7 Great Topic Ideas For Your Next Blog Post

Posted on Jun 2nd 2016 in Content Marketing

Running a blog can be time-consuming, but it remains one of the best ways to attract a steady stream of traffic to your website, win points with Google and strengthen your relationship with your audience.

Most hotels start blogging with the best intentions and a list of great topics to engage their audience, but then slowly but surely, the ideas stop coming and the new posts start to peter out.

If you want to keep your audience hooked on your content and coming back to your website time and time again, you’ve got to think beyond self-promotion and put yourself in their shoes. What things do you want to know about when you go on holiday?

To help out, here are a few engaging and informative content ideas you might try on your property’s blog.

1. Provide Answers to Common Questions

There’s generally a set of common question guests want to know before they travel. A lot of this information may already be covered elsewhere in your website copy, but addressing these issues again in greater detail can serve as an informative and helpful blog post or two.

Some examples:

How far is the nearest supermarket?
How does the local climate differ by season?
Are there any good child-friendly restaurants in the local area?
What are some important, must-pack items to help guests make the most of their stay?

2. Show Off Your ‘Insider’ Local Knowledge

As well as drawing attention to all the interesting things there are to see and do in the local area, some of the best local knowledge to share on your blog will be the kind of information guests just won’t find in the guidebooks.

Are there any bizarre ghost stories or urban legends in the city? Are there any quirky local traditions or customs first time travellers may not be aware of? Perhaps there are some colourful local characters you could introduce on your blog?

3. Highlight Good Reviews

Although you want to avoid getting too self-promotional, there’s nothing wrong with highlighting some positive guest feedback on your blog now and then, as long as you’re not determined to post every good review you receive.

Tip: try picking out particularly complimentary quotes from your reviews and placing them against eye-catching images to post on your blog and social media.

4. Promote Your Specials

Of course, you’ll want to post content related to your hotel’s latest promos, competitions and special packages. The key is to avoiding filling your blog with this kind of content. As a rule of thumb, keep to the ratio 80:20 of non-promotional to promotional content.

5. Share Fun Facts

Everyone likes learning something new, novel and unexpected, especially if it comes in small, easy to read, coffee-break friendly chunks. You could make a nostalgic post showing off how your rooms were decorated in the 70s, or draw attention to some of the funniest items that wind up in lost or found each month. Perhaps you’ve had a famous guest grace your rooms? Maybe your hotel has been used as part of a TV or film set? These little nuggets of information make your property interesting and sharing them helps demonstrate the personality behind your business.

6. Travel Tips

Travelling can be stressful. Using your knowledge of your guest personas and their various needs and issues, why not create a post or two sharing your best travel tips. This could be anything from affordable games and gadgets to keep the kids entertained during a long-haul flight, to tips relating to staying safe in the sun or even important items guests might forget to pack, such as reef-shoes, if there are lots of local scuba diving tours.

7. List Local Tours, Restaurants and Attractions

Another somewhat obvious, but always useful post is one that provides a comprehensive list of recommended tour guides, attractions and other things to see and do in the local area. This can easily branch off into a serious of posts around a particular theme. Eg: “The 5 Best Places to Get Pizza in Brisbane” or “Top 3 Gold Coast Attractions You Won’t Find in the Guide Books”.

This kind of knowledge is of real interest to your guests and will help you gain their trust and become known as an authoritative source of local information.

Do you have any other engaging post ideas for your hotel’s blog? Let us know in the comments below!