Why Content Marketing is Vital for Hotels
One of the most recent hotel marketing trends is content marketing, which is used effectively to attract more guests and boost SEO efforts. Create valuable and engaging content like travel guides, blog posts, or seasonal offers to make your hotel appear more useful to the guests and direct more traffic to your hotel website.
Content marketing is more than advertisements; it is about finding a solution to various questions that the guests may have and encouraging them to consider booking the hotel for their next visit.
In this guide, we will see the aspects of content marketing pertinent to the hotel business with regard to drawing in more guests, optimizing search engines, and generating bookings at the end.
What is Content Marketing for Hotels?
Content marketing includes the way of creating, publishing, and distributing content. This content should be relevant, useful, and engaging to your target audience. In this regard, hotels can have travel guides, posts about local attractions, video presentations of the hotel, and seasonal promotions.
It is necessary to create customer potential in your target audience by providing their needs and interests. For instance, if a tourist types ‘best activities in Nairobi’ in the search engine it may be possible that they found your blog post on the top things to do near your hotel. In this way, their need is met as well and your hotel property is also introduced which increases the chances that the visitor will make a reservation.
To understand more about how your blog content can improve your search rankings, see On-Page SEO for Hotels: Optimizing for Maximum SEO Impact.
Creating Travel Guides and Local Content
Local information appeals to travelers, and writing travel guides or web pages about nearby attractions is a great way to persuade visitors to check out the hotel’s site. This content is not only relevant to your audience but also helps you rank higher for geo-targeted queries like “what to do around [your city]” or “top eateries around [your hotel].”
Suggestions for making travel guides:
- Highlight Local Attractions: Create guides for tourist-friendly attractions near your hotel, such as parks, museums, restaurants, and shopping centers. Provide full descriptions, images, and protagonists so as to make your work attractive.
- Use Geo-Targeted Keywords: Don’t fail to optimize your travel guides for geo-targeted phrases like “hotels located a mile from Nairobi National Park” or “the best places to eat around [insert the hotel name].” This will benefit your content, more specifically local search rankings for the former.
- Collaborate with Local Businesses: Collaborate with nearby points of interest, dining establishments, or travel agents and create content that will be beneficial to all parties. For example, when publishing a guide, one may include a local eatery, and the eatery in turn will advertise the hotel on its site.
Learn how to use geo-targeted keywords effectively by reading Local SEO for Hotels: How to Rank High in Your Area.
Seasonal Content for Hotels
There is also the need to create seasonal content since this is another way of drawing in potential guests, especially during the high seasons of travel. Develop content for holidays, festivals, or local events in order to focus on specific travelers who are seeking seasonal quotes.
Suggestions for seasonal content:
- Offers on Holidays: Offer vacation packages or deals during popular travel seasons such as Christmas, Easter, summer, and so on. Write blog posts about these deals, incorporating seasonal keywords like “Christmas hotel deals in Nairobi.”
- Local Festivals and Events: Create content about holidays or events that take place near the hotel. For instance, you could write a blog post explaining how to get to the annual music festival and mentioning how close the hotel is to it.
- Weather-related content: If your hotel is located in an area where the weather changes frequently, you can write weather-related content. For example, one could write about Mombasa’s best sunny beach season or the best month to go on safari in Kenya.
Internal Link: For tips on optimizing your content for mobile users during peak seasons, check out Mobile SEO for Hotels: Why It’s Crucial and How to Get It Right.
Guest Testimonials and Stories as Content
Many guests depend on the opinions of others. For that reason, guest testimonials and stories are quite useful content for your hotel. Publishing real experiences with your hotel by potential customers over the web offers trust and improves the chances of them booking a stay with you.
Ways of Employing Guest Testimonials:
- Written Testimonials: Gather written testimonials from past visitors and promote them on the site. You can create a ‘Testimonials’ page or add testimonials to the home page, room listings, or blog posts.
- Video Testimonials: These can be more effective than written reviews because they add a personal touch. They can also be said to be more engaging than written reviews. Encourage satisfied customers to create short videos describing their stay. Place these on the hotel’s website and various social media platforms.
- Include Guest Stories in Blog Posts: Create a blog post featuring interesting guest stories. For example, if a wedding is held at your hotel, you can inform your readers about the wedding events, as well as the amenities and services available at your location, through a blog.
To learn more about the role of reviews in building trust and improving SEO, see Off-Page SEO Strategies to Boost Your Hotel’s Search Rankings.
Blogging for Hotel SEO
Blogging is one of the best tools for getting new clients and improving the SEO ranking of your hotel. A consistently updated and informative blog can help you target many keywords and generate even more traffic for your pages.
Blogging Tips for Hotels:
- Focus on Local Topics: Write local-centric blog articles covering places, events, and travel tips related to your hotel’s location. This is useful for potential visitors, and it also helps raise your position for certain location-based searches.
- Use Long Tail Keywords: Enable Search Engine Optimization for phrases that target the specific requests that tourists make like “the best boutique hotel [located in the particular city],” or “family-friendly hotels near [attraction].” These do not face heavy competition thus making it possible to rank in niche searches.
- Post Regularly: Regularly add fresh content to your blogs. This posting also tells search engines that your site is relevant and has not become inactive. It is recommended to include a minimum of two weighted posts every month meeting the interests of the guests.
Internal Link: To ensure your blog is fully optimized, check out On-Page SEO for Hotels: Optimizing for Maximum SEO Impact for tips on how to structure your content and use keywords effectively.
Promoting Your Content Across Channels
Creating good content is indeed only half of the battle. It must be marketed so that the right people can see it. You must distribute your blog posts, travel guides, and offers via social media, email newsletters, and other platforms to help direct hotel traffic.
Ways to Promote Your Content:
- Social Media: Promote your blog posts, travel guides, and promotions on social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Use interesting images and captions to ensure that people see them.
- Email Newsletters: Remember to incorporate links to your latest blog posts or ongoing promotions in the email newsletter of your hotel. This encourages people to visit your hotel’s website and keeps them interested.
- Work with influencers: Partner with travel influencers or bloggers to promote your content. They can share your travel guide or hotel offers with their followers, increasing both traffic and bookings.
Learn more about promoting your content through social media and influencer partnerships in Off-Page SEO Strategies to Boost Your Hotel’s Search Rankings.
Conclusion
Content marketing can work as an efficient strategy for bringing in more guests to hotels, enhancing their search engine positions, and raising direct bookings. Compiling travel guides, and creating seasonal content, guest stories, and blogs can help create a perception of the hotel as an indispensable resource about the tourism industry which in turn will drive visitors to the hotel’s website.
Next Steps:
- Internal Links Recap:
- For tips on how to generate and promote guest reviews, see Off-Page SEO Strategies to Boost Your Hotel’s Search Rankings.
- Ensure your content is optimized for mobile users by reading Mobile SEO for Hotels: Why It’s Crucial and How to Get It Right.