Ask The Experts!

This blog is a follow-up of our Principles of a Successful Content Strategy where we dive a bit deeper into a content strategy and how to use social media to promote your content and drive traffic back to your website.


We recently presented at the California Association of Boutique and Breakfast Inns’ (CABBI) InnSpire Conference and enjoyed educating the innkeepers in attendance but wanted to share our presentation here as well:




Having a successful content marketing strategy revolves around understanding your guest and how they’re searching for you online. In our last blog, we talked about taking inventory of your content and creating goals for your strategy.


You’ve taken an inventory of what content you already have, you know what your goal is when it comes to content marketing, now what?



Repurpose your content


For example, you spent the time and money researching activities and dining options in the area and created an activities page on your website. The activities have stayed the same year-over-year and you’re not sure what you can add to these pages. If you can’t add to it, change the format!


Visual is viral these days in content marketing and promoting your property on social media. Try making an infographic about the activities within a 20-mile radius of your property. Not only is this a fun way to share information about your property but it increases the chances of your guests sharing your content for you.


Do you have local insider information on your city or town, know the history or fun facts of community events, or provide specialty services to your guests? All of these can make for great blog topics, which not only shows that your website is a valuable resource, but also creates new content for your site that Google can crawl, increasing your Google ranking. Don’t forget to share your new blog post via email marketing and posting to your social networks.



What social networks should I be using?


When most people think of social, the three big players come to mind: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. This is where your goals come to play when it comes to determining which networks will work best for your business.


From Facebook to Vine, and all the networks in-between, it can seem daunting to try and build an audience on any of these social networks. Identify who your target audience is, what kind of information they want and what networks they’re already on.


For beginners, the best bets are to get involved on Facebook and Google+. Facebook has a strong hold on the social network market, especially with their acquisition of Instagram, and is easy to navigate. Google+, like Facebook, aims to create connections, giving you an opportunity to build a relationship with your guests or potential guests.





Are you still unsure about content marketing?  


Have questions about content marketing or online marketing in general? Ask the experts on our Facebook page! We have a post asking for your questions, just comment there, we’ll compile all the questions and post the questions and answers on our blog.


To have your question included in our Q&A article, please post your question to our Facebook page no later than March 17.