Source: Milestone Inc.

Hotels across the world are seeing 2021 as a year to better online presence through the tactics of content marketing. This is because modern online values have created a content marketing era where brands have become publishers, blogs have replaced magazines, video platforms have replaced TV shows, podcasts have replaced radio stations, and so on.

With this, nearly 92% of companies around the globe have found content marketing techniques to be more valuable than other strategies. A further, 72% have experienced increased convergence after implementing a consistent content marketing workflow connecting consumers and campaigns. Behavior-based analysis company Aberdeen even found that traffic growth was 7.8 times higher for content marketing leaders as opposed to laggards.

So, the Milestone team has gathered some key factors you should consider if you want your hotel to become one of these content marketing leaders:

What it means to have a hotel content marketing strategy

A hotel needs to be in touch with potential guests, past, present, and future. And, while content marketing itself is an old concept, having been used from the time of Benjamin Franklin's Almanack, it has evolved to fit a modern community of online consumers.

When it comes to engaging with potential guests, there are different avenues that can spark different levels of communication between varying demographics.

For example: regularly posting a blog, sending out email newsletters, using social media to ask a question, or even developing landing page copy that narrates interesting information about the activities your potential guests can participate in around the hotel.

What your basic objectives should be as a hotel

A content marketing strategy brings a bound of benefits to your business from perception to performance. Take a look at a non-exhaustive list below for you to use as objectives in your content marketing workflow:

  • 3 times the chance for a return on investment (ROI)
  • Higher ranking opportunities across search engines
  • A lower need for overheads spent on hotel paid media
  • Effective communication in other languages
  • Increased presence on social media platforms
  • Better chances of receiving positive reviews on travel sites
  • Developing reach to a wider list of potential guests
  • Reduced customer journeys for higher lead convergence
  • Maintained loyalty from past and present guests
  • Established expertise, authority, and trust (E-A-T)
  • Providing answers to FAQs guests may have across multiple platforms

What to do when optimizing a content publishing workflow

There are two aspects a hotel should focus on: ensuring content relates to guests around the world and finding ways to connect with potential guests through the right distribution channels. After all, 94% of polled users in an Instagram study were found to draw inspiration from in-platform adverts for the next purchase.

Let's take one consideration: your hotel is an exhibit of escapism which can be efficiently communicated through high-quality imagery. Instagram holds a wide-net audience as a visually orientated platform that sparks global wanderlust. Sharing your hotel through Instagram with fine copy can reach these large audiences to create potential guests.

Top tip: try using a scheduling app such as Instagram's 'Later' to release daily content with snackable copy that engages audiences.

Yet, when creating the content, make use of free online services such as Hemingway Editor and Surfer SEO to ensure content is legible and optimized for the web.

What tracking, reporting, and adapting you can do to improve performance

Metrics gained through social media, your website and your hotel's booking quantities are actionable points that can be used to adapt your content marketing strategy to your audience.

For example, if you publish content about both inside the hotel and activities around the hotel, you may see higher engagement levels for the latter. Using this information, you can implement a heavier focus on the popular materials to aid in booking rooms.

Here are some of the best metrics to measure to ensure your hotel's content marketing strategy is working toward your goals:

  • SEO rank
  • Impressions
  • Visits
  • Bounce rate
  • Pages per visit
  • Dwell time
  • Conversions
  • First-time vs. repeat visitors
  • Engagement (likes, follows, shares, comments, subscriber numbers, etc.)
  • PR mentions
  • Backlinks
  • Revenue/Profits
  • ROI performance

What top tips you should implement in your content strategy

Using a content marketing strategy can be 62% cheaper than traditional media marketing strategies but it can also be 300% more effective in audience-reach when focused on correctly. Simply writing and publishing blogs during free time will be ineffective at bringing potential guests through the revolving door.

High-quality content, even if it's just in the medium of a blog, can generate 61% of all your bookings. So, consider these top tips your team can incorporate to ensure high-quality content:

  • Conduct positive and negative keyword research
  • Create a secure schedule with a publishing cadence of twice a week or more
  • Develop a house style guide
  • Create new and unseen content to draw readers
  • Solve problems and answer questions with clear content value
  • Incorporate relevant and current data statistics
  • Track the performance to see what audiences want to read
  • Repurpose website content across an omnichannel media solution
  • Request backlinks with valued sources
  • Cultivate an in-house group of writers
  • Provide many call-to-actions (CTAs)

When implementing a successful hotel marketing strategy, you need to ensure the right message is being heard and your potential guests feel welcomed. And, this can be as simple as recognizing the difference between good, bad, thin, curated, user-generated, trend jack, or cluster content as well as which copy materials will be most effective at drawing the attention of a global audience.

The most effective method for this is to head to a content marketing specialist. Talk to Milestone; here to get potential guests through the door.

Contact the Milestone team at [email protected] or call us at +1 408-200-2211.