Content Marketing for Independent Hotels

According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, 70% of users would rather learn about products through content than traditional advertisements.

NB: This is an article from Net Affinity

The tourism and hospitality industries are becoming more and more competitive as travel continues to grow and flourish globally. Content marketing is probably more important now than ever before for independent hotels. As an independent hotel owner, getting a strong hold on your content marketing is crucial for appealing to potential guests and engaging with as many of them as possible.

What is content marketing?

There are three key reasons for independent hotels to utilise content marketing:

• Increased sales
• Cost savings
• Build customer loyalty

Other reasons include:

• Creating a sense of community around your brand
• Showing your audience how your products and services solve their challenges

First up – determine your brand’s tone of voice

Your brand’s tone of voice is one of the most important building blocks towards content that will genuinely engage people. It determines how your brand communicates with your audience and it is a factor in how people perceive your messaging. Your company’s tone of voice is the representation of your brand’s personality and values.

Gather everything from brand documents to website pages to previous social media content. Cast a critical eye on this content. Which of these examples could have come from any of your competitors? Set those aside. What you want to do is whittle your examples down to a small group of pieces unique to your brand – the examples of a brand voice you want to embody. Circulate the examples to relevant team members so everyone who needs to be is aware of them.

Describe your brand voice in three words

Gather your team together and decide on what kind of brand voice you want to embody. If your hotel brand was a person, how would you describe its personality to someone? Talk about how you would describe your competitors as people, too. How do your brand’s personality traits make you different?

Revisit and revise your brand voice as the company changes over time

As your brand messaging evolves and new competitors come into your market, it’s good to take a look and refresh your brand voice. It’s no harm doing this exercise regularly! A few tips:

• Try to be warm, level with customers, treat them like humans, not robots
• Be mindful of people’s thoughts, values and beliefs when you are crafting your tone if you would like to be a hotel known for being inclusive and accepting of everyone

Remember that inclusivity is always top of mind for customers, but especially now, when they are searching and booking travel.

Read rest of the article at Net Affinity