Why Hotels Must Resort to Creating Content Like Media Companies
Creating compelling content that entertains consumers has stayed a top priority for businesses for years. That’s why every business, including hotels, must treat their brand like a media firm and develop interesting content that keeps consumers engaged. But with tastes and trends constantly changing, it can be difficult to determine the definition of content. This is a key question for hotel brands, which use valuable time and resources to create the kinds of content that can retain current customers and reach prospective guests. Hospitalitynet.org shared why hotel brands should create content that captures consumers’ attention.
Arriving at Content for Millennials, Mobile Users, and Modern Travelers
Today, content is viewed as a means to connections. It’s all about helping consumers feel connected to a brand, a lifestyle, a status, and other like-minded travelers. It’s about expressing the ways a brand reflects a traveler’s interests and views through its offerings, experiences, value, and convenience. And now more than ever, all of a hotel’s content must be designed to connect on both broad and personal levels.
But with so many forms of content competing for people’s attention, how can a hotel make its content stand out? By developing content marketing that’s engaging and entertaining.
Some travel brands like Airbnb are achieving these goals through traditional media like magazines filled with interesting articles. And Marriott International is opting to use new media sources, such as its digital Content Studio filled with feature films, along with Snapchat campaigns and blogs.
Keys to Developing Content Like a Media Company
Media companies know that content must be compelling, continual, and consistent to connect with consumers. All this takes is creativity and surprisingly little expense or effort. The best content comes across as authentic and natural, so try to film on the property and convey the experience at each destination. Consider these savvy sources of content for your hospitality marketing:
- Post candid hotel snapshots on Instagram.
- Produce “insider” videos of hotel operations, with mobile devices.
- Film interviews with staff members who can offer important travel tips.
- List must-see attractions, recommended restaurants, hot spots, and upcoming events to attract and inform visitors.
- Livestream live entertainment and events using Periscope or Meerkat.
- Profile each hotel department to offer behind-the-scenes secrets.
- Spotlight popular staff members to make them familiar to guests.
- Ask followers for feedback on the kinds of content they want to see.
“Positioning a hotel as a media company online enriches a brand’s reputation and builds connections vital to a property’s revenue,” says DJ Valluari, founder and president of Lodging Interactive. “People want information, they want to be ‘in the know’ and they want to engage with brands that embody the things that are important to them. Hotels can easily provide the content consumers are out their searching for and cultivate connections and relationships from there.”
Stay up to date on the latest content marketing strategies. Contact MDG.
MDG, a full-service advertising agency with offices in Boca Raton and New York, NY, is one of Florida’s top hospitality marketing companies and branding firms. MDG’s core capabilities include advertising, branding, logo design, creative, infographic development, digital marketing, creative media planning and buying, radio and TV advertising, website design and development, email marketing, mobile marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO. To stay on top of the latest trends in travel marketing and advertising, contact MDG.