One of the biggest things in marketing right now is video content. Since Facebook has introduced autoplaying videos to its users’ feeds, it has become the most consumed type of content in the world. Furthermore, it is estimated that the time we spend consuming video on the Internet will grow by 25% by 2020.
All social media has similarly made the shift to adapting its feeds and interfaces for a more comfortable consumption of videos. This is why today, we spend almost 90 minutes a day staring at moving pictures on our screens. There are various industries that will find tapping into video content marketing very helpful for their customer engagement and advertisement.
The hotel business is no exception. In this article, we’ve compiled a set of approaches you can take towards riding the “video marketing” wave.
Humanize your brand
Perhaps the most important traits behind a brand’s content are authenticity and transparency. Use video content to create an image that your customers will appreciate. Why video content, though? Because it is much more accessible. People are fond of videos because they don’t take too much effort and focus to consume.
“By exploring various storytelling techniques, companies can humanize their brands, which allows them to create a stronger emotional bond with their existing and potential customers.” — Brian Donovan, Marketing Manager at Resumes Centre.
There is a body of research that suggests that people don’t really trust marketers and corporations, which underlines the importance of having a transparent and more “human” brand.
Furthermore, over 90% of consumers are much more likely to choose to use the services of a brand that has an authentic image and video content is an essential medium for building trust between businesses and customers.
Here are a few basic approaches to efficiently humanizing your hotel business:
- Create content that takes the customer “behind the curtains.”
- Create a video that emphasizes your brand’s story. Build an emotional and compelling storyline.
- Be transparent about the trials your brand had to face.
- Feature customers in your video content and how your hotel has impacted their vacations, business trips, etc.
- Feature your employees in your video content.
Give your prospects a tour
You may have already seen 360º photos on the Internet. Use a 360º camera to create a virtual tour of your hotel. This should look like an actual excursion, which will allow your potential customers to have a more thorough look at the premises. Not only is it entertaining, but it also lets customers make a more informed decision regarding what type of room they would like to proceed with.
Here’s an example of a guided tour using a 360º video. It allows you to hear the guide while being able to explore other angles besides the one that you’re presented with.
Explore the social media infrastructure
Despite being lumped into one generic category, social media platforms are very different, and to a marketer, they all have different pros and shortcomings.
“Although when it comes to video content, the first platform that comes to mind is YouTube, unless you will be engaging into creating video content regularly, you most probably won’t get too big of a result from it.” — Christopher K. Mercer, marketing specialist and founder of Citatior.
Whatever you do, it is essential to consider that the vast majority of platforms are very fast-paced. Twitter is a prime example of a frenetic social media site. It is critical to create short-form, high-quality, and high-impact videos when it comes to websites of this category.
Research suggests that once a video exceeds 120 seconds in length, the engagement of the users starts decreasing — this is why it’s imperative to keep your videos short and appealing.
Instagram is slightly different in terms of posting frequency. It’s slower and more thought-out, due to the lack of restriction regarding word count. However, it has a more ephemeral aspect — stories. Stories last only 24 hours in users’ dashboards, and there’s no limit to the number of stories you can post in a day.
Stories are the first thing visitors see on your branded Instagram. (Source https://www.instagram.com/marriotthotels/)
Similarly, you can explore live video in both Instagram and Facebook; and to reiterate our previous point on the importance of humanizing your brand — live video is the best channel to do so. Why? Live videos are raw and uncut, you see workers in their natural habitat communicating to their customers in a closer, less restrained manner.
Give your content some context
Since video is such a prolific format, search engines have adapted their algorithms to favour websites that publish video content. The reason is that it increases dwell time — the time a user spends using their website. Longer dwell time translates into higher ranking by search engines, which increases visibility on search results for particular queries.
“But that’s not the only benefit video can have on your search engine optimization strategy. It’s worth taking the time to think how you’ll name your video and the context that you’ll publish it in because Google might bring your video up in “Suggested Clips,” which will skyrocket your views.“ — James Daily Head of the Content Department at Flash Essay.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to start producing content to increase your company’s visibility on the web — you definitely ought to explore video creation. We are witnessing a wave of incredible relevance of this format, which makes it a perfect choice for both new players on the content market and companies that have been publishing regularly.
