Blogging is an essential way to build an audience for your business. Still, it’s a huge time investment that needs to be done right. When you’re looking at hotel blog considerations, there are three best practices that need to be considered in every strategy.
Write for your audience first
There’s nothing worse than coming to a piece of content that ends up being an ad for the company itself. That’s why you should write content for your audience first, and your company second.
Your content is meant to be a destination that inspires your guests and provides information about your location. Being overly promotional or pushing for bookings, can turn people off. Before you even get started on a piece, make sure it’s well written, provides great information, and doesn’t push your guests with too many CTAs.
Guests expect information when they come to a blog post. Not a long-form ad. Don’t hurt your SEO or traffic with sales content that nobody gets anything out of.
Use plenty of visuals
The great thing about hotel blogging is the opportunity to use stunning visuals. A great image can place your guest in that moment and help them imagine living the experience. What could be better than getting their imagination going when they’re on the verge of planning a trip?
Additionally, blog posts that use images get 94% more views than those that don’t. Whether you’re taking photographs of special events, venues, or your own hotel, don’t be afraid to show off what your location has to offer. To really get the most out of a blog post, make sure that your images are high quality and showcase something unique.
These days, travelers are searching Instagram and Pinterest – both visual platforms – for their next great destination. If you already have a backlog of beautiful photographs, you’re not only building content for your blog, you’re building it for social media. Two birds, one stone.
Always be consistent
Updating once a month isn’t going to help your website. Your content should be going out regularly and on a consistent schedule. 21.9% of bloggers publish blog posts weekly, while only 2.6% post on a daily basis. Consistency helps Google look at you as a resource and it could help your SEO. In addition to helping your SEO, if your visitors see posts from you often enough they’ll come to rely on it. And expect it.
Especially in the beginning stages of blog development, sticking to a consistent schedule is what can make or break your blogging strategy. There are tons of tools out there that can help you develop content calendars. Content calendars can help with everything from curating topics and researching keywords, to scheduling.
When it comes to blogging, having a schedule handy can lift a huge weight off your shoulders. You’ll no longer have to come up with things on the fly because you’ve already done it.
If 57% of marketers say they’ve garnered new visitors specifically through blogging, you know that it’s an essential piece of the marketing puzzle. However, there’s no point in doing it if you’re not going to do it right. Keeping these three core strategies at the helm will help you stay on the right track.