1. A website focused on your buyer personas
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If you explore the website of different tourism or hotel companies, you may detect repetitive patterns in the message that the companies want to convey to visitors. It is common that, right from the homepage, the user is sold on the beauty of the destination, or the possibility of planning an “unforgettable holiday”. In some cases, they make little use of their website and it remains a mere online shop window.
It is common for large tourism and hospitality companies to want to sell potential customers on how much fun customers will have planning a holiday with them, on the quality of their rooms and services. But this is an overused format in tourism. Launching a generalised message to such a large audience may get some results, but too many opportunities are lost. If customers see the same propositions across all hotels or hotel chains, they may book a service from one hotel, but on their next trip they will probably opt for another company.
If you have a hotel, you may be able to get a service from one hotel, but on their next trip they will probably opt for another company.
If you have a boutique hotel or offer agritourism services, you have the advantage of being able to create a more defined message, as you are targeting a smaller audience, so you can make a higher impact on your audience. With an effective message, you can convince the customer that you can provide this value for the first time, but also on future occasions. In other words, you have a better chance of building customer loyalty.
For that message to be effective, however, it is essential that it is supported by a website focused on the needs of your buyer personas
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1.1 Website structure
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One way to reinforce the message you want to make to your potential customers is to plan how you are going to distribute it throughout your website, in how you are going to structure the content on your website.
It is usual that, when building a website, companies create pages where they can reflect the information of their products or services. But if there is no initial organisation, you end up accumulating multiple pages that do not contribute anything to the conversion of visitors to leads or sales opportunities.
It goes without saying that you should create pages to present your products or services, but to create a useful website for both you and your online visitors, it is essential to create an intuitive website structure, directed towards solving your customers’ problems or needs. A useful website structure is one that allows the user to easily find information of interest to them. For that, the contents can be structured depending on the questions that are most frequently asked by your target audience.
A tourist client will be interested in finding out more about the destination they want to visit, or about the types of activities they can do. However, not all websites talk about the benefits of some experiences or others. What can a holiday away from the tourist hotspots do for them on a personal level? What can a personal experience of the local cuisine do for them?
What can a holiday away from the tourist hotspots do for them on a personal level?
What can a holiday away from the tourist hotspots do for them on a personal level?
So, you have the opportunity to create a website that educates the user about the benefits of personalised experiences. Personalised experiences that you can find in a boutique hotel or an agritourism company, and that you can’t find in the big tour companies. Distributing your content to educate the user, in an intuitive way, will allow you to reinforce their interest in contracting your products or services.
1.2 SEO strategy
It is common for tourism companies to compete fiercely for positioning in keywords or keywords with highest traffic. However, this implies a high competition to rank in the top results of Google (SERPs).
Instead of positioning yourself on very frequent keywords, one way to opt for better positioning, and therefore have a better chance of reaching your potential customer, is to opt for long tail keywords or long tail keywords.
Long tail keywords.
Longer keywords imply amore specific search from the user; users are looking for pages that provide them with specific solutions to that need. They may have less traffic than the more popular keywords, but you can reach your audience more effectively.
Boutique hotels
We are also looking for long tail keywords, long tail keywords and long tail keywords.
Boutique hotels and agritourism companies have the opportunity to take advantage of this practice, as they selectively develop themes or experiences on their website. If the structure of your website will focus on the interests of your customers, you can define your SEO strategy through the long tail keywords most frequent among your audience. This will allow you, then, to have the possibility of positioning yourself better in Google, and provide a specific answer to the user’s question through the content that you reflect on that page of your website.
What is the long tail of your website?
What long tail keywords does your audience use? It is essential that you raise the most frequent questions made by your types of customers or buyer personas, and as a result of these search keywords. You can use SEO strategy tools to help you search for keywords selective of your target audience, such as Sistrix or SEMrush.
SEMrush.
2. Content creation
You already have a website structure and keywords that can help you rank better. Now, how to take advantage of both? You know that we constantly repeat that a website without content means wasting your website as a tool for attracting potential customers.
A website without content means wasting your website as a tool for attracting potential customers.
And it’s not a question of keywords, but of the content you generate from them. Google does not rank your website just for mentioning the keywords with the most traffic, but for the content that surrounds them. This means that Google takes into account those pages that include relevant content, content that can solve the user’s doubts, and above all that comes from a trusted source.
As a boutique hotel or agritourism, you can become a referrer of information, as you will provide more specific information, and from a trusted source, that your potential clients will probably not find on the websites of large tourism companies.
2.1 Valuable content
You also know that we like to talk a lot about generating valuable content to ask the user in return for their contact details, the offers. The user normally does not establish contact until they make up their mind, but offering them educational content (such as ebooks, guides, tests, real stories, etc.) allows the user to begin to establish contact with your company, and to guide them towards the final purchase process.
It is recommended that the content you generate for your audience is to solve their needs, and not to talk about the benefits of contracting your products or services. If a user would like to become your customer, they will consider doing so by researching your website, or offers that explain success stories of your company.
Imagine you develop a guide to tapas routes in Menorca. In this guide the user is interested in knowing which are the most popular areas of the island for tapas, which are the most popular bars, which are the most popular tapas among travellers, among other topics. They won’t be interested in hearing about your company.
However, towards the end of the ebook you can give them the opportunity to trust your company, such as giving them access to the contact page of your website.
It is essential that you give them the opportunity to trust your company, such as giving them access to the contact page of your website.
It is essential that you give the opportunity to download the valuable content on a landing page, so that the only action the user takes is to download that valuable content, and thus convert it into a new read. And for this practice to be effective, it is vital that you are aware of the most effective points to place the call-to-action (CTA) to get users to that landing page.
If you have a page aimed at talking about gastronomy in Menorca, or you have an experience that includes visits to Menorca, it is a suitable page to place the CTA.
2.2 Blogging
In the tourism sector, many companies choose to use the blog only for publications related to the company’s own activities, or to write content on generic topics. However, the blogging strategy is a practice that can attract new users to your website on a regular basis.
Blogging is a great way to attract new users to your website.
Of course, after your keyword study, and through the knowledge you have of your buyer personas, you can write blog articles on selective topics, related to the interests of your buyer personas. This allows you to generate content on a regular basis, which you can tell Google to position, and this will benefit you in your positioning as a boutique hotel or agritourism referrer.
The blogging tool you require
will be a great tool for buyers.
The tool you need to develop a blog is a CMS (Content Management System); among the most popular are the WordPress platform, as well as HubSpot.
The HubSpot platform is a CMS (Content Management System); among the most popular are the WordPress platform.
3. Creating Pillar pages
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If you start generating offers, blog articles, and other content, a very useful way to facilitate all the information for your visitors is to provide them with access to all this content from a single page, right?
If you want to make it easy for your visitors to access all this content from a single page, right?
This is what Pillar pages do. You select a general topic or core topic in which you are interested in positioning yourself in Google and, instead of talking about a lot of content and developing it on a single page, you create links or CTAs to the places where users can find specific content developed in depth. As these pages also include access to this ‘parent page’ of content.
This, on the one hand, makes access to information easier for your users. But it also allows you to indicate to Google that this is the page you are interested in highlighting on your website.
4. Lead nurturing
Large tourism companies create campaigns for large groups of users, and in many cases use their CRM and automation to send out mass mailings. However, these general campaigns will not always reach all contacts, as it is not possible to carry out highly targeted campaigns.
In the case of your company, it is possible: since you have a more selective audience, you have more possibilities to segment email campaigns that include specific content for your contacts. By analysing your contacts’ interactions through your website, you can spot opportunities to nurture contacts by sending them personalised content that may be of interest to them at that moment.
Maintaining the interest of your contacts through a CRM suitable for tourism allows you to be present in their lives, even if they have not yet decided to contract your products or services. It also allows you to maintain the user’s interest after they have experienced your business, giving you the opportunity to build loyalty.
4.1 Upselling and cross selling
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An interesting option of using CRM is to analyse the possibility of offering a plus to your customers, through the practice of upselling or cross selling. If you analyse the service or product that your client has contracted, as well as analysing the characteristics of their profile, you can generate a personalised email where you propose to improve their booking, or recommend the contracting of a related service.
cross selling.
A boutique hotel can offer guests a room upgrade, as well as invite them to participate in activities organised by the hotel as part of their experience.
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Images: Algirdas Viltrakis | Ben White | Keenan Constance