For the hotel and travel industries, content creation is essential. It's a way to build an emotional connection with potential customers. To tell stories, evoke emotions, and create a sense of belonging - and as a way to showcase the personality of a brand that differentiates it from its competitors.
Creating content is about creating the fuel that drives search engine algorithms, making it important for SEO both local and global. It can be used to educate customers, build trust, and encourage them to take action - all things that help get bodies into beds and money-spending visitors into local businesses.
If you’re thinking about ways to boost your hotel's content creation efforts but are not 100% sure where to get started, here are a few inspired ideas we’ve plucked from the frontal lobe.
- Interactive 360° virtual tours: Offer an immersive virtual experience of hotel rooms and facilities for prospective guests.
- User-generated content campaigns: Encourage guests to share their experiences at your hotel, and showcase this content on your website and social media pages.
- Influencer partnerships: Collaborate with travel bloggers and influencers to create content that showcases your hotel and the surrounding area.
- Live stream events and activities: Offer live streaming of events, activities, and excursions to give prospective guests a taste of what it's like to be at your hotel.
- Storytelling through video: Create short films that tell the story of your hotel, its history, and the experiences guests can expect to have there. This could include guest testimonials, staff profiles, and behind-the-scenes tours.
Interactive 360° Virtual Tours
If you’re on the lookout for ways to give potential guests a truly immersive experience of your hotel, then look no further than interactive 360° virtual tours.
Virtual tours offer an incredibly realistic and engaging way for prospective guests to explore your hotel rooms and facilities from the comfort of their own homes (ultimately driving them to become actual guests).
By providing an interactive tour of your hotel, guests can get a much better understanding of what to expect when they stay with you. Imagine the story you could tell with an immersive virtual tour of your hotel from any angle. Give guests the opportunity to explore hotel rooms, take a look at the facilities, and get a feel for the atmosphere of the hotel before they arrive. You can up the ante by letting guests take a virtual walk through the lobby and other public areas too.
The interactive nature of these tours lets you showcase special features of your hotel, such as a spa, pool, or restaurant. You can also highlight any amenities that you offer, such as complimentary breakfast or free Wi-Fi. An interactive 360° virtual tour of your hotel won’t only give guests a better understanding of what to expect when they stay with you - it can also help increase bookings and ensure guests get a real feel for your hotel before arrival.
User-Generated Content Campaigns
User-generated content (UGC) campaigns are a great way for hotels to engage with their guests, helping you create a sense of community and familiarity. By harnessing the power of user-generated content, hotels are able to create a more authentic and personalised experience for their guests (both old and future) - making creating content from a customer perspective a must.
For hotels, user-generated content campaigns can be a great way to showcase the unique experiences that their guests have had. As an example, you could create a hashtag campaign encouraging guests to share their favourite photos and stories from their stay. This could be used to create a gallery of images and stories that showcase the unique experiences that guests have had at the hotel.
One of the biggest plus points of UGC is that it’s typically a completely free way to showcase your facilities and amenities from the most trusted source of all - paying guests. By harnessing the power of user-generated content, hotels have the power to create a more authentic and personalised experience, while increasing brand awareness and visibility.
Influencer Partnerships
By partnering with influencers, you can create content that is both engaging and informative - all while tapping into a whole new audience that is ready and waiting. Influencers have a unique perspective that can help to capture the attention of potential customers via a variety of media formats.
The key to successful influencer partnerships is to find influencers who have a genuine interest in your business and the travel industry. It’s important to find ones who are knowledgeable and passionate about the topics you’re discussing.
Once you’ve identified the right influencers, you can start to generate content ideas for them to work on. You can create content that is both inspiring and informative that can help to build trust with customers and encourage them to book with you.