How Can Video Bring Your Hotel to Life?

Great video content can entice new customers and boost bookings without breaking the bank. Not sure if it’s right for you?

Consider this: Seven out of ten people will view a brand more positively after watching video content (Axxon Research). Video can give potential guests a fantastic insight into what makes your chain tick. You can use it as a platform to showcase what’s on offer, welcoming viewers into your world, introducing staff and telling your story.

Video can boost conversion by a massive 80% when featured on a landing page (Unbounce), and by 20% when featured on a website homepage (Reelseo). Visitors are more likely to make a transaction if video plays a part.

By 2019 video is predicted to account for 80% of global web traffic and it’s already the most shared content on Facebook. The stats prove that the medium is simply too big to ignore as a marketing tool.

Show the world what you’ve got

A professionally shot and edited video can be highly persuasive and help to build your brand’s credibility. It can help you make an emotional connection, which is much harder to achieve with traditional marketing methods, such as direct mail and glossy ads. This emotive connection can trigger the all-important buying decision.

Here’s a few ways you could use video to capture the imagination of potential guests:

● Introduce key staff. Give a snapshot of who you are. Go beyond the basics of what facilities your hotel offers and build your story. Who are the people behind the business, what makes them tick and why would out-of-towners enjoy their hospitality?

● Offer a virtual tour. This can be a great way to show off your rooms and bring your hotel to life. If a picture can tell a thousand words, then a 30-second video can practically sing an entire opera, giving you the chance to wow viewers with the panoramic beauty of your establishment.

● Get recommended. Peer reviews can be much more powerful than self-promotion.
It’s in our DNA to respond to real accounts from real people, so you could ask happy customers to participate, getting soundbites of their experiences and letting them become your brand advocates.

Reach a wider audience

The way that we consume content online is changing. According to Ofcom mobiles have overtaken laptops as internet users’ favourite device for browsing, and watching short-form video on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Vine is now more popular than watching TV online.

Highly consumable video content is an essential tool to reach and inspire a wider audience in 2016, and you can get the most out of every penny you spend by repurposing your content across different platforms and casting your net even further.

● Placing video content on your website can be a great way to engage visitors, but hosting it on a video sharing site such as YouTube can help you reach even further. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and boasts over a billion users worldwide.

● Share your video across your key social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter or Google+. If you don’t already use social channels for your business, now’s the time to start!

● Make sure your video content is featured, where possible, on third party review sites such as TripAdvisor. This is where savvy holidaymakers go before making decisions, and having an engaging video can convince them to book with you.

● Re-edit material to distribute it across other video sharing platforms, such as Vine, Instagram and Twitter. Extending your reach with regular uploads is a surefire way of winning new fans.
Let video take you further in 2016.
Video marketing can help you reach a wider audience, and uploading rich and engaging video content can also boost search engine rankings, driving more traffic (and potential customers) to your website. Video is a marketing tool that has proven to work wonders in the hospitality and leisure industry, and it could give your hotel the edge in a highly competitive market.

Jon Mowat is a former BBC documentary filmmaker and he now runs UK video production agency, Hurricane Media. Stay tuned to Jon’s every move by following @HurricaneMedia on Twitter.