Digital transformational leadership represents a new beginning for hotels.
New markets, customers, and employees have now gone digital. It is time for hotel leaders to adapt to a new reality.
Digital transformation leaders will change the core of hotel operations and make things faster, and more cost-effective. And they will create a new culture that better adjusts to a new reality and is better prepared for new unknown challenges.
Effective and successful digital transformational leadership has a distinct ‘employees first’ perspective.
It is hotel employees that will amplify the digital transformation process and your content marketing.
Digital transformational leadership is defined by competence and the ability to adapt.
Your hotels content marketing strategy
Does your hotel have a content marketing strategy?
Not having a content marketing strategy is like driving looking in the rearview mirror. You will see what’s behind you, but have no perspective or understanding of what is coming in front of you.
As a hotel leader are these some of the categories that you are concerned about today?
Don’t know how to post content
Don’t know what content to post
There are too many digital channels to keep track of
Not getting enough social media followers or interactions
No conversion from our content
No real impact on revenue and occupancy
Not enough resources to dedicate time to digital content
Too many distractions and noise, and don’t know how to make our content stand out
Traditional hotel marketing is working just fine for us
We just don’t have time to focus on digital content marketing<
We don’t have the budget for digital content marketing<
Other
Many hotel leaders find themselves in one or more of these categories.
Research has shown that many brands indicate they have a content marketing strategy, but it is not documented anywhere.
In this case, the hotel leader will know what they are doing, have a wage idea of how to do it, but have no clue why they are doing it. This results in hotels employees that have no ownership of the overall purpose, and their productivity and effectiveness are very low.
The customer experience ends up being poor or average, and the hotel will take a hit on Tripadvisor.
Does your hotel embrace a digital workforce?
I will be as transparent to the best of my abilities here. Digital transformation is challenging! I understand that many hotel leaders find it intimidating, and many leaders will be required to improve their technical and communication skills.
Also the other side, many employees fear that a digital transformation will put their job in jeopardy.
Studies have shown that employees that embrace a digital workforce expect leaders to explicitly engage with affective desires and values.
This includes factors that affect humanness, purpose, engagement, fairness, inclusion, and representation.
Employee perceptions indicate many cases that in most cases leaders fall short of effectively engaging, communicating, and assisting with improving new relevant skills.
Does your hotel support a new digital culture?
The COVID-19 pandemic has added several challenges to the hotel industry’s workforce.
One of the COVID-19 pandemic effects was that many employees discovered a new reality of working from home. From a hotel perspective, this has been a trend that has been challenging to adapt to.
In general, on the other side, consumers ended up spending an unprecedented time utilizing digital tools for communication, information, and purchasing decisions.
The amount of time consumers spend on digital media is predicted to continue to rise over the next years. Digital media tools like mobile and video experienced an exceptional rise in usage due to the pandemic.
And as hotels are starting to reopen and bounce back to a new future another trend we see is customers now require a touchless experience.
With both employees and customers turning to various digital tools, platforms, and resources to access content, a new unique content marketing strategy remains key.
It all starts with a digital transformation plan that focuses on new alternative solutions for training, improving skills, information, and communication.
Create a digital content tribe for your hotel
One of the core principles of a digital transformation leader is to empower their employees in the right context.
And it is essential to understand the value of creating a digital content tribe with your employees.
Hotel employees that are included, valued, and empowered will become happier, more productive, and more effective in day-to-day operations.
Employees will turn into hotel advocates creating a unique tribe that supports a community with large networks.
There is a unique purpose behind this process that will ignite your hotel’s content marketing strategies.
Today we are no longer looking at traditional market segments, but we are looking at ways to identify customer digital footprints.
Together with your hotel employees, you can put yourself in a unique position to create content that resonates with their community and networks.
A digital transformation plan for hotels is the foundation that will help create a tribe and collect relevant data from the customer’s digital footprints.
Content marketing is the stories that bring life to your hotel
Customers today connect and respond to great stories that change;
- How they feel
- How they think
- How they act
- How they behave
If you are practicing digital transformation leadership you should together with your team have all the data you need in context with setting up your content strategy.
1. Content alignment
You should start with aligning your hotel content with new employee experiences and the customer journey.
Through the digital transformation plan, you have identified what topics, needs, and questions will be covered by your content marketing.
2. Content audit
Make sure you audit exciting content. Determine what you can still use, what needs to be optimized, and what type of new content needs to be created.
3. Content production
Determine the theme and format of each content piece.
Identify who will contribute to the content and who the authors will be.
When setting up content for native smart automation you will need to do some split testing of content, this is also common with native advertising.
4. Content performance metrics
You must determine the objective of each piece of content and how performance will be tracked and measured.
5. Content distribution
Identify which online and offline channels will be used for each piece of content to get in front of the right audience at the right time.
Digital transformational leadership mission
A digital transformational leader’s mission is to help hotel employees create unique, unexpected, and exciting experiences by freeing up resources to focus on new ideas through value innovation and a growth mindset.
Through value innovation, you will help hotel employees with cost savings that are focused on eliminating and reducing factors the hotel industry competes on. And a digital transformation leader will also lift employee and customer value by raising and creating elements that hotels never offered before.
Digital transformational leadership will have a focus on creating a unique employee experience by utilizing digital tools in day-to-day operations.
And together with your team members, you will create a new culture that builds around a positive and high-value employee experience. This will create happier, more productive, and more effective employees that will become valuable hotel advocates.
Through this process, you will put content marketing in a high-value and relevant context.
If you’re looking for assistance with your digital transformation and content marketing you need a digital marketing coach! Are Morch offers socialized digital marketing services to help hotels acquire more customers and reach their customer service goals.
Related article: Why Hotels Need to Considering Blue Ocean Leadership to Identify and Solve the New Talent Crisis
We are in this together!
I need to let you all know that we are in on this together. If you need to vent, talk, cry, or just have someone to talk with, I am here listening. Since I am working part-time at the local Kroger, I will best work it out around my schedule to the best of my ability.
But you can reach me here:
Email: hotelblogger@aremorch.com
Also, join us at our Facebook Group – Hotel Social Media Community
We will get through this unprecedented event together! #hotelstrong #hospitalitystrong
For any specific information on COVID-19, I recommend going to CDC, WHO, AHLA, AAHOA, and HSMAI. Also, follow information from your local authorities.
NOTE
We are starting to reopen some hotels again (Yay!!!). Make sure you follow their guidelines and say THANK YOU to those that now show a unique spirit to serve, and help us all get through this!! #hotelstrong #hospitalitystrong
About Are Morch
Hi, I am Are Morch. Your Digital Marketing Coach and Customer Experience Expert help hotels create unique and unexpected experiences by freeing up resources to focus on new ideas through value innovation and a growth mindset.
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