To attract potential guests and boost bookings, it’s crucial to promote your business with content that’s both appealing and relevant. For a luxurious hotel this could mean posting lavish room photos; for budget hotels it could include discount offers.
Your online press room is an integral component of this effort, serving as the portal where journalists can locate news and releases posted by your organization. Here’s how you can build one efficiently:
1. Make it easy to find
Journalists want an easy time locating what they need when writing stories on deadline or gathering research for articles, which means your online media room must be user-friendly with all information in one central place.
Your media room should feature past press releases (including those which have earned media coverage), along with newsworthy activities by your hotel in recent times. This gives journalists a quick way to grasp what you do and how it applies to their stories.
Your media room should also contain any photographs and logos for use with news stories, making it easier for journalists to select assets for their stories and provide appropriate file sizes and formats. Furthermore, having all these assets available as ZIP files makes for further reference.
Finally, it is advisable to include details of any events or trade shows your hotel will attend in its online media room. This will show potential guests that you are actively involved with industry issues and may help draw their interest.
An effective online presence is key to expanding and growing your hotel business, and increasing bookings. By optimising your website, creating engaging content, working with influencers, and using paid advertising platforms you can expand your reach and draw in new customers. Spend the time building one relevant to your hotel business and you’ll see positive results such as increased bookings and growth! So get optimising and creating engaging content today!
2. Give journalists the tools they need
Journalists use various tools to complete their work effectively, such as messaging platforms for communicating with colleagues and clients, videoconferencing software that facilitates remote interviews, project management applications that organize assignments and meet deadlines, and messaging platforms that facilitate instantaneous messaging between editors and reporters, videoconferencing software that facilitates remote interviews and project management applications that organize assignments and meet deadlines. Mastery of these tools is key for any aspiring journalist seeking success in today’s ever-evolving media landscape.
Journalists also use various content marketing strategies, including blogging, podcasting, videography and social media posts as part of their content strategy. When employed properly these methods can help hotels increase engagement with target audiences while driving traffic to their website.
Many hotels rely on press releases to spread vital information with their audiences. This could include announcements regarding new attractions or ways in which your hotel gives back to the community or updates on renovation projects at their property. By sharing such stories with them, hotels can connect with their audience in an informative yet enjoyable way.
Hoteliers often use SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search engine optimization refers to practices designed to increase your hotel website’s search results rankings, increasing traffic and bookings. There are various SEO techniques, but some of the more prevalent include keyword research, creating quality content, link building and link anchor text usage.
3. Make it easy to contact you
Journalists expect to easily locate your CEO’s contact details or someone who can respond to media inquiries when searching for information about your hotel. If it proves difficult for them, they might just go elsewhere instead; therefore, make sure your press or media page includes easy-to-find contact info that journalists can rely on.
Provide your contact details such as email, social media channels and phone number as well as any specific guidelines you have for writing about your hotel or brand. This will ensure that any content written about it meets their standards for maximum publicity potential.
As with any page on your website, keep the press and media page up-to-date regularly with news of recent press releases received, events or milestones achieved by your hotel, etc. This will help catch journalists’ eyes while giving them an understanding of what is currently going on in your business.
Be sure to include bloggers among your list of potential media contacts. Bloggers provide travellers with invaluable travel-related insights, often blogging about their hotel stays; be sure to include them as part of your media outreach initiatives – this could mean including them on news release distribution email lists or offering interviews on request – which shows them that you recognize them as part of your audience.
4. Make it easy to share
Your online press room should provide journalists with useful information, including white papers, company backgrounders and corporate information, profiles of key leadership and management, lists of upcoming shows in which your company will exhibit or participate, data sheets and calls-to-action such as inviting journalists to test out products or services offered by your hotel, attend events hosted there or experience what it has to offer – which will enable them to write more effectively about it!
Your media room should provide up-to-date and historical news regarding your brand, such as press releases, awards and accolades, milestones and noteworthy achievements. This will enable journalists to quickly familiarize themselves with its history and growth; past press coverage can even be highlighted on social media to keep momentum high.
Display your staff and guest stories that are encouraging and upbeat, especially if they help build an emotional connection with them. Showing photos or videos that capture them in action can help them feel like part of the team and strengthen this feeling of familiarity with you and your company. Your community and engagement efforts will benefit greatly by keeping residents up-to-date with what’s new in their neighborhood, such as an exciting local brewery opening or exhibition at an art gallery. Doing this helps establish you as the local authority while building community spirit and engagement. Just be sure to include a call-to-action with any content that you share, whether in the form of an image caption or direct message. Pins that include calls-to-action receive 89% more shares while tweets with calls-to-action tend to receive 51 percent more retweets.
5. Make it easy for journalists to write about you
As more and more travelers search online for holidays, creating an online press room that makes writing about your hotel as straightforward and efficient as possible for journalists and bloggers is vital to creating compelling articles about it. By gathering all marketing material into one convenient spot, journalists will find it much simpler to write an in-depth piece that tells its tale.
An effective way to do this is with a media kit, including photos, facility descriptions and videos of your facilities and rooms. Ideally this should be available as a downloadable PDF so it’s easier for journalists and bloggers to include it in their articles; additionally it should include a boilerplate of information so journalists and bloggers can easily locate all pertinent details about your business in one convenient place.
An active social media presence and engagement are also vital. Posting interesting or useful content, responding promptly to comments or messages and responding quickly are sure ways of drawing customers in, as well as positioning your hotel as an expert source of travel advice.
Social media provides the ideal way to provide an inside view of what goes on at your hotel, from staff laughing during events or meetings, to photos showing staff enjoying themselves at events. Sharing these behind-the-scenes glimpses can also humanize the hotel and encourage audiences to book their stay!
Final tip for hoteliers is to post regular news and updates on their blog, keeping guests up-to-date while drawing their attention with regular blog posts that address SEO best practices to maximise posts for exposure. Be sure to answer the five Ws (Who, What, When, Where & Why) so that each post provides engaging and useful content that engages both existing and potential guests alike.