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Hospitality marketing is shifting toward content to lure guests to hotels, particularly the younger, digitally savvy crowd.
According to Skift, hotel brands are pumping more dollars into their content marketing budgets. The most innovative brands are developing sophisticated online content marketing campaigns that sell not just the hotel, but the whole destination experience. In this new wave of marketing, a hotel is just one character in the story of a traveler’s journey.
Brands are betting this approach will appeal to millennials, the fastest-growing customer segment within the hospitality industry, who are willing to pay more for a better experience. To stand out from competitors, hospitality brands need content that can “entertain, enlighten, inspire and/or educate in some way,” Skift reports.
The Rise of Content
The hospitality industry’s shift toward content reflects an overall trend of growth in content marketing. These days, content is the “atomic particle” of all marketing, including paid, owned and earned channels, Altimeter reports. No longer is content just a company blog or newsletter; rather, content comprises the multiple forms of media that fuel social, PR, and advertising. Top brands create “culture[s] of content,” where content is shared and made across the enterprise.
The most innovative hotel brands are using content to integrate multiple marketing components that enhance one another in “content ecosystems.” According to Skift, the best brands integrate live events, aggressive social media, branded website content, apps, and user-generated content to entice potential guests. Marriott’s new global content studio will create and distribute digital content across platforms with travel- and lifestyle-related content. The content, Marriott hopes, will reel in that coveted segment of next-generation travelers.
Millennial Connection
In addition to changing the world of hospitality marketing, the millennial generation is also driving changes in hotel experience. Millennials represent about a third of all US travelers; by 2025, they will represent over half. They also are expected to spend incrementally more on travel services than any other age group, according to MMGY.
Reflecting this demographic shift, new lobby designs reflect millennial desires for spaces that combine work, play, food and drink, Robert Rausch reports at 4Hoteliers. Hotels are creating new ways to check in, pay room bills, and research nearby activities utilizing technology.
Brands such as Kimpton Hotels are using content to sell their unique experiences to younger customers. The hotels’ websites feature visually stunning designs and content that’s evenly split between hotel information and destination experiences. Kimpton’s site pulls together more visible third-party reviews, a blog, slide shows, Google maps, and more to give potential guests all the information they need in one place. Kimpton’s techniques are quickly being adopted by larger hotel brands, Skift reports.
These “content ecosystems” could majorly pay off for hotels as millennials command more of the hospitality space. While content marketing can be challenging, brands that get it right are rewarded by customers’ willingness to share their positive experience. For hotels, that could mean positive reviews on third-party review sites that will, in turn, drive more traffic to the hotel.
Learn more about the latest trends in the tourism industry by following this John Jefferis Twitter account.
