It’s been a while now since we’ve moved into an era where content marketing has been at the centre of hoteliers’ communications and promotions strategy.
NB: This is an article from Staah
The internet is flooded with content that is created targeting a keyword with the hope it will get indexed and get traffic to the site.
Now, another key dimension has been added to content marketing – conversion.
Hotels and brands are now scrambling not to create a quantum of content, rather they are creating content that converts visitors into leads or bookings. These are some approaches in order to achieve this.
1) Entice, excite and engage
First find a topic that has high conversion, preferably something linked to your property. You can get viable ideas from blog posts, infographics, videos, magazine covers, online publications, social media, and other sources.
Next entice users with a captivating title. It should peak user interest and egg them to read on. Keep them engaged with content that is interesting to read and adds value to your reader. Writing conversationally always helps rather than brand speak. Formatting is a big, small part of the whole picture. If it’s not readable users will quickly lose interest and fall off.
2) Pitch yourself as a local expert
Do you have some amazing restaurants, beaches, cafes and activities in your area? Write about them! Create connections and relationships with these places and link back to them. Do any of them have a deal that you can use and incorporate into your hotel’s advertising? Providing extra information and promotions to your potential guests will help your content convert in to bookings. Use the Add-ons feature of your STAAH Max Channel Manager or Promo Codes to leverage these local relationships and build them into your deals and packages.
3) Focus on specific keywords for SEO
Users are searching for specific things, and they usually write a few words. To capture your audience through keywords, you need to make sure you have a number of them as well as them being directly about your business. For example, if your hotel has “amazing sea views”, use that as a specific SEO search term. Don’t be afraid to use as many keywords as you need, but just make sure they aren’t too general.
4) Link back to your products and services
Some people seem to be afraid to use links in their content. They are perfect for conversion. If you have a specific product or service that you are writing about, make sure you directly link back to it so your reader has a good user experience. An example is if you have a promotion you are wanting to write about, link to back to the specific deal on your booking engine.
5) Your content should be actionable
Following on from linking back to products and services, your content needs to have a call to action. The content should drive them forward to the next step (hopefully booking)! Make this copy clear, short and obvious to the reader, so they know what they will be clicking on and why. Words like “book now”, “check availability”, “last two premium rooms available” will stand out to a reader. Add urgency to your content – giving users a stronger reason to convert.
A note to content creators; not every piece you create can generate a booking. Some pieces should be treated as ‘warm up’ content or meant to create brand awareness.
6) Treat every piece you create like a landing page
Smart marketers spend a lot of time on optimising the landing pages. The smartest ones treat every piece of content like a landing page and optimise it to achieve a particular business goal.
