Hotel Email Marketing Examples that Capitalize on the Current Travel Climate

in Content Marketing, Destination Marketing Organizations, Email Marketing, Hotels & Resorts by Catherine Shane

We know a good email when we see one: A short and punchy subject line that intrigues; an easily scanned layout that prioritizes content hierarchy (i.e. most important content featured first); and a compelling design that isn’t just on brand with the business but keeps readers’ attention – email after email send.

While all these principles still apply, on account of the current pandemic, email marketing is in a bit of a strange space right now. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying email marketing isn’t currently effective. In fact, multiple email marketing platforms have reported a spike in email engagement since the start of the global health crisis – not just from boredom at home, but because subscribers, since they usually “opt-in” to receive newsletters, trust the information and are more likely to engage with it versus all the other sources constantly coming at them via social media.

Rather, the email marketing issue our clients have been pondering as of late is: What kind of emails should I be sending? After all, you want to keep your brand top of mind by sending emails, but yet you don’t want to seem insensitive. With that in mind, we’ve pulled a handful of hotel email marketing examples that sync up with the state of travel right now in order to target those ready – and those not quite ready – to travel to their destinations.

Hotel Email Marketing Example 1: Catering to Those Who Are Not Yet Traveling

FROM Omni Hotels & Resorts

While this particular email was sent back in March, its approach – to show subscribers how they can replicate the Omni hotel experience at home with virtual travel content, DIY spa pick-me-ups, and recipes – is still applicable to target those who are not yet ready to travel again. In particular, we’re talking about those guests who are flight away from your hotel. And because it has been predicted that air travel will not return to its pre-COVID-19 levels until 2024, it’s essential that you are continuing to keep your brand relevant and top-of-mind with your nation-wide consumers.

Hotel Email Marketing Example 2: Catering to Staycationers 

FROM Suiteness

While Suiteness is not a hotel, but an OTA specializing in booking suite accommodations in major national cities, this email still applies. Here, they are specifically targeting those in their send list that live in or near Temple, Texas, by showing them the potential suites they could book for a staycation, plus a link that goes to their website with more suite options in the city. While the “Tips Concierge” section below that section is cute, we think the email would be better served with a list of some of the essential “socially-distant safe” attractions that are currently open or even a link to a blog post that caters to the segment – like “10 Destination To-Dos that Even Locals Don’t Know About” – to help entice readers.

SOLUTIONS

Custom Email Strategies that Target Your Unique Guest Segments

Leverage Sales, Generate New Customers & Retain Them

Check Out Our Email Marketing Solutions

Hotel Email Marketing Example 3: Catering to the Drive Market

FROM Provenance Hotels

Like the staycationer segment, for some time, the bulk of travelers to your property will be your drive-market folks, whatever that natural driving-distance radius may be for your particular hotel and destination. In this email, Provenance Hotels pushed out a road-trip series they created, which promoted various road-trips to their hotel destinations of Northwest Oregon, New Orleans, and Nashville, as well as road-trip-themed offers from their featured hotels. We’re assuming it was sent to past drive market guests to those specific destinations.

Hotel Email Marketing Example 4: Sparking a Little Wanderlust in the Meantime

FROM Opal Collection

If the act of segmenting your email lists or creating new content and email campaigns to target specific consumers is too much of a lift for your internal marketing team right now, if anything, use your pre-COVID content to provide mini-moments of escapism on a wider level (see more here “How a Hotel Can Pivot Its Marketing to Provide Much-Needed Moments of Escapism”). Because the public is looking for uplifting ways to curb the inevitable anxiety that arises every time they turn on the news – travel escapism being a valuable medium to do that.

In this email’s case, which Hawthorn Creative produces monthly for Opal Collection, we used our usual email template. But instead of driving subscribers to the Opal Unpacked blog like we always do, we shared inspirational travel stories from the recently-live digital version of Opal Magazine, including a travel influencer couples’ experience driving down Florida’s Gulf Coast and a narrative about a native New Englander’s trip up the coast of Maine. Sent to the usual list of more than 400,000 subscribers, it saw a reported open rate of 31% (to put that in perspective, the open rate for these monthly sends typical hover between 16% and 19%).

OUR CLIENTS

Opal Collection

How creative email campaigns extend content reach for this hotel collection

See the Work

Other Hotel Email Marketing Ideas

Segment & Deploy Re-Engagement Emails

While email engagement, in general, is healthy right now, people are still getting more emails than usual and that can lead to email fatigue. And when subscribers are not opening your emails time after time, it can lower your sender reputation and push future emails toward the spam filter. So the best thing to do is separate the non-engagers out and target them with a re-engagement campaign or even send them less frequent emails. Once you start to see they are engaging again, they can be moved back to the original list.

Create Custom Emails for the Guest Segment that Had to Cancel

Don’t miss out on re-booking a guest that had to cancel on account of the pandemic. But rather than just showcase the ways your hotel is providing a safe social-distant environment in order to entice them to book again, sell them on the destination by providing a round-up of top business and attractions that are open – and doing social-distancing well.

Pre-Arrival Emails that Shows Booked Guests Know What’s Open

Similar to the idea above, but instead targeting guests who have already booked, create a pre-arrival email that gives them a preview of what they take advantage of – not just in terms of amenities and programming at your property, but also activities and attractions to experience in the greater destination.

RELATED READING

 

5 Steps for Handling Negative Online Reviews

in Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Event Venues, General Marketing Insights, Social Media Marketing by Jennifer Munro

As a hospitality professional, no doubt you’re well-versed in handling complaints (listen, empathize, offer a solution, etc.), but as more and more consumers take to cyberspace to air their grievances, are you equipped to handle it? Sure, crowd-sourced reviews are nothing new, but COVID has only served to add fuel to the fire.

That’s because the entire process of planning a wedding has been turned on its ear, from virtual tours and video chats to interactive online planning tools. The ever-changing COVID landscape has prompted the downsizing, postponement, or outright cancellation of weddings that have been in the works for over a year – or more. That can lead to unhappy clients taking to The Knot or Wedding Wire – and increasingly, Google and Facebook – to post negative reviews.

So how should you handle those reviews in order to safeguard your carefully developed reputation and digital presence? Here are some tips rooted to the current crisis, but certainly applicable at all times.

DON’T Take It Personally

Although it can be tempting to lash out in defense of your product or service, it’s important not to take negative reviews to heart. A negative review may have little to do with you, and there are people out there who will never be satisfied. Case in point: A visitor to Stonehenge in August of 2020 left a one-star review on Tripadvisor, reporting that it was “SUCH a boring site. The rocks have no meaning behind them, it doesn’t matter how they got there.”

THE STATS

According to a study by global market research firm TNS NIPO, fewer than 25 percent submit negative reviews out of vengeance; 30 percent post negative online reviews simply to vent.

DO Respond Promptly

Cyberspace never sleeps. It’s important to respond quickly to negative reviews before they escalate – and before more potential clients read the review. A prompt response shows the customer that you value their feedback, and can actually strengthen an established relationship: A whopping 95 percent of consumers say they will return to the business if their issue is resolved quickly and efficiently.

THE STATS

Most reviewers (70 percent) are looking for a response, and all of these complainants state that they have already sought satisfaction through traditional customer service channels. Of those, 53 percent expect to get a response from the business within one week.

SOLUTION

Engage Couples with a Robust Social Media Strategy

Beat out all idle competition by actively creating connections via Instagram and Facebook.

See Our Social Media Marketing Solutions

DON’T Neglect the Positive Reviews

Even if positive reviews don’t necessitate a response, it’s good practice (and good manners!) to at least acknowledge them once in a while with a simple “thank you.” Why? First, you want to show your customers that their satisfaction matters, and that you appreciate that they took the time to leave a positive review. Second, you don’t want to give customers the impression that leaving a bad review is the only way to get your company to engage.

THE STATS

According to Search Engine Journal, 78 percent of consumers feel that a business cares more about their customers when they respond to reviews (positive and negative) than when they do not.

DO Take It Outside

No we’re not talking fisticuffs on the meticulously manicured ceremony lawn, but rather offline. While it’s important to initially address the customer’s concern publicly, Facebook and Yelp are not the place to play he said/she said. Apologize, then ask the customer to contact you privately via direct message. Your willingness to meet the challenge head-on shows potential customers that your apology isn’t just for the sake of appearances.

THE STATS

Of those seeking a response to their negative online review, only 38 percent receive one.

OUR CLIENTS

Bluemont Vineyard

How a series of targeted newly-engaged social campaigns became a lead-generation powerhouse for this Virginia farm and winery wedding venue.

See the Work

DON’T Forget to Ask Customers to Write a Review

You may be wondering: Is it okay to ask for a review? The answer is a resounding “yes!” A positive review is a great way to turn a happy customer into an online advocate, but there are some caveats. Here are three tips to asking for (and getting) online reviews.

  • Make it easy. Let customers know you are listed on review sites and provide them with the details. Consider adding your venue’s review sites to the back of your business card – not only will it serve as a reminder when the customer gets home, but it increases the likelihood that they will mention you by name.
  • Ask in person. A personal request at the appropriate time makes all the difference. Most people (85 percent!) write reviews for altruistic reasons, so that should be the basis for your request. Let them know that their unbiased review gives potential clients a true perspective on your business and helps them make informed decisions. (This is not the time to mention the sales contest your manager just rolled out.)
  • Leverage happy moments. Look for touchpoints in the buyer’s journey to figure out when to ask. For example, following up a compliment with a request for a review is a natural next step. If it’s not appropriate to make the request at the height of customer satisfaction (say, at the altar right after they proclaim, “I do!”), follow up with a handwritten personal note after the event. And be sure to check a site’s terms of service and review guidelines. While Yelp makes it clear that soliciting reviews is a violation of their rules, Google and Tripadvisor go so far as to provide free tools for companies to proactively reach out to consumers.

THE STATS

77 percent of consumers would be willing to leave an online review if asked.

As wedding research and planning moves increasingly to an online platform, proactively reaching out to customers for feedback becomes that much more important. The warm handshake has given way to the distant virtual wave, and finding ways to connect on a personal level requires some creative problem-solving.

It may seem like a daunting task, particularly if you haven’t taken steps to manage online reviews prior to this, but it’s never too late to start. Consider drafting customizable responses to common scenarios so that you can devote more time to unusually harsh or time-sensitive criticism.

RELATED READING

Ways for Hotels to Better Target Their Drive Markets

in Content Marketing, Destination Marketing Organizations, Email Marketing, Hotels & Resorts, Search Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Websites by Catherine Shane

“Staycationers,” “backyard travelers,” “weekend tourists.” Whatever you prefer to call them, it’s these folks – your drive market guests – who are going to be making up the bulk of hotel business for the foreseeable future, even as travel restrictions loosen and a vaccine or proven treatment is eventually found. That’s owed to two core reasons: Consumers apprehension of air travel and a desire to embrace more affordable, close-to-home destinations in order keep more money in their pocket (in case of an additional shock to the system…after all, 2020 has been a year of many unexpected major events). Some hard but honest truth: In late July, the International Air Transport Association released an updated global passenger forecast predicting that air travel will not return to pre-COVID-19 levels until 2024, now a year later than previously projected.

Despite all this, the US is still experiencing an undeniable wave of “revenge travel,” a term used to describe the act of consumers zealously indulging in leisure travel – even taking more trips than they usually do – on account of not being able to do so for the past several months. Think of it like trying to make up for lost time. And that’s why we’re seeing a growing segment of staycationers, backyard travelers, and weekend tourists. So how do you capitalize on this movement and appeal to your drive-market, wanderlust-hungry guest, while doing so safely and effectively? Here are a few content marketing must-haves that, if your hotel or resort marketing team hasn’t yet already implemented, should do so – and fast.

Sell Your Destination First

In a post-COVID world, travelers will be more cautious than ever, therefore, will want to know what the experience is like in the destination: what businesses are open and how many, what social-distancing or hygiene measures are being put into place, what kind activities – cultural, outdoor, etc. – are available? It doesn’t matter if the destination is an hour or a several-hour drive away – they won’t decide to travel there until they’ve considered these factors. And the best way to position your hotel in front of them is to deliver that destination information they’re craving by clearly integrating local to-dos into your website. A few suggestions:

  • Update Your Landing Page Make sure it focuses not just on your beautiful property, but your activity-rich destination and all you can still do here while keeping a safe social distance (i.e. outdoor activities, nearby hikes, outdoor dining experiences – Troutbeck in New York is a good example).
  • Destination-Dedicated Pages Build out an additional page (or pages) – linked in the top nav – that caters to regional travelers with insights about the status of local restaurants, tour operators, and hidden gems (i.e. Phoenix Park Hotel added a “Drive DC” page in its navigation bar, which is designed to showcase just how much there is to do in and around the DC area).
  • Blog Content Use your website’s blog content to regularly push out posts that naturally speak to attractions/to-dos that encourage social distancing (I.e. “X Location’s Best Outdoor Dining Experiences” or something akin to this post from Eat This, Not That).

Ready to Work Smarter, Not Harder? Request a Free Website Audit

Request Your Audit Now

Create Drive-Oriented Content or Campaigns

Since guests will clearly be driving, road trip–themed content from the nearest major cities demonstrate how close you are, shows off all the recently reopened stops and attractions en-route to your property, and inspires what to do once they are in your destination. Much like destination-focused content, this themed content can live on your website and your blog and even become part of a larger campaign. A couple of examples to inspire:

  • Road Trip-Themed Blog Post Series For our Opal Collection client, for whom we manage the blog, Opal Unpacked, we created a road-trip themed series, promoting different road trips that link together driving-distance attractions as well as the client’s various properties to post up at during the trip. Not only do the hotels’ own independent websites link to the story rooted to their respective destination, but we then pushed these pieces out in various email campaigns targeting former drive-market guests who have stayed at their various properties.
  • Road Trip-Themed Website Page Instead of living on a blog, Provenance Hotels’ “Last Ditch” road-trip series lives on a separate page they built on their collection’s website promotes various road-trips, as well as a road-trip-themed offer from featured hotels. They also promoted the content with a custom video that was shared across their various social media platforms.
  • Personalized Road Trip/Driving Directions Perhaps the easiest: You can create separate pages on your website, detailing directions to your destination or hotel from major surrounding cities or regions, but then weave in fun places for your guests to stop along the way. Want to make it feel really personalized to better engage different drive markets? You can make each set of directions/road-trip routes display solely to certain users depending on their location (called geotargeting, more on that in the final paragraph). And it can be as small as changing a paragraph or word to as big as an entirely different page.

Cater Specials & Packages to Locals

In the post 4 Essential Steps Hotels Should Take Now to Market Themselves in a Post-Pandemic World, we talked about how you shouldn’t be discounting your product too steeply. But there are other ways to add value by creating packages or specials that cater to regional guests. For example, perhaps a creative family package that, with the price of a typical two-night stay, comes with a branded backpack containing instructions or clues for an on-foot, outdoor scavenger hunt that reveals a true local’s look at the destination. Or maybe a girlfriends’ getaway package that includes a discount to the on-site spa. Or a wellness package, featuring daily use of your resort’s kayaks or bikes or free smoothies each morning.

Ramp up Your Geotargeting Efforts

The hope is that all the above efforts will reach your potential guests via a simple Google search or, if they’re already following or subscribed, via your social media or email marketing. But, if you really want to get in front of your ideal audience fast and effectively, the name of the game is geotargeting advertising.

Geotargeting through social media and other paid advertisements will allow you to advertise all of the above content, packages, or any other specific hotel messaging to your various drive markets – whether you want to serve it up on a silver platter to consumers within your state or neighboring states, a certain neighboring city or cities, or within a specified mile-radius of your hotel. Yes, this costs money, but by filtering your audience, it actually extends your advertising budget (as you’re spending less money on a smaller audience) and increases engagement (since you’re serving people the right content at the right time) – all of which contributes to an increased ROI.

RELATED READING

Account-Based Marketing 101

in General Marketing Insights, Knowledge Drop by Dan Seitz

Leads, leads, leads. For many of us, our primary marketing objective is to generate leads. It seems to be what unites marketers across so many different industries and verticals. We want more and more prospects to fill our company’s sales funnels. Not just leads, but qualified leads. More qualified leads means more revenue, right? Well, imagine if ALL your leads were qualified. Better yet, imagine that they weren’t just qualified but all worth the revenue of your top clients. Wouldn’t that be amazing?! Think about all the time you’d save by not creating proposals for clients that will never close or for clients who you just know aren’t a great fit. Think about all that revenue (aka moola) and all the sweet sweet cred you’ll get around the office for being the best!

This doesn’t have to be a fantasy! With Account-Based Marketing (ABM), this can be, and is, a reality. When marketing and sales combine their powers you can start to focus on your quality of leads, not just the quantity.

What is Account-Based Marketing?

Hubspot defines ABM as “a focused growth strategy in which Marketing and Sales collaborate to create personalized buying experiences for a mutually-identified set of high-value accounts.” So, basically, have sales and marketing work together to build ideal customer profiles (ICPs), so both can work together to help close those high-value leads or accounts.

Let’s say your company provides corporate event planning to major companies across multiple industries across the country. You’ve looked over your closed deals from the last year and have found that deals for companies in the financial industry have revenue that is twice(!) the size of leads from companies in the healthcare industry. So naturally you now understand that a lead from a finance company is much more valuable than from healthcare. If you know that the deal size is likely to be double, wouldn’t you treat that lead or account a little differently? Maybe give them the white glove treatment? That’s where ABM comes in.

Ready to Work Smarter, Not Harder? Request a Free Website Audit!

Request Your Audit Now

Marketing and Sales, Peanut Butter and Jelly

Before implementing an ABM strategy, we are often communicating to our audience by looking at them by industry: “How can our product/service solve the challenges of X industry?” with ABM, we drill down even further. Instead, we communicate directly to the accounts or companies within those industries. “How can our product/service solve the challenges of X company?” See the difference? Adjusting our focus on the company allows us to look at the specific traits that indicate whether they are a good fit for sales to pursue. These traits are known as firmographics, such as company size, annual revenue, number of offices, etc. Think demographics as people and firmographics as companies. Down the road you can get even fancier with intent data from third party software (aka, know if they are actively in the market for your services).

Marketing’s job will be to attract those accounts and then alert sales to when they have either engaged with the website or marketing content or have actually converted on the site. Sales’ job is then to provide a more personalized nurturing communication to ultimately close the business. Sales should have an arsenal of tools to use in that dialog, so having marketing collaborate to define that process will be the key to success.

Here’s another example for ya: You receive a notification that a contact has downloaded one of your awesome pieces of gated content featured on your site. The contact happens to work for a massive financial services conglomerate that you have flagged as a key account (hopefully in your CRM, you have one of those right!?) that matches your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile, again, firmographics). This will then trigger an automated email sequence (from your marketing automation platform, you have one of those right?! If not, check this out) that contains content specifically geared to contacts in that organization about how your product/service will solve all their challenges. This can also initiate your sales team to reach out on a personal level. Now that your team is armed with knowing the contact’s interest (and contact info) based on the content they have consumed, sales can have more meaningful and valuable conversations with the prospect.

Benefits of Account-Based Marketing

Other than the obvious (REVENUE BABY!)… let me breakdown three major benefits.

Focused Sales Efforts – No longer will sales have to spin their wheels with conversations going nowhere or with no payoff. Give sales the focus and direction they need to only be having fruitful conversations with high-value accounts.
Sales and Marketing Collaboration – ABM will force these two to be best pals. Marketing will need sales to help inform who those high-value accounts are and sales will need marketing to come up with compelling materials that are specific to those accounts’ needs. When these two teams are working together on a shared goal, magic can happen (like peanut butter and jelly).
Building Your Ideal Portfolio – If you can continue to sell to your ideal customer profiles (ICPs) in mind, then you’ll continue to close accounts that match your ICPs. This means you’ll have more of the clients you want, and less of the clients that have to take. In my experience, this usually results in happy employees! Teams working on fulfilling projects resulting in fulfilling revenue.

If you’ve ever asked yourself the questions from earlier in the post, then ABM is the right next step for you. Implementing can take all different shapes and forms, but it’s all about knowing your audience. By creating a customized experience that is geared towards your high-value accounts, you can see an increase in quality of leads and the revenue that goes along with it.

Dan Seitz is the Director of Strategy at Hawthorn Creative and has helped execute marketing strategies for clients from all over the hospitality industry. He believes it was Professor Plum in the ballroom with the candlestick.

Vetting Social Media Influencers: Q&A with The League Collective

in Brand Strategy, Content Marketing, Destination Marketing Organizations, Hotels & Resorts, Marketing Topics, Markets, Photography & Video, Print Marketing, Social Media Marketing by Catherine Shane

S

ocial media influencers are nothing new. But here’s something that is: Social media usage is way way up – by approximately 30%, given the impact of Coronavirus.

If you’re a hotel or travel brand, you’ve likely explored partnering with influencers to help raise brand awareness in the past. But now, it seems as though the time is especially ripe for these kinds of campaigns – yes, because of the stat above, but also because influencers can serve as an extension of your marketing team. And that’s something you might need more than ever right now if you’ve had to cut your marketing budget or your in-house marketing staff on account of this pandemic.

Still, that doesn’t mean you should sign on with just anyone who claims they are an influencer (and it seems like everyone is an influencer these days). “The first thing a hotel needs to do is ask themselves, ‘what do I want to get out of this partnership?’” says Zach Brose, one-half of The League Collective, a lifestyle brand that he curates with his wife, Tara, out of LA, California. “Do they simply want to raise their follower count? Or do they want great storytelling content and imagery? Is it a combination of both, or something entirely different? Once they nail down their marketing goals, only then should a hotel start evaluating influencers.”

It’s something Zach and Tara know plenty about as they have partnered with hundreds of hotels and resorts (54 hotels in 2019 alone!) in more than 47 different countries since starting The League Collective in 2016, including everything from boutique hotels in Paris to global collections like Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. They also partnered with us here at Hawthorn Creative for a custom shoot for one of our long-time clients, Opal Collection (see the entire case study here) in 2019. Which is why we’ve tapped the duo to give us the lowdown on the types of questions to ask and aspects to be aware of in order to best vet an influencer partnership.

Say a hotel/travel brand is approached by an influencer promising all these followers if put up for a two-night stay, all expenses paid. What should a hotel do to determine if this is worth their time?

Zach: Well, first, that all depends on if that (more followers) is even what the hotel wants. But, in this case, let’s say it is. The first thing I would do is simply look at the influencer’s social media accounts, blog, and website, and assess their brand from the content they are putting forth: Are they on-brand with your brand, therefore going to be able to even speak to the kind of guests you target?

Tara: They should also be able to answer questions related to their social media insights – i.e. “Can you give me your number of impressions on any single day?” If they have those sorts of stats or examples of ROI from other clients readily available, that’s always a good sign – you know they are more professional. You can also look to platforms like AspireIQ, Social Bluebook, Social Blade, which will show things like an influencer’s follower rate over time. If you see things like that they grew by 10,000 followers in one day that might indicate that they bought followers. And that’s not worth it: Even if all those followers are real people, chances are they are not engaging with the influencer’s content and that’s not going to help get your brand in front of anyone.

Zach: Definitely. Be sure to check out the likes, shares, and kinds of comments on their content. In my opinion, this is all way more important than their follower number because it shows that people are engaging with their content.

So as an influencer, is that – an increase in a certain number of followers – something you can even promise at the outset of a partnership?

Zach: Tara and I will share information like that based on past projects with clients, but it’s really not what we, personally as a brand, like to put the emphasis on. What we view as our number-one priority for our clients is creating high-quality content and telling a story about the hotel/destination experience. We’re the last people to say we’re “influencers” – to us, we’re content creators and that’s the value you’re going to get.

Tara: Yeah, you can get a beautiful girl in a bikini to post a shot of her at your property, but is it really focusing on your property experience or more on her? And it may get a lot of likes or comments – which is good – but again, who are the people liking the shot and what are they saying…are they who you are trying to target?

Why is capturing content that tells a story so important to you and something hotels should value?

Zach: Because that is precisely the stuff that is going to engage, resonate, and be remembered by a client’s target audience. We’re in the age of the experience economy – people want to spend their money on experiences over material items, so the key is showing them the kinds of amazing experiences they can have if they choose to stay with you. Not to mention, people tend to trust other real people (even if they are clearly sponsored) more than they trust the business that is clearly selling something.

Tara: Yeah, we think it’s smart marketing to capture the destination experience, too – so the culture and traditions, local cuisine, landmarks, and locals. You can’t expect guests to stay on your property the entire time, so providing insight into the destination will help make your resort stand out.

Opal Magazine
We teamed up with a travel social media influencer couple, The League Collective, to produce lifestyle images for the cover and an interior road-trip itinerary feature for the 2020 issue of Opal Magazine.

Are there ways for a brand to determine that an influencer is capable of delivering them great experiential content before embarking on a partnership with them?

Tara: It comes down to research (which you should already be doing anyway to make sure their brand is in line with yours). So that means following them for a bit – not just their feed but watching their stories for a little while. If the person is just posting a lot of pictures of themselves and not of the hotel or destination, that’s probably not what you want from them in terms of content.

Zach: Also pay attention to their level of seriousness. Does it seem more like a fun thing they do on the weekend? Or have they invested more time in honing their skill – i.e., asking you pointed questions about the kind of content you want, have invested in photo gear, etc. Sure an influencer can get a great shot on their iPhone that will get likes, but most worth their salt will actually have professional cameras and some photography knowledge (even if it’s self-taught, like me). For example, we have a drone and that allows us to get great aerial shots and our clients really love that.

You talk a lot about setting up expectations with clients. What kind of things should brands know to make sure they are getting exactly what they want from an influencer?

Zach: For one, determine the mode of payment for the influencer: Is it a paid project versus a free stay (what we call an “exchange/collaboration”)? When there is some sort of additional monetary budget involved (beyond a stay), that usually tells us the client is very serious about getting specific content, so we make sure to have conversations around that. If it’s simply a “we will put you up for a night as long as you post about us” exchange/collaboration, normally they’re just looking for some exposure – and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Tara: We also like to ask them to send us other content produced for them that they liked or other comparable content that was produced for a like brand – it helps give us a sense of what they want us to capture, the mood, the vibe, and so on.

Zach: And if it’s a paid project, we definitely like to create a shot list – basically an outline of the shots they want, where, what time, with certain props (like a picnic on the beach), and our style of outfits. That way, we know that we are all on the same page to deliver them exactly what they want.

Let’s talk budget. Can you give some cost/trade examples and what hotels can expect to get?

Zach: It won’t be the same for all influencers, but for us, our general rule of thumb is you want to do a simple exchange/collaboration, you can expect one post from us per each night of stay – that’s our baseline. If you’re offering other amenities beyond that, say meals, spa, etc., then more content and exposure would come from that – it’s just a matter of talking it out about how much. If you’re looking to get more than just exposure, but content from us that you then have rights to and can push out on your own social media feeds or on your website, then we would expect additional payment. Because, at that point, you’re not just leveraging the power of an influencer, but looking for a professional shoot.

Going back to content that tells a story, is there something hotels can do to help make sure the influencer can get accomplish that?

Zach: I think one of the best things a hotel can do is give a heads up to all the staff that an influencer is going to be on-site to shoot. In the past, we’ve been out shooting and a pool manager will stop us and say something along the lines of “you can’t shoot here,” when we’re just trying to get the best content we can for the client. Ideally, we even just have the marketing contact’s direct phone number, so we can just text them if we have an idea – like flying the drone over the pool for five minutes – and they can get us the permissions we need. When we have more freedom, it allows us to get our clients the best imagery possible.

Tara: Yeah, and I’d say for bigger paid projects or campaigns, having someone on hand to help facilitate our shoot is great – whether that’s the marketing manager or just another random staff member to help set things up, grab resort props for a particular shot, share shot ideas. Of course, it’s not a must, but it allows us to do our job more efficiently so that we can get the right kind of content for the client and loads of it.

Zach and Tara Brose of The League Collective

About Zach & Tara Brose of The League Collective, @leaguetravels

The first iteration of The League Collective was born in 2016 as a simple Instagram account that shared the travel experiences and insights from husband-and-wife team, Tara and Zach Brose. At first, both continued to hold down day jobs (Zach as a graphic designer and Tara as a model), but, as their passion for travel grew, they decided to go full-time with their travel brand in 2017. Today, as an ideal marriage of their creative backgrounds and sense of wanderlust, The League Collective has evolved into a lifestyle brand for all things travel, fashion, and design.

RELATED READING

Looking for more inspiration and information on how to achieve hotel marketing that stands out from the crowd? Be sure to check out:

Blog Content Ideas – that Couples Will Actually Value – to Push Micro Weddings at Your Venue

in Content Marketing, Event Venues, Marketing Topics by Catherine Shane

Small, intimate weddings are nothing new. And, for wedding venues, we know they may not be your biggest revenue-generators as compared to the big wedding bashes that had come to dominate the industry in a pre-COVID world. But, unfortunately, in a COVID world, the former wedding rules – large venues, long guest lists, and packed dance floors – no longer apply. We’re not saying it won’t ever get back to normal. It will – you’ll start to see that once a vaccine comes out. But, because people have become more cautious, careful, and critical now (and will be for the foreseeable future), it may be some time before all couples and their guests feel completely comfortable gathering in a big group.

So why not show how a small intimate celebration – or what has now been coined “a micro wedding” – at your venue can deliver them that much-needed peace of mind, while still being an awesome bash? In fact, as couples are now finding themselves trying to reimagine quintessential wedding elements as they plan (or re-plan) to meet social-distancing regulations, it can actually serve as a ripe content marketing opportunity to make your venue to stand out. The place to do that: your blog content. Because not only does this kind of content show potential couples how a micro or socially-distant wedding can beautifully be done, but be beautifully done at your specific venue, encouraging conversion. Not sure what to post? Here are four examples of catered content and how to market a micro wedding to couples who are shopping.

Blog Post Idea #1: “X Major Benefits of Hosting a Micro Wedding That Couples Don’t Realize at First”

If you’re looking to book more micro weddings, this is an obvious topic to tackle – not to mention, it capitalizes on some “fear of missing out” with the use of “That No One Realizes” (other options: “That No One Talks About,” “That the Wedding Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know About”).

Some of the benefits to touch on in this post:

  • Saving Money or Making a Splash It’s a no-brainer way for couples to cut costs or – on the flipside – allow them to really spoil or luxuriate their smaller group of guests.
  • Breaking from Tradition to Make it Really Unique/Custom Smaller weddings naturally seem to encourage less traditional expectations (read: fewer family members/friends breathing down a couples’ necks with input), meaning couples can get more creative.
  • More Quality Time Couples get to spend more time with loved ones, rather than trying to touch base with everyone during a larger gathering.

Even better, fold in what makes a micro wedding so special at your venue. For example, perhaps you’ve got a variety of open and airy ceremony spaces ideal for social distancing or have created a handful of elopement or micro wedding packages – the ability for a couple to envision what they could do at your property is a major selling point for them, and a big win for you.

Is Your Website Effectively Capturing Your Unique Venue Experience?

Request Your Free Audit Now

Blog Post Idea #2:“Tips & Tricks for Choosing Your Guest List for Your Micro Wedding”

No matter what size wedding a couple is having, whittling down the guest list can cause headaches. In the case of a micro wedding, that typically means a guest list of 50 people or less, which often has couples biting their nails over who makes the cut or not.

Some natural tips and tricks to touch on in this post:

  • Start With the A-Listers Suggest not to divvy your families and friends into a first string, second string, third string – think only first string, nothing beyond that. A good rule of thumb: If they’re not on your holiday card list, don’t feel guilty about not inviting them.
  • Set Boundaries Early Particularly with parents about how this is going to be a small wedding (in the age of COVID, they should understand). If couples have narrowed down their A-Listers and have leftover spots (even if just a couple), divide by two and give each set of parents that predetermined number of invitations available to them.
  • Be Judicious with Plus Ones Because the most important thing is having the couples’ loved ones there.
  • Note that It’s a “Micro Wedding” on the Invites Which can help prevent some misunderstandings if some guests start comparing notes about whether they were invited or not.

Blog Post Idea #3: “X Creative Ways to Throw a Safe, Socially-Distanced Wedding Ceremony”

With regulations requiring couples to avoid face-to-face seating, use protective screens and face coverings, and limited access to non-essential social spaces, it can feel a bit overwhelming to throw an event that feels, well, normal and beautiful. The key is showing potential couples that it can be done.

Some ideas to touch on in this post:

  • Make Masks Their Own Instead of buying the wedding party matching robes or socks, suggest having custom masks made to match. As for wedding guests, masks and personalized hand-sanitizer can actually double as wedding favors, especially with a personal touch like embroidery of the couples’ initials.
  • Outdoor, Open-Air Ceremony & Reception Spaces That Wow The name of the game is having enough room to disperse the crowd, so, as a venue, you can actually showcase your best spaces for that, plus the seating arrangements that naturally work in each space (see next post example).
  • Create A Virtual Guestbook To limit the sharing of pens or photo-booth props, WedShoots is just one example of an app that allows couples to build a collective wedding album online, where guests submit photos and express their well-wishes in the comments. Eventually, couples can print out a photo guestbook for a physical keepsake.
  • Satellite Entertainment Stations to Steal the Show Satellite dance floors and bars provide more than one space for guests to bust a move or refresh their beverage. Sure, it’s a health and safety precaution, but also a great way to get guests to explore different entertainment experiences throughout the party.

Blog Post Idea #4: “Our Favorite Socially Distanced Wedding Ceremony Seating Ideas & Arrangements.”

So if guests shouldn’t (or don’t feel comfortable enough to) sit side-by-side, how will the actual ceremony go down? Again, this is a great post to showcase the unique and versatile seating arrangements your spaces can accommodate.

Some examples to touch on in this post:

  • Wedding in the Round Place chairs, stumps, or benches in a circle or spiral configuration with ample space between or in spaced-out clusters (so that families who are comfortable with each other can opt to sit together).
  • Standing Room Mostly Provide spaced-apart seating up front for guests who need to sit (think elderly), then ask your guests to stand (especially since the ceremony will be shorter than usual), allowing them to determine how close they want to stand next to each other.
  • Lounge-Style Seating Opt for an eclectic arrangement of sofas, love seats, single sofa chairs, ottomans, and more to let guests decide where they want to sit, with who, and how many people – plus, it makes for great photos with a really fun vibe.

Other Micro Wedding Ideas & Examples to Chew On

  • Our Wedding Designer’s 5 Favorite Details for Small Weddings Have your on-site expert share some top insights.
  • Our Top Socially-Distant Wedding Spaces on Property Profile your best spaces and what they’re capable of.
  • How This Couple (Or These Couples) Pushed the Envelope for their Micro Wedding Share inspiration from a couple (or several) about some of the coolest inspiration/features from their micro wedding, held at your venue

So are you ready to get to writing? We are. But seriously, if the act of content marketing feels a bit intimidating or too time-consuming, our on-staff wordsmiths and content experts are happy to assist – just drop us a line. Because valuable, insightful digital content doesn’t just help reach couples who are doing their research, it positions your venue as the place to deliver on their dreams.

RELATED READING

The Art of Marketing a Socially-Distant or Micro Wedding at Your Venue

in Content Marketing, Event Venues, Marketing Topics, Photography & Video, Search Marketing, Websites by Catherine Shane

Just because the world shut down this past spring, doesn’t mean that couples – who had to forego their originally planned wedding events – still didn’t get married. Sure, most couples (roughly 93% worldwide according to TheKnot, actually) rescheduled their celebrations to later this year or into 2021. But only a minuscule 7% actually canceled their weddings altogether, meaning that the remaining balance honored their original wedding date – either by seriously scaling back their guest list to comply with social distancing rules as certain states allowed, opting for a quick-hitch courthouse marriage, or doing what is now being referred to as “a virtual wedding,” where couples host an intimate ceremony from home that invites friends and family to tune via a video platform.

The takeaway? Whatever this pandemic throws at us, one thing is for sure: Couples will still find ways to get married. So in order to make sure your venue capitalizes on “love always finding a way” and not lose business to a courthouse or virtual marriage, it’s critical that, right now, you are best showcasing how your venue, vendors, and featured amenities have adapted to what desirable weddings will look like amid coronavirus – namely, the micro wedding. And we have just the steps.

Update Your Website to Speak to the New Normal

Tweaking your website may seem obvious, but it can’t be understated. Not just to stress how your venue is addressing concerns for hygiene and cleanliness, something that people will expect to see for some time across all industries – whether weddings and events, hotel and travel, restaurants and craft beverage creators, and more – but to also show how your venue can easily cater to this new standard. For example, update or add in pages that show layouts, food distribution details, seating arrangements, so potential couples can get a sense of how their wedding can be hosted – effectively and safely.

And perhaps most importantly: Rethink imagery. Prior to the pandemic, it was natural to show off big celebrations with hordes of people – it wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows. And because imagery is so important – especially to the Millennial generation (see our other post “How to Design a Wedding Venue Website that Speaks to (and Converts) Millennials”) – it’s essential to have the right selection. Opt for images showing detail shots of happy couples, fewer people, and your spacious settings. Avoid showing crowds; even if it’s a great shot that captures an utmost level of joy and excitement, images like this are too much of a turn off right now.

Make Video a Marketing Must-Have

Video, when done well, has certainly proven itself as a powerful marketing tool in any industry. But especially as social distancing has recently dominated our lives, it’s become a critical way for couples to vet a potential venue from afar. So, if you’ve never been able to find a good enough reason to finally take the plunge and invest in video marketing, now is the time. It allows you to emotionally engage with couples using images, music, and storytelling while showcasing how an intimate wedding at your property can become the wedding of their dreams. In fact, according to the folks at Google, as of 2019, 55% of consumers use online videos to make purchase decisions.

SOLUTIONS

Take Your Prospects from Browsing to Buying

Break through the noise in a crowded digital landscape

See How We Can Help

Use Your Blog to Inspire Creative Approaches for Hosting a Smaller Wedding

Your blog has always been a way to show that you know weddings and that you know the latest trends. And by offering valuable pieces of wedding-resource and -related content, it doesn’t just help potential couples find your website during internet research, but positions you as a resource they need and, therefore, their ideal wedding venue.

None of this has changed in the face of the pandemic. Because guidelines are forcing couples to reimagine quintessential wedding elements – such as cocktail hour and entertainment  – as they plan (or re-plan) to meet social-distancing regulations, your blog is a key place to give them that much-needed info. And, in the process, it shows potential couples (or those who’ve had to reschedule their wedding dates) how a micro wedding or socially-distant wedding can beautifully be done at your specific venue, encouraging conversion. A few examples of content ideas that cater to this: “How to Choose Your Guest List for a Micro Wedding,” “5 Creative Ways to Throw a Safe, Socially-Distanced Wedding Ceremony,” and “Our Favorite Socially Distanced Wedding Ceremony Seating Ideas & Arrangements.”

Leverage Real-Life Socially-Distant or Micro Wedding Examples

It’s no secret that personal testimonials from previous client couples, as well as “real wedding” stories, help capture and present weddings at your venue as once-in-a-lifetime experiences. This is still the case, so once you do host a handful of weddings that cater to this new normal, be sure to leverage them. Reach out to past couples and ask to use their wedding story and imagery to create a section on your website (or a series on your blog) that depicts real examples of socially-distant weddings held at your venue.

Take, for example, one of our clients, The Vine, for whom we did branding work and a refreshed website design. Located about halfway down this venue’s website landing page, a collection of image tiles depict real couples who held their wedding at this premier wedding property near Austin and Houston, Texas. Based on the style of wedding that strikes someone’s fancy – boho chic, Southern elegance, or classic glamour, to name a few – users can click on the couple (i.e. “Kaitlyn & Michael”) and be taken to a page that tells the experience of their wedding in copy, testimonials, and imagery.

Roll Out/Promote Special Packages, Offerings & Vendors

You may already have special packages built around elopements or intimate affairs, so don’t be afraid to push them – they are what couples are looking for at the moment. Or perhaps, consider refining the package to have added value to make it more attractive – free champagne toast, use of a private suite not typically included in the package, etc. The name of the game is to find ways to offer little added elements of service, rather than steeply discounting your packages and amenities.

You can also get your preferred vendor partners in on the action, too, especially if they too have had to morph their services to meet with the times. For example, you might promote some of your favorite interactive entertainment providers, such as drone deliveries, which can hover around the event space to drop off desserts or small goodies to guests (and always a fun element to watch). Or maybe there’s a local mask-maker who can work with the couple to create custom masks for their special day. Or even a transportation service with a fleet of small cars, ideal for transporting guests in their seating “bubbles.” If a preferred vendor can do it and make it special, don’t hesitate to show it off.

RELATED READING

Key Steps Hotels Should Take Now to Market Themselves in a Post-Pandemic World

in Brand Strategy, Content Marketing, Hotels & Resorts, Photography & Video, Websites by Catherine Shane

Owed to a consumer environment that approaches everything with more caution than ever, it might feel a bit like the Wild West in the world of hotel marketing right now. What kind of content should you be developing? What kind of tone should your content take? How often should you be sending email campaigns to push that content out? While we tackle those specific questions in these previous posts – Blog Post Ideas for Hotels & Travel Brands in Our “New Normal” and Hotel Email Marketing Strategy in Today’s Travel Climate – there are basic essential steps hotels should take asap as the industry as a whole heals from the effects of COVID-19. After all, while your audience may be smaller than usual, there is still an audience out there that is eager to engage with your brand; the key is to make sure you are connecting with them in a way that addresses the current climate.  So how do you do that? It all starts with these essential hotel marketing strategies.

Update Your Property Website to Ease Their Concerns

This may seem like a no brainer, but it can’t be understated. Because right now – and probably for the foreseeable future – travelers will have higher concerns for hygiene and cleanliness. This means you need to clearly stress the steps your hotel is taking to address those concerns on your website and other digital platforms (social media, email campaigns, etc.). One of the most common ways hotels (and other businesses alike) are doing that is by dedicating a page on their site to COVID-19 property precautions and updates, including outlining the protocols they are following (and expect guests to follow, too) like hand-sanitizer stations at certain guest touchpoints, signage throughout public spaces on social distancing requirements, and what the arrival experience will be like (temperature check, touchless check-in, etc.).

Some additional food for thought: Team up with hygiene and health groups. For example, Four Seasons is currently collaborating with John Hopkins Medicine International for its Lead with Care campaign, which very visually promotes efforts like the stationing of a hygiene officer on each property, hourly cleaning of public areas, blacklight room inspections, etc. Because implementing creative measures such as these give your guests some post-lockdown peace-of-mind, which will ultimately be critical to your bottom line.

Lastly, you should evaluate your website’s imagery. A few months ago, images of a busy hotel bar or bumping pool scene wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows – in fact, they were desirable, showing that this is the place that everyone wants to be, so why aren’t you here, too? Now, as the very scenes the public is trying to avoid, these images can quickly be a turnoff, so be sure to update your website imagery to show your spacious property, relaxing amenities, and socially-distant experiences. Maybe even consider doing a new shoot or invest in video marketing to give guests a sense of just how great your property is in a time when people want to relax in privacy.

Is Your Website Effectively Capturing Your Unique Brand Experience?

Request Your Free Audit Now

Create Content that Speaks to Your Drive Market

It’s likely that those who will be visiting your property over the next several months will be your drive-market folks – travelers who crave a getaway, but will want to stay closer to home and maybe have less to spend or are trying to budget accordingly. So, as you start to weave in more travel-related content back into your blog or on your website to encourage booking, cater it to best speak to them. For example, road trip–themed stories from the nearest major cities are a great way to demonstrate how close you are, show off all the recently reopened stops and attractions en-route to your property, and inspire what to do once they are in your destination.

Other story ideas might revolve around under-the-radar attractions or businesses to check out in the destination (for example, “10 Destination To-Dos that Even Locals Don’t Know About”), as drive-market visitors may have visited your destination before and been to all the obvious touristy to-dos – just make sure they are actually open. Another idea is highlighting the destination’s top attractions/to-dos that naturally encourage social distancing (like local botanical gardens, outdoor fire pits on-property, or rolling expanses of nature preserves). Think of this as a way to show them why they should come back – and why now is the time.

Don’t Discount Your Product; Think Value Add-Ons

While we all love a great deal, if you are repetitively marketing discounted hotel stays or other deals, it can come off as desperate…not to mention, consumers are thinking twice now about whether or not they want to purchase something, regardless of how steep the discount. Rather, find ways to add little elements of service that won’t have a big impact on your bottom line. For example, free breakfast with a two-night stay, champagne at arrival, or complimentary fitness or yoga session.

It’s also likely that guests will want to spend time with their families and friends, many of whom they’ve been forced to isolate away from throughout this crisis. Consider implementing packages that encourage and reward multi-generational travel, girlfriends’ getaways, etc. Or “de-stressing” programming on-site: yoga sessions, live music in the hotel lobby, meditative treatments, pasta-making classes with the on-site chef, etc.

Sell Your Destination First & Foremost

One thing that will continue to be at the forefront of a consumer’s hotel selection: the destination itself. Even before the pandemic, prospective hotel guests first look – and definitely spend more time studying – a particular destination before they even start to think about where they’re going to stay (see our post 5 Experiential Marketing Examples That Hotels Use to Hook Guests). Now, more than ever, guests who are looking to venture out again are going to be heavily evaluating what’s going on in the destination – what’s open, what’s not, natural social-distancing activities they can do, etc. So the key is to directly demonstrate why your destination is special and the right choice for them right now. While your blog content or activities page is a place to do that, you can also potentially partner with other local businesses – all of whom will also be looking to dig out – to create videos, content, and offers to help attract travelers to your destination.

RELATED READING

The Top 5 Benefits of Marketing Automation

in General Marketing Insights, Knowledge Drop by Dan Seitz

As our marketing succeeds, our businesses grow – and when your business grows, your marketing and organization will become more and more complex. While complex may mean complicated, it shouldn’t have to mean difficult. With any growing business, there comes the inevitable growth of moving parts to navigate through, and also where the risk of waste, inefficiencies, and human error rises. We can’t help ourselves. No matter how organized a business may be, we are still human, and there will undoubtedly be times where things can start to fall through the cracks. But instead of correcting this with more time or more people, let’s look at how technology can solve our challenges.

Cue The Terminator music, because robots are about to rule your world…..

Marketing Automation

Okay, so we don’t have to worry about any Arnie-beef castle-murder-robots, but technology will, and pretty much already does, rule the world. It’s in almost all the things we do and love, making our lives better and, most importantly, making them easier. This is exactly what we want out of marketing automation.

A marketing automation platform helps marketers, like us, by doing tasks for us. Tasks that would take a human a great deal of time and effort. Common tasks, like capturing contact information and sending emails, can all be simplified and automated. These automated actions can be as complex and customized as needed to fit your exact needs and scale with us as we grow. By leveraging a platform, such as Hubspot or SharpSpring (my two favorites), will make our lives much easier.

Here are 5 examples of how you’ll benefit from marketing automation:

Organization

Organization is key to any successful…organization. This may seem straightforward, but I cannot stress enough how impactful a marketing automation platform can be on your day-to-day. Imagine a rusty old filing cabinet down in your basement that’s been overflowing for years. We all have one. Your wife has been begging for you to sort ever since you couldn’t find the paperwork for your adopted dog named Ozzy (that example got oddly specific). Combing through all those files, who knows how old they are, sounds like a straight-up nightmare… but what if you had something managing that for you? Every important document, all perfectly organized the way you like? Now that’s the straight-up dream.

This is how a marketing automation platform with a built-in CRM works. Every customer contact, past and present, organized with detailed information. You can even remove contacts who are no longer of value or identify the contacts who are likely to buy, so sales can find them in a few clicks and focus their efforts. As our organizations continue to grow, this CRM technology will be able to grow with you and help you grow quickly.

Ready to Work Smarter, Not Harder? Request a Free Website Audit!

Request Your Audit Now

More Time

Time. If you’re like me, you love time! Less time doing repetitive busywork, more time doing rewarding engaging work. Marketing automation allows us to spend more time doing what matters, like closing business and fulfilling great customer experiences. What’s so great about technology is that it’s advancing so quickly. What would take a full team to accomplish in a day, now only takes minutes with a few clicks of a button. Just think of all the other things you could do with that time!

Efficiency

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Woody and Buzz, Thelma and Louise, Time and Efficiency. Talk about iconic duos! Time and efficiency go hand in hand. Both have a direct impact on each other. If we can be more efficient with our processes, we have more time to achieve other initiatives. Marketing automation isn’t just doing things for us, it’s doing this quickly and effectively! How much more efficient is it to use three different tools to do one job compared to having to manually send an identical email to 900 different email addresses? Very! A good automation platform should be a swiss army knife or a tool belt. Everything you need in one spot for anything you need.

More Savings

It’s obvious, we already covered saving time, but time is money! Maybe I should have led with the money bit? Marketing automation allows us to save money. No more allocating unnecessary money, budget, staff for these now automated tasks, the automation will have you covered. And better yet, you can start to re-allocating those resources to other impactful needs, such as web development, content marketing, social media campaigns, a foosball table, the possibilities are endless! If I’ve learned anything about marketing automation, it would be why to do more with more when you can do more with less.

Reporting and Success

Combine all the previous benefits and add an extra layer on top, tracking and performance. Any great marketing automation system is going to have tracking and reporting metrics. So what does this mean? This means you can take the guesswork out of your efforts and see clear results. How engaging are your emails? How engaged are your contacts? How effective are your contact forms? And if you go with one of our favorite platforms, like SharpSpring or Hubspot, you’ll be able to tell how much revenue you are generating through your marketing efforts. These are all questions that can inform strategic decisions, which can result in monumental positive changes in your strategy, and ultimately, will then result in better organization, time savings, efficiency, and budget savings.

So, if you haven’t yet, or are considering upping your marketing by integrating a streamlined automation tool, then now is the time to do it. Every minute you spend on a task could be a minute saved, and every dollar you spend could have been better spent.

Dan Seitz is the Director of Strategy at Hawthorn Creative and has helped execute marketing strategies for clients from all over the hospitality industry. This blog post was automated, Dan is actually a fully automated writing robot fueled by human brains.  

Medical Aesthetic Suppliers: The Best Content to Nurture More B2B In-Bound Leads

in Content Marketing, Medical Aesthetic Spas, Practices & Suppliers by Catherine Shane

There’s a widely held belief that B2B buyers are less likely to engage digitally in their research process than the average B2C buyer. So let’s end this debate once and for all by looking at a few quick stats mined from DemandGen’s 2019 Content Preferences Study regarding today’s B2B buyer:

  • 68% prefer to research independently online and they conduct 12 searches prior to engaging on a specific company’s site.
  • Most are already 57% of the way through the buying process before ever reaching out to a representative (meaning they are researching longer than ever).
  • 62% say they can make a purchase selection based solely on digital content.

In a nutshell, B2B buyers are now looking for much of the same digital experience they would encounter during the B2C sales cycle. But what’s different is the kind of content they’re valuing to inform their decision-making process. So – as a medical aesthetic supplier – is the type of content you’re cranking out (or hopefully cranking out) actually synced with the latest research and buying patterns of the practices you’re targeting? Below we outline a few of the latest findings regarding this pattern – with the stats to back it up – and how you can lean into it within your business’s own content strategy.

Educate & Inform, Rather than Sell

This is not new advice in the B2C world, but, according to that DemandGen study, it’s a big one right now with B2B buyers. In fact, their report showed that 96% of B2B respondents said “vendors could improve the quality of content by curbing the sales messages.” It’s not that you can’t be doing hard or direct sell around your device or product at all anymore – you can go the traditional route of advertising to do that. It just definitely shouldn’t be the main message behind your in-bound marketing content strategy.

How Medical Aesthetic Suppliers Can Put into Practice

  • You shouldn’t conceal your services or what you’re selling, just don’t be shouting it from the rooftops. Rather, study your audience and ask yourself: What are the biggest challenges they are facing? Given that we here at Hawthorn Creative work with a variety of medical aesthetic practices and med-spas, we know the two biggest challenges they – your prospective clients – face are: (1) fierce competition (there are dozen of like companies all around them) and (2) having to stay on top of ever-evolving industry trends and new technologies. Then craft your content plan to inform them on how to battle these challenges. They’ll begin to see you not just as a brand that’s trying to sell them more of your product, but a partner who they can trust to help them rise above the competition.

SOLUTION

Take Your Content Strategy into the Stratosphere

Content marketing is the engine powering all of your digital channels – without it, you’re going nowhere

Create Content That Compels Action

Present Content in Other Formats (Beyond Just the Blog Post)

Yes, you should be posting on your blog regularly, especially as your various blog posts make up the core points of entry through search engines after your homepage. But, according to another DemandGen’s report, most B2B buyers actually rely heavily on white papers (82%), webinars (78%), and case studies (73%) to make purchasing decisions. Close behind are e-books (67%), infographics (66%), followed by blog posts (66%).

How Medical Aesthetic Suppliers Can Put into Practice

  • Simply put, you’ll need to give the people what they want. If the idea of creating this kind of content is daunting, there are marketing firms, like Hawthorn Creative, out there to assist you. Not to mention, once this content is created, we can help broaden the reach of it, not just on your website but with online ads, email marketing, and social media.

Be Focused and Fresh

How many “how to set up your best home office” articles did you see when the recent pandemic caused a lockdown and the shift to remote working? Probably too many. That’s because a lot of content out there, in general, is a regurgitation of stuff other people have said so many times. So while it’s important to have plenty of content to drive more inbound leads to your business, the quality and actual serviceable value behind that content is what’s going to make them stay there…or cross your brand off their resources list.

How Medical Aesthetic Suppliers Can Put into Practice

  • Again, this is where knowing your audience and the challenges they face is key. So once you do the digging to understand and uncover those issues, try to pick up on little nuances of these challenges that no one or few have written about (do some of your own Googling to see how many similar content examples are generated). Again, this is where leaning on a content strategist to do the research and develop the appropriate content angles will come in handy.

Read Credible & Trustworthy

Notice all the stats in this post? We don’t want to come off as some random blog post, but an authority who does their research and, yup, knows their audience. You should too. Because, according to that DemandGen Content Preferences Survey Report, 66% of the surveyed buyers’ top recommendation to improve vendor content was to infuse it with more data and research. It doesn’t just help you make your case to potential practices, but they actually want that data and stats to then make their case to their peers or those in charge of the budget.

How Medical Aesthetic Suppliers Can Put into Practice

CASE STUDY

AW Plastic Surgery

Translating this practice’s five-star, in-person care experience into their digital presence.

See the Journey

Use Prescriptive and Predictive Headlines

Despite all this talk about novel and fresh content, when it comes to your content headlines, B2B buyers actually prefer them to start with common phrases. According to a study done by BuzzSumo, a platform that scans billions of articles and social posts to harvest meaningful insights, the headlines that resonate with B2B audiences most start with “How to…,” “The X…,” and “X Things” or “X Ways.”

How Medical Aesthetic Suppliers Can Put into Practice

  • Simply put, experiment with these types of headlines in your various pieces of content (plus some of the others you see in that list), then study how they are received: Does your audience better engage with content that falls under a type of headline on your blog, in your LinkedIn posts, in your email strategy, etc.? Of course, don’t overdo it with just one style, but determine the several types that perform best.

Gate Less of Your Content

Gated content – or putting a valuable piece of content behind a registration form – is a staple of B2B marketing strategy when it comes to generating leads and nurturing them into prospects. However, according to that DemandGen report, 71% of B2B buyers want content that’s easier to access.

How Medical Aesthetic Suppliers Can Put into Practice

  • We’re not saying stop all gated content. Just don’t go overboard with gating too much. Because, in that same report, 95% of buyers claim that they’re willing to provide their name, company, and email address in exchange for valuable content, while only a fourth of buyers indicated that they’re willing to provide their phone number. So don’t make your forms long and tiring tasks that ask too much of a prospect (especially as people are more protective of the info they give out, anyway). Similarly, you should have a subscribe form on your blog template. If a practice is interacting with your content enough, they be all too happy too to submit their email contact.

Does all the above sound great, but you’re not sure how to put it into action (nor have the time)?

Our team of designers, writers, and strategists are at your digital disposal. Just drop us a line any time.

RELATED READING

5 Reasons To Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

in Destination Marketing Organizations, Event Venues, General Marketing Insights, Hotels & Resorts, Knowledge Drop, Medical Aesthetic Spas, Practices & Suppliers, Real Estate Management Companies, Wineries by Dan Seitz

Is Google My Business (GMB) overlooked? Is it underutilized? Hell, is GMB under-appreciated?! It just might be, which is why I’m here to tell you all about it. Sure, when we talk search engines we talk about SEO, we talk about SEM, but where’s the love for Google My Business? Because honestly, it deserves your love and attention, or at least, just your attention. If you’ve been neglecting your GMB listing, then I’ve got news for you.

What Even is a Google My Business (GMB) Listing?

Well to start, listing on Google My Business is…wait for it…completely free! (I knew that was going to be your first question.) It’s a free, super easy tool that helps you manage your business’s information as it appears on the almighty Google. You are able to claim and verify your listing, provide updates, and edit the information that Google is provided. By using GMB, you’re able to confirm that your business’s basic yet vital information is accurate in both Google Maps and search.

It’s like listings in a phonebook (remember those?), but enhanced with more information: hours, website, address, phone number, photos, services, reviews, smells, you name it. (Okay not smells, at least not yet).

If you’ve ever searched for restaurants in your city, then you’ve seen these, or in my case, breweries:

Now let’s talk about the benefits.

Show Up in Map Searches

Just like the breweries’ search example above, showing up in Google Maps searches is critical, especially for businesses whose location is a huge factor in generating sales. People who search for your service are showing intent so showing your proximity to the user, or in their desired location, can be the deciding factor in their decision.

GMB just the beginning of your troubles? We’ve got your back!

Request Your Audit Now

Show Up Higher in Google Search

This one might seem obvious, but Google My Business is an extension of, you know, Google. So the more you play ball with their systems, the more Google will like you, and the more Google likes you, the more it will reward you. And in this case, the reward is search traffic and higher SERP (search engine results pages) positions. So for all you SEO-ers just starting out out there, optimizing your GMB listing is now at the top of your to-dos.

Be Legit!

Just like having a nice website, or a crisp professional business card, having a well-optimized GMB listing lets your customers know that you’re legit and not some scrub. Nothing will lose you a prospective client more quickly than a business that doesn’t list hours, or phone numbers, on their listing. Being mysterious, when it comes to your GMB listing, is in fact, not sexy. When it comes to marketing it’s all about the path of least resistance. Don’t make your prospects take unnecessary steps to find what they’re looking for.

Reviews

Speaking of being legit, what’s the best way to get people to seriously consider your products or services? A recommendation from their peers. Now, accumulating reviews is certainly a double-edged sword, after all, people are far more likely to submit a negative review than a positive one, so it is extremely important for you to encourage your happy customers to share their experience. But just like your location, seeing those little gold stars goes a long way in getting the attention, and initial trust, of your future customers.

Insights

Just like Google Analytics gives your data into your website’s performance, GMB has its own data dashboard called “Insights.” This information will give you all kinds of details into your audience. Here’s some of the best data Insights will give you:

Where Users Found You: Maps or Search
Number of Listing Views
Visits from GMB to Your Site
Number of Requests for Directions
Number of Clicks to Call
Technology Used: Mobile vs. Desktop

If you’re anything like me, then you love data and your mom. The more data you have, the more you can confidently identify your audience. This then allows you to make smarter, more informed marketing decisions, and who’s not all about making good decisions!? Especially when those good decisions are profitable.

So, there you have it. You’re welcome, GMB! You might as well start doing couples’ pottery and listen to The Righteous Brothers, because you’re about to get all the love.

Dan Seitz is the Director of Strategy at Hawthorn Creative and has helped execute marketing strategies for clients from all over the hospitality industry. He would rather have referenced Point Break, but any Swayze reference is a good reference.

What Star Wars Has In Common With Marketing Strategy

in General Marketing Insights, Knowledge Drop by Dan Seitz

What do Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and The Odyssey all have in common with marketing? Both the characters in those stories, and our customers, follow a sprawling adventure or journey. Our brave fictional characters must follow the classic mythical, Hero’s Journey, and our daring customers must face the treacherous, Buyer’s Journey.

Unfortunately, I’m not here to talk about Star Wars – though, on almost all other occasions, I am your guy – so let’s dive into the Buyer’s Journey. Understanding the Buyer’s Journey is integral to crafting a complete marketing strategy. As our customers begin their journey, our marketing strategy needs to compliment every stage of their consideration to ensure there is a clear guided path to the decision we ultimately want them to take.

So, for us to best play the part of Gandalf or Obi-Wan Kenobi and guide our customers – our own heroes – on their journey to success, it is critical to understand exactly what lies ahead for them.

Need a Yoda To Guide Your Strategy? Request a Free Website Audit!

Request Your Audit Now

The Buyer’s Journey

These are the stages that every buyer goes through when making purchasing decisions:

Dreaming – Our buyer has been inspired or captivated and is now beginning to think about how a product or service (just like yours) would benefit their lives or solve a challenge they are facing.

Planning – Now that they are aware of their need, they have begun their research. They are considering their options and are gathering estimates, quotes, tours, or consultations.

Buying – They are ready to make their decision. They have compared all options and have found the best fit for their needs.

Experiencing – The purchase has been made, but the journey is far from over. Now it’s time for the product or service to fulfill the buyer’s need and the brand’s promise.

Sharing & Repeat Buying – If their experience was positive and what they hoped for, the buyer now has the opportunity to become a repeat customer, or better yet, a brand advocate, who will spread the word to their peers that they had an amazing experience with this product/service.

Okay, great, we have this down. Now we can start thinking about how our marketing strategy and our specific tactics fit into this journey. To make this easier, I’ve broken down all our marketing tactics into three segments. For your marketing strategy to be successful, you should make sure you hit each of these segments with equal efforts.

Engagement Marketing

These tactics are for the buyers who are just at the start of their journeys. Top of funnel, or early in the flywheel for all you Hubspotters out there. Covering the Dreaming and Planning stages in the journey, Engagement Marketing is all about spreading awareness and introducing your message to your audience for (likely) the first time. Messaging should focus on education rather than conversion. Let’s make sure our buyers really know what you do and why you do it, so they’ll more confidently move into the next stage of the Buyer’s Journey. KPIs should be centered around awareness, reach, eyeballs, and traffic.

Tactics Often Used in Engagement Marketing:
Organic Social Media
SEO
Influencer Marketing
Content Marketing

Acquisition Marketing

This is the consideration and decision-making step of the journey and often regarded as the most important time to really leverage your marketing tactics. You’ll see a lot of the same tactics used in this stage as in the prior, Engagement Marketing, but with firmer and more direct CTAs. Here, we are asking for the buyer’s business. Submit a form, schedule a tour or consultation, request a proposal. KPI’s are all about the conversions now and cost per conversion. Keep the former high and the latter low!

Tactics Often Used in Acquisition Marketing:
Paid Social Media Campaigns
Retargeting
SEM
SEO
Display Marketing

Retention Marketing

Hot Take Alert (Maybe?) – but this could actually be the most important segment of your marketing strategy. Who is the easiest person to sell to? How about someone who already bought from you and loves your product or service? Bingo. Retention is key to making the most of your existing client base and making sure they become an extension of your marketing strategy – think: brand enthusiasts and word of mouth. Done right, its networking done for you.

Tactics Often Used in Retention Marketing:
Email Marketing
Social Media (Paid & Organic)
Customer Reviews and Case Studies
Content Marketing

Some of you might not see a lot of repeat business. Like the nature of a wedding venue won’t see a lot of repeat customers, but retention is still EXTREMELY important. Instead of selling them again on your venue, you need to encourage them to share their great experience far and wide – it’s on you to make that as easy as possible. Social media is going to be critical for you in this sense – reviews, tagged locations, utilizing UGC (User Generated Content), etc.

So, there you have it. If you can understand your Buyer’s Journey, leverage that knowledge and join them from the start as their wise guide, you’ll have executed a marketing strategy that leads to a happy ending. The hero finds the service they went searching for, your guidance strategy led to a conversion, and your new client is a pleased one – so pleased, your story may even have a sequel. I know it’s not as cool or epic as destroying the Death Star or the One Ring, but what is?

Dan Seitz is the Director of Strategy at Hawthorn Creative and has helped execute marketing strategies for clients from all over the hospitality industry. He dreams of starting a blink-182 cover band called The Small Things.

Hotel Email Marketing Strategy in Today’s Travel Climate

in Brand Strategy, Content Marketing, Destination Marketing Organizations, Email Marketing, Hotels & Resorts by Catherine Shane

Your once carefully planned-out email campaign strategy has probably been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride since mid-to-late March. In addition to likely lightening up your sends, there’s probably been a good amount of change to the kind of content you’re pushing out, as well as the overarching tone behind it. And that’s only natural, because while it has been important to stay in touch with your past and future guests through email, you have also needed to be careful and thoughtful about your messaging during what was a pretty unusual and unprecedented time.

So how about now, as things begin to reopen? Like we stressed in one of our recent posts, “Blog Post Ideas for Hotels & Travel Brands in Our “New Normal,“ as much as we crave a return to business as usual, you won’t be able to revert back to your pre-pandemic marketing strategy in a snap.  It’ll require a ramping-up period, where you address guests’ concerns, followed by a conscious and careful reintroduction to travel content as the world grows more comfortable with taking trips again.

While your content strategy and blog topics are the important first part of this strategy, your plan for email will also need to follow the “slow and steady” pace. Again, using Opal Collection as our client example (Opal is a luxury resort company that we manage a blog and email strategy for), we highlight the factors you should consider as you evolve your email strategy to be in touch with today’s travel climate.

Email Marketing Solutions – Earn lifelong customers one email at a time

Make Meaningful Connections

Reevaluate Frequency & Reintroduce Email Slowly as Content Allows

Chances are, prior to the pandemic, you were typically sending multiple emails a month to speak to different clients in their buyer journey.

For example, for Opal Collection, we were doing one “Opal-wide” campaign, which delivers monthly to blog subscribers and past resort guests, and another “property-specific” campaign, sent out twice a year to subscribers and guests who have traveled to one or more of the respective 19 properties in the last year.

Both these campaigns push out destination-focused content that lives on the Opal Unpacked blog we manage. However, once stay-at-home orders hit, we paused the property-specific campaigns and only kept our monthly Opal-wide campaign going, which, since March, we have been using to promote more “at-home” posts (recipes from local chefs, mindful exercises to practice at home, etc.).

However, as all the Opal hotels have now reopened, we are slowly reintroducing the property-specific campaigns as content allows. By that we mean that the appropriate content to build a campaign around needs to exist – we can’t push out an old post rooted to a destination that shows busy beaches or highlights dining at restaurants that may not even be open yet. And neither should you.

Sure, it’s less of a solid plan and something you’ll have to play by ear as the landscape evolves, but it’s better to link to relevant, accurate content over something that is out of touch. Especially as guests will be looking to trusted travel brands to provide an up-to-date portrayal of what’s open and what the destination experience will be in the coming months.

Carefully Consider Email Marketing Content Selection

Again, the posts you’ll be pushing out via email likely won’t be those evergreen pieces as the travel landscape is still not 100-percent back to normal. Rather, you should include posts that speak to the drive-market (as this will be most hotels’ core audience in the coming months), address destination activities you can easily do while social distancing, or help maximize life at home (because, while things may be opening again, not everyone is ready or able to travel).

Read “Blog Post Ideas for Hotels & Travel Brands in Our “New Normal“ for additional types of content we suggest for your email marketing. Future travel ideas and inspiration are okay to promote, but it’s key that you communicate that they’re just that: future travel inspiration and not necessarily the experience you’ll get now.

Opal Collection June email campaign

To see some of these pointers in action, our June Opal-wide campaign (pictured above) offers a bit of a mix of all the above, including content that addressed concerns about social distancing (“Our Favorite Opal Private Retreats”), wellness (“A How-To Guide for Forest Bathing”), and other “at-home” branded lifestyle content (both Opal Sands’s style and design inspiration and how to make the perfect backyard burger for your summer cookout).

Continue to be Mindful of Your Language & Imagery

It’s important to still be mindful of the language you use in your emails. For example, be cautious about insinuating what is essential or a need (for example, “the post-quarantine trip you must take NOW”) as the new normal has redefined what people deem essential.

Rather, focus on how a trip to your hotel/destination could bring them a bit of much-needed relief after the last few months. And while you should always sound positive, you should also be the voice of the current reality – if you don’t, readers might interpret your avoidance of the subject as naïve or insensitive.

Similarly, be attentive to the kind of imagery you use to advertise your email content. A few months ago, images of a busy downtown or a packed bar wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows – in fact, they were desirable, showing that this is the place that everyone wants to be, so why aren’t you here, too? Now, as these are the very scenes the public is trying to avoid, these images can make people uncomfortable and lead to unsubscribes.

Don’t Oversell Your Product(s)

While we all love a great deal, if you are repetitively marketing discounted hotel stays or other deals, it can come off as desperate…not to mention, consumers are thinking twice now about whether or not they want to purchase something, regardless of how steep the discount. We’re not saying to do away with them entirely – just be aware of their frequency.

Email sections usually dedicated to product CTAs might actually be better suited to send subscribers to other places. For example, in our April and May Opal-wide emails, we used the bottom blue CTA section, usually reserved for promoting a special offer, to direct users to the client’s Instagram and their blog website’s newly revamped landing page.

Consider Other Campaigns That Cater to the New Normal

Just because you’ve had to pause some campaigns doesn’t mean you can’t use your efforts to create new ones. We helped unroll a series of five road trip–inspired posts on Opal Unpacked rooted to different Opal destinations (again, since most hotel stays will be the drive-market in the coming months). Opal is then sending out five subsequent campaigns (one example pictured below) to promote these trips to local residents in the greater areas of those destinations.

Opal Collection Road-Trip email campaign

Note their use of language in the campaign: “After months cooped up, travelers are eager to pack a bag and hit the open road with their quarantine crews. Fortunately, if you’re thinking about an Opal road trip – be it Florida, Maine, or New York – all routes lead to stunning coastal/lakeside drives that deliver a much-needed change of scenery.” Not only do they address this new normal and sound positive while doing so, but they also hit home how this could be that much-needed bit of relief, rather than making it sound like a necessity. Our hats off to them.

Related Reading

Looking for more inspiration and information on how to achieve hotel marketing that stands out from the crowd? Be sure to check out:

Event Venue Expert Advice: How to Pivot into Longevity

in Event Venues by Catherine Iannucci

There’s age-old wisdom that only the strong survive, but in the ever-changing modern landscape, the true secret to success is pliability. Nothing quite exemplifies the ability to be nimble and rise to new challenges like Hutton Brickyards – a former brick manufacturing facility that has breathed new life as a multidimensional event venue. Now, the bricks that built New York City are building a dynamic hospitality mecca less than two hours from the city in the Hudson River Valley. We spoke with the team at MWest Holdings to better understand how they reimagined a dilapidated, long-abandoned brickyard into a premier venue for everything from concerts and festivals to corporate retreats and intimate weddings.

From the outset, the team behind Hutton Brickyards displayed an incredible ability to be creative and adaptable. When Karl Slovin, president of MWest Holdings, first saw Hutton Brickyards, it was a run-down former brickyard on the Hudson River, but he could clearly picture what it could become. Fast forward to the property’s inaugural events – two sold-out shows headlined by music legend Bob Dylan – and all that foresight paid off. The team that was assembled to spearhead future development of the 76-acre property had to adopt Slovin’s same kind of vision and can-do attitude.

“It’s important to pursue the full potential of the space and the range of potential in a space,” explains Slovin. They weren’t content just being a world-class concert venue; there was more potential to explore. Slovin and his team began imagining other types of events that their space could cater to. They developed a sub-brand for the wedding market, Hutton Brickyards Weddings, and began to develop serviceable collateral to reach this potential market. And they didn’t stop at weddings: Their exploration of new markets extended to fairs, festivals, and corporate events. On the road to becoming a maverick in the event venue space, Slovin’s team discovered some universal truths about building a successful, versatile business.

SOLUTIONS

Social Media Marketing They’ll Fall Head Over Heels For

Explore our highly successful newly engaged social campaigns

Let’s Get Social

Give the People What They Want

“There are many examples of us pivoting and doing something different just because a client requests it,” says Slovin. He and his team are always looking for ways to fulfill requests from clients – no matter how eccentric. They once added rigging for aerial lifts to the ceiling of one of the brickyards’ buildings to accommodate a performance. But don’t worry, not all examples go to that sort of extreme. With 40,000 square feet of event space, there is plenty of room for large concerts or events – but what about more intimate gatherings? “In general, it’s clear that the site caters to large-scale events. But we’ve had a lot of clients ask for a smaller space, so we figured out how to partition the space to accommodate smaller events,” explains Slovin. In his experience, clients can become your biggest advocates when you treat them with deference and respect.

Reach Out to Your Local Network

MWest Holdings has developed properties all over the country, and creating a network in the area surrounding new projects is vital to each property’s longevity. And Hutton Brickyards is no exception, according to Slovin. “Opening the conversation with wedding planners in Hudson Valley and Manhattan, being open to working with area caterers, just being in touch with the people who work with potential clients is important. Those people can recommend us through word of mouth.” Often, the implications of building these relationships within the local business community can result in trusted business relationships and content clients.

Efficiency is the Name of the Game

Time is money, and while every event takes a certain amount of time, it’s crucial for long-term success to not waste valuable resources. A successful business brings together individuals with their own unique skillset and teaches them how to work most efficiently within a pre-existing system. Clear instruction and practice ensure that when it’s game time, showtime, or wedding time, your team is ready to be professional and expedient. “A key component of making a venue successful is making it efficient. You need to make sure everything and everyone can perform with ease,” says Slovin.

Throw Complacency Out the Window

At every opportunity, your business should take time to assess potential areas of growth. Whether you’re looking to reach out to an untapped demographic of consumers or physically adding to the infrastructure of your business, evolution keeps the cash and creativity flowing. Slovin touts an insatiable appetite for growth as one of the differentiators for Hutton Brickyards. “Our site is constantly evolving and improving, year after year, and all of our improvements move us forward,” says Slovin. This year, Slovin and his team will oversee the addition of a more rustic outdoor wedding ceremony site and luxury on-property lodging.

Related Reading:

Thank you for reading. From all of us at Hawthorn Creative, we wish you good health and a positive mindset throughout this challenging time. As always, we’re here to help with anything you or your team may need.

How To Craft the Best Title Tags Ever

in Knowledge Drop by Dan Seitz

When it comes to SEO, and particularly on-page SEO, the title tag is incredibly important. It’s potentially the easiest and most impactful on-page SEO adjustment you can make for your website. In this week’s Knowledge Drop, you’ll learn what a title tag is, why it’s important, and how to write the best possible tag for your site.

So let’s start here…

What is a Title Tag and Why Is It Important?

A title tag is a line in your code that identifies the name of your website’s page. A successful title tag accurately and concisely describes the content of its page. But it does so much more than simply title or provide a preview of your web page. Title tags are one of the many ways we can tell search engines what our web pages are about.

Example Title Tag:Hotel Website Design & Development | Hawthorn Creative

Without a proper title tag, search engines will have to work a lot harder to understand your content, and will likely rank other content over yours instead. So don’t let a poor title tag be the deciding factor in dropping your SEO rank to one of your competitors. So keep those search robots happy.

But what about us humans, who read content in – you know – a less robot-y way? Title tags can be used in a much more practical way for us. Here are three:

SERPs 
Title tags are what populate search engine’s result pages (SERPs). This is likely your user’s very first impression of your website and your first opportunity to flex some of your value. Think of this as an opportunity to communicate a call to action. You want your title tag (and meta description) to entice the user into choosing your result over the nine others (or more, if you’re counting ads).

Social Sharing
These are what pop up when you share your page on your social platforms. Is your content a part of a social campaign (I hope!)? Paid media campaign (it should!)? Then this will be extremely important to you. Without leveraging this, you might as well be living back in 2006 (that’s when I graduated high school, and I’m pretty sure this wasn’t a thing yet).

Web Browsers
Finally, title tags live in the tabs of your web browser. If you’re like me, these tabs can be endless and unorganized. Without the use of title tags, I would never be able to toggle back and forth between work and the other distracting and completely unrelated content I read on a daily basis. But in all seriousness, this improves the user experience, and even a minor improvement can go a long way.

So now that you have a better understanding of what title tags are and why you need to pay attention to them, let’s get to the fun part: how to write them.

Need Help With Your Title Tags? Request a Free Website Audit On Us!

Request Your Audit Now

How To Craft a Perfect Title Tag

Here is your guide to the perfect title tag.

Step 1: Put the Most Important Keyword First
Since search engines deliver answers to a users’ questions, then consider the question you want to answer for your prospective clients. Maybe you’re a medspa that does the best Botox in town and you want the world to know it. I might suggest starting your title with Best Botox, Botox Procedures, Botox Injections or some variation of that. So right off the bat, you’re leading with your primary message. This content is about Botox and for people who want or need Botox.

Step 2: Secondary Keyword
Now, depending on your business, your secondary keyword could be a product name or product category, or it could be your geographic location. The latter is especially important if you have a physical location and want to win local business. So to continue with our medspa example, let’s say your business is located in Boston. So you’re wicked good at Botox in Boston. Go Sox!

Here are our tag options so far:
Best Botox Procedures in Boston, MA
Botox Procedures – Injectables | Boston, MA

Step 3: Leverage Your Brand
People are way more likely to choose your link if they have heard of your brand. Heck, even if you’re not a household name or are just starting out, this is how we build brand recognition. Follow up your primary and secondary keywords with your brand name to build credibility and brand recognition.

Our final tag options:
Best Botox Procedures in Boston, MA | Dr. Dan’s Face Fixers
Botox – Injectables | Boston, MA | Dr. Dan’s Face Fixers

Step 4: Check Your Length
Through all these steps, it’s important to watch your character count. While there is no clear maximum count, it is suggested to stick around 60 characters. This will ensure that your title tag doesn’t get cut off so that a portion of it won’t be visible to your users. I checked, and Dr. Dan’s Face Fixers tags are under the 60 character limit (although, their brand name needs a little help).

So there you have it: You are now ready to go write the best title tags ever written. I cannot guarantee your posts will be the best ever, but I’m sure they’ll at least be pretty good.

Dan Seitz is the director of strategy at Hawthorn Creative and has helped execute marketing strategies for clients from all over the hospitality industry. He was not paid by and has no affiliation with Dr. Dan’s Face Fixers.

Blog Post Ideas for Travel & Hospitality Marketers in Our “New Normal”

in Content Marketing, Hotels & Resorts by Catherine Shane

As much as the world craves a total return to business as usual right now, that won’t be the case if we’re to be safe and smart. And whether you’re a boutique hotel or a regional DMO, the same goes for your content marketing in order to be timely, in-touch, and valuable – and position your brand to capitalize on the kind of travel that consumers now look for in this “new normal.”

If you’ve read our recent post “3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Pause Your Marketing During a Crisis,” you already know that the name of the game during this pandemic is all about pausing your pre-COVID marketing strategy and pivoting to keep your brand relevant and top-of-mind with consumers. That’s still the case, particularly when it comes to your latest blog content.

So what the heck do you talk about in your current posts as things transition back to normal? Based on the blog content we develop, write, load, and manage on Opal Unpacked, the blog for luxury resort company Opal Collection, we share some common content pillars and topics that your posts should speak to in order to best inform and shape consumers’ current and future travel decisions.

Pillar 1: Content That Maximizes Life at Home with the Help of Your Brand

This may seem like a no-brainer as it’s the kind of content that hospitality and travel brands were smart to switch to once quarantine really kicked in at the end of March (and when other content that encouraged travel felt insensitive). Think blog posts that detail recipes provided by a hotel chef, mindfulness exercises from a local partner, even at-home style and design tips inspired by your resort’s vibe.

But the beauty of this kind of content is that it never goes out of style – pandemic or no pandemic. In fact, creating serviceable content that prompts guests to think of your brand while at home is smart marketing at all times – and the kind that makes them loyal.

Sure, posts that speak to your destination, travel inspiration, or tips may be the best to get them to book, but general “lifestyle” content that reminds them of your unique brand and destination experience will keep them coming back.

And it’s still valuable now in this “new normal.” As travel restrictions ease, these kinds of blog stories no longer need to make up 100 percent of your marketing blog strategy, but it can’t hurt to keep those types of posts in your calendar. Because, while things may be opening again, it doesn’t mean everyone is ready or able to travel, especially your consumers who live a plane ride away.

SOLUTIONS

Your Content Marketing Strategy Is Critical to Driving Success

We craft content that takes them from browsing to booking

Power Your Marketing

Pillar 2: Speak to Your New Core Audience

It’s likely that those who will be visiting your destination or property over the next several months will be your drive-market folks – travelers who crave a getaway, but will want to stay closer to home and maybe have less to spend or are trying to budget accordingly.

So, cater your content to best speak to them. For example, road trip–themed stories from the nearest major cities are a great way to demonstrate how close you are, show off all the recently reopened stops and attractions en-route to your property or destination, and inspire what to do once they are in your destination (we recently created a road-trip series for our Opal Collection client with this in mind).

Other story ideas might revolve around new or under-the-radar attractions or businesses to check out in the destination (for example, “10 Destination To-Dos that Even Locals Don’t Know About”), as drive-market visitors may have visited your destination before and been to all the obvious touristy to-dos. Think of this as a way to show them why they should come back – and why now is the time.

Pillar 3: Address Their Concerns about Social Distancing

Guests – whether drive market or your eventual destination travelers – will be sensitive to what kind of precautions your hotel or destination businesses are taking regarding cleanliness and social distancing. So, it’s key to work in content that addresses that.

A straightforward post about all the steps you are taking and what you’re doing on-site is certainly fine (ideally, one of your website subpages should be dedicated to detailing this info).

But for a blog post, an even more creative approach might be highlighting your most private places on-property (such as “Our Favorite Opal Private Retreats”) or detailing your destination’s top attractions/to-dos that naturally encourage social distancing (like local botanical gardens, outdoor fire pits on-property, or rolling expanses of nature preserves).

Or, if you’re a particularly remote retreat already like Opal Collection’s own Lake Placid Lodge – buried in the woods overlooking its namesake lake in Upstate New York, where seclusion and distance is the number-one allure of staying here  – be sure to play that up.

Pillar 4: Mini-Reunions & Micro Get-Togethers

As more consumers become comfortable with the idea of traveling again, it’s likely that they will want to spend that precious vacation time with families and friends, many of whom they’ve been forced to isolate from during the crisis.

For that reason, consider stories that highlight how your resort or destination is ideal for such mini-reunions – not just because you address all the appropriate social-distancing protocols, but because what you and your destination collectively offer is the ultimate retreat for your group. For example, The Girls’ Getaway Guide to Lake George or The Couples’ Group Getaway Guide to Clearwater Beach.

Even better, if you’re a hotel offering added value or perks to encourage booking, say a three-night package with free breakfast or spa discounts, this is also a place to promote those with an additional call to action.

This makes consumers feel that they are getting the most bang for their buck – and as our economy recovers, this is something travelers will be paying more attention to than they were prior to the pandemic.

SEEING IS BELIEVING

Don’t Just Build a Blog: Create a Content Hub

Check out the travel blog we crafted that attracts 30,000 unique visitors each month

Take Me There

Pillar 5: Future Travel Ideas and Inspiration

Of course, it’s certainly fine to create content that highlights your destination’s busier or more popular attractions – after all, these attractions and businesses are precisely what makes your city or location unique, even if they aren’t yet open or are operating under new protocols that only allow travelers to access limited features. And what better way to help position yourself and your local partners to capitalize on the eventual coming travel demand than by promoting them?

The key lies in how you present or phrase things. Address that travel is at an awkward place right now, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still plan or daydream about future trips. Posts like “Bucket-List To-Dos in Our Destination(s)” that share the ways to best capitalize on certain attractions – even if they aren’t open right now – remind readers why your destination is a must when travel returns to normal. Because, the fact of the matter is, things will go back to normal eventually.

Related Reading

Looking for more inspiration and information on how to achieve travel or hotel marketing that stands out from the crowd? Be sure to check out:

Wedding Venues: Get Ready for 2021, Your Best Year Yet

in Event Venues, Websites by Ally Cardello

There’s no sugar-coating it: 2020 has been a hard year for everyone, but especially for wedding and event venues. With operations paused for several months, and most events postponed, the future may look bleak.

However, there’s a silver lining that you may not be anticipating: 2021 is going to be one of the biggest years for weddings and events in recent history. But, if your wedding venue website and event marketing strategy aren’t ready for the influx of inquiries, you’re going to miss out. In fact, you may already be more behind the ball than you realize.

Supporting Stats & Trends

Now, this may seem like a bold claim, but we have the stats to back it up. According to Google Trends, searches for wedding-related terms have declined in recent months. So, it’s no surprise that you’ve probably seen a drop in your website’s organic traffic. However, in recent weeks these keywords have been slowly picking up speed and interest.

Even more promising are the trends we’ve seen among our clients in the paid search and social arenas. The Vine had their best month ever in paid search in April and doubled their leads over March numbers. Twenty Mile House also saw an outstanding performance in paid social in April and May with an ultimate lead increase of over 300%. You read that right, over 300%.

SOLUTIONS

Take Your Prospects from Browsing to Buying

Break through the noise in a crowded digital landscape

See How We Can Help

Why These Results?

Obviously, we were thrilled (and a little surprised) by these results, so we dug deeper. Aside from being our clients, these venues have some other key factors in common. The first is that, despite decreased revenue and uncertain times, they did not pause their paid marketing campaigns during the pandemic. 

On the flip side, venues that were seeing great numbers pre-COVID, but suspended their marketing once stay-at-home orders hit, saw more than a 50% decrease in inquiries in May. While not all businesses may be in an economic position to continue their paid spends, it’s proving increasingly powerful for those that do.

The second, and perhaps even more important factor is their website content, functionality, and design. We launched an amazing Squarespace website for The Vine back in November and that alone drove more conversions than they had ever seen previously. So, when it came to their paid search, we knew we were sending traffic to a site that was designed with lead generation in mind.

Similarly, by offering their Hawthorn-created event and wedding brochure on their website, Twenty Mile House enabled couples to safely learn more about the venue despite the “stay-at-home” order in California.

Also, by “gating” the brochure – requiring visitors to submit contact information in order to access it – Twenty Mile House continued to generate new leads to reach out to via email and other marketing efforts. Spoiler alert: We will be launching a new Squarespace site for them in the coming months, so we anticipate even more success for Twenty Mile House in the near future!

What Does This Mean for Your Venue?

It means it’s your time to shine. Competition in the paid space is low right now, which means you get more bang for your buck and higher visibility. Now is also the time to take advantage of the bandwidth that’s become available.

Over the next few months, when you would normally be overwhelmed with events, you should be revamping your website, creating content marketing pieces that speak to the “new normal” and address COVID concerns, engaging with prospects, launching paid search and social campaigns, and finding the right partner to help you drive success.

As event and travel restrictions begin to lessen, the marketplace is only going to get more competitive. Take action now and ensure that 2021 is your best year ever.

Related Reading:

5 Questions To Ask When Evaluating Your Website

in Knowledge Drop by Dan Seitz

The world is full of challenging and often unanswerable questions.  What came first, the chicken or the egg? Who really built the pyramids?  What the heck does the ending of Inception mean?  Thankfully, when it comes to digital marketing, you can usually always find any answer if you look hard enough. Even for one of the most common and baffling question we all at some point face. Is my website doing the job I need it to do? In order to find that answer, here are 5 other questions you need to ask yourself:

#1: Does the site accurately represent my brand?

Here’s where we start. It’s often the most simple and most complicated answer. Your brand is a promise you make to your audience about your product. Your product or service needs to fulfill that promise through your customer’s experience. You need your site to be the digital representation of that experience. Take notice of your copy, photography, colors, and fonts. Do they all work together to communicate your brand’s promise? If you know your brand in and out, this should be obvious to you.

#2: Is the site a “closer”?

How can you get your audience to buy from you when you don’t ask them to buy? Think of your website as a salesperson – not just any salesperson, but your best salesperson. Now depending on your product or service, you might not ask your site to be responsible for closing the deal, but it needs to be responsible for selling something. Maybe that’s booking a tour, submitting an inquiry, downloading a brochure, or signing up for a demo. Your site needs to have a clear “sale” or conversion(s) to strive for. In order to be successful, the site needs to be armed with content to “close” that conversion. Strong content needs to leverage key selling features and benefits, answer all your customer’s questions, and anticipate and overcome their common objections. How can you have a successful salesperson without being able to communicate those things?

#3: How does the site perform analytically?

If you’ve read the Weekly Knowledge Drop before, then you know I often talk about Google Analytics and how using it is crucial to really understanding your digital marketing and website performance. If you really want to know how things are working, then you’ll need to have GA set up and working properly. If you’re just starting out, check out my top 5 metrics to to pay attention to, but here they are in a nutshell:

Conversion Goals – This is a big one. Are your users completing the action you want them to take (form submissions, downloads, bookings, etc.)?
Time on Page – Are people spending enough time on the site to consume your content?
Bounce Rate – Are you encouraging users to stay on the site for multiple page-views? Or are they just leaving right away?
Top Performing Pages – Are the pages getting most of the love the pages that are leading to more conversions?
Source/Medium and Referrals – Where are these users coming from, and does it result in qualified traffic?

All of these metrics need to tell a story of success and positive trends. If not, take a closer look at the content on the site and make sure the value to your users is clear and actionable.

Need Help With Your Audit? Request a Free Website Audit On Us!

Request Your Audit Now

#4: Is my site properly optimized for SEO?

Good old SEO. We all love SEO right?! I have a feeling some of you might have let out a sigh of frustration. Well, I hope we can all at least agree on SEO’s importance. Imagine not being listed in the phone book 20 years ago (man, remember phone books?) Search engines are how people find you when they need you; that’s just how it works.

Now, understanding your site’s SEO performance can be tricky. You can use Google Search Console, which will be a crucial part of managing your SEO efforts, but there are third-party tools that can also be used to quickly take stock of your site’s rankings (my personal favorite is SEMrush). Once you’ve picked your tool of choice, here’s what you should check out:

Top Performing Keywords – Specifically “non-branded keywords,” meaning keywords that do not contain your brand name. Yes, it’s great to rank well for your brand name and it should be easy to do, but since those people are looking for you, they’ll likely find you anyway. What we really want to do is get in front of people who might not know about you yet, but are actively looking for your product or service. This is what leads to new customer acquisition. So filter out any search terms that contain your brand, and take note on where you are ranking well and where you are falling short.

On-Page SEO – See some gaps? Not ranking for your desired keywords? Take a look at the on-page SEO best practices, such as title tags and meta descriptions. Are you making the most of the character limits? Are you inserting those high-value and relevant keywords when it makes sense? Make sure you have those best practices in place to ensure your SEO traffic and rankings are moving in the right direction.

#5: What do I do now with what I’ve learned?

Now that you’ve done your quick audit of your site, what actions can you take? Did you find that your site isn’t performing at the level you expected? Is it time to plan for a site redesign? Well if it is, you now have hard data to build actionable next steps. Hopefully this exercise demonstrated how your web performance reflects your marketing success and will lead to a birth of a new and improved marketing strategy.  And if you need help performing an audit, request a free audit from us, and I will work with you to complete one.

Dan Seitz is the Director of Strategy at Hawthorn Creative and has helped execute marketing strategies for clients from all over the hospitality industry. He thinks The Godfather is overrated, but Predator is a masterpiece.

6 Marketing Takeaways from WeddingWire’s Newlywed Report

in Content Marketing, Event Venues, Social Media Marketing by Nicole Dunlevy

Each year, WeddingWire releases their Newlywed Report, offering key insights based on data collected from over 25,000 couples throughout the United States. These statistics can inspire venues with creative ideas for their content, as well as how to align their event venue marketing plan to reach more of today’s couples in a meaningful way. In reviewing this year’s stats, here are six ideas to enhance your venue’s online content. After all, 88% of all wedding planning today is done on the web.

1. RAMP UP SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS DURING SPRING

December is still the most popular month to pop the question, with January and February following suit. Since couples will start to focus on their planning shortly after their engagement, early spring is a great time to boost paid social campaigns. This is a vital time to get exposure and remind your audience how perfect your venue could be for their special day.

Facebook and Instagram have some of the most advanced targeting abilities on social platforms. These sites have the ability to filter your audience by segments such as age, gender, location, and change-of-life events, so you can even serve ads to those who have recently changed their relationship status to “engaged.” Use geotargeting to advertise to an audience in a certain state, city, or even within a specified mile-radius of your venue. Carefully filtering your audience will allow your advertising budget to go a long way, as you’re spending less money on a smaller audience, but achieving a higher return because the audience you’re reaching is well-targeted. You know your target market better than anyone, but keep in mind that according to this year’s report, 25% of couples will opt for a hometown wedding, so it could be worth including local areas in your paid social campaigns.

2. TELL YOUR BRAND STORY THROUGH PINTEREST

The #1 Pre-Engaged Planning Action is creating a Pinterest board; it’s often the first place couples turn to begin dreaming about their big day. Pinterest is the ideal space to excite and inspire couples about your venue’s unique touchpoints and tell your brand story. Leverage Pinterest to expand awareness of your venue and brand, create more website traffic, generate leads, and ultimately boost sales. This platform is not only useful for capturing the attention of current couples, but also for creating brand awareness in a younger generation: 2 out of 3 couples start gathering wedding inspiration and planning before getting down on one knee.

Pinterest is the third most powerful search engine in the world, behind only Google and YouTube. When couples log on to Pinterest, they use keywords to find what they are looking for, so it is your job to optimize your keywords to make it easy for them to discover your pins and lead them to your website. For example, instead of a caption like “Amazing wedding at Rosemont Resort,” a better option would be “Amazing blue-and-silver-themed winter wedding at Rosemont Resort.” And, of course, you’d have these photos on your website so you’re pinning from your site, not uploading the images within Pinterest, right?! Choosing your keywords with care will not only improve Pinterest results but organic search results with Google as well.

Digital Marketing Solutions – Focus on creating events worth celebrating, we’ll take care of the rest

Get Your Venue More Attention

3. HIGHLIGHT PERSONALIZED WEDDINGS

Newly engaged couples find significant value in personalizing their wedding and are more than willing to shell out the extra cash to do so.

In fact…

  • 45% of couples increased their total spending to account for “must-have” items they fell in love with during their planning
  • 34% stretched their budget to add personalized elements to their big day
  • 62% of newlyweds admit they don’t regret allocating the additional funds and would do it again

Millennials especially do not want a cookie-cutter wedding. With this in mind, focus on creating content that sparks inspiration and can provide couples with some ideas and guidance on how to make their big day unique. Share photos from other couples at your venue who used personalization to show off their distinctive style, personality, and love story.

4. SHOWCASE YOUR REVIEWS

Couples today are highly influenced by the endorsement and opinions of others. Reading reviews comes in at #7 on the list of the report’s “Top Pre-Engaged Planning Actions.” WeddingWire’s findings revealed that 70% of couples find the most value in the overall review rating, photos submitted by real couples, and the recency of a review. Consequently, ensuring your reviews are easy to find is a key piece in successfully marketing your wedding venue. Social media is an ideal platform for showing off your glowing client testimonials. In order to keep your reviews relevant, try to incentivize couples to leave their feedback and experience on popular sites such as Facebook, Google, and WeddingWire.

5. CREATE WITH TODAY’S COUPLE IN MIND

Understanding today’s couples is vital to create content that is relevant and relatable. The average age of engaged couples is 32 and they fall squarely into the millennial generation. This generation does their research, so always make sure authenticity shines through your creative content. It is important to also remember that today’s couples are diverse, coming from all different walks of life, cultures, and backgrounds. Creating content that is inclusive will allow a larger and more diverse audience to establish a personal connection to your brand and nudge them to reach out.

6. STREAMLINE PLANNING & BUDGETING

Even though couples today are way ahead when it comes to planning, they still say the most difficult challenges they face are “knowing where to start” along with “planning within budget.” This creates a valuable opportunity for venues to find ways to streamline this process online and build a simpler way to guide couples through planning. Despite wedding spending being up, couples are more likely to book if they feel you understand their unique needs and financial situations. The average millennial couple pays 42% of the bill for their big day; even with parents chipping in 56% and others contributing the remaining 2%, they are still stretching to come up with the funds for their dream wedding, all while trying to balance paying their student loan debt and even saving for a mortgage.

Again, millennials place a lot of value on authenticity, so being transparent about what you charge and sharing pricing on your wedding venue’s website will go a long way toward building trust. Today’s couples are also tech-savvy, so implementing electronic payments, digital signatures, and Facetime or Zoom communication options will also ease the process. Create content that speaks to your seamless service because, ultimately, it’s all about convenience!

We hope our 6 ideas to boost your content marketing get your creative juices flowing and assist in shaping your event venue marketing strategies. To discover even more insights, check out the full WeddingWire 2020 Newlywed Report. We wish you the best of luck on your content creation journey! If you’d like content marketing help or ideas to fuel your website, social media, and other channels and drive leads, be sure to get in touch.

Like what you see?

Be sure to check out our new video, Getting Instagram Right: What Works for Wedding Venues, in which two digital natives share their best advice on how to optimize your Instagram presence and take full advantage of all the platform offers. And check out these other blog posts that cover other digital marketing topics for wedding venues:

Generate More Conversions by Creating More Opportunities to Convert

in General Marketing Insights, Knowledge Drop by Dan Seitz

What we want is for our website visitors to contact us, to engage with us, and to buy – Aka – Convert! For a lot of marketers, this means we wait for them to call us, or wait for them to book a tour/appointment, or wait for them to visit our “Contact Us” page and fill out a form. That’s a whole lot of waiting isn’t it? Tom Petty wasn’t lying when he said “the waiting is the hardest part”, because if we wait, we could be waiting for our competition to steal our prospects away.https://hawthorncreative.com/website-audit/

What we should be doing is creating conversion opportunities at every stage of our users’ buying journey. Not just creating one conversion point for the “ready to buy” folks, but for everyone. With so much technology at our fingertips, the power is the hands of the buyer. They won’t do anything until they are ready. So let’s take some of that power back and start up some sales conversions now, rather than wait around.

If filling out the contact form is for the “I want to talk to a human” users, then what about the “I’m just browsing” or “I want to learn more about your products or services but I don’t want to speak to an actual person, so give me more information that I can consume on my own” users? We need conversion points for all these users, and you’d be surprised at how many people fall into the latter category.

Free Website Audit – Make sure your marketing strategy is in top shape

Request Your Audit Now

So how do we create conversions for the cool or lukewarm prospects? After all, leads don’t become hot without warming up first. Here are a few ideas that everyone can do right now to start generating more leads from across the buyer’s journey and start creating sales opportunities a little earlier than if you waited.

Newsletter Sign Ups – This one is simple – just asking for an email address is an extremely low barrier of entry that lets your user know they can expect to receive interesting content from you that will help solve their problem or fulfill their need.

Gated Content – Or content that requires a form submission to access. Have a pricing guide or brochure? Perfect! Throw this up on the site behind a gated form. If you can clearly explain that there is valuable content in this guide or brochure that cannot be found on your website, your users will be more than happy to submit their information to get it.

Schedule a Tour (or Virtual Tour) – For the venues out there, this might as well say “Schedule a Tour and Get a Proposal” but just simply changing up the CTA language can do wonders. If someone is really interested in your event space that they want to come see it in person, sounds like a hot lead to me.

Even if you keep these conversion forms simple and all you get is a name and email address, that is plenty of ammo for your sales team to reach out and connect (via automated or manual methods) to start a dialog. They might not be at the “ready to buy” stage, but if your sales team is any good, you can slowly get them there.

Well there ya go, assign some analytics conversion goals to these forms, and start spending more time selling and less time waiting.

Dan Seitz is the Director of Strategy at Hawthorn Creative and has helped execute marketing strategies for clients from all over the hospitality industry. He has seen Armageddon a hundred times (probably).

The Secrets to Scoring Standout Social Media Marketing for Wedding Venues

in Event Venues, Social Media Marketing by Corey Scarano

Social media is likely already part of your wedding venue marketing strategy, but if you’re posting the same things across platforms and not utilizing each platform’s features, you’re doing it wrong. It’s time to get creative. It’s time to realize that social media should not be an afterthought in your marketing strategy, but a priority.

Think of the major social media channels as TV networks: NBC, Disney, MTV, TLC…you get the idea. Those channels have different audiences to cater to and different tones in programming. You couldn’t just take a successful Disney program and drop it into MTV’s schedule and expect it to flourish. Social media marketing for wedding venues is no different. While you may have some success cross-posting across the social networks, to get ahead in your wedding venue marketing efforts, you’re better off customizing your storytelling natively for those individual platforms. Here, we describe which kinds of posts work best on each platform, as well as provide our (millennial-approved!) tips on how to engage more effectively.

SOLUTIONS

Social Media Marketing

They’ll Fall Head
Over Heels For

Explore our highly successful newly engaged social campaigns

Let’s Get Social

Instagram

Instagram is listed first for a reason. Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10x higher than Facebook. Newly engaged couples and even “newly engaged couples to be” are not typically going to your website first to get a feel for your venue, they’re going to your Instagram account. Within a few seconds, they’ve formed an opinion on your business and brand and they won’t necessarily give you another look anywhere else if your Instagram presence is underwhelming or messy. It sounds intense, and it is, but if you know how to make and not break that impression, you can beat out the competition. Here’s how to win over millennials in an instant, and ultimately book more weddings.

1. Maintain a Cohesive Account

While your individual posts should offer a variety of photo types (e.g., detail shots, real couples, decor inspiration, and property spaces), your photo grid should feel consistent in color, tone, quality, and frequency (we suggest posting 5 to 7 times per week). It can be as easy as picking out one filter and applying it to each image you post. This will help users know what to expect when following you and the “at-a-glance” aesthetic cultivates your brand identity as one voice.

Pro Tip: Your account should feel like one user, one voice. Every single person on your team should be aligned with your brand’s Instagram identity and the specific persona(s) you’re targeting. To be sure of this, ask questions like: What is our purpose? What emotions do we want to evoke? What are 4 or 5 adjectives that could describe us? Then make sure every time you post, it’s true to those elements.

2. Create Mini-Showcases with the Story Highlights Feature

The Story Highlights feature that Instagram rolled out in 2016 has transformed how users engage. Not only are Instagram stories being used by 500 million users daily, but one-third of the most viewed stories are from businesses. Use this feature to show off all that makes your venue special. Think of each story highlight as a mini-showcase for the unique elements of your venue. What would a prospective couple want to see? Take a look at what other venues are doing on their account page story highlights. It could be anything from real weddings, behind the scenes, and property shots to testimonials, dog-friendly fun, and sunset ceremonies. Have some fun here – it’s where your personality can shine!

3. Repeat after Us…Engage Often. Reply Always. 

Social media is a two-way street, a platform built for interacting! If this is where couples are first discovering your venue, “ghosting” them is a surefire way to lose their business. Check your account’s direct messages often, at least once a day, and reply always – and authentically. Millennials have a great bullsh*t detector, and any robotic or automated replies just won’t cut it. Interact with users by replying to comments or even simply “liking” comments on photos you post, as well as the photos your couples and vendors post. Creating that connection will, at once, win over the initial trust of prospective couples and beat out all idle competition.

Pro Tip: It is especially effective to engage with comments and other users’ posts within the first 60 minutes after posting to your account for Instagram’s algorithm to favor your content. Another way to be more discoverable is to use keywords within your account bio, so make sure your specialty/selling points are within that section (e.g., “Colorado Destination Wedding Venue,” “Boston Wedding Venue,” etc.).

Facebook

Facebook is cross-generational, so remember that it’s not just the bride-to-be seeing your post – it’s her grandmother, too. Speak to everyone. As long as you have couples’ permission, you should post congratulatory photos of each wedding and tag the married couple to leverage the attention of their friends. But the photos should really show off your venue, not be close-ups of the couple. Don’t forget to also tag the photographers, caterers, entertainment, etc.

Go-to post: Scene-setting shots of every wedding hosted at your venue. Make sure the couple is tagged! Facebook’s News Feed makes it easy for those photos to float into others’ views when their friends comment, like, or share.

Pro Tip: You can use client reviews/testimonials in future content to highlight the community you’ve created and success stories.

Invest in Paid Social Ads

Facebook – and Instagram by default, since it’s owned by Facebook – has the most sophisticated targeted ad platform in social. They allow you to target by criteria like gender, age, location, likes – and marital status. Yes, that means you can target, for example, newly engaged women between the ages of 23 and 45 who live within 40 miles of your venue. How’s that for powerful? We suggest starting with a budget of at least $300 per month and recommend a Carousel or Slideshow ad type to show off several of your venue’s best images. And because Instagram is owned by Facebook, you’re able to build Instagram ads through the Facebook ads interface – but we suggest leaving it up to Facebook’s algorithms to determine how to distribute your ads across their products since they make the most money when your ads perform best.

FREE E-BOOK

7 Ways to Boost Social Media ROI for Event Venues

This free e-book will help supercharge your social media ROI

Download Your Copy

Snapchat

This may surprise you, but it’s our opinion that you shouldn’t tell any stories on Snapchat. At all. Snapchat is notoriously unfriendly to influencers and business accounts. The entire service is built around the idea of friend-to-friend communication. So what can you do instead? Let your guests tell stories for you by investing in Custom Snapchat Geofilters. Make no mistake, Snapchat remains an important part of your social strategy, but trying to build a following here would mean spending time that would be better allocated to Facebook or Instagram. Also: Keep in mind that rumors of Snapchat’s demise are exaggerated, and it may be worth a small experimental ad spend, as the ad rates are much lower than Instagram’s.

Go-to post: Show off your venue in the most authentic way possible: through the eyes (and snaps) of the wedding guests themselves. Build a fun, Custom Snapchat Geofilter honoring the bride and groom for their guests to use in their own snaps.

Pinterest

Pinterest is not a place to share photos of the happy couple or guests. In fact, a study done by Curalate shows that photos without faces receive 23 percent more repins. This is the place to inspire! Take into consideration your audience: 7 out of 10 Pinterest users are female, and 81 percent of engaged users admit to searching for wedding ideas before actually getting engaged! Highlight the elements and details like lighting, centerpieces, and the other vendor and venue details that made each wedding shine. The images should be clear and crisp and be identifiable as thumbnails, too, since that’s how they’ll be presented on Pinterest in certain views. Contribute to others’ collections and develop your own, and most importantly, always make sure you load images to your site and pin from there (as opposed to posting them natively to Pinterest) so that you get traffic from this platform, not just “likes.” Pinterest is where wedding daydreaming often begins – make it easy for soon-to-be brides (and grooms!) to discover your venue when they click a pin they like.

Go-to post: Capture prospective brides’ attention via longtail keywords by pinning photos that focus on the details that make weddings at your venue unique and beautiful. (For example: “lantern wedding centerpieces,” rather than just “centerpieces.”)

Pro Tip: Include your Instagram handle in the description of your Pins so people can easily find you on Instagram!

Like what you see?

Be sure to check out our new video, Getting Instagram Right: What Works for Wedding Venues, in which two digital natives share their best advice on how to optimize your Instagram presence and take full advantage of all the platform offers. And check out these other blog posts that cover social media and other digital marketing topics for wedding venues:

 

Feeling Inspired? Let’s Talk