Cameo Hotel & Suites | Hospitality Content Marketing Growth Study
Campaign Overview
Cameo Hotel & Suites is a boutique hospitality brand in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It offers modern, self-service accommodations in the heart of the city, providing an affordable option for travellers who want to stay close to downtown restaurants, attractions, and nightlife.
Guests were having a great experience, and the hotel had the reviews to back it up. The problem was that hardly anyone knew the hotel existed. Cameo had just opened and wasn’t showing up in search when people looked for places to stay in Halifax. The few bookings that did come in were mostly through third-party sites, cutting into the revenue that could have been earned through direct bookings.
That’s when the property reached out to ask about a content marketing campaign. We kicked things off in July 2023, and since then, the hotel has become one of the most visible and sought-after stays in the city.
Here’s how we made that happen.
The Goal
Cameo was stepping into a crowded market. Halifax already has a bunch of well-known hotels that have been around for years and have built up strong visibility online. On top of that, third-party booking sites were soaking up most of the traffic. Standing out wasn’t going to be easy. The hotel had just opened, had no real online footprint yet, and wasn’t working with a huge budget. It needed to find a way to compete without relying on paid ads or name recognition.
But what made Cameo worth discovering was the experience. It was clean, well-designed, and in a location that made sense for anyone visiting the city. Guests could check in on their own time, cook in their own kitchen, and walk to pretty much everything downtown. It was one of the few options that combined location, comfort, and affordability—but hardly anyone knew it was there.
That’s what we set out to change. The goal was to help more people discover Cameo when they were planning a trip to Halifax. We knew the hotel needed to show up early in someone’s planning process—not just when they were ready to book, but even before that. So the first step was building familiarity. We wrote content that answered the kinds of questions people were already searching, and used that to start getting the hotel in front of the right audience.
The goal was to build brand recognition among a targeted group of travellers, making them more likely to remember and book Cameo when it came time to choose where to stay.
The Content Marketing Strategy
This wasn’t just about getting more traffic. It was about getting the right traffic—people who were actively planning a trip to Halifax and looking for a place like Cameo.
We focused on content. Blog posts were built around what travellers were already searching for, like where to stay downtown, what to do in the area, and how to plan a weekend trip to Halifax. But we weren’t just writing for the sake of having a blog. Every piece was backed by research, tied to clear search intent, and linked back to the pages that actually drove bookings.
We didn’t want a short burst of attention that faded out after a few weeks. The goal was to build something sustainable. The content needed to start working quickly but also keep pulling in the right audience over time.
Here’s how we went about it.
1. Keyword, Competitor & Target Audience Research
Cameo Suites was already showing up in Google’s Map Pack and ranking for commercial hotel-related queries in the area. The problem was that it didn’t have the brand authority to fully capitalize on those positions. People might have seen the name, but they didn’t know enough about the hotel to feel confident clicking—or booking.
So, we set out to build that trust before the decision point.
We started by digging into Google data to figure out what travellers actually cared about when researching a trip to Halifax. Through keyword research and competitor analysis—mostly looking at local travel blogs, tourism guides, and resource-style content—we identified the common questions and topics that came up again and again.
Then we used that insight to create content that was helpful, relevant, and easy to find. The goal was to answer those questions clearly and in Cameo’s voice, so by the time a potential guest searched for a place to stay, the name already felt familiar.
2. Topic Mapping
After pulling together the keywords, we grouped them based on what people were actually trying to find. One area that stood out was events and festivals. These weren’t people searching for a hotel yet, but they were clearly planning trips. That gave us a chance to reach them earlier in the process.
We started with a main page that featured some of the biggest festivals in Halifax. From there, we created separate blog posts for each one. Each guide explained what the event was about when it happened, and what someone should know if they’re thinking of going.
In each guide, we worked on a mention of Cameo as a great place to stay. It wasn’t forced; we just showed how the hotel’s location, pricing, and setup made it a solid option for festival-goers.
This gave us a way to connect with travellers before they even searched for a place to stay. And because the content was tied to real events people were already looking up, it had a better shot at building trust and bringing the right people to the site.
3. Content Calendar & Brief Development
To keep things consistent without overloading production, we worked off a three-month rolling content calendar. This gave us enough flexibility to respond to seasonal trends while still staying focused on our long-term goals.
Each post was planned with a clear brief. These weren’t just blog ideas—we outlined exactly what each piece needed to do. That included:
- Primary and secondary keyword targets
- Internal pages it should link to
- The format we were aiming for (guide, listicle, event breakdown, etc.)
- A quick note on the intent and what kind of action we wanted to drive
This helped us make sure every blog post had a specific role. It wasn’t just about writing something that could rank. It was about writing something that actually supported the hotel’s visibility and booking goals.
4. Content Creation
We stuck to a consistent publishing schedule and focused on writing content that was genuinely useful to the people we wanted to reach. A lot of it centered around the events and festival cluster, but we also worked in supporting topics that aligned with what travellers were already searching for.
Each post had a clear purpose. Some were designed to bring in traffic from people planning a trip around a specific festival. Others helped build authority for broader topics that supported the hotel’s presence in local search. No matter the goal, every piece was written to feel helpful, easy to read, and relevant to what the guest might actually care about.
We also made sure the content reflected Cameo’s tone—simple, local, and to the point. We didn’t overdo the sales pitch. Instead, we focused on giving people the information they were looking for and naturally worked the hotel in where it made sense.
Here are a few samples from the campaign.
5. Performance Analytics
We tracked everything through Google Search Console and SEMrush. Not just site-wide, but by content cluster—so we could see what was actually pulling its weight.
The main things we looked at were:
- Clicks and traffic
- Keyword growth and SERP feature wins
- Impressions and average ranking
If a cluster was doing well, we built on it. If something fell flat, we shifted focus. Simple as that.
The Results
The campaign delivered exactly what we set out to achieve. Cameo Suites went from being a brand-new hotel with almost no online presence to ranking for thousands of keywords, appearing in Google’s featured results, and pulling in consistent, high-intent traffic.
Here’s what the growth looked like:
- 1,147% increase in monthly organic traffic (from 251 to 3,131)
- 2,417 new keyword rankings, bringing the site total from 147 to 2,564
- Top 10 rankings jumped from 8 to 195+
- SERP feature wins grew from 4 to 169, a 4,125% increase
And most importantly, the content helped drive real leads.
Where It Came From
- 11,771 leads came from blog content, accounting for 59% of total organic visits
- 37% of traffic came from branded searches, mostly through the homepage
- The rest came through service pages, supported by internal links from blog content
The strongest results came from content clusters tied to events, local experiences, and seasonal searches—topics that helped people discover Cameo long before they were ready to book. That early visibility made a difference. When it came time to reserve a room, the name already felt familiar.
And even after the content schedule slowed down, the blog kept working. That’s the advantage of an SEO strategy built for the long term—it doesn’t stop delivering once the posts go live.