If you’re in the hospitality business, you know you need to bring your marketing A-game all year round. During peak, seasonal times, competition is fiercer than ever. And in the off-season, you need to be working even harder to ensure the customers continue to walk through the door.
With this in mind, we’ve pulled together our top tips on how to get ahead of the calendar. If you’re in the hotel or restaurant business, these tips will make sure your marketing is as polished as your silverware. If you’re a gym, your marketing will be as buff as your clientele – you get the idea!
1. Think Original & Personal
A two-in-one tip here – humans have gone from being exposed to ~500 ads per day in the 1970s to as many as 5,000 per day today. How is your marketing going to stand out from all this noise?
Customers respond to original messaging and if they have seen the same flyer, poster, video, advert or piece of email marketing before, then it’s more likely to just turn into ‘noise’ and be ignored.
That said, we’re naturally attracted to information that is relevant to us and our current situation. In other words, we’re more likely to respond to marketing that is personalised to us. So, think about how you can plan a bit of originality and personalisation into your marketing calendar this year.
This might sound expensive and time-consuming (we’re sure Coca-Cola don’t scrimp on cost!), but it doesn’t have to be. The simple ideas are often the best. Here’s a great email marketing example from airline JetBlue:
Source: Hubspot
We’re sure you’ll agree, the copy in this personalised email appeals. It’s witty, relatable, on-brand and you only need two pieces of information to get this personalised campaign going: the original sign-up (first custom) date for your customers and their name. Then, you can setup automated emails to each of them that send on the one-year anniversary of their sign-up. You can also include a special offer or promotion just for them to encourage conversions.
2. Grow Your Marketing Database
When you’re rushed off your feet during peak season, gathering data from and about your guests and members is probably pretty far down the priority list.
Budget might dictate your approach, but grow your database while the season is hot so that you can market to your existing base in the off-season. For example, use a promotion or competition to encourage guests to leave their personal email address with you at reception, or implement a dedicated CRM system so that you can keep in touch with your customers all year round. This will put you at the forefront of their minds to recommend you to others or plan their next visit.
3. Add Value
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the more personalised marketing you throw at your clients and potential clients, the better. Make sure that your communications add value to them.
Why are you getting in touch? Are you informing them about a special offer? A new menu or chef? Workout tips? Class information?
Providing marketing that adds value will keep your engagement high and minimise the risk of losing audience as they unsubscribe.
4. Build Reviews
It’s a harsh reality that success or failure in the hospitality industry can hinge on your reviews. Testament to this, 453 million reviews and opinions were shared on TripAdvisor last year. Covering 136,000 destinations, 6.8 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions are listed on the site.
As with your marketing database, build your reviews in both peak-season and off-season (on TripAdvisor, Google My Business and Facebook).
Here are some fast-facts which demonstrate just how important this is:
- 90% of customers read online reviews before visiting a business
- 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
- Customers are likely to spend 31% more on a business with “excellent” reviews
- 92% of users will use a local business if it has at least a 4* rating.
Source: Investpcro.com
Bonus tip 1: Don’t be afraid to ask for a review. This can also form part of your marketing calendar.
Bonus tip 2: Most people read between 2-10 reviews before trusting a business – so make sure your last 10 reviews are glowing!
5. Automate, automate, automate
To really revolutionise your marketing calendar, setting up your automation plan is key. As we mentioned before, using data, you can set up a series of clever marketing triggers that will set your marketing apart.
Use data such as sign-up anniversaries, birthdays, buying habits, engagement rates and more to ensure your marketing hits the right mark every time.
By doing this, you can send out personalised campaigns, that resonate with your audience at the right time, every time. Learn when they are online too and by which means they prefer to be marketed to (email, social media, print, text…). The best part is, once setup, your campaigns can almost run themselves with minimal management time required on your side – leaving you to keep an eye on the bigger picture.
At AlphaGraphics, we specialise in helping hospitality businesses deliver data-driven, automated marketing campaigns to improve lead generation. These eye-catching, triggered marketing campaigns can take care of themselves – schedule for the year or the season and let AlphaGraphics North East take the helm on reaching customers at the right time, when it matters. To find out more, visit: hospitality.alphagraphics.co.uk
