You’ll agree with us that it is inevitable for guests to first look things up online before making a booking. There’s a pool of customers that go online and this is why it’s important to build an online image that speaks volumes about your hostel. That’s where content marketing fits in. It is one of the best ways to strike a chord with that huge online audience.
Putting up blog posts, starting podcasts or even uploading videos are all types of content marketing strategies that tell a story about your hostel. With the efficient use of content marketing, you’d be able to expand your presence to a newer set of guests too. But let’s dive deeper into how to use content marketing for hostels.
How To Use Content Marketing For Hostels
Give Away Free & Valuable Information For Great Returns
Like we said earlier, the tech-savvy world we live in calls people to research about anything and everything online before making a purchase. If your hostel blog provides relevant and extremely useful information for travelers, you become their go-to site. They could either share your blog or come back again when they need information. It also communicates a message about your hostel that you’re willing to share blogs chock-full of valuable information.
This will essentially increase the traffic to your website. With more traffic, newer people begin to find your hostel. You’re simply putting up relevant up-to-date information on your blog posts and over time it gives you great returns. Make sure you also subtly show the value proposition of your hostel within the content. But it should never seem too rubbed in the face of the reader – being subtle is key.
When your audience visits your website and finds something valuable for them on it, this also helps build trust in a big way. If you write pieces of content that resonate with the guests who stay in your hostel, you’re already one step close to gaining their trust. Your blog posts give out useful information and you, in turn, get a larger audience. This is one of the biggest ways of how you can use content marketing for hostels.
Send Out Emailers To Improve Relationship With Old Customers
It’s pertinent that your hostel uses content marketing to increase the number of new guests. But at the same time, it is equally important to pay attention to your existing pool of guests. Your previous guests have already had the opportunity to stay at your hostel and experience the pros of the accommodation for themselves.
Sending e-mailers is an invitation for previous guests to still remain in touch with the running offers you have to propose. Emailers will help you keep your guests updated with what’s new at the hostel. For instance, if you’ve opened a new property or initiated a membership, emailers will keep your guests in the loop. It is almost like just gently reminding old guests about the benefits of staying at your hostel.
You can also track how many guests respond to your emailer to see if it’s really working out for you. Keep up with your target audience and if they aren’t reading your emails, it’s probably not a good idea to keep going ahead with it.
Improve Your Search Engine Ranking Through Content
Creating SEO-friendly content has the power to help your website rank higher. When your content shows up on Google’s first page, your hostel has more limelight hence more visibility. Businesses that use content marketing also gain 6 times more conversions than businesses that don’t attempt to take this approach. To improve your search engine rankings, your blog posts need to have content on relevant topics.
In addition to that you’d have to do extensive research on the keywords you must use to rank higher. You can use online tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Ubersuggest to get more insights on which keywords are doing well. It is also necessary to ensure that you’ve added sufficient hyperlinks and the readability score is decent for your blog. You can use Yoast for WordPress to get indicators on if your blog not only reads well but is SEO-friendly.
Give Influencer Marketing A Shot
One of the latest trends in content marketing is involving influencers with a huge following in your campaigns. It is a whole different ball game but is worth giving a try especially if you feel that it will work for your target audience. This marketing strategy puts the load of creating content about your hostel property on the influencer. This helps spread the word about your hostel in a language that is fluent to social media users. In turn, your hostel gets the boost it needs.
At goSTOPS, we also previously tapped into influencer marketing ourselves where we had travel influencers stay at the property, & post photos and content about their experience. One thing is certain that when you do take this approach, make sure you learn about the influencer well enough. The influencer should be influencing a target audience that is in sync with your hostels or the purpose is defeated. Also ensure you have a detailed agreement or contract that states exactly what your deal with them is. This helps avoid some potentially damning publicity should things go wrong!
Try New Avenues Of Content Marketing
Remind yourself that content marketing is not limited to blog posts. You can tap into new avenues like getting your LinkedIn posts some attention or offering downloadable travel guides. Try ways to send out content that is valuable and initiates others to share, like or save your hostel link because it was valuable. The crux of content marketing is for potential guests browsing the internet to be led to your hostel. Keeping that thought in mind can help you brainstorm new business ideas.
Conclusion
We’ve shared a number of ideas on how you can use content marketing for hostels. But remember that the results of using content marketing won’t showcase overnight. It is a long-term process and if diligently done, your hostel could reap its rewards. Over a period of time, it will increase traffic to your website and do the job of introducing everything about your hostel for you.
