As a hospitality brand, you may have noticed that in today’s digital world, it’s harder than ever to catch a prospect’s attention. With information so easily available to anyone searching for it, you may be wondering how you can make your content stand apart. How you can give your prospects what they want and when. Well, we’ve got the answer. Content personalization.

The Future of B2B Content Marketing … Personalization!

Personalized content is a relatively new method of digital marketing that has proven super effective, for not only grabbing your prospect’s attention but also building a stronger bond. If you’ve ever used Amazon or Netflix, you’ve experienced automated, personalized content. These sites offer you content based on what you’ve purchased or watched before. They use data about you to provide further content based on your taste and past behavior.

What Amazon and Netflix do is just one simple example of personalized content. There is a whole range of options available now for organizations that want to personalize their content.

Personalized content refers to using information you have on your target audience to create content tailored to their interests, preferences, or needs.

Why Personalization is Essential

In today’s world of information overload, personalization is essential for a number of reasons. First, customer attention is increasingly harder to attract. Today’s customer is constantly bombarded with content, so content creators need to make theirs stand out. Personalization does this by speaking directly to the user’s preferences, problems, and needs.

Personalizing your content allows you to create a stronger bond with your audience. They feel that you know them and you’re speaking directly to them. While everyone follows any number of content outlets online, your audience will read your content first if they feel they have a strong relationship with you.

Content personalization is driven by the data you have about your target market and their needs and behaviors. The more data you have about your audience, the more you can personalize your content to meet their needs. The foundation of your personalization is a clearly identified customer persona.

Getting Started with Personalization

The first step in personalizing your content is to develop a clear message and goal for each piece of content you produce. If you don’t have a strategic reason for the content in the first place, personalization won’t help you reach your objective. It’s a matter of deciding where each piece fits into your overall strategy.

There are five degrees of personalization that you can consider, and some are easier than others. The five areas are:

Segment Specific. Personalize your content by target market segments. Segments might include industry, particular interests, demographic differences, geographical location, or psychographic factors such as a specific need or problem.

Persona Specific. Personalize content by buyer types. Examples of buyer types include first-time visitors to your website, regular blog readers, prospects who expressed interest in a certain product or service, leads from a specific tradeshow, and so on.

Stage-Specific. Persona specific content is personalized for a type of buyer. The difference with stage-specific is that it identifies a certain step in the buying process. You might create content personalized for a first-time cold prospect, or aim content at a repeat buyer who you know is likely to make a purchase based on an upsell or cross-sell.

Account Specific. You might personalize your content for a particular prospect or organization.

Lead Specific. This type of personalization is for one specific individual.

YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:What if Darth Vader Was Your VIP Guest?

Automated Tools for Personalizing Content

Tools are often essential for personalizing content. You don’t have to do it all manually. There is a wide range of tools available and they include:

Quiz plugins – When a person visits your website, they’re presented with a short quiz asking about their interests. Based on their answers, it directs them to the content that would be most relevant to their stated interests.

Profiles plugins – Some sites now have a profile option for visitors. They ask the visitor to choose which profile most matches them. These profiles could be something like positions in a company, such as New Hire, Sales Staff, or Management. They choose the profile and then are taken to the most appropriate page.

Email autoresponders – An autoresponder is a program used for email marketing. It allows you to send messages to your subscribers and receive data about them. Autoresponders offer a wide range of personalization options. They can offer specific content based on the actions or preferences of subscribers.

Recommendination plugs – Another example is a WordPress plugin that presents specific posts or products based on where someone lands on your site or which content they consume.

Site visit plugins – Another example would be a plugin that uses the visitor’s name for a personalized message. When they land on the page, it says something like, “Hi, (name), welcome back! Here are the latest posts we think you’d like.”

Refining Content Personalization

Once you implement your content personalization strategy, you need to monitor it in order to understand what’s working and what’s not. You can then make any changes necessary and create a stronger personalization plan.

RELATED: Still Think Content Marketing is a Waste of Time? Here’s 5 Reasons to Change Your Mind

The Way of the Future for B2B Content Marketing

We predict that content personalization will be even more essential in the future. And, no matter if you’re marketing to the B2C segment or the B2B segment, personalization techniques will become increasingly important as people seek more personal experiences online. The more you can make a connection, the better your bottom line!

What You Can Do Today:Content personalization doesn’t have to be creepy. In fact, you probably have already gathered tons of data on your current and potential customers. Get started by segmenting your data into an Excel Workbook. Begin with the obvious differentiators, and add to the information as necessary. Next, determine how you can upgrade your email program to speak specifically to each of those segments. As you build and test your program you’ll be able to refine for even better results!

The original concept of the RFP was created with good intentions. It was originally developed as a standardized process for submitting clear and consistent information between the planner and the property.

Boost Efforts With This Hotel Sales Technique

Most recently, online platforms hit the market in a big way enabling companies to distribute dozens of RFPs with ease. This shift if enablement has increased submissions. The volume has spiked and the managing the process has become overwhelming, decreasing response time and ultimately conversion rates.

Can’t we all agree? Responding to RFPs can a daunting, but necessary, task that requires time and resources to execute effectively. Question is, how do you separate the serious inquiries from the “lookie loos”? The answer could save you countless hours of work and resources, allowing you to focus on meaningful RFPs that lead to a higher percentage of conversions.

Enter Inbound Marketing for Hotels

The inbound marketing philosophy is about reaching the right person with the right content at the right time. As you attract prospects to your website through compelling content, you can create an opportunity to gather their information through a lead capture program, then automation sends those leads to a contact database.

Once prospects have opted in, all website activity is tracked by utilizing a system which scores leads. Lead scoring allows you to monitor prospects online activity so you can deliver content when and where it makes the most sense and allow you to make a personal connection at the precise time.

Content can take form by way of blog posts, informative videos, social media posts, through triggered automation (email) or direct-to-lead emails.

With your newly gathered intel, you’ll spend less time organizing tasks, and more time having lucrative conversations with potential customers.

Here are four key benefits that inbound marketing strategies can deliver:

Accelerate the Sales Cycle

Highly relevant content can help address specific questions and attributes about your property. By providing solutions to specific challenges through content, your sales team can minimize touch points and help move the prospect through the sales cycle much faster.

Example: Planning a Meeting Event For Your Company or Client? Be Familiar With The 5 Types of Meeting Spaces

Build Trust and Authority

A well-executed inbound marketing strategy can help position your team as experts and set them apart from the other “me too” options. Positioning your property team as problem solvers will help instill confidence, trust, and authority.

Example: 3 Beautifully Simple Tips to Ensure Your Holiday Party is a Success

Position on Value vs. Price

Creating “the story” through engaging content is key when triggering an emotional attachment for prospects. Providing a visualization of what their event could “feel” like, provides a much more meaningful and deeper connection that can transcend the tightest budgets.

Example: It’s Your Biggest Day. Make it Unforgettable.

Increase Conversion Rates

The numbers are undeniable. Inbound marketing will improve the quality of your sales pipeline, allowing you to focus on converting prospects with the highest potential. Lead scoring is critical when determining how a potential customer has been nurtured and when the time is right to engage. The right response at the right time is the key to success.

Technology is changing the way we sell, so we must adapt or suffer the consequences.

There’s no question we’re all feeling the effects of techno overload. With so many apps, platforms, and strategies, how can anyone keep up with it all?

Despite the newest shiny object, it’s important to focus first on the concept and objective. There are literally dozens of ways to solve the same problem, but the facts remain the same: technology has made it much easier for us to perform some of the most daunting tasks -including the submission of dozens of RFPs- with ease. In order to keep your sanity and improve your bottom line, one must work smarter, not harder.

What You Can Do Today: It’s time to fight fire with fire. Put Inbound marketing and technology to work for you. The easiest way to begin utilizing these strategies is by developing a property blog and start with a basic automation. Start small, but start doing. Measure results, make adjustments that will improve performance. Avoid frustration by taking on too much at once. Once you’ve mastered the basics, increase functionality and expectations. Inbound marketing takes time. It’s no (sales) silver bullet, but those who stay the course will reap the rewards!

Our Team consisting of Cory Falter, Michael Duffy and myself recently offered the following content as a presentation at a conference. Want the slides? Let me know! 

In a galaxy not so far, far, far away…  a brave leader is trying to grow the outpost he and his followers believe so deeply in. But their methods, although historic and heroic, are no match for the new world. All of a sudden, inbound out of the sky, comes a prophet in white – who promises a connection that could grow their outpost beyond their wildest imaginations. But, before he can share his secrets, a test will prove the worthiness of the outposters…

The Force of Inbound Marketing for Hotels

Darth Vader is our VIP guest, and we know that we need to learn a little more in order to attract, convert and delight him. Here are some questions (and answers) we’d ask in order to better understand the needs, goals and desires of this targeted potential guest. Let’s get started.

Q: Darth Vader is a semi-fictional character based on a representation of an ideal customer. What is Darth Vader?

A: A Guest Persona

A guest persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on real data about your existing customers and market research. While it helps marketers like you define a target audience, it can also help sales teams qualify leads. When you have a defined set of guest personas, you can then create content to attract them, through blogging, email, and social media channels. Basically, understanding who you are targeting can help you “speak their language” (even if it is dark and disturbing).

So, What is the Guest Persona for Darth Vader, anyway? What are his…

• Demographics – Age, Gender, Married? 45-5400, Male, Married to his job
• Values? Power and family legacy
• Goals & Challenges? Balancing the dark side with the light side
• Fears? Objections to purchase? Time away from work, appropriate business/leisure attire

HOMEWORK: How many Guest Personas would your property appeal to? Can you put a personality and name to each? Ex., Engaged Eva, Business Bill. 

Q: Darth has been invited to speak at a conference on the Death Star, and he has decided to turn his business trip into a “bleisure” trip. He knows it’s time to book, but hasn’t decided where to stay just yet. What would a marketer call where he is in his process?

A: Lifecycle Stage or Buyer’s Journey

The stages a prospect goes through from thought to purchase are called Lifestyle Stages and can generally be broken down into three stages: awareness,  evaluation, and purchase. What’s important to understand about each of these stages is that not every piece of content you create is appropriate, depending on what stage your audience might fall in at that moment.

Examples of Content Ideas for each phase of Darth Vader’s Buyer’s Journey.

AWARENESS: The buyer realizes they have a problem.

Blog Post – Three Easy Reasons Why the Death Star Will Seamlessly Turn Your Business Trip Into a Bleisure Trip

CONSIDERATION: The buyer defines their problem and researches options to solve it.

Blog Post – Hotel Rooms Vs. Residential Suites – Which Will Best Fit Your Personal Clan of Storm Troopers

DECISION: The buyer chooses a solution.

Video – 10 Reasons Hotel Death Star Appeals to Your Dark Side  (Plus an intro offer for you!)

HOMEWORK: Think about the three phases of the Buyer’s Journey.  What type of content ideas can you come up with to fit into each bucket? Use this Buyer’s Journey Worksheet as a prompt.

Q:  You’ve gathered that Darth has chosen to turn his “bleisure” trip into an opportunity to reconnect with his son and daughter. Your follow-up to provide drip emails that are relevant and timely based on this information is called what?

A: Contextual Marketing

Contextual Marketing is a set of best practices designed to amplify the value of your content to your prospects and customers. More specifically, it’s about using known qualities of your prospect to present your content in a natural, noteworthy and useful frame of reference.

Drip nurturing emails are one of the strongest – and earliest – examples of the strategy’s success.

Here are some examples of contextual follow-up email subject lines that Darth Vader may respond to:

• How was your bleisure trip, Darth?
• 5 Ways to re-live your bleisure trip with your family
• Darth, Need a “Real” Vacation After Your Family Trip?

Some additional examples of contextual marketing include triggering an email based on a page visited on your website (an email once the wedding page is visited for example), a Birthday or Anniversary email or an Abandoned Cart email.

RELATED: Stop the Madness: Is Your Hospitality Email Marketing a Complete Waste of Time?

Q: While staying at the Death Star Hotel with his family, Darth posted a picture of the pool on the social media site, FaceClone. His ‘friends’ commented, liked and shared the post. How does this benefit the brand?

A: Social Proof

Social Proof is the idea that consumers will adapt their behavior according to what other people are doing. In social media, Social Proof can be qualified by the number of interactions a piece of content receives or the number of followers you have. The idea is that if others are sharing something or following someone, it must be good.

Study after study show, consumer are 10x more likely to purchase from a third-party referral.

In addition to sharing their own content (UGC) in relation to a brand through their social media channels, examples of Social Proof also include:

• • Customer reviews and testimonials
  • Blog posts, quotes, or photographs by influencers, thought leaders, celebrities and/or experts
  • – FOMO – Fear of Missing Out – When lots of people are using or buying a product, others want to follow suit.

HOMEWORK: Explore ways you can set up opportunities for guests to excitedly share the experiential nature the property. Some examples could be Snapchat filters, Share to Win, or Photo Booths (with logo, shareable directly from the booth to social channels).

Q: Still a-buzz from his amazing stay at the Death Star Hotel, Darth decides to visit the hotel website for a trip down memory lane. Before he realizes it, he’s spent nearly an hour browsing. His browsing behavior is contributing to what?

A: Lead Score

Lead scoring is a methodology used by sales and marketing departments to determine the worthiness of a potential customer, or lead, by attaching values to them based on their online behavior relating to their interest in products or services.

Scores can be set based on:

• Number of Web Pages Viewed and Duration
• The Types of Pages Viewed (Reservations, Meetings, Events, etc.)
• Number of Forms Completed (Content Downloaded or Inquiries Made)
• The Typical Sales Cycle (How long before a lead will never buy?)

HOMEWORK: Determine what score would make a lead sales-ready. Set a point value for each digital engagement and “keep score.”

Now, the Force (of Inbound Marketing!) saved the galaxy, once again.

You, our valiant leaders, in your hero’s journey, have gone through this right of passage and embraced the power of the force to connect with even your most challenging guest: Darth Vader, by creating communications and an experience relevant to his needs.

Darth Vader hosted an awesome presentation and was also able to reconnect with Luke and Leia. He chose the Death Star Hotel for eternity for his business and leisure trips….

Remember… DO or DO NOT, there is not try.

Is your independent hotel looking for an out-of-the-box way to connect with guests and make them raving fans? Contact us to learn more about our effective programs for properties just like yours!

Susan Tucker, Director of Digital Strategy

Susan brings her experience and enthusiasm as Director of Digital Strategy. A certified Inbound Marketing professional, she believes consumers should not be “sold to” but that they should find value in brands that are providing the products and services they are seeking. Outside of work, you can find her chasing her boys on the ski slopes or watching them on the sidelines of the soccer field.

Have a pressing digital marketing question for Susan? Contact her here.