Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 250 – How Great Content Leads To Great Hotel Conversion Rates

Good day fellow hoteliers and welcome to the big big big 250th edition of the Hotel Marketing Podcast! It was a little over 7 years ago and over 13,000 minutes of recording when we first picked up an el cheapo microphone and all sat around a little round table to record our first episode. Since then the show has had well over half a million downloads from hoteliers around the world.  

Today, on our 250th edition we’ve got Jeremy, Alyssa, and me, Pete to share some insights into creating amazing hotel content that drives conversions.

In The News:

Is Google Testing Long Ad Descriptions or is it a bug?

https://www.seroundtable.com/long-google-ads-description-36575.html

Building Conversion-Oriented Hotel Content

Think content is just fluffy blog posts and keyword stuffing? Think again. Powerful, helpful content can boost your website’s rankings, draw in visitors, turn them into leads, and finally, convert them into hotel guests.

But it’s a tactic many hoteliers leave lying dormant. Oftentimes, we see thin, outdated content that is in no way helpful to improving SEO, let alone website visitors. But today, we’re here to show you how to build up SEO-rich content that attracts guests and fills your rooms.

Before we get into the strategies for finding content topics that convert, it’s a good idea to understand the hotel booking funnel and how it aligns with content marketing:

Understanding the conversion funnel

• Who is your target audience? What are their pain points and travel goals?
  • Are you trying to attract more of the same or looking to attract a new type of guest?
  • What are these audiences searching for? What can you do to make that search experience better for your audience?
• Hotel booking funnel and examples of targeted content for all three phases of the booking funnel:
  • Awareness/Discovery > Educate your audience; people become familiar with your brand through content.
    • Example: Best Time to Visit Myrtle Beach
  • Consideration/Research > People are getting serious about making a purchase but they don’t haven’t selected their desired hotel. This is where you separate yourself from the competition through content.
    • Example: Family Friendly Hotels in Myrtle Beach
  • Purchase > Your audience is ready to purchase but they still need an extra push to conversion. Make sure you answer all the questions on your website and your core pages to mitigate any friction in the purchasing process.
    • Examples: FAQs on Core Navigation Pages, Why Stay at X Hotel?, FAQs on content

How to find content topics that convert

• What: Find the questions people are asking about your property and make sure those questions and answers are present on your website. These could be policy questions (cancellations), available services/amenities (pools open/closed, breakfast included), and so forth.
• How: Through Google Search Console, you can filter your performance report based on search query. For this method, your query filter should include the what, when, where, why, and how’s of a search. If your website has appeared in the organic SERP for searches that include these terms, this is a great place to start with improving your website’s purchase phase content.
• Other methods: Google autocomplete, People Also Ask, Related Searches, Q&A section of your Google business profile.

(Pete intro; Jeremy leads) Consideration/Research

At this point, the searcher knows the destination where they want to travel to, but hasn’t decided on the hotel.

• What: Create content around stay-related keywords that are relevant to your hotel. This could be hotel searches with modifiers like
  • Traveler type modifiers: “for families”, “pet friendly”, and “for couples”
  • Location modifiers: “near downtown”, “near midtown”, and “near amusement park”
  • Hotel type modifiers: “boutique”, “luxury”, and “budget friendly”
  • Accommodation/Amenity modifiers: “with waterpark”, “with balcony suites”, and “with free breakfast”
• How: Google autocomplete, Google Related Searches, Google Search Console, and Google Keyword Planner are good places to start.
  • Google autocomplete & Related Searches: your query should include your “destination + hotel(s)”. If people are searching for variations of this search, Autocomplete and Related Searches should provide options that will be up to you to determine if they make sense for your hotel’s website.
  • Google Search Console: your query should include your “destination + hotel(s)”.
  • Google keyword planner: This is a fine place to start if you’re new to keyword research/content optimization or are on a budget.

With that, start researching, create valuable content, and track your results.

TravelBoom News:

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2023 Leisure Travel Trends Study

Get the 2023 Leisure Travel Trends Study at https://travelboommarketing.com/study. 

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