The Secrets to Overcome the Growing Challenge of Turning Content Marketing into a Revenue Stream for Your Hotel

Are you intimidated and frustrated by content marketing today?

When it comes to social media, in which categories do you find your hotel?

Don’t know how to post content

Don’t know what content to post

There are too many Social Media channels to keep track of

Not getting enough followers or interactions

No conversion from our content

No real impact on revenue and occupancy

Not enough resources to dedicate time on Social Media

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

For many hotels, content marketing is a big challenge with social media. Either it is not working, or they can’t figure it out, or simply traditional hotel marketing is just doing fine for them.

Content marketing is more than a virtual reality, believing customers just show up and fix the challenges your hotel faces.

It requires that hotels understand all the processes that will turn content into a revenue stream.

What if I told you that content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates 3 times as many leads?

Content Marketing versus Traditional Marketing

Whether you work with content marketing or traditional marketing, the overall purpose is to influence the customers to take action.

The principles behind content marketing are to create valuable content to educate and entertain potential customers to draw them in. It also comes in a wide variety of forms, including articles, blogs, newsletters, emails, slides, infographics, videos, podcasts, webinars, live, etc.

Traditional advertising is an interruptive form of marketing that allows hotel marketers to reach out to customers in many different forms, including newspaper ads, magazine ads, billboards, radio ads, television ads, and direct mailings.

The biggest challenge today for many hotels is that customers today have gained more access and better control of how and where they obtain valuable information that will help them make an educated decision.

Data and numbers over the last couple of years have shown us that the hotel industry is extremely resilient. The US had steady growth in hotel room nights, and Europe has experienced unprecedented growth.

And this happened in an industry that has been slowly adapting to new trends, social media, new media, and technology.

It is crucial to develop an effective content marketing plan to ensure high deliverability with your online marketing efforts.

Customer Experience is the key to an amazing Hotel

As a result of technology today, the majority of hotel bookings come from mobile devices.

And this is what the key hotels need to understand. It is not so much that marketing changed, but it is the way customers make their bookings that changed. Content marketing is taking advantage of new tools and formats to present the hotel message.

The customer now has better control of relevant alternatives during their journey to a booking decision. And the time window your hotel has available to grab their attention is very short today.

Since customers today are in control of their booking journey, the most important aspect left for hotels is the customer experience.

We know by 2025 that millennials will represent over 50% of travelers in the US. And by 2020, the customer experience will overtake price as the most important trigger for making an educated booking decision.

Customer experience is the most exciting opportunity for hotels this year, and the reason is simple: hotels that focus on customer experience reduce churn and increase revenues.

Hotel brands that are willing to invest in the customer experience will see;

• Increase in willingness to become loyal customers
• Customers are willing to pay more for a better experience

Over 50% of customers will switch to other alternatives as a result of poor experiences.

Turning Content Marketing into Revenue

Just to be clear, posting content in itself will not resolve or help hotels take on the ever-growing challenges with social media.

And posting more content by itself will not help the customer understand your hotel products and services or generate more bookings.

Your hotel content needs to focus on value innovation in a relevant context.

Likes, followers, connections, shares, comments, views, and clicks are noble key performance indicators that will help with the context.

But this is not the objective of your hotel’s content marketing. Remember the focus is to value innovation in a relevant context.

The customer today is not looking for more information about your hotel service and product; they are more interested in learning about new ideas that will create an extraordinary experience.

This is why it is important to know your hotel’s ideal customer in the right context within the right micro-moment.

Mapping your hotel’s customer journey is critical today to identify the most effective ways to reach the ideal customers.

You have to understand your hotels’ ideal customer storyline and connect the micro-moments with your content marketing strategies.

What action do you want your customers to take after they liked, followed, connected, shared, commented, viewed, or clicked on your hotel’s content?

Do you provide the customer with a clear path to taking that action?

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From Content Marketing to Content Conversion

It is really important to understand that content marketing is part of an inbound marketing strategy.

The real conversion should and must happen on your hotel’s website!

And this is where we most often see hotels drop the ball. If you can’t convert the customer on your hotel’s website, that is not a social media or content marketing problem.

You see, the fundamentals of traditional hotel marketing will still live on, but here also you have to put it in a relevant context.

If you have an awesome content marketing strategy in place with a clear path to a relevant call to action in context with the customers’ needs, the decision is made once they click the call to action link.

From this point, the customer wants a seamless and easy experience. This is not the time to confuse them or try upselling them.

Send them the customer to a hotel landing page that allows them to finalize the call to action you already put a lot of effort into. Let the customer do what they want now.

Your hotel’s job now is to put the focus on delivering an extraordinary experience that the customers will share with their friends, family, and community.

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Be flexible and identify new ways to make guests happy.

As guest behavior and patterns continue to evolve, expectations will continue to rise. Navigating these changes can be challenging. Learn more about how we can help your hotel.