You’ve painstakingly researched and written your next blog post based on what your ideal guest wants and needs to know about your hotel destination or excursions nearby. You’ve crafted an engaging and relevant article, sharing concierge expertise of your area and relaying the insider knowledge about travel that only your boutique hotel has. You’ve read your post backwards and forwards, checking and rechecking for any possible typos. You’ve inserted beautiful images of your destination, optimized your blog post for search keywords, and hyper-linked out to other important posts and pages on your hotel website.
Finally, after this labor of love for your current, booked and future guests, it’s time to hit “publish.” Now, you can sit back and relax, enjoying the surge of accomplishment and bookings from producing a unique and inviting blog post.
Well…not exactly.
The reason why so many boutique hotels and retreat centers never see any growth from their blog is because they think their work is done the moment they publish an article.
But in reality, once you publish a blog post, there are still a couple of crucial steps on your hotel content marketing to-do list.
Even if you’re taking the time to optimize your articles with SEO best practices, that’s often not enough. Your boutique hotel or resort will need to make your blog post readily available to those who are already desperately searching for it—and that means taking the time to distribute your content where your perfect guests can easily find it when they need it.
If you’re going to invest all the time and energy that goes into crafting amazing hotel blog posts, then it’s worth it to go the extra mile to ensure your content actually boosts your bookings.
This is one of the easiest—yet most efficient—ways to get your interesting & informational blog posts in front of your future, current and repeat guests. Share your blog posts on every single social media network that you have. Facebook, Instagram, Stories, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tik Tok…wherever you are already engaging with your ideal guests.
Don’t just share your blog post once. Use a scheduling tool like Coschedule, Buffer, Later, or Falcon.io to help you plan out multiple times to share your content over the next few months. Especially on Twitter where the average lifespan of a Tweet is only a few seconds, you simply won’t see the benefits of social media conversions if you tweet a blog post once and then forget all about it. Schedule a few social media updates the day-of publishing; a few for later that week; and then a couple more for later on in the month. If these are recurring events, like a food experience, yoga class or festival, make sure the posts are timeless so that you can recycle them each month, year, or event. Continually go back to old travel blog posts to share them once more, especially those with answers to frequently asked questions. There are a few plug-ins that will automatically tweet out old hotel blog posts, which are an effective way to streamline this process.
Another great way to get blog posts out is by sending it to contacts in the travel and hospitality industry. By now your hotel or resort should have amassed a list of contacts including travel agents, event and wedding planners, and corporations who host incentive trips or require intimate business trip destinations.
If you’ve signed up to receive The Experience Experts exclusive email freebies, then you already know that I send a monthly email to my boutique hotel and retreat center contacts without fail. There’s a lot that goes into an epic email marketing strategy, but one reason why email is so powerful is that it allows you to continue to grow and nurture relationships with those who have already expressed an interest in your luxury destination. Time after time, email newsletters have been proven as the most effective ways to stay connected to your past and future guests through their inbox. Even inviting them back to become return guests.
Your email list is chock-full of ideal guests who want to book but don’t know it yet. Don’t miss the opportunity to develop a trustworthy relationship with them by delivering high-quality travel and trip planning content straight to their inbox on a regular basis. Help them learn about your boutique hotel or retreat center and what their vacation could look like.
Whenever you publish a new hotel blog post, email your list to let them know! The goal here is to eventually convert a follower into a booking at your luxury retreat or boutique hotel. It doesn’t happen overnight, but using your email list to distribute your hotel blog posts is a great way to start. It’s a long-term, powerful marketing strategy that we recommend to all of our clients.
If you’re just getting started with your hotel blog, then chances are you’re having trouble getting a lot of traction with your posts. Maybe your team or a few guests are the only ones reading the posts, but these people generally are not new ideal guests making bookings. If you’re struggling with getting your hotel or retreat center’s posts circulating, then it’s time to tap into the power of blog comments.
Aggregate a list of your favorite hotel and travel blogs. Those websites in—and out—of your niche area or specific focused markets, who are also cooking up inspiring articles on a regular basis. (Feed.ly is a great tool to keep all the RSS feeds of your favorite blogs in one easy-to-find place.) Then regularly begin commenting on those related blogs.
Commenting on other blogs boasts three primary benefits:
Always invite people to comment on your blog post, book a stay and share their information as well! This creates a loop of information, engagement, and higher SEO results over time.
Another effective way to get targeted blog traffic to your hotel or resort’s website is to begin posting your articles in aggregator sites. Aggregator sites are communities where links to blog posts can be submitted and discussed. Reddit is the largest aggregator site, and likely where you’ll have the best chance of finding a group of your specific ideal guests. Another big aggregator is Popurls , which combines many other sites into one easy place to share content.
The Travel Blogger Community is also a great aggregate to tap into other posts in the tourism industry, as well as connecting with people who may be interested in staying at your hotel, and even to write their own blog about your boutique destination!
You’ll need to spend a bit of time learning the rules of each aggregator site so you don’t get yourself flagged as a spammer, but as long as you are genuinely trying to connect, provide value about your hotel and surrounding area, then you typically won’t have any problems.
While not necessarily an aggregator site, it’s worth noting that I post a syndicated version of my blog posts to LinkedIn each month.. It has been hugely effective in driving traffic to The Experience Experts website, establishing myself as an expert in my field, and connecting me with potential hotel clients and retreat hosts. It’s another version of what we’re explaining here.
We’re all already well aware of the fact that creating helpful hotel blog posts takes tons of valuable time. So don’t just publish a blog post and then forget about it—let those hotel or retreat center blog posts do more for you in attracting guests and booking!
The key is to repurpose your travel blog posts into something new and fresh. You’re not just copying and pasting. But you are using the key research and evergreen information from your blog posts to efficiently accomplish another new piece of content that is jam-packed with fantastic information about your perfect getaway location and experience.
Create an irresistible opt-in (like a packing list, must-sees in your area, or even scavenger hunt around your property) for your guests. Offer discounts for people who refer to a specific blog post. Build a brochure for your special destination weddings or transformational retreats.
Get creative with repurposing your older hotel blog posts and you’ll be surprised how quickly you can create amazing new content for your destination that potential guests will love.
I also love this in-depth article from Neil Patel that goes over five ways to bring your old blog posts back to life. It’s worth a look once you’ve accumulated a healthy size of blog posts on your hotel’s website that you feel are no longer getting the attention that they deserve.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of absolutely everything you can do to promote and distribute your hotel’s blog posts after you hit publish. However, for most boutique hotels and resorts, these action items are a sufficient—and successful—place to start.
Website speed has become one of the key factors for getting a better ranking on Google and you should read these tips by Diggity Marketing on how you can speed up your website. Our Experience Experts secret is a great web host who takes care of this for us. Let us know if you’d like an introduction.
If you’re having a hard time finding the time to distribute your hotel’s blog posts after you publish them, then start small. Choose only a few of the items above for a month or two, but develop a consistent routine to ensure you accomplish them. You’ll be surprised how significant the increase in bookings can be in just a few extra minutes each week! Over time, the time invested will bring a great ROI to your hotel or retreat center.
If you’re struggling with the content marketing strategy for your hotel’s blog and you want some help, reach out to The Experience Experts. This is one of our many areas of marketing expertise for the hospitality industry. We would love to support your boutique hotel or retreat center in creating a content calendar and creating consistent & well-distributed blog posts.
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Great tips! Thanks!
I was committing so many mistakes.
I’ll start correct it right now!