In a 2023 report, Mariott International noted that group bookings made up a massive 24% of their worldwide reservations. Event planning companies that frequently makes such reservations are thus crucial to a hotel’s sales and overall image. You can lure more such businesses with appropriate and compelling content in your hotel marketing. With blog posts and social media, the appropriate content can attract event planners to your hotel, making your space look like the ideal place for their next event.Â
This blog discusses the kind of content to create for a successful hotel marketing strategy, along with some practical examples. motivate
A Guide to Creating an Effective Hotel Content Marketing Strategy
Here’s a breakdown of how to develop a hotel content marketing strategy for event planners:
1. Develop a Content Calendar Focused on Planners’ Challenges
The first step to creating engaging content as part of an effective hotel marketing strategy is to research and identify the pain points of your event planners. These clients usually have specific and diverse requirements, depending on the event. You can use surveys or polls to understand their requirements and create a content calendar that addresses them.Â
Below are some common challenges that event planners face when looking for a hotel:
- Budgeting Constraints:Â While some planners might have a substantial budget, others might work with strict financial parameters.
- Logistics and Venue Selection: Depending on the event they are planning, event planners might need venues to accommodate their specific needs.
Once you have narrowed down the topics you need to address in your hotel content marketing, you can use multiple content formats to appeal to potential event planners.
2. Create Diverse Content Formats That Drive Engagement
Every content format serves a different purpose. When making a hotel content marketing strategy, you need to understand in what way a particular content format can help you reach the right audience.Â
Below is a detailed explanation for each of these content types:
SEO Content
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is what makes a website rank higher on a Google Search Result page when someone searches with a related keyword or phrase on Google.
SEO content needs to have relevant keywords and be authentic, well-written, and properly structured for the best results. Good SEO on a website is known to result in 61% of overall sales for companies!
Below are some types of SEO content you can use in your hotel content marketing strategy:
- Blogs and Articles: You can add written blogs and in-depth articles for event planners on relevant topics on your website. This will help you increase your hotel’s search result ranking on a Google search page. To increase local bookings, you can also post blogs with keywords related to your area.
- Case Studies: To increase your hotel’s reputation and credibility, you can add case studies on your website. You can showcase your hotel’s capabilities and the results of a past event to increase your chances of converting a similar potential client.
- Multimedia: Add relevant high-quality images with alt text and engaging videos that enhance user experience on your website. Both of these can help improve the SEO of your hotel’s website.
You should include technical SEO actions in your hotel content marketing for desired results. These include ensuring fast loading speed, indexed website pages by search engines, internal linking, implementing schema markup, and a concise URL.
Social Media Content
Most social media platforms allow users to share images with text or video on their accounts. The key to successful hotel content marketing on social media is to figure out the best way to use these. Below are some ways you can use these for best results:
- High-Quality Content: Social media is all about perception. If you do not use relevant, high-quality content that connects with your audience, your social media performance might be affected. Following trending topics for event planners and creating smart content can put your hotel in the relevant limelight.
- Influencer Marketing: There are more than 127 million social media influencers globally. It is for this reason that 67% of social media brands use influencers to build brand awareness. It can help grow your social media reach by engaging relevant influencers and having them share social media content. This will, in the long run, assist you in generating more leads as well as acquiring more bookings.Â
- Paid Advertising: While organic social media can boost your hotel’s image, paid advertising can help you get more leads from the platform. You can also use these ads to redirect users to your website and increase the chances of boosting sales.
Targeted Email Marketing
If you are looking to boost direct event sales for your hotel, email marketing is a good option. If you have details about your potential event planning clients, you can send personalized emails that offer a resolution to their specific problems. According to a report, 93% of people open their emails daily. This makes hotel email marketing a good prospect to boost event sales.
Virtual Tours and Videos
Virtual tours and videos that showcase your hotel’s event space, accessibility features, and customization options feel more personal to the viewer. They also allow you to attract overseas clients without requiring a physical visit to your hotel.
Wyzowl conducted a study that revealed that around 69% of consumers prefer video content to learn about a business. You can also create personalized proposal videos, especially for MICE and SMERF clients, to increase the chances of conversion.
Also read: Transforming MICE and SMERF Proposals with Virtual Tours and Personalized Videos
A challenge with creating this type of content in-house is investing in extra resources and time. A cost-effective alternative to this can be a smart AI avatar video marketing tool such as Hippo Video. You can leverage its text-to-video generators and easily turn an idea into an immersive AI avatar video in more than 170 languages in just a few minutes.
Once you have made these videos and virtual tours, you can use them in multiple ways to reach your potential audience.Â
- You can add these to your website in a dedicated section, improving your website traffic and bookings.
- You can share these on your social media platforms, increasing your brand visibility and reaching more potential clients.
- You can send these through emails, along with a CTA, improving your chances of getting direct leads and conversions.
Use cases: Many industry leaders, including Radisson Blu, use virtual tours to showcase their hotels. 86 Radisson hotels offer virtual tours on their websites, which has resulted in a 279% increase in the number of clicks, 3.85% more average time spent on the page, and 20.91% more interaction in 2022.
Pair this with VR headsets, it can become one of the most profitable investments a hotel can make for increasing their chances of boosting their sales.
Some other hotels such as Matterport Hotel, Atlantis Dubai Hotel, Holiday Inn, and Pullman Brisbane King George Square Hotel also offer virtual tours to their potential clients.
3. Keep the Tone Helpful and Informative Rather Than Promotional
The best approach to an effective hotel marketing strategy is to educate potential clients rather than trying to sell them. Position your content effectively using a helpful tone, and if event planners gain valuable insights, your chances of making the sale increase exponentially. You should also add personalized recommendations and back your content with real-world statistics. This will add credibility to your content.
David Beebe, founder and CEO of Storified Hospitality Group, aptly summarizes the importance of helpful content: “Content marketing is really like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.”
Elevate Your Hotel Marketing Content with Hippo Video
A successful hospitality marketing strategy for your hotel should have content marketing at its forefront. While all types of content help this cause, videos are known to be more engaging. To attract more event planners from the MICE and SMERF segments, videos and virtual tours can turn the tide in your favor.
Partner with Hippo Video to easily create engaging videos and avatar-guided virtual tours. Try it for free to elevate your hotel marketing strategy and take your event sales to the next level!
FAQs
Is there any merit in creating content for your hotel marketing?
Yes! Good content in different formats can help you engage with your potential clients, increase your hotel’s credibility, establish trust, and increase bookings.
What kind of content formats can be used in a hotel marketing strategy?
You can use written content such as blogs, guides, emails, and whitepapers to educate your clients. You can also use social media content, videos, and virtual tours for a more engaging experience.
Are virtual tours worth the effort in a hotel marketing strategy?
Interactive virtual tours can help increase the time spent on your website by 5X. They can also increase booking rates by 85%.
What is the role of SEO in content marketing?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help your blog and website content rank higher in Google search results. Using relevant keywords, well-written content, and proper multimedia elements can increase search visibility.
What are the parameters that help you measure the success of your hotel content marketing?
Some metrics, such as website traffic, conversion rate, engagement rate, impressions, and direct bookings, can help you measure the performance of your hotel marketing strategy.