How to Develop a Successful Hotel Content Marketing Strategy

Despite that fact, content marketing is usually not done properly, rarely done well, and it more often ends up being a series of lost opportunities and squandered budgets.

So why do so many businesses, hotels among them, botch up something that is ‘king’ and crucial to any digital marketing program? It turns out it’s not what a hotel does that creates holes in their content marketing, it’s what they don’t do.

While almost no other aspect of hotel management happens without a strategy, when it comes to the all-important content marketing part of their digital marketing, it is often handled on the spot by telling an assistant that “we should start a blog.”

Your content marketing benefits from a well-thought out strategy as much as anything else. And it might deliver higher returns than you expect.

To top it all off, when you compare hotels and resorts to most other types of businesses, you’ll see that they can benefit more than most because of the opportunities that check-in every day.

Considering that many hotel visitors are tourists, and tourists take lots of pictures, make lots of social media posts and send lots of messages, your guests are a virtually endless source of content. And not just generic “Things To Do in (Insert Hotel Location Here),” but content that is very specific to your property, and content that is kept up-to-date every day. Few other sectors of business have it so good.

With that in mind, here’s how to set up a successful content marketing strategy to harness the great wealth of content that every hotel can tap into.

The Copperwynd Resort & Spa uses their Vizlly website to create engaging fitness focused content, that appeals to their target market.

1. Choose Your Weapons – Different properties have different resources and you’ll have to choose the content channels to suit. Blogs are a staple publishing platform. The fact that your clients generate a lot of visual content makes social media, particularly channels like Instagram, YouTube and Twitter, a natural fit.

2. Have a Goal for Every Piece of Content – Instead of simply posting every picture or video that looks great, set goals for different types of content and make sure everything you post helps you reach that goal. Maybe you want to convey a family-friendly atmosphere, or you want to get more social shares, or get more reservations, set the goals and use content that helps you reach them.

3. Build Personas for the People You’re Trying to Reach – The people who consume your family-friendly content may not be the same as those who make your content go viral. The more you know about who you’re speaking to, the more your message will resonate with them.

4. Check Out Your Competition – It’s good to know what you’re up against. While you’ll always put your best foot forward, getting a better understanding of your competitor’s content strategy can give you direction for your own strategy.

5. Combine Keywords, Topicality and Customer Interest – If your content is purely keyword-focused, then it’s SEO content. That’s important, but it won’t help you reach all your goals. Similarly, if your content lacks relevant keywords, it might never be found. Keep your keyword research on hand, remember who you’re speaking to, and create content that they will find interesting and helpful.

The Briars Resort & Spa on Lake Simcoe creates content targeting different personas including: golfers, foodies, wedding guests, & spa lovers.

If ‘content is king’ is true, then don’t you owe it to yourself to develop the best content strategy possible for your hotel?

Request a demo of Vizlly by filling out the form below and see how our team of SEO experts can help you develop a strategy that increases revenue for your hotel.