Content marketing for the hotel industry is really important as it is the core of any successful digital marketing campaign and can be really helpful to attract potential guests.
WHAT IS CONTENT?
Ian Laurie of Potent Inc puts it very well, “Content isn’t ‘stuff we write to rank higher’ or ‘infographics’ or ‘long-form articles.’ Content is anything that communicates a message to the audience. Anything.”
Content marketing is nothing but using this content towards achieving a marketing goal. Hospitality industries can reap the benefit from this if content creation is done right and market well.
WHERE DO YOU START?
Truth is you will never hit the sweet spot at the beginning of this process. You only get better over time. Consider some of these top tips industry experts suggest for beginners in the field of content marketing.
1) Tell Engaging Stories:
The better the quality of your content, the more the shares, and the higher the engagement. Content is all about storytelling and keeping the person engaged via your content (image, video, email,etc). What’s your story? How is it different from the hotel across the street? Rich storytelling supported by powerful visuals or videos are a great way to get the attention of your audience and ramp up engagement.
2) Create a Blog:
Having your own hotel blog is a great way to ensure that you have a steady stream of content. Creating new blog posts on your hotel and relevant hotel industry content can help in increasing your brand awareness online.
And continuous production of good content is the foundation for a successful content marketing strategy. To know more about hotel blogs read here
3) Use the Right Tools:
Invest in a good content management system, CRM, and marketing automation suite; whatever it takes to make the task of content management easy.
4) Repurpose Content:
You can’t always create new content. It is ok to repurpose existing ones and generate content for using them in multiple places such as youtube, hotel website, Instagram, etc.
5) Promote on the Right Platforms:
Plan content strategies for your hotel’s content marketing promotion. These could be owned (i.e. your social channels or website) or third-party sites that would be happy to publish your content.
Find travel influencers (bloggers, media etc.) who are willing to share your content which will help your hotel’s branding.
6) Use Rich Images & Videos:
Use images and videos in your content. It improves engagement value. Companies that use videos in their marketing enjoy a 27% higher CTR and 34% higher web conversion. Video tours around a property or your location will build customer confidence to book. They’re also a great way to generate customer participation and content sharing.
If you’re still a bit shaky on video, use multiple images in the gallery style to tell your story. Or just make videos out of photos. Content also helps in improving your hotel’s search engine optimization.
7) Put Money Behind it:
Boosting a Facebook or LinkedIn post doesn’t cost much. Just get smart about the target audience you promote it to. Using catchy promotion on social media with call-to-action towards a landing page which can help you attract potential customers.
8) Email Marketing
Email marketing is another way to amplify your hotel content. Think about why people have signed up to your email and what they’d like to hear. Some people sign up to know about your deals and discounts, some may like to know about local events, while others may just have signed up because they’d like to hear what your property has been up to.
Test different kinds of content with various segments you’ve created. See what works so you can match a segment to the right type of content. To know about email marketing read here
This article has been taken from STAAH’s e-book on Digital Marketing Toolkit. To read the whole content download your FREE copy here.
