They say content is king, and nowhere is that truer than within the hotel industry. But how do you ensure the content you create is effective?

Research by Havas Group earlier this year concluded that 60% of the content created by 1500 leading brands made little to no impact on consumer’s lives or business results. The study, which Havas Group carries out annually, is the largest global analysis of its kind and, while it determined that 84% of consumers expect brands to produce content, the research found that 60% of all content created by brands is poor, irrelevant or fails to deliver.

74% of consumers worldwide wouldn’t care if those brands getting it wrong disappeared. If this doesn’t make the case for investing in more effective content as a hotel marketer this might – the brands who created content that hit the mark and was considered effective by consumers, received a 48% increase in share of wallet and 137% more returns on their KPIs.

So just how do you get it right and create an effective content marketing strategy?

1. Get Organised

Getting organised is the first step to ensuring your content strategy brings your hotel the best possible results. Whatever form this takes is dependent upon your preferred ways of working, though there are a wide variety of apps and tools designed specifically for helping you become more efficient.

2. Identify content purpose

An agile content marketing strategy will allow for the creation of a content calendar. Within this, there should be scope to define a purpose for each piece of content you create. This will help to make it more meaningful. Your hotel site should host a range of different content formats, all with varying purposes, to pull customers through the sales funnel. Common purposes include content that:

• Educates
• Informs
• Helps
• Entertains
• Inspires

3. Assemble a Great Team

Your content team will make or break the effectiveness of your content from initial idea right through to delivery. While it’s certainly true that too many cooks can spoil the work you’re doing, capable content marketers will understand the balance between different content types and be able to create pieces that have a purpose and make an impact. A clear content marketing strategy should be on hand to guide this team at all times.

4. Align Content to Audience Needs

It helps to remember that your content’s effectiveness hinges on its ability to appeal to your audience. It should communicate clearly the points you have developed through your content marketing strategy and meet the need of the consumer at their stage of the booking cycle. Use your hotel guest personas as a yardstick to measure whether or not your content is meeting those needs. To be effective, it should make an impact on the consumer’s life in a positive way.

5. Promote Wisely

The promotional channels you select play a critical role in that content’s success, so remember to choose wisely. Use your own social media channels and don’t be afraid to reshare older content over time.

6. Test, test, test

Testing is just as important to content marketing as it is to paid search and SEO. That means you’ll want to continually test and measure how successful your content is, how well it is performing and how it’s resonating with audiences. You can use metrics such as links, shares, comments and time on page as part of this. Don’t be afraid to ask your readers for their opinions too.