Travel is a competitive industry, with brands and companies vying for attention and visibility. Here, content marketing plays an important role. Every word a potential guest reads helps them decide where they should stay.
This is why blogs are so valuable when it comes to online marketing for hotels. An engaging blog helps customers discover your brand, increases their trust, and establishes you as an authority in your niche. It communicates your brand personality and serves as a source of information to address any questions your customers might have.
How blogs help SEO
When it comes to search engine optimisation, a blog is one of the most effective tools for hotel content marketing. It boosts your website’s profile and status, giving you an opportunity for link-building and improving your overall SEO ranking. This is because blogs can be regularly updated, allowing you to create SEO-optimised content that adds more relevant, indexed pages to appear in search engine results pages (SERP).
You can incorporate SEO through keywords in your titles, headings, subheadings, meta titles and descriptions to boost your site’s visibility. Link building is another great way to aid your website’s visibility, particularly backlinks, where reputable websites link to your blog as an authoritative source of information.
Because ultimately, establishing your brand as a source of authority is key. Travellers want to book with a brand they trust, and developing a comprehensive blog with reputable backlinks is one of the best ways to gain this trust.
What to write about
Luckily, as a hotel brand, you have near-limitless scope for topics to write about. From delving into the local history and culture of your location to top tips for travellers visiting your region, the choices are infinite.
Depending on where you are, you might talk about the colourful variety of your country’s wildlife, amazing facts about the history or geography, or even craft articles about the delicious local cuisine, paired with chef’s recipes for an extra special touch.
Go deeper into your destination and write guides to local restaurants or exciting day trips. Create connections to your community with an active events calendar and itinerary suggestions.
You can even turn the spotlight on yourself and your hotel brand, perhaps interviewing staff about their experiences, or showcasing a potted history of the hotel or town to help guests discover the story of where they’re staying.
Always look out for opportunities for active engagement with your audience, which could include quizzes, giveaways or encouraging users to share their experiences.
Just remember, variety is the spice of life, and as a hotel brand, that variety should come as second nature.
How to find inspiration
While those original ideas might be easy to find, generating a consistent flow of hotel content ideas involves a lot of thinking outside the box.
Strike inspiration gold by taking the time to research your audience, their pain points and desires. Browse social media, forums and other hotel and travel blogs to see what your audience is talking about online, and then see how you can add your own unique take to the conversation.
Looking for the right keywords can lead you to new inspiration too. You can use Answer the Public or Google suggested search to see what specific questions your audience is asking online.
Trying to answer these questions can inspire the direction of your next blog, and might reveal some useful long-tail keywords too. These are the longer search terms people use online, which result in less competition and a greater chance of potential guests finding your page, tying into the SEO aspect we mentioned above.
Another fantastic tactic is to recycle previously used content in a different format, or rewrite it for different audiences. Using your old content for inspiration can be a more efficient model, whether repeating old blog posts with updated information or infographics or converting that promotional video into a series of Instagram posts.
Hotel brands getting it right
Of course, the best way to ensure your hotel blog is a success is by examining how other brands have done it well. Take the time to read the best hotel blogs around to see what works for them, and what might work for you.
Borrow inspiration from companies such as Marriott Bonvoy and their Traveler blog, which details recommendations, top tips and amazing hidden gems from locations around the globe. These blog posts ensure you can make the most of your stay with Marriott, but also boost the brand’s online reach among tourists looking for an escape in that part of the world.
Ritz-Carlton’s The Journey blog takes a slightly different approach, with beautifully curated travel guides walking you through some of the world’s most extraordinary destinations and experiences, through the lens of their glamorous brand.
Mandarin Oriental’s blog extensively explores travel experiences through several key pillars, including adventure, culinary, wellness, arts & culture, family, and sustainability. This allows them to target several key audiences and showcase their brand pillars and core philosophies in an elegant, subtle way.
The Hyatt blog positions the brand at the centre, first introducing a selection of their hotels from some of the world’s most desirable destinations before proceeding to showcase the different experiences and journeys that you can embark upon during your stay.
As you can see, each of these hotel blogs takes a slightly different approach, yet all captivate their audience with fantastic writing, fabulous images, and a strong brand offering.
Blog your way to business success
For any brand looking to build its name and reputation, blogs are an invaluable hotel content marketing tool. As a constantly fresh source of content, a consistent blog means your SEO strategy will be flying. It shows off your brand personality, inspires trust in your audience, and helps you engage and excite the reader.
Check out as many successful brands as possible to find inspiration for hotel blog ideas, and then think outside the box for more great topics. An effective blog should also be built on a well-constructed brief, and following a consistent publishing schedule can help you stay regular.
If you need content for a hotel website, get in touch with the team at Contese. We’ve worked with some of the world’s biggest and most successful hotel brands and can provide the transformative copy you need to inspire your jetsetting audience.