How Customer Reviews Can Help (and Hurt) Your Hospitality Brand’s SEO
When it comes to the hospitality industry, reviews aren’t just ego boosters or destroyers - they’re an influential part of your brand’s SEO. Search engines care about what customers think of your brand, and reviews will inevitably play a role in your hospitality business’s rankings
It’s all about online reputation management. Handled correctly, customer reviews can improve search rankings and boost your SEO efforts. Ignored, they will have the opposite effect.
The Perfect Concoction - 2022 Hospitality SEO Trends to Explore
As we enter the last quarter of 2021, those of us in the hospitality industry are left thinking about what the future holds for travel and tourism.
Travel took a significant plunge during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s still feeling heavy repercussions. Fortunately, Fifty Grande’s 2021 Travel Survey revealed that 77 percent of Americans are planning to travel this year or would travel right now. Another 14 percent plan to travel in 2022.
Boutiques VS Big Brands - Why Smaller Properties Have a Big Advantage in Hospitality Marketing
In a society dominated by large corporations and chain businesses, it can often seem like the appeal of a boutique or independent hotel is overlooked. Consumers are always on the hunt for the next best (and big) thing – and that can be a hospitality marketing challenge for local or mom-and-pop tourism businesses.
To add to the problem, the global hotel industry is booming. It’s expected to grow by nearly 20 percent in the next year alone. Tourism is finally restarting after the COVID-19 pandemic, and after a year of travel restrictions, people are eager to jumpstart their next vacations.
With this amount of projected growth in the travel industry, independent and boutique businesses must maximize their marketing strategies to stand a chance against big hotel brands.
The good news? Boutique hotels actually have some serious competitive edges in the tourism market.
In this post, we’ll cover some of the benefits of small hospitality businesses - both for the owners/employees and for the travelers that use them. Our goal is to reveal how small hotels can engage modern travelers with hospitality marketing in ways that franchise hotels cannot.
Influencer Marketing Can Boost Your Hospitality Business – How to Do It Effectively
What do you think of when you hear the term “influencer?” What about a “travel influencer?”
There’s a lot of fuss surrounding this new career, as well as the worth of influencer marketing for hotels and the tourism industry. The question is, should your hotel be working with influencers – or is this just a passing advertising trend that doesn’t hold real value?
How Creating Content Builds Relationships and ROI in the Hospitality Industry
We know what you’re thinking: haven’t we already talked about how important content is in hotel content marketing strategies? We all know that content is “king” when it comes to marketing your brand. Most companies are churning out some kind of content to increase their audience and revenue.
However, what many people don’t talk about is the network of connections that are formed by strong content. When done properly, a content marketing strategy extends your brand’s reach beyond the borders of your own website or social media account.
Being a part of a “content community” grants your hospitality business access to a bigger audience and powerful partners. The more you expand your network with excellent content, the better your return on investment will be in the long run.
Today on the LURE blog, let’s talk about hotel marketing content that reaches a connected, thriving community rather than disjointed, one-off customers.
Hotel Marketing: Build Relationships for Maximum ROI
How does creating the right kind of content grow relationships and ROI for your hospitality brand?
Let’s talk about it.
Find Collaboration Opportunities
When you create influential content, you form relationships with other brands, content creators, and customers to further promote your message. Let us explain.
A “content relationship” is a mutually beneficial connection formed with other content creators or brands.
Guest posting and link sharing are also elements of content collaborations. With a guest post, you expand your own content creation capabilities while also promoting the benefits of your content partner. It’s a valuable form of content production - one that should benefit you as much as your audience.
Image Source: Travel Update
Sometimes, a guest post is simply “sponsored” by another brand, such as the example above in which Travel Update included paid-for links from relevant hotels. In other cases, a representative from a different brand will actually play the role of a “guest” on another website, creating unique content on behalf of their partner.
Beyond guest posts, there’s also an opportunity to form public partnerships. Take a look at the popular relationship between Starbucks and Spotify - two very different brands with a powerful connection.
Image Source: Spotify
Starbucks is known for its premium coffee shop hospitality - it’s a part of their brand image, including the music they use to craft the perfect ambience in its shops. As a music streaming platform, Spotify saw the opportunity to forge an innovative co-branding partnership. Starbucks fans were drawn to Spotify’s platform, and Spotify users got in touch with the musical element of Starbucks branding.
Finding content collaborations is a huge step in maximizing your hospitality marketing ROI. Your brand benefits from reaching a wider audience, whether it’s through a guest post or a co-branding partnership. Additionally, such partnerships help you build relevant links across the web - something Google loves to see when it comes to hotel SEO.
Being Part of a Bigger Community Builds Trust
Another reason to create content for the sake of relationships? You need connections to be reputable.
Who has more credibility - the lone wolf that no one seems to support or willingly work with? Or the company that’s a part of something bigger?
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report (2020), trust in a brand is second only to a product’s price. If you want a strong return on your investment with hospitality marketing, you 100 percent need to ensure that people are learning to trust your company based on the content you’re producing.
This is especially true in the hospitality industry. COVID-19 has left us all on edge - are people going to trust your travel-related business after a pandemic with global shutdowns?
Strong content sets you up as an authority within your niche. Google and real consumers want to see that you’re connected in your field of expertise. They want to know they can trust your content, as well as the products and services you are selling.
A great way to build credibility is to pull in other experts from across the web. For instance, if Travel Awaits wants to seem like a credible source for trip planning information, they need to work with real travel experts - such as the travel experts they pulled in for this blog post. Even the title encourages people to think, “Hey, this website seems to know what it’s talking about.”
Image Source: Travel Awaits
If you are able to form relationships and create content that earns your audience’s trust, bingo. That’s where the hospitality sales come in.
Get to Know Your Customers Better
Content works to create relationships with your actual buyers. When you craft content that targets the right people and gets them talking, that’s when your ROI goes up.
Customers are always in the process of moving through a “buying journey.” They start with simple awareness about your product, and with your help, they’ll make their way to the final stage: actually purchasing your product or service.
To really play into this buying journey, you need to understand what your customers want/need, then create content that fits the bill in a meaningful, authentic way.
Image Source: HubSpot Instagram
Now, more than ever, you need to know what’s guiding your customer’s purchasing decisions.
- What are the problems they’re encountering?
- What do they want to know?
- How can your brand provide the solutions they seek?
If you don’t know the answers to questions like these, just ask!
Use content as a platform for learning about and engaging with your customers, as well as other patrons. Trust us: that’s where the real revenue comes into play.
Remember that content doesn’t just play a role in the digital realm. It can also serve as a tool for engaging in the real world and with local communities.
Image Source: Tribal Village
If you have volunteer opportunities to engage nearby travelers, write about them. If you’re hosting a fundraiser, event, or big meeting, let people know. The more traction you can gain with your local community via content, the better. The influence of your content shouldn’t stop at the borders of digital devices.
Research shows that over 50 percent of your brand’s reputation comes from online sociability. The more leads you can generate by working with real customers, companies, and bloggers, the more your brand’s reputation will translate to a high ROI.
Purpose, Purpose, Purpose
Creating content does build relationships - but only when the content has a real purpose.
A “partnership” with no core goal or shared objective won’t last long. You need to find content partnerships that actually push your brand toward a better future - and that means creating purposeful content that patrons and other brands can really get behind.
Image Source: 1 Hotels
For instance, look at the 1 Hotels brand. They’re all about sustainability in travel - which means they are very picky about their hotel marketing partnerships and the type of content they produce. That might limit them when it comes to some revenue opportunities, but as a whole, it’s a powerful way to imbue purpose into their content and products.
Customers are proud to say they “partner” with Hotel 1 when there’s such a great purpose to support. They want to partner with a brand that has meaning behind its name, and this brand ensures that all of their partners are working toward a bigger, better purpose than just turning a profit.
Ask yourself: what is your hospitality brand’s purpose? We’re not talking about your sales goals or products - we’re talking about the big picture objective behind it all. If you can’t nail that concept down and convey it in your hotel content marketing strategies, you’ll struggle to form powerful relationships with others.
Draw More Eyes to Your Brand
Lastly, we want to share an obvious but important idea: more attention = a higher return on investment in almost any case.
At the end of the day, does a piece of content that’s never seen make a sound?
Does it really help your return on investment?
Probably not. That’s where partnerships for the sake of attention come into play.
Think about partnering with social media influencers. You don’t do it because you’re just dying to work with the popular Instagrammer or YouTuber. You do it because they have a wide audience, and a partnership with them puts you in the line of sight of very valuable buyers.
Image Source: The Blonde Abroad Instagram
Additionally, influencer partnerships can be big time savers. You’re essentially outsourcing the content creation to a powerful partner with a wide reach. They create the blog post, image, video, or email - you simply reap the rewards for a price.
Of course, influencer partnerships aren’t the only content relationships that get more eyes on your hospitality products and services. You’ll also want to form relationships that encourage people to share your content more.
Image Source: Beat of Hawaii
For instance, look at this blog post from Beat of Hawaii. They “partnered” with Hawaiian Airlines to offer their readers a relevant, desirable reward for participating in their content. This gets their readers to not only share their post with others but also to engage more publicly with their brand.
The bottom line? More eyes are always a good thing for your hotel or any other business. Creating the right kind of content partnerships will help you achieve that goal.
Content might be king, but its queen is the network that surrounds it. Your highest returns on investment will appear when you strategically create content to build relationships with brands, websites, and customers.
Not sure where to begin on your own hospitality online marketing journey? Reach out to our team at LURE Agency. We're all about building relationships and maximizing your revenue with smart hotel marketing.
Content or Paid: Which is a Better Hotel Marketing Strategy?
When you’re evaluating your hotel marketing strategy and budgets, you’re likely facing a big decision: do you dedicate more funds to content creation or paid ads? Is there a right or wrong decision? Which serves hospitality businesses better?
Unfortunately, there’s not an easy answer to any of those questions. Deciding where to allot money for marketing is a personal decision based on your hotel brand identity and needs.
Although we can’t give you a black and white response, we can help you understand more about each type of marketing. Let’s talk about the differences between content marketing and paid advertising, then dive deeper into each one.
Hopefully, this piece will help you understand what your hospitality business truly needs more - and where your spending should go when it comes to digital marketing for hotels. Read more
E-Commerce Isn’t Just a Luxury for B2B Hospitality Sales - Here’s Why
When you hear the word “e-commerce,” you likely think of online retail sites, right? Stores like Amazon, who offer products of all kinds with exemplary delivery services?
Stop right there - if you’re in the hospitality industry, and you’re still thinking of e-commerce solely in these terms, think again. E-commerce can work wonders for B2B hospitality.
Whether you’re a restaurant, hotel, or tourist attraction, your website must have e-commerce capabilities, especially for group bookings and business offerings. That’s why, as a B2B hotel or company, it’s time for you to start viewing e-commerce marketing tactics as essentials.
The manner in which people book group travel and business events has changed dramatically. Roughly 68 percent of the B2B buying cycle is completely anonymous - before you have the chance to speak to the prospect. With more and more hotel marketing being done online, it’s time to learn to drive direct bookings to your website.
In this article, we’ll dive into why e-commerce is not just a luxury for businesses like yours. At the same time, we’ll provide you with some guidance for taking your B2B hotel marketing ideas to the next level.
How to Increase Hotel Group Sales with Expert Timing
Ever heard the saying “strike while the iron is hot?” The old cliché couldn’t be truer when it comes to hotel group sales.
Booking more than a couple of rooms at once isn’t just a matter of luck - it’s a matter of precise sales timing. Hotel occupancy rates have already declined by more than 42 percent due to the coronavirus, which means expert timing and strategic marketing tactics are essential right now.
To increase your hotel group sales, you need to think about when to ramp up your marketing - and when to hold back. Going full throttle all of the time wastes your resources, but choosing select months to increase group advertising is smart.
Why Content is Essential for Hospitality Sales Pros
Right now, what do you think of when the term “hospitality sales” comes to mind?
You likely envision social media promotions, television commercials, and of course, the classic salesperson with a convincing spiel. Although these are all tried-and-true methods, if you ask us, they don’t hold a candle to the power of social selling.
Inbound marketing delivers up to 53 percent more leads monthly than traditional outbound marketing tactics. Even though TikToks and social media posts are all the rage, up to 83 percent of consumers still prefer article and video content over trendier pieces like podcast episodes or infographics.
Hotel Marketing: The Best SEO Keyword Research Tips for 2020
Need all the help you can get right now? Tighten up your keyword strategy for some quick wins.
Are we being a little too obvious when we say that hotels and tourism businesses need all the help they can get right now? Probably, but it’s true. A sound hospitality/hotel marketing strategy is more important than ever these days – and this process begins with keyword research.
COVID-19 has caused the hospitality industry’s estimated global revenue to decrease by around 34.7 percent compared to last year. Restaurants are closed. Hotels are shut down indefinitely. Tours, excursions, and fun activities have been put on pause.