Hospitality Marketing Lessons From The Front Lines.
We’ve done our share of resort hotel marketing and given that our agency is based in Miami, Florida, a lot of it has been for hospitality properties in the Caribbean or Latin America. But no matter where your property is located, here are some general guidelines for making sure you get the most out of hospitality marketing in social media channels.
1. Sell the fantasy. Not a ripple on the water. Aqua blue and white cotton. Similar to planning a casino visit, users want a mental picture of the ‘perfect moment’ and that moment should be beautiful. Our social engagement results have directly correlated to the quality of images and fidelity to marketing that perfect fantasy.
2. Minimize the ‘sale’ messages. In resort property marketing, these tend to be text-heavy and anything text-heavy generates less engagement than good imagery. While sales messages are important and do have a place, they shouldn’t dominate your content.
3. Use varied content and ad formats. Facebook Canvas ads, for example, enable mixing image carousels and video, and sound when it’s appropriate. These are very interactive ad types that enable a user to get beyond the hero image and really understand what a property has to offer. They generate strong brand engagement and also drive clicks and leads.
Pay to play. 38% of new ad dollars go to Facebook for a reason; it’s a powerful ad platform. But to properly harness it and other social media platforms, resort property marketers need to define audiences, (geo) markets, reach, frequency and engagement goals, and then allocate corresponding budgets.
Talk back. Good content drives engagement and conversation. Comments or questions from your previous and prospective guests deserve your response no matter what the subject. In the days of social-media-as-a-CRM-platform, it’s essential that you engage every time.
TripAdvisor deserves its own post, but these suggestions will hold true no matter what your campaign. Have anything to add? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
