Secrets to hotel content marketing strategies

The catchphrase is ‘content marketing’. It’s the top trend in digital marketing for the hospitality sector, so ignore it at your peril. Just one question: what is it?

Simply put, it’s creating engaging content that tells your brand story, draws your target customers to your website, and drives bookings. Blogs, video, SEO-rich web copy, newsletters, social media — they are all ways to attract the audience you want, and tell them your story. Storytelling is as old as human civilisation itself. From Homer to Beowulf, from Hans Christian Andersen to Walt Disney, these tales are as potent today as they ever were. But not all stories are epics. Perhaps the most famous short story ever written carries enormous impact in just six words: ‘For sale; baby’s shoes, never worn.’

Its author, Ernest Hemingway, was trained as a journalist and understood that choosing words economically and with purpose would create the most powerful images. What’s more, he was also a master at crafting his persona — fair to say he was always ‘on brand’.

All of which brings us to content marketing — and the importance of finding the right way to tell your story. With that in mind, here are the three secrets to finding the content marketing strategy that’s right for you, one that’s customised for your hotel business and will deliver the best results.

1. Take control of your story

Content marketing may be pretty new to Dubai, but it’s certainly not a new form of marketing strategy. However, it still seems alien to most businesses in the UAE, particularly in the hospitality sector — not many companies are engaging in it, and even fewer are doing it well.

This creates an invaluable opportunity for you to be an early adapter. By taking control of your content, telling your story, you can differentiate your brand and create real value by attracting the types of customers you want to book with you.

Think about the many sources of storytelling at your disposal: is your hotel part of a long-established legacy brand with a rich history? Is it a luxury-focused offering with lush spas or vibrant entertainment? Are you particularly known for your architecture, design, special events or dining experiences?

Only when you know what your story is and what customers you want to attract can you begin to strategise and develop your content marketing in a targeted and focused way.

2. Understand the basics of content marketing

Content marketing can be anything from web copy to blog posts to video. However, good content marketing must be targeted and purposeful in order to be truly effective. Let’s start with some of the basic methods, and how best to create targeted content.

Blogs: A blog is a fantastic tool that can drive website traffic like nothing else. Posting a regular blog on your site allows you to be creative, approachable, and informative — all while optimising your rank in search engines (SEO).

Here’s an example: you post a blog about a new range of skincare products at your hotel spa, and pack it full of content that mentions your spa name, the types of treatments and products you offer, where you are located, and other amenities at the hotel. The result? Someone enters a term such as ‘Dubai luxury spas’, ‘skincare product range’, or ‘hotels with spas and dining’ into their search engine, and your business appears on the first page. The key is to provide blog updates that are regular, varied, and well written, so as to always be providing fresh content that search engines will pick up.

Email/Newletters: Do your emails get opened and read? Will the reader then click on the link to go through to your website? If not, your content needs a rethink. Ideally, everyone on your mailing list would click on every link, but that’s just not realistic. Instead, you must focus on curating timely and relevant content that your desired audience wants to read (Top 5 things to do in Dubai? Weekend break packages? Dining and spa deals?) Keep it simple and to the point — anything too cluttered or complicated and you’ve already lost your audience. Be entertaining and informative, and make your email newsletters easy to navigate.

Social media: Nearly every company has a social media presence, yet so few get it right. First, you must remember that social media is social — if you’re not using these channels to engage with your customers, you’re missing out on the benefits. Ask for input, invite discussions, create a dialogue — the true value in social media lies not just in getting to know your customer, but letting them get to know you. So many enterprises focus solely on the sales and promotion aspect that they miss out on the unique opportunity social media provides — which is to demonstrate your commitment to customer service and establish a relationship of trust, on a massive scale.

Video: Hotels and hospitality concerns in particular can benefit enormously from visuals — especially video on your web site or a dedicated YouTube channel. Who wouldn’t want to watch gorgeous images of Dubai’s breath-taking coastline, sumptuously appointed rooms, or mouth-watering restaurants? If a picture paints a thousand words, then a video’s value is incalculable. You can get your brand’s story across in the most engaging way, with maximum impact. In fact, according to a Cisco report, video will account for nearly 70% of all consumer internet traffic by 2017. The potential audience for video is simply staggering and one that no other form of content can truly match. Not only that, but they’re highly shareable — meaning that your customers are more likely to spread the word, as it were, about your hotel.

Analytics: Sounds daunting, but it’s really quite simple: analytics give you the chance to see how your content marketing is working and make adjustments if needed to your strategy. Analytics tell you how people are using your site (visits and page views), how they’re being directed there (web traffic), whether they end up booking (conversion rate) or if they leave the page (bounce rate). Which social media sites are working best for you? What content is being shared? Analytics can tell you all of this and so much more.

3. Find the content marketing agency that’s right for you

As we already mentioned, the concept of content marketing is in its infancy in Dubai, so finding the right agency to suit your needs will take a bit of diligence and research on your part. Here are some key questions you’ll want to ask of any agency you’ll potentially be working with.

How do they educate themselves? Training options in the region are scarce, so your agency must invest in ongoing exposure to the latest developments and best practices in the industry. The best way to do this is by attending large-scale events and conferences with a heavy content marketing focus, such as Inbound, held in Boston and hosted by Hubspot, the largest and most widely used content marketing platform in the world. Make sure your agency’s team are learning from the best.

What platforms do they use? Content marketing is a beast of a task and it is only simplified by the use of powerful tools. If your agency is not using the best software available to them, then they will be wasting time that could be used to create great content. The best software tools are in our opinion from Hubspot (again). The key advantage to working with Hubspot is not only the exceptional software power, but the support and knowledge leadership behind the scenes. Marketo, another huge platform with similar offerings, are also excellent. There are others, of course, but these two are by far the most developed. Both Hubspot and Marketo also offer comprehensive certifications to their partners to ensure they remain at the top of their game. Either way, make sure your agency is using the best possible platform for your needs, so they can remain focused on the content, not the mechanics.

Who’ll be working on your content marketing? Content marketing covers several spheres, so it’s important to be sure your agency has the right team in place to support you.

Here are some helpful fact-finding questions to ask:

• Content creation: Do they have a content creation team in-house? The team should include writers, designers (web and visual) and a content manager to coordinate all of the elements.

• Social Media: Does the agency have the team and capabilities in place to support the social media aspect of content marketing?

• SEO: How will the agency ensure every aspect of your content marketing also maximises your SEO efforts?

How do they plan to learn about your company? If your agency doesn’t invest time in learning everything there is to know about your business, how can they create content for you? How will they tell your story? Your agency must be committed to spending the time and effort necessary to understand your company, especially during the initial stages.

Be sure that — at the very least — they understand:

• What your hospitality brand does
• What products or services you offer
• What makes you different from other hotels?
• Who are the key decision makers in your company?
If they don’t know — and believe in — your story every bit as much as you do, find another agency.

How will they know your customers too?

A key aspect to effective content marketing is understanding your customers. Your agency must know your target audience inside out.

To do this, they develop ‘buyer personas’ — virtual pictures of every facet of your target audience — or in other words, telling a story for each:

• Who are they?
• What do they do?
• What is important to them?
• What drives their buying decisions when choosing a hotel?
• What problem does your brand solve for them?
• Why would they choose your hotel?

Again, these are just a few of the questions your agency should ask. If you understand how and why your customers make decisions you will be able to engage them better.

Conclusion

Content marketing is an investment that will yield amazing results if performed well. Taking the time to develop and build your strategy, and finding the right agency to partner with, can ensure a smooth pathway into this new venture. Make sure your in-house team and agency are all as invested in telling your story as you are, and you will reap the benefits.