View our most recent Content Jam Recap.
Blue Magnet’s Director of Digital Strategy, Karie Miller, and Senior Digital Marketing Manager, Nicole Poggensee, learned countless content marketing tips and tricks during their day at Chicago’s largest content marketing conference, Content Jam. As content strategists and digital marketing enthusiasts, Karie and Nicole were thrilled to spend a day discovering the secrets of content marketing from other industry experts. Below are Karie and Nicole’s takeaways from the Content Jam sessions they attended and insights for hoteliers who are looking to leverage this knowledge to enhance their digital campaigns.
Andrew Davis on Killer Content: How Brilliant Brands Create Less Content and Deliver Bigger Success
Andrew Davis kicked off Content Jam with a surprising statistic, “17 new web pages are published every second.” Wait, what? No way! That means that 1,020 new web pages per minute are being upload online. That is a LOT of content, which as you could imagine would create overload for online guests. Heck, that overwhelms me. The key to avoiding this massive heap of information is by cutting through that clutter. Think about what your customers want to actually read about and treat your content like a product. Valuable content will inspire customers to buy it.
Content Lesson: Stop chasing that perceived opportunity and start producing information guests can consume.
Hotelier’s Takeaway: Write content that answers guests’ questions like why should they stay with you, what amenities your hotel offers, and what they can do during their stay.
Andy Crestodina on Analytics & Optimization: How Writers Can Use Data to Research and Rank
Andy Crestodina, Founder & Strategic Director at Orbit Media Studios, engaged the audience by sharing his insights on using data to research and rank. All digital marketers know that external links are extremely important for achieving high rankings within search. So as I’m sure you can imagine, the audience was shocked when Crestodina said that “75% of articles have zero external links.” According to Crestodina, generating original content, backed by strong research, is a successful practice for achieving a strong rank, generating external links, and a positive user experience. Strive to make your website the only place online that your consumers can find the answers to their questions.
Content Lesson: Use data and original content to create the best webpage on the internet.
Hotelier’s Takeaway: Make your hotel’s website and social media channels the only place online that your guests can find the answers to their questions like, “What can I do in the area,” and “Why should I come stay with you.”
Joel Harvey on The Chemistry of the Landing Page
Joel Harvey, Chief Operations Scientist of Conversion Sciences, began his presentation by asking a simple question: “What is a landing page?” A landing page is the web page a visitor arrived at or “landed on.” The key to a successful landing page is to create trust with online guests. How is that achieved? By serving users the information that was promised to them in the ad, link, email, or piece of content they clicked on.
Content Lesson: Each of your landing pages should include relatable and unique content that your guests are expecting to see.
Hotelier’s Takeaway: Avoid using stock images to represent your hotel or generic local area type photos. Help showcase the experience that the guest is going to have by using actual photography of your hotel and your own images of the surrounding area.
Jill Pollack on The Content Marketing Trifecta: Thought, Emotion, and Action
During this session, Jill Pollack, Chief Wrangler of Story of StoryStudio Chicago, focused on how you want your audience to feel when reading your copy. As digital marketers, we have an opportunity to start an online conversation with potential customers. With that being said, we need to connect the details that we are providing to the emotion you want your guests to feel, and then to the action you want them to take.
Content Lesson: Think more like a storyteller and less like a marketer.
Hotelier’s Takeaway:Help paint a picture that describes the experience your guests are going to have during their stay with you.
Angie Schottmuller on Persuasive Power of Proof
Angie Schottmuller, Growth Marketing Advisor and CRO Expert at Interactive Artisan, encouraged the audience to identify their potential customers’ fears, anxieties, and questions that they may have about your product. Then, ease those uncertainties by answering the customers’ questions through your online content. Provide your guests with quality social proof through summing it (i.e. the quantity of reviews), scoring it (i.e. how you rank), saying it (i.e. testimonials), showing it (i.e. Facebook likes or TripAdvisor reviews), and shining it (i.e. TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice Award). How do you determine if your proof is of value? By recognizing if the proof is credible, relevant to your customers, attractive, visual, enumerated, nearby, and specific.
Content Lesson: Gain your customer’s trust by providing them with valuable pieces of evidence throughout your website.
Hotelier’s Takeaway: Use your independent site as an opportunity to showcase your TripAdvisor awards, wedding testimonials, or presence on review sites.
Jay Acunzo on Unthinkable: How the World’s Most Creative Content Marketers Do What Others Wouldn’t Dare
Do you find yourself constantly reading best practices for creating a successful content marketing strategy? According to Jay Acunzo, VP of Marketing at NextView, digital marketers need to stop obsessing over best practices and industry trends. Why would that be? Simply because “good marketers follow best practices, great marketers craft their own”.” For example, let’s say you are unsure when the best time to tweet about your hotel’s happy hour is, so you search for the “best time to tweet” in Google. Spoiler alert…that is not going to be the best time to tweet because everyone else will be cluttering up your followers’ newsfeeds at that time. Be unique and base your publishing schedule off of where your followers are located and when it would make most sense for them to see your news about your happy hour.
Content Lesson: Stand out from the crowd and craft your own answers and best practices.
Hotelier’s Takeaway: Do not follow what your competitors are doing on their independent website or social media. Talk to your Digital Marketing Manager and brainstorm about how you can make your content more unique to your property.
Robert Rose on The Great Content Marketing Reboot
Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Officer of Content Marketing Institute, shared a new concept of perceiving content marketing as a leverage to maintain existing customers. This theory focuses on turning your loyal customer into a brand subscriber by creating a strategy, organizing the plan, managing the content, and then measuring the efforts. One way to achieve a marketing reboot is by turning your content into a remarkable experience.
Content Lesson: Give your customers a reason to come back to your website.
Hotelier’s Takeaway: Add value to your brand and independent websites and social media channels by focusing on what your existing guest wants to see and acting as a guide for their upcoming stay.
How can hoteliers apply these Content Jam takeaways?
At Blue Magnet Interactive, we understand how valuable independent websites and niche landing pages are for our hotel partners. Landing pages are a great way to increase your hotel’s online visibility and differentiate your hotel from its competitors. However, it is equally as important to make sure you are not just creating new landing pages to build out your website. Remember, more is not always better. Talk to your Digital Marketing Manager to know your domain authority and choose landing page topics that your website has a better chance of ranking in search results. Your online marketing strategies will be more successful if you focus on relevant and valuable topics that provide your consumers with the answers to their questions. Make it a goal to create valuable content that is backed by strong research to gain the trust of your guests and inspire customers to book at your hotel.
For more information on how to make your content more valuable to your guests, reach out to your Digital Marketing Manager or give us a ring at 877-361-1177.
