While certain marketing best practices apply to all or most industries, companies in a particular field must use different strategies to achieve great results. Hotels and resorts are also included in that list. Because if businesses in the hospitality industry want to get big results from their campaigns, they need to do marketing a little differently.
For example, hotels do not sell relatively low-priced products that are impulse buys. Guests should either be already on their way to your location or plan a semi-expensive trip just to stay with you. As a result, social media marketing requires a slightly different approach.
We can help you with that. In this post, we look at five proven social media marketing strategies for hotels that will help you connect with your guests in a more effective way.
Proven social media marketing strategies for hotel marketing:
1. Use social to improve your reputation
If someone chooses to stay in a not-so-nice hotel, that can of course be a health and safety concern. Therefore, trust is paramount in the hospitality industry. Can your guests trust your staff to keep them safe while they sleep, take care of their food allergies, and provide a clean and comfortable environment?
First and foremost, hotels need to leverage social media to establish trust with potential guests and improve their reputation.
Start by collecting reviews on Facebook. Starting a few days after their stay, he sends an automated email to all guests during the week asking them to leave a review. When you enable the reviews tab (found in your page settings) on Facebook, users will see a link that takes them directly to the reviews section of your page when they click on it, making them more likely to leave your page.
You can also generate and share a large amount of user-generated content (UGC) across your social media channels. User-generated content is a great way to increase engagement on the platform, trust in your brand, and build your reputation.
Encourage users to share their stay on social by tagging you or using your branded hashtag so your content can be found.
You can use tools like Yoppo In addition to collecting reviews, you can also manage and share UGC. You also have the option of using contest software such as: wish pond and short stack Offer incentives in exchange for UGC and ask users to submit photos or videos from your landing page for your convenience.
You can also monitor your online reputation to assess the effectiveness of your campaigns. brand 24 and mention (pictured below) Both are perfect for this purpose and allow you to see what people are saying. about you In addition to what they are saying, online also to you.
If you can spot an unhappy guest complaining on social, you have a chance to jump in and resolve the situation and hopefully save your reputation.
2. Be responsive and engage with your followers
Being responsive shows that you're serious about your guest's experience, even if they aren't currently looking to book a stay. This can be a significant time investment, but it must be done. If you engage with them regularly, you will see a positive impact, but if you don't, it will have a negative impact on how people view you. There is no neutral ground here.
Make it a habit to respond to all comments and questions as soon as possible and check all social channels at least twice a day if possible.tools like Hubspot social media inbox, napoleon catand agora pulse Both offer social inbox management tools that alert you when messages are received on linked platforms and allow you to address them directly from a single dashboard.
Keep in mind that a quick response can be the difference between closing or missing a booking, and customer service is expanding to social channels as well.
3. Use analytics and competitor research to create high-performing content
All kinds of analytics should definitely drive your social media strategy and content creation. We want to see what's working so we can leverage that information. This includes reviewing your own analysis. and Your competition.”
For example, you may find that your competitors regularly go live to promote local events near or within their resorts and receive a huge amount of engagement. Or you may find that your own educational videos are better than posts that share links to blog posts. You want to leverage this information to create content that your audience responds to over time.
tools like social media tracker and rival's IQ can help you with this by showing you how your competitors' content is performing on different social channels. See follower trends and specific engagement for each post. Use this information to look for patterns in what your guests want to see.
In addition to competitor research, you can use tools such as: SEMrush Topic Research Tools and buzz sumo Helps discover content. Check out new trending topics and join in on the hot conversations, as well as look for strong evergreen topics that have the potential to perform well over time, especially if you want to recycle your posts later.
You can also learn more about hashtag research so you can maximize the reach and visibility of your posts on hashtag-centric platforms like Twitter and Instagram. ritual tag A strong option here. This tool automatically suggests popular hashtags based on the text or image of your post.
4. Take advantage of peak posting times
Although most algorithms no longer prioritize timeliness when deciding what content appears at the top of users' feeds, choosing the right time to post on social media is still important. If your post is published just before or before peak activity periods, users are more likely to see and engage with it, and that engagement will give your algorithm a big boost.
social media scheduling tool It can play an important role in optimizing your posting strategy. Ultimately, knowing the right time to post will help you maximize the reach of your content and connect with more potential guests. You can check your own analytics to manually determine the best posting times, but some scheduling software will suggest peak posting times for specific accounts, so choose the scheduling tool that's right for your business. This must be taken into account when doing so.
5. Value provided
Want to make sure your followers stay tuned and your guests continue to see you as an authority in your industry? Create content that provides value in addition to content designed to drive engagement To do.
Share resources about the best things to do in the town where your resort is located and the restaurants your guests frequent. have to go see it. We'll give you tips on how to choose the best hotel, find cheap flights, and pack your luggage so you don't need the help of a concierge in the middle of the night.
Please share as you have valuable information that will be helpful to your guests.
Consider creating both time-sensitive and everlasting content. Seasonal and timely content can drive high engagement due to its immediate relevance, while evergreen content can be recycled.can be used meet edgar Make old content instantly relevant and increase the overall lifespan of your posts. This tool gives you the option to organize your content into different categories and set up slots for each category on your calendar. Once everything is ready, MeetEdgar will automatically start processing and post relevant content for each specified slot.
You can also use RSS feeds to keep your social media feeds active and share relevant, high-quality content from other reputable brands in your industry to keep your guests engaged. This is a great way to create a complete social calendar even if you're running out of ideas, especially since everything is automated.
conclusion
Social media marketing for hotels and resorts requires a greater focus on nurturing long-term relationships and building a reputation than other industries, but the potential rewards are great.
Each of the strategies we'll discuss here will help you deepen your connection with guests, establish relationships and trust, and increase bookings without you even knowing it.
Maria Raybould
Maria is an online marketing specialist at SEMrush. For her, nothing excites her more than seeing her content make a difference. Maria works with her SEMrush team to provide the best toolkit to digital marketing professionals around the world.
