my wife and I went on a 10-day expedition to Antarctica. Since I was a kid I'd dreamed of seeing giant blue-green icebergs up close and encountering penguins and whales in the most remote continent on earth.

We began our independent research on the web more than a year before our expedition.

We used Google to find the results for such phrases as "Antarctica travel," "Antarctica expedition," and "visit Antarctica." Our searches led us to about a dozen expedition outfitters, and we carefully checked out each of them via their sites. We also found personal blogs written by people who had undertaken such an expedition. These offered great information about what we needed to consider. There were independent reviews of operators and expedition ships. We found articles profiling Antarctica travel on newspaper and magazine websites. We even landed on the site of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, and while it is a trade organization, we learned a lot more there.

Unlike booking travel 20 years ago, we were in charge of the buying process. We had information from experienced experts to aid us when making our decisions. We could learn from those who had gone before us on their social networks. And we could book directly with our choice of outfitter.

Now, buyers are in charge of relationships with companies they choose to do business with.

Smart companies understand this new world and build a buying process around the realities of independent research. Instead of generic information dreamed up by an advertising agency, they tell authentic stories that interest their customers. Instead of selling, they educate through online content. Instead of ignoring those who have already made a purchase, they deliver information at precisely the moment customers need it.

As my wife and I evaluated the various expedition outfitters, we quickly narrowed our choice to several, based on the content on their websites. We explored information about the wildlife we were likely to observe such as chinstrap penguins, gentoo penguins, elephant seals, leopard seals, minke whales, and humpback whales. We viewed amazing photographs of icebergs and watched videos of birds unique to the harsh climate. We explored ways to combat seasickness during the two-day voyage from southern Argentina to the Antarctic continent. We learned about the ships and we could virtually meet the expedition leaders. And yes, we could compare pricing of the various travel options.

We were finally ready and chose to book a 10-day adventure with Quark Expeditions, a Canada-based polar travel outfitter operating a fleet of six ice-strengthened expedition ships. The information provided by Quark served to guide us from our initial research phase to the decisive moment when we felt sufficiently educated and ready to reserve our cabin.

Quark Expeditions tells a compelling story to customers contemplating an Antarctic adventure. The informative content that Quark freely provides-stories of amazing encounters with wildlife and stunning scenic vistas, about expedition staff who are leaders in their specialties and eager to help guests learn, and detailing the professional experience that ensures a safe and enjoyable trip-leads buyers like me to the point when they are ready to take the next step.

The Quark story comes from the top. Its president and CEO, Hans Lagerweij, leads their communications efforts and tweets regularly about polar travel via @hanslagerweij. As part of our research process, I tweeted Lagerweij, and he got back to me quickly. Unlike most CEOs who care more about the financials than about their customers, Lagerweij is in the thick of communications and sets the tone for what his entire team delivers, from the expedition experience itself to how that experience is sold to potential travelers.

When I placed a call to Quark Expeditions, I reached Paul, a "polar travel advisor." I knew exactly what I wanted: which expedition ship (the Ocean Diamond), the dates of travel, and the type of cabin. Paul didn't need to sell me, because the online content had already done that! And here's the important point: Paul knew this. Unlike the sales process a decade ago, Paul's job was 95 percent done by the time he answered my call. The actual transaction was simple and was completed quickly.

Once we had booked our expedition, the online storytelling didn't stop. At this point, Paul became a content curator, digging into Quark's information library to send me what we needed to make our trip more enjoyable.

Paul sent us content on optional Antarctica activities: camping, cross-country skiing, kayaking, snowshoeing, and yes, even a polar plunge into near-freezing water! (Gotta do it, right?!) All of these options were presented to us at the right moment in the buying process (after we booked the trip but well before departure). We also received information on an optional trekking and canoeing trip in Tierra del Fuego National Park near Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world and the departure point for our expedition.

Later, as the date of our trip neared and as we began to plan what we needed to pack, we received a PDF checklist of essential and suggested gear. We also watched a video of Quark's merchandise coordinator, Jaymie MacAulay, answering commonly asked questions about the best clothing to pack when traveling to the polar regions. There was information on cameras, binoculars, and video equipment. We learned about sunscreen (it's bright in Antarctica in the near 24-hour December sun). Of particular importance, we got information on antiseasickness remedies for the notorious Drake Passage in the form of a post on the Quark Expeditions blog and a video on their YouTube channel, and we were given ideas about medicine to bring.

In short, through the provision of online content, Quark led us from the initial Google search through to closing a sale, and then continued the virtual relationship all the way to our expedition departure date.

The storytelling and content delivery didn't stop there.

Among the staff of our expedition were several professional photographers, including the amazing Sue Flood, a wildlife photographer, author, and filmmaker. (She was associate producer on the award-winning series The Blue Planet.) A personalized copy of Sue's beautiful photography book Cold Places now sits on our living room table. The photographers on board the Ocean Diamond delivered lectures during the Drake Passage crossing and were available in the evenings after we finished each day's exploration. They offered advice about how best to photograph the amazing wildlife and scenery we were experiencing. When we went out on the Zodiac (a rigid inflatable boat), they were there as well and came with us when we landed to explore. While shooting their own photographs, the...