The reason people travel the globe is to create experiences and share stories. And a fantastic story starts from the moment the traveler sets foot into their hotel room.
This is why great storytelling is a core component of hotel marketing. It is capable to entice travelers with relevant and valuable content through a strategic content marketing plan.
However, storytelling is not for the faint of heart, and not many marketers or entrepreneurs can do it correctly. That’s why we have given the best ways to utilize the power of storytelling for hotels.
Table of contents
It may take a lot of effort to get to results as mentioned above, but it’s not unreachable. Especially if you include the following tips in your hotel marketing strategy.
1. Find your hotel marketing voice
Great storytelling has one main goal: to talk to humans, not customers or prospects.
Storytelling is one of the assured ways that support the Human to Human (H2H) business model better than any other medium.
Create a storytelling strategy for your hotel’s marketing plan, that will allow you to bring your hotel and your destinations to life and attract the reader.
After all,
Our brains can perceive a complete story better than a factoid.
Storytelling can draw out an emotional response, as the human brain is “programmed” to visualize the information a story can give.
That allows storytelling marketing to express an emotional aspect and, in the end, lure the audience byit’s experiencing the story.
This factoid makes relatable content writing much easier. All you have to do is just use your prospect’s name and talk to them like a real person, when you’re telling your story or answering their queries.
Communicate with them and use words that they’d like to hear, words that will resonate with them, and are relevant to your brand’s tone.
2. Know your audience
Is your hotel marketing built around a luxury hotel brand? Are your prospects travelers who would love to experience any destination’s history, nature, or both? What is their average age, and what are they looking for in a destination?
In the end, what is the memorable experience that your hotel brand can offer? Answer this question, and you’ll manage to determine your brand’s core audience.
Once you have determined your audience and demographics, you can segment and laser-target your prospects with the right stories.
But, for that you need to finalize your brand’s tone first and stick to it.
Luxury brands are factual and calm, not quirky and exciting. Hotels that host summits are professional, not laid-back. So, you need to think of what your hotel can offer and write content that will resonate with your brand’s audience and your tone.
Hotel marketing through storytelling has a significant advantage as compared to other hotel strategies. It makes prospects go after the experience you can offer and not the product itself.
So, think about your tone, your story, and incorporate various other details to your narrative.
For example:
Consider mentioning how old the hotel itself is. Is it a castle atop a mountain? Is the property steeped in history? Consider saying something about the historical sights near your hotel that travelers should definitely visit. Consider creating a story about the lives of the community. For example, what festivals could serve as a tourist attraction, and where do these fit your hotel marketing narrative?
Your story is more than just your building and your hotel’s brand. Your brand storytelling revolves around your surrounding, the people, and the history behind the location. Use your brand’s tone to incorporate that into your storytelling.
Pro Tip: Always adjust your tone according to the social media you're using and the part of the audience you've decided to target. This will give your hotel marketing efforts a more human tone.
3. How hotel storytelling generates profit?
Your hotel’s storytelling plan should be more than creating a narrative – it should be about developing a complete experience. Reason being,
The most brilliant stories are not narrated but experienced as a whole.
But how is that possible?
You will need content that portrays how your brand surpasses any other brand’s experiences.
To achieve that and create the desired revenue, you will need to follow some steps.
Get to the very core of your story
No hotel brand is the same as the next one. Also, any luxury brand is not the same as its competitor, and no glamping facility offers the same experience as the one, 2 mile away does.
Finding your story’s core will allow you to see where your hotel brand fits in the marketing world. Additionally, it will enable you to communicate your story in a manner that will entice your audience.
Try to answer the following questions:
- What does your brand have that can give your prospects a memorable experience?
- How does it differ from the competition?
- What is the most creative content you can use to showcase that core?
Once you find it, create the most convincing story. It could be a blog post, a social media ad, some video content with testimonials, or some unique angle on your narrative.
Keep your human tone and refrain from being salesy.
Storytelling aims to boost sales, not to sell per se. A great example can be found in The World of Hyatt loyalty program that is based on empathy, understanding and creating an emotional connection between the brand and its customers.
Showcase your point of view
How do you perceive your own story and your brand? Make sure to create a powerful statement that will show your audience your extraordinary point of view.
Share your unique perspective with your audience. Develop the story that describes your hotel brand perfectly and resonates with them, will speak to the very heart of your prospects.
You can do this by creating a tagline that will speak to them, engage them, and resonate with them.
This will result in a strong emotional connection that will result in awareness, then engagement and later on conversion.
Your hotel brand’s characteristics
You need to find out, what is your hotel’s personality, and how is it expressed through your hotel storytelling plan.
Basically, your brand relies on its visual identity more than you think, and strong visuals create strong brands.
Think of your hotel as a person: What would they wear? How would they speak? Are they boring, business-like, or outgoing and adventurous? Would they go for a cup of coffee or to grab a drink with a member of your target audience?
All these “personality traits” need to be reflected in your brand’s storytelling.
Ensure that your marketing strategies reflects your hotel’s personality in every aspect of your marketing efforts, right from your landing page to your paid ads.
Must read: 17 Best Hotel Promotion Ideas You Can Use
The expectations your hotel marketing creates
Too many expectations on behalf of the visitor is a surefire way to fail. Create a storytelling strategy that will resonate with your audience without making promises you can’t keep.
Remember that when a story resonates, a prospect can experience it in their minds. This is, essentially, how storytelling leads to profit. If you cannot give them what you’ve promised, refrain from mentioning it altogether.
Choose words, colors, imagery that will give your prospects a taste of the hospitality and experiences you can offer.
All in all, combine all of the elements above to create a story that will be a living, breathing organism that could “talk” to your future guests.
4. Use professional storytellers
Influencers, writers, photographers, they’re all “professional storytellers” that can boost your storytelling efforts with social media mentions and unique imagery.
Use tools to discover Instagram influencers that can keep your audience engaged, collaborate with travel bloggers and photographers, and offer a small tidbit – like a free stay – in exchange for some promotional content on their social media pages.
Make sure to speak with an influencer that can share your brand’s tone and core values. A mid-tier influencer is fantastic for a bed-and-breakfast in the Bavarian Alpes. But they’d never manage to engage the audience of a luxury brand; that’s a job for a mega-influencer.
And don’t hesitate to hire a professional writer who knows how to make money as a blogger to narrate your story for you. They don’t have to be a ghostwriter, and you don’t have to blow the majority of your marketing budget to an expensive creator.
Do what you have to do to create a story that will stay in your prospective guests’ heads and make them want to experience your hotel and the surrounding area firsthand.
5. Use social media channels and user-generated content
This one is a no-brainer for the times when you need something cost-effective. However, it’s not the element around which you will build your storytelling marketing.
First of all, segment your audience and study it. This will give you insight into the social media platforms your audience frequents.
How can you segment the data?
You can use analytics tools like Instagram analytics tools, Facebook analytics tools,etc. To have a better understanding of your audience.
You need to find out, who your target audience is and then take the action accordingly. Get answers to the questions such as:
- Are you targeting travelers between the ages of 18 and 29?
- Are they mainly business travelers or leisure ones?
- What is the common age group?
Then your best bet would be to go with an Instagram profile that will create a visual story for your followers. If most of your prospects are in rural areas, you may need to consider other options.
The great thing about big data analytics, AI, and machine learning technology is that they allow you to create segments so small that they can correspond to pretty much each one of your prospects, creating a one-on-one targeting option.
This type of targeting will allow you to create a story that will contain elements to resonate with each and every person of your audience, right from the very beginning.
This will also enable you to pinpoint the types of content your potential guests will enjoy best: visuals, blog posts, or even videos and content shared through email marketing campaigns.
Create some brilliant storytelling content and urge your audience to do the same for you with a branded hashtag and a small incentive.
Urge them to write about their experience and send it to your blog, take as many photos as possible and use your branded hashtag on social media when posting it, or give a small testimonial and tag it accordingly.
How to use user-generated content?
User-generated content (UGC) can foster your storytelling marketing strategy to a great extent on following ways:
- It engages prospects by showing them the content of everyday people, people like them. Additionally, it pretty much shows how your hotel brand’s marketing strategy treats its guests like brand ambassadors and boosts your customers’ lifecycle.
- It is cost-effective and an endless source of storytelling material to include in all aspects of your storytelling strategy.
- UGC makes people relate to the experiences your brand provides. The “I want that too!” feeling UGC creates can boost your storytelling’s authenticity, relatability, and, in the end, your overall revenue.
6. A compelling hotel marketing “Plot Twist”
Marketing through storytelling has a real knack for plot twists, and your hotel’s marketing strategy should include those as well.
Let’s say that your storytelling marketing’s core is the fact that your hotel is a haunted castle located in the Scottish Highlands. This sounds like one of the most compelling main elements, sure, but other than ghost sightings and guests that look for a thrill, what else can you use to create that “plot twist effect” in your storytelling?
There’s nothing like a cleverly crafted benefit incorporated in your story. You can invite guests to stay over in your hotel’s most haunted room around Halloween at a discounted price. Use email marketing to promote this offer and make sure to pinpoint that it’s on a “first-come-first-served” basis.
That way, you can take advantage of the principle of scarcity and make some extra revenue just by creating a custom offer or benefit that resonates with your hotel’s actual history.
7. The hotel marketing goals
Well, your storytelling strategy may be on point and it still won’t work. Instead of trying to find the flaw in your stories, take a step back and think.
“Do my storytelling efforts match my goals?”
Creating stories just for the sake of creating will not benefit you in the long run. Your words need to have an actionable takeaway. Basically, a message with which your potential customer can resonate, one that will make them take the desired action in the end.
Now, there can be two main goals:
1. Narrate your hotel’s story
If awareness is your goal and not sales, narrate your hotel’s story.
How the property seemed to be the perfect fit for your vision, or how the location’s vibe was exactly what you needed. Urge your prospects to come pay you a visit and see for themselves.
You can also Invest in some virtual reality and take them through a virtual tour when they visit your website. This will result in your prospects loving you even more.
Engage your Instagram followers using stories that urge them to “swipe up” and visit your website if traffic is what you’re after.
You may like to read: 11 Hotel Instagram Ideas that are the Keys to the Golden Chest
2. Increase your sales
If your end goal is sales, create a narrative with plenty of actionable verbs to score many small “Yes”, until you reach the actual affirmative answer.
Let’s assume that your hotel is all about relaxation. Essentially that relaxation is your brand’s synonym.
You can start crafting a narrative that will make the prospect think “I want that,” and top it all off with a brilliant first-time offer that will allow them to get to know the facilities and area.
Another great way of connecting with your prospective customers is to create a QR Code with logo and let them know you’ve gone contactless in lieu of their safety. This will instill a sense of security and convey a strong message of commitment from your brand’s end.
Whatever your storytelling aims to do, make sure to be clear on your goals first. Your goals, along with your data, will show you exactly how your storytelling message should go.
The Takeaway
Great storytelling begins where reports, numbers, and corporate talk ends.
Treat your hotel and the experiences you “sell” as a living, breathing character in a work of fiction.
An emotional response to your hotel marketing’s storytelling is the beginning of a memorable experience with your hotel.
Communication with your prospects is the key of hotel marketing strategy. After all, the traveling industry is the first one to offer experiences that last a lifetime.
Gather data on your prospects, your brand, your hotel, your area, create a narrative that will showcase exactly what your prospects need to see, connect with them on a deeply emotional level.
Round-up tips:
- Create posts in parts
- Identify your unique selling point, the core around which you will build each piece of content
- Don’t use too much information
- Use storytelling in a way that will resonate with your prospects
- Walk an extra mile and connect with personalization touch
After all, creating experiences and emotions is what both brilliant hospitality and fantastic storytelling should do.
