“How can we make our hotel stand out?”
If you work in hospitality marketing, you’ve probably heard that question (or asked it yourself) a thousand times. That question guides most decision making in our vertical as teams around the world work to ensure that their property stands out in an increasingly crowded digital marketplace.Once you’ve taken the ground-level steps to establish your hotel’s online presence, there's another opportunity to take your digital marketing even a step further - with a blog.Here are three reasons why a hotel blog should be at the heart of your marketing strategy.
1.) Native "Articles" Can Drive Traffic to Your Website
If you’re in the planning stages of booking a trip to Hawaii, would you be more likely to click on a headline that says “Hotel With Convenient Location” or one that boasts an experiential-minded “Top 10 Secret Beaches in Hawaii”? Chances are, you’ll choose to browse that gallery of secluded beaches and that website will have won your click. This is due to our tendency to be drawn to content that is not only relevant to our search intent, but also informative. Brian Miller from The Drum said it best: “Great online content is either funny, useful, beautiful or inspiring.” Luckily, travel-related content often falls into most of those categories, if not all four.A quick warning here: make sure that you’re not producing random acts of content with the only focus being increasing website traffic. Instead, create content that is relevant to your property, ties into your larger marketing objectives, and most importantly will speak to your guest - and an uptick in website visitors will likely follow.[caption id="attachment_5940" align="alignnone" width="2872"]
Credit: Four Seasons Magazine[/caption]
2.) A Blog is a Great Place to Showcase Your Property
One of the main benefits of a hotel blog is the ability to control your narrative. A branded blog, written by your team and hosted on your own website, gives you total control over format, design, and placement, free from the restrictions of a social platform’s rules. Tap into that freedom and get creative in how you showcase your property. Imagery and aesthetic are key here. One tip is to guide the user to other pages on your website that compliment the topic of the blog they clicked on by inter-linking. If a user lands on your “Top 10 Secret Beaches in Hawaii” blog post, you’ll include a sentence about how close your hotel is to beach #3 and provide a link to your hotel’s “Location” page.Adding relevant links to other pages on your site can also drive conversions by guiding prospects to pages that contain helpful information that they may have missed. Focus on creating content that showcases the unique aspects of your property and you’ll be able to differentiate your hotel from the competition.[caption id="attachment_5942" align="alignnone" width="846"]
Credit: Design Hotels[/caption]
3.) Syndication Can Help You Reach New Audiences Online
Once you have created buzz-worthy posts, the next step is to market your hotel blog to maximize readership and reach new audiences. Share your posts on the social networks that you’re most active on and consider expanding to platforms you may not be using. Keep in mind that it’s crucial to tailor the message to each network, as supporting copy that works on business-minded LinkedIn will seem out of place on a travel forum on Reddit. Consider syndicating the blog on places like Outbrain or Medium, and share links to your blog on related discussion boards.We’ve seen this work especially well on location-specific forums where a user is asking for recommendations on things to do while visiting that place. Bloggers or online community member often reply with a link to their blog on that exact topic to promote their channels, so why not do it on behalf of your brand? Posting backlinks to your blog on various platforms also have the added bonus of increasing your ranking on Google.[caption id="attachment_5943" align="alignnone" width="1254"]
Your content could be the answer to countless travel-related questions on countless travel-related message boards.[/caption]When content succeeds at being useful to potential guests, a hospitality blog can increase your website traffic, highlight the unique aspects of your property, and increase awareness among new audiences.Still on the fence? Need help getting that blog off the ground? Drop us a line.
Did you enjoy the read?
Get original hospitality industry insights delivered to your inbox. Sign up to receive Screen Pilot’s #TrendingNow Newsletter.
“How can we make our hotel stand out?”
If you work in hospitality marketing, you’ve probably heard that question (or asked it yourself) a thousand times. That question guides most decision making in our vertical as teams around the world work to ensure that their property stands out in an increasingly crowded digital marketplace.Once you’ve taken the ground-level steps to establish your hotel’s online presence, there's another opportunity to take your digital marketing even a step further - with a blog.Here are three reasons why a hotel blog should be at the heart of your marketing strategy.
1.) Native "Articles" Can Drive Traffic to Your Website
If you’re in the planning stages of booking a trip to Hawaii, would you be more likely to click on a headline that says “Hotel With Convenient Location” or one that boasts an experiential-minded “Top 10 Secret Beaches in Hawaii”? Chances are, you’ll choose to browse that gallery of secluded beaches and that website will have won your click. This is due to our tendency to be drawn to content that is not only relevant to our search intent, but also informative. Brian Miller from The Drum said it best: “Great online content is either funny, useful, beautiful or inspiring.” Luckily, travel-related content often falls into most of those categories, if not all four.A quick warning here: make sure that you’re not producing random acts of content with the only focus being increasing website traffic. Instead, create content that is relevant to your property, ties into your larger marketing objectives, and most importantly will speak to your guest - and an uptick in website visitors will likely follow.[caption id="attachment_5940" align="alignnone" width="2872"]
Credit: Four Seasons Magazine[/caption]
2.) A Blog is a Great Place to Showcase Your Property
One of the main benefits of a hotel blog is the ability to control your narrative. A branded blog, written by your team and hosted on your own website, gives you total control over format, design, and placement, free from the restrictions of a social platform’s rules. Tap into that freedom and get creative in how you showcase your property. Imagery and aesthetic are key here. One tip is to guide the user to other pages on your website that compliment the topic of the blog they clicked on by inter-linking. If a user lands on your “Top 10 Secret Beaches in Hawaii” blog post, you’ll include a sentence about how close your hotel is to beach #3 and provide a link to your hotel’s “Location” page.Adding relevant links to other pages on your site can also drive conversions by guiding prospects to pages that contain helpful information that they may have missed. Focus on creating content that showcases the unique aspects of your property and you’ll be able to differentiate your hotel from the competition.[caption id="attachment_5942" align="alignnone" width="846"]
Credit: Design Hotels[/caption]
3.) Syndication Can Help You Reach New Audiences Online
Once you have created buzz-worthy posts, the next step is to market your hotel blog to maximize readership and reach new audiences. Share your posts on the social networks that you’re most active on and consider expanding to platforms you may not be using. Keep in mind that it’s crucial to tailor the message to each network, as supporting copy that works on business-minded LinkedIn will seem out of place on a travel forum on Reddit. Consider syndicating the blog on places like Outbrain or Medium, and share links to your blog on related discussion boards.We’ve seen this work especially well on location-specific forums where a user is asking for recommendations on things to do while visiting that place. Bloggers or online community member often reply with a link to their blog on that exact topic to promote their channels, so why not do it on behalf of your brand? Posting backlinks to your blog on various platforms also have the added bonus of increasing your ranking on Google.[caption id="attachment_5943" align="alignnone" width="1254"]
Your content could be the answer to countless travel-related questions on countless travel-related message boards.[/caption]When content succeeds at being useful to potential guests, a hospitality blog can increase your website traffic, highlight the unique aspects of your property, and increase awareness among new audiences.Still on the fence? Need help getting that blog off the ground? Drop us a line.
Did you enjoy the read?
Get original hospitality industry insights delivered to your inbox. Sign up to receive Screen Pilot’s #TrendingNow Newsletter.
