Remington Begg
The goal for any hotel marketing team is to put heads in beds. A hotel room with no one in it is a wasted opportunity for revenue. High occupancy rates also translate to increased food and beverage revenue and event space usage assuming the property offers those. The hotel/lodging industry is highly competitive and it's important to stand out from the property across the street in any way possible.
Inbound marketing is the perfect stand-out solution for hotels and resorts. People have very specific reasons for needing a hotel and also very specific amenities offered by the hotel. These specific details offer an inbound marketer a gold mine of opportunities to answer potential guest questions and put those heads in beds.
First Things First - Guest Personas
Different hotels have different guest personas. The Sandals Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica and the Hyatt Airport in Dallas appeal to completely different personas. A person at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Hyatt may wish they were at Sandals, but they booked their hotel because of their need to be close to the convention center—two destinations, two personas.
Let's say were talking about the same destination. You have the Pink Shell Resort and Lani Kai Resort, both on beautiful Fort Myers Beach, Florida. The Pink Shell's guest persona is more family oriented, they are looking for a relaxing quiet beach vacation with lots of onsite amenities. The Lani Kai's guest persona is younger, probably single or travels with friends. They are more price sensitive and looking for more of a party beach bar vibe. Same beach, two different guest personas.
Nail down your guest persona research first. It will be the basis for all your content targeting in the inbound methodology.
Build Content on Guest Personas Needs
Let's go through a few different hotel types and come up with some inbound content ideas that would attract their specific guest personas. These are just guest personas assumptions, no actual persona research was done, but it will give you an idea of how content works in inbound marketing.
Pink Shell Beach Resort - Fort Myers Beach, Florida
- 7 Family Friendly Water Activities on Fort Myers Beach
- Top Seafood Restaurants on Fort Myers Beach
- Family Friendly Pirate Festival Happening in June
- How to Build the Perfect Sandcastle
- What You'll See When Renting a Fort Myers Beach Pontoon Boat
Lani Kai Resort - Fort Myers Beach, Florida
- How to Mix the Perfect RumRunner
- Top Spring Break Hot Spots on Fort Myers Beach
- 5 Must See Bands on Fort Myers Beach
- Best Taco Stand in Fort Myers
- How To Only Spend $50 a Day on Vacation
- Secret Time Saving Short Cuts When Driving in Dallas
- Top 5 Lunch Spots Around Dallas Convention Center
- 7 Tips on How to Relax After a Big Meeting
- How to Spend a Night Out in Dallas
- Best BBQ Restaurants Near Dallas-Fort Worth Airport
Sandals Resort Montego Bay, Jamaica
- 5 Reason Why All-Inclusive Resorts Are Better
- Best Jamaican Jerk Recipe in the Caribbean
- Best Reasons to Escape the Cold and Visit Jamaica
- Why Relaxation is Good for the Soul
- Why Jamaica Leads Caribbean in Escape Tourism
In these examples, you saw content ideas that are specifically targeted to geographical locations and activities/solutions their guest personas might be interested in. You can see in the Fort Myers Beach example the two different types of people the two hotels are trying to attract. One is more family and relaxation oriented, while the other is more of a party destination. The other two are even more different. One is a convention style hotel in an urban hub and the other is a tropical getaway in the Caribbean. Yet they still use geographical keywords and problem-solving content their guest personas would be searching for online when looking for a hotel.
This style of content is the top of the funnel, or the awareness stage of the inbound marketing methodology. As you move people down the funnel with calls-to-action, the content will change to help them more with making a hotel choice. But it all starts with awareness, giving the right content to the right people. To learn more about attracting the right buyer personas to your site download this free ebook.
