Top Tips for Success in Content and Influencer Marketing Campaigns

“The most valuable currency in the world is attention. When it comes to content marketing and influencer marketing, where there is no attention, profits decline. Because of this, you need to view content marketing as reputation-building and see influencer marketing as intercepting audiences. You may be confused reading this, but let me explain.

Before spending money on an influencer, you should pay close attention to the content you post. No matter who you use as an influencer, the audience they promote to will 100% land on your social media and judge your business in less than 3 seconds before they decide to follow you or book with you. If you are not able to capture the attention of the prospect, it’s because your content is not engaging enough. So make your main focus on creating beautiful content and repurposing beautiful content of influencers that may have posted about your hotel or your location’s surroundings. This is what I mean by reputation building. It’s building something that’s worth your prospects’ attention. Now that you understand this, let’s look at some quick action steps for creating content you can apply right now:

1. Post pictures with people, not ‘architectural photography’ with NO ONE enjoying the location… People want to imagine themselves in your hotel, resort or B&B.
2. Repost content of your area from guests and other influencers. Give them credit through tags on your posts
3. Follow influencers in your area & common hashtags. You want to leave comments on posts that add value. Don’t be a fool and try to sell stays in the comments. Simply add value with location knowledge and join the conversation, otherwise, anything else will look like spam and could ruin your online reputation.
4. Encourage guests to post and reward them instantly. For example, ‘post and tag us, and we’ll shout you a free drink of choice’ – this is going to create organic interception of audiences that already TRUST your guest. Trust me, this is priceless.
5. Create guides – be a local expert and help your prospects find unique locations around your area and prompt them to experience these locations by booking with you. You can create guides on your website or on social media like Instagram guides.
6. Show your humanity – do free cooking classes online (LIVE), introduce some staff members behind the scenes and their stories etc. Connect with audiences like this, and they’ll feel as if they already know you before they arrive, which heightens their experience on location even more. Consider it similar to walking into a friend’s house rather than a stranger’s house. At a friend’s house, you’re always more comfortable.
7. Don’t lose your mind trying to figure out what to post. Just start and make it a habit to post daily if you can.

Secondly, when using influencers, you have a few options to consider. Use one or more of the following:

1. Pay them to post on their social media and direct all traffic to a custom landing page for direct bookings, or direct them to your social media platforms.
2. Offer a free stay with strict guidelines on what you want in return (high-quality photography, video content, and sponsored posts on their social media as a start).
3. Create a giveaway whereby you ask the influencer to post content where you give away a free stay to a follower if they like, comment, and share the post. You will have to pay the influencer for this or offer a free stay.
4. Run ads through partnerships with the influencer and post your content as them to draw on their authority to persuade prospects to book direct. This is a new feature that is wildly underused and underrated that you should explore.

If you use these simple yet highly effective strategies, you will begin to turn like, comments and shares into dollars in the bank.

“One of the most important things to remember is to find influencers who are a draw for your target audience. Too often, I see only very sexy photos of incredibly fit people in their twenties pretending to be partying in hotels that are not really like that. If your guests are Gen X or boomers, is that a representation of your target customer? Look around your property to see who really loves what you have to offer. Then, try to find shiny, happy people in all colours, shapes and sizes that your true audience can relate to.

Let your own guests be your influencers! Create social media photo opportunities with your branding on them so everyone will want to take photos and share them. Every welcome amenity and experience should have something subtly branded that cries out to be photographed and shared.”

“Content Marketing has always been an integral and increasingly important part of the hotel digital marketer’s toolbox. It engages and entices the travel consumer in the Dreaming and Planning Phases and creates ready-to-book customers for the Booking Phase of the digital customer journey.
B2C Content Marketing and all of its formats: website content, SEO, social media, hotel and travel blogs, PR, influencer marketing, etc. – allows smart hotel marketers to engage leisure travellers, family travellers, seniors, couples, LGTB, unmanaged business travellers, leisure group organizers, social event and wedding planners, etc. B2B Content Marketing allow hotels to reach corporate travel managers, corporate group planners, conference and convention organizers, company decision-makers, etc.

Naturally, Content Marketing is not free, since someone has to create the unique, editorial-level content and creative, set up and manage the B2C and B2B content marketing campaigns, monitor analytics, perform SEO, do the actual social media posts, launch B2B marketing initiatives via LinkedIn to reach corporate travel directors and meeting planners, PR, blog articles and posts, white papers, B2C podcasts, webinars and podcasts, case studies, influencer marketing, new/renovated amenity announcements, etc. Nevertheless, when done well, Content Marketing is much, much cheaper than performance marketing.

In hospitality, the “classic” influencer marketing is a complete waste of money. It is unreasonable to expect that the followers of a self-anointed “travel influencer” will flock to your hotel after a post or series of posts by their favourite social media star. I have not seen even a single case study with positive ROI from an influencer campaign in hospitality.

Your happy guests that leave positive reviews are the best influencers your hotel could ever wish for! Engaging these happy guests and turning them into brand ambassadors should become one of the hotelier’s top priorities.”

“When considering content or influencer marketing, it is important to do your homework. I recommend starting with a reputable agency that can guide you in which people are the best suited to your product. For example, you don’t want to work with a mummy blogger when your hotel is not kid-friendly.
It is important to ensure that the people you choose have relevance, reach and resonate with your potential customers.

Once you have chosen someone, the agreement you put in place must, of course, be in writing and both parties need to sign. Being clear in what you expect is vital: number of posts, photos, tracking, promo codes, previews etc. Before pressing go, consider the tech build behind the work. Are you going to use a promo code? (Our preference is always for a specific landing page.) Whatever you choose must be trackable.

And lastly, ensure you are working with someone who is aware of the legalities of marketing your property in your state or country of residence. Influencer marketing can be very effective but it is important to ensure you choose the right person and can track return on investment.”

“I love content strategies that keep it real through a genuine message, for example, putting the hotel staff and service in the limelight. On the other hand, there’s quite a debate about influencer marketing. I am a little sceptical: you might end up giving away revenue for a free stay (let’s face it, that’s the sad main goal for low-mid tier influencers) while being promoted by someone who might have cheesy accounts, different values, and fake followers, etc.

There’s the rub! How can you exactly track their history? Do they convert their likes, follows and views? Is it measurable? If we have to give it a try, I’d suggest having a clear idea and a deep screening of what type of influencer marketing you are after.”

“Stay authentic, and sell comfortability and calmness, showing that what your hospitality offers is different to the stressful city life that guests have elsewhere. The idea is to represent a life experience for travellers who wish to change their everyday routine. We have to make sure that they understand it’s not only feasible but also accessible and an opportunity not to be missed.”

“Reels / video seem to be becoming increasingly important, showing the experience. Consider the channels that your target audience is using; investigate where they are and which channels they use. I believe In-App marketing will get bigger and bigger and therefore one to consider!”

“Travellers want unique experiences more than ever. The concept of your property must be clearly represented in the content and imagery. People need to understand and feel an immediate connection. The mixed messages of tailoring to multiple markets are not as appealing. You need to deliver the unique aspects of your property clearly to convert and meet expectations.”

“The hunger for travel is here and it’s important to create awareness on how to get the best deals direct. Know your customer and encourage them to recommend you – the best marketing is from people to people.

Create trust and build loyalty, offer flexibility and privacy. Emphasize sustainability; create sustainable programs in your hotels and promote them on all channels, for example: reducing food waste, not using plastic, water management, locally sourcing ingredients, green energy and recycling initiatives. At Vienna House we have the program #neverstopcarring and a sustainability commitment for our guests. This was an important factor for companies to choose our property for cooperation.”

“Content marketing is an important part of a hotel’s marketing strategy. It can include videos, blog posts and marketing tools to attract customers and tell the hotel story and brand vision.

In hospitality, content marketing must engage and create a strong brand reputation, drive traffic to the website and has one important goal to reach – i.e., attract new guests and entice them to book a stay (while hoping that they will become loyal to the hotel).

To create the best content marketing we must think as our potential guests do. Are they business guests? So let’s create content based on conferences, meetings and business travel tourism. Are they leisure guests? Let’s offer content relating to the spa, wellness and lifestyle.

Once the content has been created, the next step is to reach the audience through email marketing, website and social media channels. Following the content distribution, we need to track the results and test which content has reached what audience – and then use a re-marketing tool to target this specific audience again until they will book a stay at the hotel.

By using social media channels to advertise the hotel content, customers are able to have a real-life experience with the hotel or brand due to the reviews, video testimonials and stories shared on social so that potential customers can experience the hotel before they visit it physically.

In addition, influencer marketing has become a necessity for hospitality businesses when it comes to keeping up with competitors. Hotels can reach a big audience and attract more guests by using influencer marketing campaigns. Why is this happening? Because that influencer has built loyalty with her/his audience and this loyalty is converted into trust which will be transferred to the hotel brand.”

“I think this is very important and this would add value to your business. However, you need to think carefully about the campaign and ensure that it has the right element of the guest experience, community, well-being and sustainability to appeal to your guest.”

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