“Content marketing is the active process of creating relevant and sought after content for an end goal. To grab the attention of the target market’s eye, mind and pocketbook.” – Aubrae Wagneer, Content Strategist EnVeritas Group
Share Your Story With Effective Content Marketing
Professional brands deliver content marketing in a way that entertains, enlightens, inspires, educates and is effective in storytelling and making the information interesting. Each and every hotel has a unique and wonderful story: content marketing is a way to tell their story and inspire guests to stay and use the hotel. High-quality content can be the make or break of a booking, so the information given needs to be informative, compelling, and inspiring.
Hotels and brands have noticed the need for content marketing and have created budgets for content creation, which they can track and measure through a variety of channels from third party creators. As stated in a Skift research article, “The next wave in content marketing is focused on building content ecosystems, as a complete package, which used together enhance each other.”
Utilize Various Forms of Multimedia
The best campaigns offer live events, utilize social media, brands, blogs, applications, user generated content, as well as content in different forms such as videos, pictures, and writing. These all allow full utilization for the hotel or brand and produce funnel marketing benefits which increase and add to customers’ travel purchasing process.
On average, as researched by GFK Global, the average traveler will visit and read 22 travel related websites in their research and planning stage, before deciding and booking their desired travel arrangements. With this high number of sites visited, a successful site needs to grab the attention of the user to prevent them from clicking off the site. Many websites do this by offering enticing pictures, clear and descriptive information, providing a sense of the property, along with its amenities, all in a personalized, audience-friendly way.
Unique selling points are a good place to begin when researching unique content to create, with the homepage being the most important and enticing part of the website as it encourages users to keep searching and discovering the website and further information.
Take Advantage of the Digital Era
Social media has become a big game changer in terms of content marketing, allowing for improved guest and hotel interactions at the touch of a button. On social media guests can instantly ask questions and hotels can answer. Sites such as Instagram can be used to showcase beautiful images and videos, blogs can help to boost traffic though SEO and keywords. Blog content can also offer an invite into much more than the hotel itself, with content created around the local area, events, interesting topics, useful guides for guests as well as other types of content.
Many hotels upload content which is 20% directly hotel related and 80% that is related to the local area and other information, such as travel tips. They can be used as digital concierges adding value and quality to a webpage, enticing users to keep exploring. There are many different ways to create content marketing strategies, but many include the same features and stages.
These features and stages include but aren’t limited to:
- Researching the target market
- Creating content marketing goals
- Adding professionally written content
- Professional photography
- Professional videos and virtual tours
- Creating a style guide
- Using words that sell
- Telling the hotel’s story
- Containing unique selling points
- Using SEO keywords, user-centred or germinated content
- Linking techniques
- Hotel and local area details
- Providing translations
- Delivering special offers
- Making regular updates
- Fact checking
- Interviews
- Events
- Monitoring traffic
- Tweaking and testing
- Engaging and attracting guests with robust and unique content
