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%.

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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.

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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.

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#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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

 

5 Experiential Marketing Examples That Travel & Hospitality Marketers Use to Hook Guests

in Content Marketing, Destination Marketing Organizations, Email Marketing by Catherine Shane

It has probably already been drilled into your head: Now, more than ever, consumers crave experiences over material things. In fact, according to a 2019 report from Momentum Worldwide, 76 percent of all polled consumers said they would rather spend their money on experiences (versus material items), 58 percent want to be part of an experience that allows them to escape from everyday life, and 63 percent want to be part of an experience where they learn something new.

For hotel brands, this means they now have a unique opportunity to connect and make an impactful impression on consumers by capitalizing on this “experience economy.” So, while yes, it’s great to show off a resort’s gorgeous property and unique amenities on a website, in email campaigns, and on social media, it’s just as important to market the destination as well. And we’ve got just the experiential marketing examples  – several of which we’ve written for our clients (just think of us as your friendly experiential marketing agency) – that are quenching consumers’ thirst for fulfillment. And more importantly: driving bookings and visits.

Destination-Focused Email Campaigns

Scattered up and down the Eastern Seaboard from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Key West, Florida, Opal Collection comprises 19 luxury, waterside resort properties and, like Hotel Saranac, recognizes the need to capitalize on their respective resort destination experiences. And that they do: not just with a custom blog site we built for them, called Opal Unpacked – for which we also still manage copy, imagery sourcing and selection, and loading – but by pushing out those various valuable pieces of destination content marketing in the form of three email campaign types.

The first is an “Opal-wide” campaign, which delivers monthly to blog subscribers and past resort guests, to share a hand-selected assortment of content that cross-promotes the different resort destinations. The second is a “property-specific” campaign, sent out twice a year for each of the 19 properties, which pushes out content about new happenings, attractions, and ways to maximize your time during an upcoming visit to target past guests. And, lastly, the “pre-arrival” campaigns. Scheduled to fire within a week of guests’ booked visits, the campaign utilizes content that serves as inspiration for how to truly take advantage of their upcoming vacation. In a nutshell, it’s a strategy that positions Opal Collection as the utmost expert on how to best experience the destinations.

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Digital Concierge

Encircled by the famous Topa Topa mountain range in Southern California’s upscale bohemian village of Ojai, the 220-acre Ojai Valley Inn is quite the destination in itself, offering cooking classes with celeb chefs, beekeeping and honey tastings, horseback riding, yoga, golf – the list goes on. To help guests best take advantage of the dizzying array of activities offered on-site and beyond, in 2017, the resort unveiled its Discovery Center, a one-stop vacation planning hub located on the grounds. Here, guests visit to work with “experience planners,” who provide hands-on immediate planning. But it’s not merely limited to folks already on-site. A comprehensive digital version of the center also lives on the resort’s website, giving potential consumers a peek at all that is at their fingertips. For those who eventually book, an experience planner works with guests prior to arrival to help create custom itineraries and make any necessary activity reservations. The result is a finely tuned visit, where the best of the valley is catered to each guest’s taste.

Online Guide 

Hotel Saranac Field Guide

Having been recently restored to its original 1920s art deco grandeur with palazzo-inspired architecture, lofty chandeliers, with an upscale restaurant, and lavish spa, Hotel Saranac is something of the marquee hotel in downtown Saranac Lake, New York. But another draw to this property that it wisely capitalizes on? The fact that it’s located in the heart of the Adirondacks of Upstate New York and uniquely positioned to take advantage of all the iconic attractions that call this place home: 46 famous 4,000-foot peaks, all located within an hour’s drive; the neighboring Olympic village of Lake Placid; and scores of arts, culture, and gastronomic gems.

Enter Field Guide, a trusted local resource written and built by Hawthorn Creative that lives on the hotel’s property website to showcase all there is to do in the destination. Divided into four separate categories (Adventure, Explore, Drink & Dine, and Unwind), the guide is easily navigable based on interests, and, once a user clicks into a category, showcases an array of locally vetted activities, highlights, and reasons to visit paired with punchy copy and engaging web design. The benefit to our client is two-fold: If a potential guest is Googling “things to do in the Adirondacks,” Hotel Saranac is in a prime position to populate and deliver that info – and that, my friend, leads to conversion. Additionally, if someone is considering booking the hotel, but isn’t quite sold yet, this type of things-to-do content often helps tip the scale so they feel confident that they’re not just booking a hotel, they’re booking an experience.

Destination Content Integrated on Landing Page

Surrounded by more than 5,000 acres of countryside and forested areas in Amenia, New York, the newly renovated Troutbeck offers upscale lodging in an eighteenth-century estate where Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson all once stayed. But rather than focus exclusively on this Hudson Valley hideaway’s historic, low-key, and luxurious accommodations on the hotel’s landing page, it integrates experiential content in the form of clickable tiles that look at the local hiking, skiing, fishing, and horseback-riding scenes, among others. The message? That Troutbeck is an estate for an escape with all the activities an outdoor enthusiast could ask for, just two hours north of New York City.

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Historical Web Series

When Belleview Inn, formerly one of Florida’s grandest grand hotels dating back to the nineteenth century, was undergoing renovations after decades of disrepair, our client was looking to build momentum for the hotel’s reopening in 2018. So we created a four-part digital series, called the Belleview Inn Story, rolled out in chapters on the property website as the restoration project neared completion.

While part of the goal was to capture the storied past that lives on in the new hotel, it also promoted the unique historical experiences that guests could become a part of on-site. For example, the several restored spaces to visit, including Morton’s Reading Room, a wood-paneled den-like space packed with historical artifacts from the hotel’s heyday; the Tiffany Room, boasting the original Tiffany glass panels that made up the room’s iconic curved ceiling; and Maisie’s Marketplace, mimicking the hotel’s original ice cream parlor from the ’20s and ’30s with a black and white tile floor and tin ceiling. The content series lives on as a top-nav section on the hotel’s website for users to continue to explore today – and soak in the history as if they were a previous guest visiting during the hotel’s Gilded Age.

Feeling inspired?

If you’re ready to take your experiential destination marketing to the next level, we can help. We power the content marketing for DMOs, hotels, and other travel brands by crafting stories that spark travelers’ interest and getting that content into the right hands with custom magazines, multiple websites, email marketing, blogs, social media, and more. Check out these case studies to see our work in action:

How to Book More Weekday Weddings

in Content Marketing, Event Venues, Search Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Websites by Jennifer Munro

With more and more nuptials canceled due to the novel Coronavirus pandemic, couples are finding it increasingly difficult to rebook weekend dates without pushing their event out a year (or more!). Here’s how smart marketing can help you book more weekday weddings.

No, it’s not just about offering deep discounts to fill your booking calendar. With couples looking to stand out from the crowd, weddings on non-peak days were becoming fashionable even before the virus hit. So how can your venue “flatten the curve” by capturing more weddings per week without running out of room on your calendar? We’ve rounded up five tips to position your venue to capture the attention of prospective couples.

Reposition a Weekday Wedding as a Bold, Deliberate Alternative

Couples want their wedding to be memorable, distinctive, and unique – so challenge that “bargain wedding” trope and reframe the concept. Rebrand a weekday wedding as an opportunity to host a sophisticated evening cocktail party without the traditional bells and whistles. A weeknight wedding also gives the couple the chance to spend a few days relaxing with family before departing for their honeymoon on the weekend.

A brunch wedding is a fantastic choice for those who may not want an evening affair. Though many wedding guests love to cut loose at a Friday- or Saturday-night wedding, if your couple wants to have a more reserved (read: sober) wedding, morning or midday is a great fit. After all, who doesn’t love a good Sunday brunch? Mimosas, Bloody Marys, Eggs Benedict, and a classy jazz band would set the tone for a distinctive, personalized event.

Produce Weekday Wedding Marketing Content

Even though non-peak weddings are becoming increasingly frequent and fashionable, some couples will wrestle with stepping outside the box. Coax them to take the leap by tailoring content toward answering questions and calming anxieties. For example, a guide on how to explain to family members why a weekday wedding date was chosen. If a couple is considering a weekday wedding, chances are they’re researching how to do it well. Help and inspire them with content that conveys why your venue and destination are the perfect setting. For example, a venue in Greenwich, Connecticut, could make a compelling case for a chic, cosmopolitan weeknight cocktail party wedding just an hour outside of NYC. A list of all the activities that make your destination perfect for a weekday celebration will help your couple take advantage of off-peak perks, like reduced traffic and crowds.

Whether your content lives on your blog, on a landing page on your website, or in your print marketing materials, strategic content marketing will help you forge a connection with prospective brides and grooms. Be sure that tailored content gets included the package you hand out or even a standalone brochure for couples who express an interest in a weekday wedding.

Promote Weekday Weddings through Authentic Vignettes from Real Couples

Just because the day of the week changes, the fact remains that your best source of marketing is the couples you already have. Gather their stories and photos to paint a picture of how perfect your prospective couple’s weekday wedding could be at your venue. Obviously, the key here is to focus on some of the ways that the choice of day truly made their event special, so that it doesn’t blend in with other real weddings or testimonials you have from weekend brides. Think: vendor availability, potential discounted rates, and an overall more laid-back vibe.

Market Weekday Weddings to Avoid Big Weekend Events

Scheduling a wedding on a long holiday weekend or an idyllic summer beach day can spell trouble for guests traveling from afar. A weekday wedding is less likely to coincide with a festival, fair, or other large-draw event, alleviating the hassle of traffic jams, securing hotel reservations, and vying for rental cars. But with the right marketing footwork, the opportunities are endless to help a couple transform their weekday wedding into something intentional and memorable. Weekday weddings can also work well for hometown weddings in which most of the attendees don’t have to travel – and the converse is true, as well. Guests traveling internationally will most likely be in the country for at least a week, making the choice of day irrelevant.

Create Weekday Wedding-Themed Pinterest Boards

You already know that Pinterest is the best friend of any wedding planner or venue. Make the platform work for you by creating boards around weekday wedding ideas. Then,  anytime a couple uses those search terms, your boards pop up. For example, “Weekday Wedding: Cocktail Chic,” “Elegant Weeknight Weddings,” or “A Stunning Brunch Wedding.” Create a variety of scenarios, then Pin your heart out.

Use Cost-Per-Lead Goals to Track ROI

in Knowledge Drop by Dan Seitz

Return on Investment. ROI. Working at an agency, I can tell you that ROI is extremely important to our clients. So important that if we don’t prove ROI, these clients might not be clients for very long. So when it comes to understanding ROI for our marketing strategy or tactics, we always need a plan to track ROI. So what does this have to do with determining your target cost per lead? Everything!

To fully understand what you’re getting out of your marketing efforts, you’re going to need to determine your lead value and target cost per lead (CPL).

How to Calculate Target Cost Per Lead (CPL)

To demonstrate, here’s a scenario: I own an upscale wedding venue in New Hampshire. I do pretty well, I see steady bookings, but a competitor just opened up down the road so I want up my game. My marketing agency pitches the idea of starting a paid search campaign through Google to capture newly engaged couples shopping in my targeted geo market. When I ask them how much budget they need, they ask me three questions, which I can answer with a little digging through my CRM:

Average Wedding Revenue: $25,000
Weddings Per Year: 100
Annual Web Inquires: 1,000

With a little math, we establish these numbers:

Number of Inquiries Need to Book One Wedding: 10
Revenue Value Per Inquiry: $2,500

Now, we know you can’t roll all of your revenue into marketing – that would be crazy. Usually I invest around 5% of my annual revenue into marketing, but since I want to be aggressive this year, I’ve decided to budget for 10%. That brings us to this:

Target Cost Per Lead: < $125

With a KPI established before our campaign even starts, I’ll have a benchmark to compare all my campaign reporting to. As long as my monthly investment, divided by the number of leads generated from the campaign (track those conversions goals in Google Analytics), is lower than my $125 CPL, I’m made in the shade and should have all the confidence to continue investing in my campaigns.

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 is currently listening to “The Boys Are Back In Town” on repeat.

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Four Wedding Venue Websites that Hit the Mark

in Event Venues, Websites by Catherine Iannucci

A wedding venue’s website is the initial opportunity to paint a picture of a perfect backdrop for someone’s special day. You could have the most elegant venue, with the most enticing all-inclusive wedding packages, but if your website is lackluster, few couples will ever step foot on your property for a tour. Because without an appealing website, it is virtually impossible to garner the attention of engaged couples. In an age of saturation of wedding websites on the internet, standing out, landing tours, and booking dates is no easy task. Here, we’re highlighting what four top wedding venue websites are getting right – as well as our take on what else they could do to really hit it out of the park.

The Farm

What’s working: A website design that reflects the vibe of a wedding venue is an element that will drive more qualified leads to reach out about a date or a property tour. The Farm lets their imagery do the talking when it comes to conveying their use of nature to set the scene for their weddings. From photos of their rustic decor and spaces to illustrations used to accent the text elements on the website – like acorns, branches, and wheat stalks. Browsing this website, a visitor could easily assess whether the venue fits their style and needs, no reading required.

What could be better: Site speed. A beautifully designed website is no match for the short attention span of most consumers. Clicking from page to page on this website is a bit of a hassle and interferes with the flow of exploring all the available options The Farm offers. According to Forbes, just shy of 50% of users will click off your website if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds or less. Beware of slow loading times — and remember there are plenty of site speed tests you can run to verify loading times for your website.

Christmas House Inn & Gardens

What’s working: Website copy is often overlooked, but is a critical website element. Christmas House does a great job of weaving in colorful details that leave the reader with a clear image in their mind. Flowery language, however, is not the end-all-be-all of great web copy, especially for wedding websites; there has to be a balance between pretty prose and essential details like pricing, package specifics, and other amenities that set your venue apart. Christmas House effectively strikes that balance, leaving couples excited and informed.

What could be better: While they include beautiful imagery on each webpage, and a gallery chock-full of happy memories and property highlights, Christmas House is missing one important visual element: video. Whether we’re talking new-age virtual reality (VR) or tried-and-true video footage of your venue and actual weddings, video is becoming an integral part of venues’ digital marketing efforts.

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The Park Savoy Estate

What’s working: Speaking of VR, The Park Savoy offers website visitors a complete virtual tour of their facilities and property. Web visitors can show themselves around this historic estate in addition to reading through their services and well-maintained blog. A VR tour is an engaging, valuable tool for brides-and-grooms-to-be to get a real sense of the special character of a venue.

What could be better: Where are the services? Park Savoy’s services are not only hidden within a subsection of a larger tab (services is a big one and should always have its own tab) but once you find them, they’re presented in a giant block of text the reader needs to comb through. Always remember to give the people what they want, and do it fast. A wedding venue website should make their list of services easy to find and easily scannable – making people work for it is not a recipe for conversion.

Basin Harbor

What’s working: According to Hubspot, 82% of customers value a timely response to inquiries. Basin Harbor website’s live chat feature is a very valuable asset that most wedding websites are lacking. Website visitors can instant message with a Basin Harbor team member as they browse the website, quickly getting answers to their questions. The live chat also provides Basin Harbor with an opportunity to invite curious browsers to an on-site visit.

What could be better: The wedding page is only one part of the greater Basin Harbor website, and weddings take a back seat to all the venue’s other offerings on the home page. Bringing weddings more to the forefront would help increase awareness of all the venue has to offer prospective brides and grooms.

Related Reading

This blog post is part of our series on how to build powerful wedding & event venue websites. Be sure to check out the other posts, including a 6-minute video with our CEO, Jess Kaiser:

4 Ways to Encourage Millennials to Book Directly

in Content Marketing, Hotels & Resorts by Catherine Iannucci

With over 80 million members, the millennial generation represents the largest market of consumers for the hospitality industry. But they’re also the toughest segment to convert. And the biggest challenge hotels face when trying to reach this ever-elusive demographic? They almost exclusively shop for vacation accommodations online, normally on their cell phones, and the internet is a noisy place.

If you want to be successful in the modern hospitality landscape, it doesn’t cut it to just offer a clean room with a pillow mint and competitive booking rates. Your hotel has to differentiate itself. Most millennials will visit up to 10 (yes, that many) websites before making a booking decision. And their buying habits aren’t the only thing that has changed – millennials are also looking for different things from their hotel stays than generations past. They seek out accommodations that are authentic, as opposed to commercial, and boutique, as opposed to standardized. Luckily, these considerations offer a new window of opportunity for boutique hotels to get in front of the people with the biggest buying power, without the help of online travel agencies that take a hefty commission and decrease profits.

Paint a Picture

The first step to showing millennials that your hotel can provide the authentic experience they crave in a vacation is developing a clear narrative woven throughout your online presence. Focus on details that illustrate your differentiating factors. Is each of your guest rooms styled differently? Do you source food from local purveyors? Does a naturopath or herbalist develop your spa treatments? Great – show it off! Some powerful ways to tell your story online are:

  • Have trusted members of your team (think spa director, chef, sommelier) do a “takeover” on your Instagram stories. Let their expertise shine through and show followers the unique experiences available to them at your property.
  • Make sure that all your content, across platforms, maintains a consistent brand voice. It rings as inauthentic if the voice on your social media is clearly different than the voice on your website.
  • Employ branded video content to showcase your property’s best qualities. Even one beautifully planned, captured, and edited video can elevate your brand considerably in the eyes of consumers.

Spark connections with travelers at every stage of their journey

Drive More Bookings

Use Targeted Paid Social

As we mentioned, millennials tend to visit several websites before actually booking a hotel, and even more internet research goes into planning the trip revolving around a hotel stay. That’s a big digital footprint that you can use to target consumers who have been doing preliminary research on a stay in your area. Paid posts are a worthwhile investment to get your account in front of new eyes anyway, but when you can target consumers already searching in your area, the chances of conversion increase dramatically. If you’re looking for inspiration or assistance, our team of social media gurus can step in to get you rolling.

Offer Incentives on Your Website

If you want consumers to book directly, especially in a world full of OTAs touting the best deal on the internet, you have to offer incentives. Get creative with your offers for booking directly – they don’t all need to be monetary, although that’s always an effective choice. You can also lure in bookings on your website by offering a complimentary room upgrade, a free room-service meal, or one spa treatment of choice upon check-in. An important part of offering incentives is letting website visitors know about them! Compel prospects who are browsing your website to book directly with pop-ups that layout your incentive and include a prominent call-to-action button that prompts them to take advantage of the deal now.

In addition to special pricing and complimentary amenities, The Equinox Golf Resort & Spa’s incentive packages include creative options such as a Land Rover Driving School experience.

Play the Long Game

Millennial consumers came of age in a world when it was commonly believed that good deals on travel accommodations came only from OTAs. That’s a difficult myth to bust, but by educating consumers on the benefits of booking directly through your social media and website presence, you’re chipping away at that outdated belief. One brand that is nailing the educational approach to circumventing OTAs is Hilton. Their multimedia Stop Clicking Around campaign is a great example of how they creatively and efficiently enlighten potential customers on the benefits of booking direct. Even if a prospect doesn’t book directly with your hotel right away, a seed is being planted and it might affect their buying behavior moving forward.

Hilton’s Stop Clicking Around campaign takes the direct approach to helping consumers understand the benefits of booking directly and not playing the OTA game.

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:

How to Design a Wedding Venue Website that Speaks to (and Converts) Millennials

in Event Venues, Photography & Video, Websites by Catherine Shane

Any industry or business that doesn’t pay attention to the latest millennial spending and purchasing habits is doing themselves a big disservice (well, maybe that’s not entirely true; AARP, we’ll let you off the hook on this one). That’s because, as of 2020, millennials account for a quarter of the US population, making them the largest living generation…and most markets’ primary target customers. In fact, relevant to the wedding industry, in particular, millennials make up 80% of today’s marrying couples – 80%!

You’ll know a little bit about this if you’ve already read our blog post, How Millennials Shop for Wedding Venues, which provides a leg up on millennial buying habits in general, but also how they translate to the ways they shop around for venues. In short, millennials are a generation that doesn’t cold call or just show up to a place to get information. They do their research before making contact – and they do it well. Think Instagram as a way to scope out venues and customer reviews on The Knot as their preferred source of endorsements.

For that reason, maintaining a presence across multiple platforms (digital and print) is valuable to get your venue in front of this large demographic. But in order to finally connect and convert, the tool that especially needs to be tailored to this generation’s preferred way to consume information? Your wedding venue website design. Here are the golden rules venues should follow if looking to sync their website to the tune of millennials’ buying patterns, plus the best wedding venue website design examples from our clients.

Highly Visual with Quality Photography/Videography

Imagery is everything to this generation. And when it comes to the venue search, photography is an essential part (case in point: Wedding Spot reports that 86% of users who visit a venue profile on their site also browse the venue’s photos). Therefore, your website must showcase high-quality, authentic-feeling (not stock) images – and a lot of them. Luckily, you’ve likely got access to preferred photographer vendors who have shot weddings at your property, which means they’re apt to provide imagery in exchange for promotion or a negotiated fee.

Example: Red Ridge Receptions

A large carousel gallery of stunning imagery commands the presence of this website’s landing page. And not just any old imagery. We’re talking thoughtfully curated images from past weddings held at this rustic and hidden gem of a venue just outside Austin, Texas, that evoke the experience and subsequent sense of “I want that” from prospective couples.

Market Your Once-in-a-Lifetime Moments

Millennials prefer to spend their money on experiences over material goods. Yes, that can be captured through the use of your website’s once-in-a-lifetime, experience-evoking imagery. But it can also be translated through your website copy. Personal testimonials from previous client couples, as well as “real wedding” stories, help capture weddings as once-in-a-lifetime experiences. And the place to truly celebrate right? Why, your venue of course.

Example: The Vine

Located on this venue’s website landing page, about halfway down, is a collection of image tiles depicting 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.

Be Transparent with Packages, Pricing, Services, and So On

As we stated, millennials do their due diligence in terms of research before picking up a phone or opening an email. This means they are going to gather up as much info as they can about a venue in terms of pricing, packages, services, and more. We’re not saying this information should be front and center on your landing page, but don’t bury it (we suggest including it in the top nav). It’s important to let them know early on what you can and can’t offer them to save them, as well as your sales reps, time.

Example: Christmas House Inn & Gardens

This romantic garden venue, located in Southern California, smartly includes a bulleted list of common details that prospects want to know about the property halfway down its weddings landing page. For example, info about the use of the house and gardens, valet parking, catering, etc. Equally valuable, the navigation bar includes a drop-down menu that clicks to separate pages about the event spaces, after-parties, and pricing.

Position Yourself as a Resource They Need

You know weddings, and you know the latest trends. Leverage that by starting (or regularly updating) your website’s blog with informative content, like “5 Examples of Non-Traditional Bouquets.” The more you can establish yourself as an expert resource, the more couples will trust you – making the sell easier.

Example: Longwood Venues & Destinations

This collection of five wedding and event properties, scattered across the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, features a regularly updated wedding blog, delivering content related to wedding inspiration, trends, culinary arts, and more. Take, for example, “The Pros & Cons of Having a First Look.”

Other Website Cues Millennials Eat Up

Inclusive Terminology: It’s 2020 and love is love, no matter how couples identify. To prevent alienating potential clients, avoid the outdated term of just “bride and groom” or “husband and wife” in your language. Rather, use references such as “bride OR groom,” “couples,” “partners,” or “newlyweds.”

A Clear CTA Across Every Page: Your first and foremost reason for even having a website? To start a convo between you and your potential clients. But users don’t always enter your website through your landing page – often they are accessing other pages first (blog, galleries, other). So be sure the “Contact Us” call-to-action lives on every page (we suggest in the top nav, where it’s consistently positioned and not too “in your face”).

A Short & Sweet Contact Form: You may have heard that millennials have a short attention span (no, you don’t say?). If your contact form is too long and asks too much of a prospect, they won’t complete it. And despite what some people think, millennials are generally protective of the info they give out. In addition to keeping required fields to four or fewer on a form, create a dropdown that asks how they prefer to be contacted (email, phone, text, other) and let them decide how they want to connect.

Does all this sound great, but you’re not sure how to put it into action?

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

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A Resort Marketing Video that Sparks Wanderlust & Drives Action

in Hotels & Resorts, Photography & Video by Ally Cardello

We’ve all seen hotel and resort videos like this: they start with sweeping drone footage of the property and then move into some empty rooms and interiors. They might include some shots of property features like the pool or spa. If you’re lucky, you might see a few people at the bar or eating dinner, but the primary focus isn’t on the guest experience; it’s on the amenities. No matter how expensive the shoot, no matter how beautiful the scenery, these videos all have one thing in common—they don’t inspire action. If your destination marketing video isn’t telling a story and sharing the experience of staying at your property, then it was a waste of money. Because, when it comes down to it, travelers aren’t buying a stay at your hotel—they’re buying an experience in your destination. Your video content needs to sell that experience.

When we set out to create a video for the stunning Wentworth by the Sea, a Marriott Hotel & Spa in New Castle, NH, we knew we wanted to break the mold. We were determined to challenge the status quo and create a resort marketing video that not only highlighted this elegant New England resort and spa, but also showcased the experience guests could expect from their stay. Most marketing videos in the hospitality industry focus on what they want travelers to see or know about their property. Instead, we always ask ourselves and our clients “what do we want our prospective guests to feel?” From there, we can tell the kind of story that will evoke those emotions and resonate deeply with our client’s target audience.

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Eye-Catching Visuals is a Marketing Must

With photography and videography that captures your unique brand experience.

Elevate Your Imagery

A stay at the Wentworth is many things to many people. But, the core of the guest experience is moving away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and settling into the storybook atmosphere of this remarkable resort and location. To walk the streets of New Castle is to take a step back in time on the same bricks people have strolled for hundreds of years. To stay at the Wentworth is to reside on a lush peninsula hugged on three sides by the crashing sea. To eat at the resort’s Salt Kitchen & Bar is to taste the bounty of New England with every bite while laughter and conversation echo around the vaulted, muraled ceiling. The slowed pace of life, a warm and authentic welcome, and the joyous memories made with friends and family aren’t things you can see, they are things that you feel. This video not only inspires those emotions in viewers, but encourages them to take the next step and book a stay.

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The Top 3 Things Couples Expect from Your Wedding Venue’s Website

in Event Venues, Hospitality Huddle Videos by Jessica Kaiser

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With 80% of wedding planning taking place online, your website plays a major role in whether you deliver the right first impression to the nearly 2.5 million couples (mostly millennials) who get engaged each year. More importantly, your website can make or break your chances of couples taking the next step to tour your event space and ultimately book with you.

Problem is, nailing down exactly what the millennial generation of digital natives expect and want to see and do on your website can be a challenge. Millennials say they’re 72% more likely to inquire about touring a property if they can preview details on a website such as pricing, packages, menus, and capacity. But how much is too much? What are the essentials – and what’s likely to be a turn-off? In this 6-minute video, Hawthorn Creative’s CEO, Jessica Kaiser, reveals three actionable items that make a big impact on making your website the lead generator you need it to be.

Related Reading

This video is part of our series on how to build powerful wedding & event venue websites. Be sure to check out our related blog posts:

10 Rules for a Medical Spa to Win at Social Media Marketing

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

Remember Kim Kardashian’s famous “Vampire Facial” Instagram post? You probably do. Posted in March of 2013, it amassed 150,000 likes and 10,000 comments and was shared countless times across the internet in the form of other social posts and commentary on beauty sites.

Besides demonstrating the power of the celeb influencer, this viral post may have also played an early role in paving the way for social media to become the ripe marketing space it is today for medical aesthetic companies. That’s because as celebs and beauty influencers – everyone from Kim K and Chrissy Teigen to Cindy Crawford and Gwyneth Paltrow – become more open about their aesthetic treatments on social media, this kind of content becomes very normal, accepted, and even valued as a resource by consumers. So it would be a major misstep for practitioners not to meet potential patients in their preferred arena. Not to mention, this organic way of marketing is totally free (that is, unless you get into paid campaigns, which are also a good idea, but not something we’re going to tackle in this post).

Eager to get started? Hold your horses. It’s not as simple as posting a picture. Leveraging social media to your benefit requires a time commitment and a good strategy to reach your target audience. Here are 10 ways to tap into this marketing tool – and do it right.

1. Commit to Only 1 or 2 Platforms to Start

As a practitioner, your time is your most valuable resource, so don’t try to start on all platforms at once. If you do, chances are you’ll start out strong but then struggle to maintain momentum across all. Pick no more than three platforms to commit to and master them before adding in more. And because demographics vary by social media platform, be sure to pick platforms that closely align with your target audience. You can learn more about all platform demographics here, as reported in a 2019 study done by the Pew Research Center. Since Facebook and Instagram are likely the main platforms your clients are using, that’s what we’re going to focus mostly on in this post.

Secondly, utilize scheduling tools to save time. Hootsuite, AgoraPulse, and Loomly and are all examples of scheduling software that allow you to collaborate, publish, and measure all your online platforms in one place.

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2. Evaluate the Best Content for Each Platform

According to a 2017 “Cosmetic Surgery on Social Media” survey conducted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), users want to see before-and-after photos, information on procedures, as well as videos of procedures being performed (yes, really!). So how do you give them what they want using Facebook and Instagram?

Facebook

Use this platform for shorter content and pictures – ideally for quick posts, sale announcements, and before-and-after shots. Since before-and-after shots can be somewhat sterile-looking and not always pleasing to the eye, make sure they don’t overrun your feed. Rather, consider saving them to a special “Before & After” album on your page for people to click into if they want to see more.

Instagram

Since Instagram is a highly visual platform, reserve your feed for inspirational visuals that convey natural, healthy, and effortless-looking beauty and well-being (more on this in #4), but with brief captions that reference the treatments that lead to these kinds of looks. Use the Highlights feature (more on this #8) to share before and after images rather than your permanent feed. Lastly, user-generated content (UGC) is also great to share in your Stories, as well as the Highlights section, but stick to posting UGC images that are high quality and in line with your brand vibe.

Videos

While informative, videos of procedures being performed are admittedly not always aesthetically pleasing, so the best home for them is in your IGTV channel (which you manage via a standalone app) or your Facebook Videos section – all it requires is a smartphone camera, a few apps, and some creative ideas. In fact, Facebook provides some video ideas, tips, apps, and tutorials for both its platform and Instagram here.

Another option is to share them on your website or separate YouTube channel, where you can link to this content from your other social platforms. Just be careful not to tease the post with an off-putting procedural image and warn viewers if it is somewhat graphic.

Lastly, experiment with various formats and content. Over time, you’ll learn what generates the best level of engagement from your ideal audience while being practical for your clinic.

3. Be Honest & Authentic in Your Posts

On one hand, social media has become a wonderful platform for beauty campaigns that promote inclusivity for all genders, races, ethnicities, and body types. On the other hand, it can also minimize risks associated with procedures, promote unrealistic expectations, and increase psychological pressure to achieve perfection. Whatever you post, be honest in setting expectations regarding downtime after procedures or the number of sessions required to achieve desired results. You don’t want to be posting something you can’t promise as it can affect your practice’s trustworthiness.

4. Maximize Visual Content – The Right Kind of Visual Content

The bulk of your images should convey natural, healthy, and effortless-looking beauty and well-being – what your clients’ beauty aesthetics aspire to be. The reasoning? Visual content is what attracts users and makes them want to follow you. Instagram and Pinterest are the most visual social media platforms, but even Facebook posts are proven to perform better when accompanied by photos. There’s a lot of competition on social media and having high-quality images is considered a must if you want to grow your engagement.

So where do you get those visuals? If you don’t have an arsenal of professional photography at your disposal, look to stock sites, like Shutterstock, which requires a paid subscription, or Unsplash, offering less variety but for free. The beauty of beauty images is that they’re plentiful, so finding the type of photos that fit your brand’s vibe shouldn’t be difficult.

Maximize High-Quality Visuals

5. Remember to Weave in Value-Driven Content

Again, people use social media as a resource to evaluate procedures and treatments. And as an expert in the medical aesthetics field, you’re just the right person to give them that information. In addition to regular posts that promote your newest services, products, or other, be sure to include links to longer-form content where they can learn more. Ideally, that longer-form content lives on your own blog to chauffeur users to your website (check out our post Content & Email Strategy for Med Spas: Part 1 to dive into the recipe for a solid content strategy). Facebook, in particular, is a great place to push that content out. Instagram is too; however, the links aren’t clickable in the caption format, so either provide a shortened link or, better yet, share the link in your bio and reference it in the caption.

6. Establish a Consistent Posting Cadence as Well as Style

Your messaging tone, colors, and imagery should be consistent across all platforms you are using, as it will help users know what to expect when following you, and cultivates your specific brand imaging.

As for posting frequency, each social media platform has a different ideal posting frequency. The sweet spot for posting on Facebook is a few times a week, Instagram is daily, Twitter is a few times a day, and LinkedIn is once a week. But remember, this is a rough estimate based on industry research and advice. The best thing you can do is keep track of how many posts you’re sharing per day in a spreadsheet, take a look at your analytics after a few weeks, and use the data to determine whether you need to beef up or scale back your frequency.

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7. Be Active & Engage Often

Your practice needs to feel approachable and trustworthy – that’s why it’s important to interact with your users. Check direct messages often and reply always; in posts, reply or simply like comments from those who respond. Creating that connection will, at once, win over prospective clients and beat out all idle competition.

Additionally, don’t shy away from responding to bad reviews or critical comments. Be courteous and professional in any response and ask what you could have done differently. You may turn unhappy clients around, and, even if you don’t, your other clients will see that you care.

8. Use App Features to Your Advantage

On Instagram, the Stories and Highlights features have transformed how users engage. For example, you can use Stories to point to new blog posts on your website or solicit questions about procedures or treatments that users might have that you can then answer in other permanent posts. The Highlights section is also a great way to take users inside your practice through imagery, catalog before-and-after photos, or UGC (user-generated content), and share favorite products or brief looks into certain procedures in action.

Similarly, for longer-form video content, Instagram and Facebook’s live-streaming video feature is a good way to demo products or have aestheticians speak to or demystify certain technologies.

9. Leverage Testimonials or UGC (User-Generated Content)

Now more than ever, peer-to-peer endorsements hugely impact consumer buying decisions, and happy clients can be your best ambassadors. Recruit patients to write reviews on Facebook (maybe throw in an incentive, like a free product or a discount on their next treatment) or encourage them to use the “Check-In” feature when they arrive for their appointment, prompting friends to click on your page for more information.

Also, if a user tags your practice in a personal post about feeling or looking great thanks to a particular procedure, treatment, or product on Instagram, use it (just be sure to attribute to them)! If their image isn’t great quality or quite on-brand, you can still share it in your Stories or add it to a Highlights reel titled something clever like “Our Glowing Clients.”

10. Make Contacting You & Finding Your Website Easy

It’s important to not lose sight of why you’re working so hard on developing and maintaining your social media: to, eventually, convert clients (read: funnel those followers to your website, where they can access key information regarding your services or book a consultation). On Instagram, that means linking your website and address (or greater area you serve) in your bio, as well as including a “Contact” button for phone number and email. On Facebook, when first setting up your business page, you’ll be prompted to enter your clinic’s address, contact information, and hours. There’s also an “About” section and “Contact Me” call-to-action button that you can include.

While contact info seems like an obvious thing to include, it can get overlooked as practices try to make sure they’re following all of the above steps. And it’s arguably the most important, as it renders all other strategies useless if you’re lacking the means to assist prospects in conversion.

Does all this sound great, but you’re not sure how to put it into action?

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This Should Be Your First Step After Launching a Website

in Knowledge Drop, Websites by Dan Seitz

So you’ve launched your new website and now leads and inquiries are starting to come in. Life is good, right? After all, you’ve spent all this effort and money on your new site, now it’s time to kick back and watch the dollars roll in. But you just can’t help but think, “is this the best my site can do? Should I be satisfied with this amount of leads? How can I tell?” Well, if you haven’t set up Conversion Goals in your Google Analytics account, you’ll never truly know how this new site of yours is performing (and if you haven’t set up Google Analytics, then you have even more work to do!).

When it comes to gauging the success of your website and overall digital marketing program, Conversion Rate is the number-one key performance indicator (KPI) you need to track – and the only way to do that is to set up Conversion Goals.

What are Conversion Goals?

These are the desired actions you want users to take on your website, and the metric used to measure them. This action could be filling out a contact form, booking a reservation, or downloading some sort of gated content. It’s up to you to define these actions, by setting Conversion Goals in your Google Analytics (GA) account (and Google Tag Manager, if your site is a bit more complex).

What is a Conversion Rate?

This is the percentage of users who take those desired actions. Using the goals you established, you can see just how much of your traffic turns into inquiries, leads, downloads, and ultimately, revenue. Conversion rates can vary widely by industry and goal, with a healthy average around 2% to 5%, but it’s important for you to set your own goals and establish your own benchmark metrics to monitor growth and success.

To learn more about analytics goals and how to set them up, click here.

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Track, Learn, Repeat

So many of our clients forget that the work doesn’t stop once their new site is launched. A site is only as good as the data you collect from it. Without understanding how your traffic and users are ultimately turning into leads or revenue, you’ll never truly know if your website is delivering results.

With these goals in place, you’ll have a much clearer picture of how your website and marketing efforts are working together to drive success.

Dan Seitz is the Director of Strategy at Hawthorn Creative and has helped execute marketing strategies for clients from all over the hospitality industry. His favorite Avenger? Captain America.

How a Hotel Can Pivot Its Marketing to Provide Much-Needed Moments of Escapism

in Content Marketing, Destination Marketing Organizations, Hotels & Resorts, Photography & Video, Websites by Catherine Shane

The idea of “armchair travel” or “armchair escapism” is nothing new. If you’ve ever become engrossed with a good book or been suddenly sucked into a travel show on TV, you’ve experienced it. And with the rise of experiential travel in recent years, we’ve been spoon-fed little bits of escapism regularly in the form of travel influencers on social media, paid Facebook ads from travel and tourism bureaus, and blog content from your favorite travel gear brands.

With stay-at-home orders in place as we weather our way through this global pandemic, you’d think content built around travel inspiration or wanderlust might naturally fall to the wayside. But, in fact, it’s the very opposite. Because the public has more time than ever right now and are looking for uplifting ways to curb the inevitable anxiety that arises every time they turn on the news. And travel escapism – whether that’s in the form of a simple Instagram post or a company’s whole revamped blog site – is a valuable medium to do that. So, why not give the people what they want?

Many savvy hotels and other travel industry businesses are doing just that by pivoting and/or amplifying their marketing plan to provide valuable moments of escape under the on-brand theme of travel and wellness. And the benefit is twofold: Not only is it a nice distraction for people during this globally turbulent time, but it builds a brand’s loyalty to better position the hotel to capitalize on the travel demand once recovery sets in. And like we stated in our last post, 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Pause Your Marketing During a Crisis, businesses who continue to invest in their marketing to engage with their consumers – rather than go dark – historically do better during a recession, as well as outperform their competitors in the long-term. So with all this in mind, we look at a few ways various hotels and travel brands are using their marketing to create and deliver these much-needed moments of armchair travel – and, more importantly, bolster their brand in the process.

Digital Version of Opal Magazine Offering Escapism with April Email Campaign

Opal Unpacked is the travel and lifestyle blog that Hawthorn Creative manages for Opal Collection, a collection of 19 luxury, waterside resort properties scattered up and down the Eastern Seaboard from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Key West, Florida. In addition to writing and loading content for this blog, Hawthorn also manages a series of email campaigns targeting subscribers and past resort guests, including a monthly “Opal-wide” campaign that shares a hand-selected assortment of blog content to cross-promote the different resort destinations.

But for the month of April, we decided to take this monthly template and, instead, use it to push out content from the annual travel magazine, which we also produce for this client, and that had just been printed. While we had originally planned to push out other blog posts in this monthly campaign, it no longer jived with the messaging we have temporarily adopted for the client during this pandemic, which is to simply give their valued guests moments of escape. And that it did. With a subject heading of “Enjoy a Little Armchair Escapism on Opal,” it was sent to more than 400,000 subscribers and reported an open rate of 31% (to put that in perspective, the open rate for these monthly sends typical hover between 16% and 19%).

Opal Unpacked April Email Campaign
The campaign offered up a bit of escapism by sharing 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.

The best part? This was content our client already had on hand. No additional work or charge came from creating this campaign or the ePub itself (all of Hawthorn’s print magazines are available in digital format), showing that there are ways to creatively pivot and repurpose content without missing a beat – and that’s when having a creative marketing agency, like Hawthorn Creative, in your back pocket comes in handy.

Special Website Page Curated with “At Home with Six Senses” Content

Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas manages 18 hotels and resorts and 30 spas in 21 countries, from remote islands in the Maldives to the mountains of the French Alps. Since a big part of the hotel brand focuses on health and well-being, they recently created a special page on their website called At Home with Six Senses that utilizes in-hotel wellness experts and partners to deliver online sessions and other content. For example, there are how-to videos for immunity-boosting food and drinks to make at home and a “VP (Visiting Practitioner) Talks” series that speaks to partnering practitioners about tips for better sleep, breathing exercises, mediation, and more.

Coupled with a custom hashtag, #AtHomewithSixSenses, the hotel collection encourages staying home while pushing this content out on its social media channels. “For now, you might not be able to come and see us,” states the brand on their website. “We hope that, in our small, small way, we can offer some positivity to support your well-being during this time.” Consider our interest piqued.

Four Seasons’ Wanderlust-Inspiring Social Content

No, no one’s traveling right now. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t dreaming about it. And Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is taking advantage of that by providing fuel for future travel daydreams. Operating more than 100 hotels worldwide, the collection is putting its massive photo assets to good use by almost exclusively filling its Instagram and Facebook feeds with high-quality, wanderlust-inducing imagery from its various destinations and resort properties.

Take, for example, this post and caption about dreaming about the “bucket-list views” of Johannesburg’s historic Westcliff neighborhood as seen from their hotel. Or this other post capturing the lush tropical landscape of Desroches Island, a private island in the Seychelles, where another property is based. They all come accompanied with a custom hashtag #DreamWithFS, making searching for more inspirational content easy (the 100 other Four Season properties use this same hashtag in their own feeds).

Belmond’s Live-Streaming “Belmond Invitations” Series on IGTV

When you stay at one of Belmond’s 46 hotels, river-cruises, and trains spanning 24 countries, you can always expect cultural activities – from poetry to live music – woven into the experience. So the luxury hospitality brand simply migrated that philosophy to its Instagram page by creating “Belmond Invitations,” a campaign consisting of virtual programs to provide entertaining experiences for armchair travelers. Streamed on Belmond IGTV, the series kicked off in late March with a live performance by British pianist Joe Stilgoe (he played jazz in honor of the brand’s Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, which was originally scheduled to host a Roaring ’20s-themed ride the same weekend).

It has since been followed by other live sessions, including meditation with celebrity yoga guru, Nadia Narain; an Easter-themed floral workshop led by UK-revered florist, Simon Lycett; and various cooking tutorials from world-renowned French chef, Raymond Blanc. Now, think of how amazing these types of hotel experiences will be once guests can travel to various Belmond properties again? It’s a smart way to keep the brand relevant, their followers entertained, and entice future guest stays.

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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. If you have any questions about this article or want to talk about how we can help prepare you for success the moment your doors open again, please reach out to us online. 

3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Pause Your Marketing During a Crisis

in Search Marketing, Social Media Marketing by Catherine Shane

It feels as though the coronavirus crisis has brought our world to a sudden screeching halt. Sporting events have been canceled. Travel restrictions have been put into place. The public has hunkered down. The economy is at a standstill. So it’s no surprise that the gut instinct for business owners when it comes to their marketing strategy is to follow suit: to simply freeze all efforts, whether it’s email campaigns, paid social campaigns, or organic blog content that lives on your website. After all, it’s important to control costs during an economic downturn. Nor do you want to come off as insensitive or out-of-touch to your consumers.

But, as we pointed out in our recent post, Your Brand’s Role on Social Media amid Coronavirus, going dark with your marketing is a major misstep. The name of the game is about pausing your current strategy and pivoting to make your brand valuable during this crisis (jump down to the article’s section titled “Pivot & Post with Purpose” to learn more). But if you still don’t feel ready to press play again, we give you three good reasons why you should.

History as Proof

During global crises, like recessions, consumers naturally reduce their spending, which leads to businesses, as their sales drop, having to cut their own costs wherever they can. But numerous case studies over the years prove that the businesses that retain their marketing/advertising budget or change their marketing/advertising message to adapt to the current economy are the ones that survive.

We here at Hawthorn work closely with a lot of hotels and resort collections, so we’re going to reference one study in particular: Winners and Losers during the Great Recession: The Positive Impact of Marketing Expenditures, which took a look at the US hotel industry during the most recent financial crisis of 2008.

While the entire lodging industry obviously felt the effects of the last recession, the intention of this 2015 study was to shed light on what hotels – those that really hurt versus those who emerged with a stronger cash flow – did differently. After identifying what were considered 100 “winning” hotels and 106 “losing” hotels (based on high or low financial performance during the lowest point of the recession), the study compared all the different costs cut and efforts to increase profits as the recession wore on. In the end, the one glaring factor that separated the winners from the losers? The winners continued to invest in their marketing; the losers didn’t. And the winners didn’t just outperform their competitors in the short-term, but long-term as well. According to the report, “this data leads to the conclusion that firms that ‘invest’ in marketing, especially in tough times, can achieve a payoff […] and will realize gains beyond just the short-term.”

The takeaway? How a business handles its marketing during a crisis clearly affects performance after the crisis. The ones who take a machete to the marketing budget – rather than a scalpel to carefully adjust strategies – suffer more and longer. And who wants to come out of this stuck at the bottom?

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People Are on Their Phones Constantly Right Now

Everyone from comedians David Spade and Sarah Silverman to New York Times tech and internet culture correspondent Nellie Bowles have reported an undeniable surge in their personal weekly screen time in the last few weeks (iPhone users can thank their Sunday Screen Time Alerts for that!).

No, we can’t say this would also be the case during other types of crises, but in the case of this pandemic, it’s obviously a direct result of social distancing. People stuck at home are actively toggling between social platforms, seeking out content to consume that passes the time. So, while it feels odd to say it, this is actually an opportunity to get your brand in front of more eyes than ever. And by using your brand to give them valuable moments of zen or escapism, it makes your company all the more valuable to them.

Take, for example, Budweiser. In a time when social engagement is down across the board (because of brands pressing the pause button), the beer conglomerate reports an increase in its social engagement for March of 2020. That’s because they never stopped posting…and what they’re posting, people are responding to. In fact, their top two performing posts for the month both took place on March 19: The first was a punny post on Facebook that generated 38,000 likes, 1,400 comments, and 11,000 shares; the second – another Facebook post, which asked followers to post the names of people who are “going above and beyond right now” in the face of the crisis – saw 28,000 likes, 3,700 comments, and 1,700 shares.

Budweiser Facebook Post
Budweiser’s punny March 19th post, captioned “On the bright side, if you look outside…the beautiful Buds are blooming for the first day of spring,” saw 11,000 shares – proof that, with the right message, brands actually have an opportunity to get in front of more eyes than ever right now.

No, you can’t carry on with business as usual with your social presence (note: you don’t see Budweiser suggesting to sling back a Bud with your bros in either of these posts). Instead, your new strategy should work to solidify relationships and build your brand as one consumers can trust…because they’re actively listening right now. That way, when recovery begins, you’ll be in a better place to convert customers.

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Take the Plunge

Your Brand Has the Power to Help This Crisis

Unfortunately, there’s simply nothing that can be done to get more heads in beds, events booked, or tickets purchased right now. So the best thing companies – everyone from hotels and wedding venues to DMCs and airlines – can do for the time being is offer support in any way they can. Because it’s the only way we’ll end this pandemic sooner than later.

Hotels.com is one travel brand doing that right now. Again, while many travel companies have paused their campaigns or reduced their ad spending right now, the OTA is using already-booked airtime for their previously planned campaign to run a new one: one that uses the brand’s mascot, Captain Obvious, to encourage the state and federal orders of staying home. It works for many reasons: it serves as a public service announcement, it’s on-brand, and it helps build brand trust. Just read the 40-something comments posted to the 15-second ad on YouTube, including “It’s not often that I stop my fast forward to rewind so I can see a commercial. Good job Hotels.com. Thank you Captain Obvious.”

Hotels.com TV Ad
“We didn’t feel the tone of our usual advertising was right for the current environment,” says a spokesperson for Hotels.com. “For the airtime we had remaining, we opted for a message that reinforces the guidance to stay home.”

Other examples: Airbnb partnering with hosts to help provide free or subsidized housing for 100,000 COVID-19 responders around the world; Beekeepers Naturals sending their body care products to first responders; Everlane donating 100% of proceeds from sales of their “Human Collection” to Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

If you’re one of those companies doing good deeds, don’t hesitate to work that into your marketing. It’s the kind of stuff your consumers care about right now. And, it can help put pressure on others to follow your lead.

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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. If you have any questions about this article or want to talk about how we can help prepare you for success the moment your doors open again, please reach out to us online. 

Your Brand’s Role on Social Media Amid Coronavirus

in Brand Strategy, Email Marketing, Photography & Video, Search Marketing, Social Media Marketing by Corey Scarano

As if getting your brand’s social media strategy right wasn’t already a challenge, navigating your messaging now – amid a global health crisis – can feel borderline hopeless. You may be tempted to just not do anything at all, but going dark on your channels does not set your business up for social success for when this time passes, and it definitely won’t provide the assurance your audience may need from you right now. Conversely, continuing your organic and paid social campaigns as usual without acknowledging the current situation won’t likely be well-received, either.

With no roadmap to follow, the best approach your business can take to navigate your social media presence is to use each platform in the ways they were originally intended. Connecting in real-time. Engaging authentically. Posting organically. It may sound easy, but in actuality, it takes more time, effort, and creativity to engage within these social spheres on a regular basis than any other tactic commonly used. That’s why we’ve provided some concrete tips, to-dos, and marketing measures any business or brand can take to assure their social media messaging remains meaningful and mindful during this period of fear and uncertainty.

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Pause & Proceed with Caution

With protocols and cultural sentiment changing and evolving so rapidly, it is crucial to evaluate any scheduled content you have and adjust as necessary. We’d suggest pausing all paid and organic posts scheduled past the current week and re-evaluate each on a week-to-week basis. Think about it this way: Last week, a post about going out to eat was fine. This week? Not so much. It only takes one “set it and forget it” Instagram post promoting a dinner date night this weekend to come off as insensitive or out of touch.

Take a step back from your usual strategies and practice social listening. It’s as easy as setting aside 15 minutes each day to scroll through your Instagram feed to explore what different brands and businesses are posting, how the content has shifted (topic, tone, context), and if it seems to be effective or not. A quick scroll through the comments section on any given post will usually indicate the post’s success level based on the audience response. Now, just through social listening, you have discovered which post types to avoid, what content is resonating with the audience, and how your brand can positively contribute. It’s also crucial to practice social listening by engaging within your own posts. Take the time to read and reply to comments and messages with empathy.

Pro Tip: Take a look at what, where, and when your competitors are posting on different platforms to better understand how your messaging will be received.

Pivot & Post with Purpose

So if you don’t go dark but you can’t post as usual, what do you post as a brand? First, it’s okay to not outwardly address the current global pandemic if it doesn’t make sense to. It’s also okay to scale back the frequency with which you post. There is an endless stream of news filling each social space right now and it can feel inescapable. Maybe your brand’s place in social media is instead providing some relief. Understand the unique role your brand plays in people’s lives, how that has (or hasn’t) changed, and how your brand can help or be useful during this crisis. A floral shop may post daily bright, vibrant bouquets to brighten your day. A day spa could provide DIY face mask treatments to try at home. A coffee shop may post about the free java station they set up outside the nearby hospital to show their locals love. The list goes on. Your core purpose just needs to pivot. Don’t overthink it.

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Pro Tip: Consider asking your audience what they want to see from you, making it a two-way conversation. You can also ask your audience for ways your company could provide support and get involved right now – it could be using your social platform to spread the word about a local charity or donating what you can to surrounding communities. This demonstrates not only that your brand is aware of the complexity of the issue, but that you are supportive and sensitive to what consumers are going through.

In a seemingly simple post, BarkBox addresses the current situation, provides relevant comedic relief, and encourages audience engagement.

Nail Down Your New Normal…Then Build on Brighter Days Ahead

With so much still unraveling and many unknowns ahead, it’s vital to figure out what your company’s new normal looks like and operate accordingly. Update any change to business hours or contact information ASAP on Google My Business and all social profiles. Use technology to your advantage and explore the variety of virtual experiences millions are using to stay connected. From simply offering video chat with customers to e-hosting a company cocktail hour with remote raffle prizes, the ways to connect are truly limitless, and a little creativity can go a long way.

Providing virtual experiences in alignment with your brand can spark hope and trust today and inspire action at the right time.

That goes for your product offerings as well. During this uncertain time period, identify your product-market fit and see if repositioning products at a special discount could make sense. Many people are at home browsing, looking for discounts to save money during a time of unrest. It’s a great way to engage with your customers and keep a steady stream of revenue that will keep your doors open. You can push out your special offers through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and social media. For instance, hotels could offer a future travel package where you buy three nights now, at a reduced rate, to use at any time (that capacity allows) in the future. It’s a trip that’s ready when you are. Perhaps spas can offer a free 15-minute video consult during this downtime, paired with a $25 gift card to be used toward the customer’s next treatment.

Yes, these are challenging times for everyone. But your business can still flourish if you’re willing to try some new approaches, reposition your products or messaging, and above all, continue to connect with compassion and empathy. Now is the time to connect with your customers like never before – not separate from them.

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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. If you have any questions about this article or want to talk about how we can help prepare you for success the moment your doors open again, please reach out to us online. 

Bounce Rate: What It Is and Why It Matters

in Knowledge Drop by Dan Seitz

We all have questions about Bounce Rate. “Is mine any good? What is the average? How the heck do I lower mine?” These are all valid questions, especially if you have a metric that is saying that 80% of your website visitors are leaving without taking a single action! But before you panic, let’s understand what a Bounce Rate is and why it matters.

What Is Bounce Rate?

Bounce Rate is the average number of website visitors who leave without taking further action. That means, no clicking to other pages, no video views, no content downloads, and certainly no forms completed. They had their way with your landing page content and then left, never to be heard from again (…maybe).

As a marketer, you know not every visitor coming to your site is going to stay and do something, but still, you want this number to be as low as possible. An acceptable Bounce Rate varies significantly from industry to industry, but on average, it should be around 60% or less. However, it’s important to recognize your industry and marketing efforts before you set your sights on a specific target rate.

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Why Does Bounce Rate Matter?

Bounce Rate is an important metric – it scratches a hard-to-reach and important itch. Much like Conversion Rate, Bounce Rate helps paint a picture of whether or not your site provides value to your audience and if your audience is interested in what you have to say.

Example: Say you have an 80% Bounce Rate, and you’ve determined that you need to be closer to 60%. That means 8 out of 10 people leave your site without taking further action. This could mean two things, or a combination of both:
Your website content is not relevant to your audience, or
Your audience is not relevant to your content

By investigating your website’s bounce rate, you’ve potentially identified two actionable problems to fix within your marketing plan. In other words, fix your content, or fix your audience.

What Can You Do About It?

Let’s get that Bounce Rate down to where you want it. Here are some things you can do right now. Find the pages with the highest bounce rate and ask yourself these questions:

How are users getting to this page? Is it an email campaign? Social media link? Paid or organic search? Whatever the source, the user clicked your link because they were expecting to find a particular piece of content. Does the content on this page fulfill that expectation? If you promised them content about “outdoor wedding venue packages in Boston, MA,” then that’s the content you need to deliver. Reassess your content to make sure the value is clear and matches your users’ expectations.

Are they actually consuming the content? Are they spending enough time on the page to get the value from the content? Check out the “Time on Page” data in your Google Analytics account. Does that seem like a reasonable amount of time for someone to consume the page’s content? If not, look at the page design. Could the look of it be turning off your users? Does it load too slowly? Deliver a poor mobile experience? Your website should be working for you, not against you.

Are you asking users to stay or do something? Have you made it clear to the user what it is you want them to do? View more blog posts, subscribe to a newsletter, check out a photo gallery, submit a form? Make these actions as easy as possible for the user. Investing time into creating an awesome user experience will ensure that your audience finds what they’re looking for and will help those Bounce Rates down.

Now that you understand Bounce Rates a little more, you can assess your site and identify the actionable steps to take to keep that Bounce Rate as low as possible. For more content like this, click here.

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 that stealing money out of a wishing well doesn’t make much cents.

 

 

5 Medical Aesthetic Website Features That Convert Clients

in Medical Aesthetic Spas, Practices & Suppliers, Websites by Catherine Iannucci

As global awareness of wellness and self-care has hit an all-time high, society’s perception of cosmetic procedures as “taboo” has declined, resulting in more and more consumers looking to put their best face forward as they age. That’s great news for the medical aesthetics industry because it means more opportunity for business from clients looking to reap the beauty benefits of the latest and greatest treatments, like dermal fillers, body contouring, and laser hair removal.

But this burgeoning industry also means it’s rife with competition and reaching prospective consumers in a crowded marketplace can seem like a daunting task. This is where your website comes in as one of the tools to help raise your business above the noise. Rather than listing out a litany of services, your website should equip consumers with the information they need to feel comfortable putting their aesthetic future in your hands. Here, using a handful of existing med spa sites as examples, we share a few of the must-have website features to establish your brand as a trusted resource so that clients feel confident – and eager – to click the contact button.

Humanizing the People Behind Your Practice

A page dedicated to introducing your staff helps build trust with potential clients – after all, they likely already feel a bit vulnerable because the mere act of considering a consultation means putting their personal health and beauty under the microscope. So it can ease tension considerably if a client is able to put a face to a name before committing to a visit. Visage Med Spa, a Chicago-based med spa, does that and goes one step beyond by including a special Q&A section with each employee, allowing each of the staff members’ personalities to shine through.

Quality Visuals That Inspire Clients to Act

Inspirational visuals – ones that convey natural and effortless-looking beauty – are key to converting a website visitor into an on-site visitor. A med spa deep in the heart of West Virginia’s Mountaineer Country, Willow Med Spa & Salon boasts a website that expertly integrates inspirational visual elements throughout the user experience, from the links to services on the bottom of the homepage to the “schedule an appointment” subpage. But what really hits it out of the park is the full-screen video at the top of the landing page that takes viewers through a patient’s appointment experience at the spa – from sitting in the waiting room and sipping a glass of wine to meeting with the practitioner, plus quick cuts of the variety of services they offer. The clean, bright footage fits seamlessly into the overall aesthetic of the website and gives visitors a chance to envision what a trip to Willow Med Spa & Salon could mean for them.

A Blog That Positions You as a Valued Resource

As a medical aesthetics spa, you want to establish yourself as a trusted resource for existing and potential clients, and a well-curated blog is a great way to do that. The Med Spa, set in Chicago, features a regularly updated blog on its website, covering everything from informational posts about some of the lesser-known, more complex services they offer, along with helpful posts that speak to home regimen questions like “Skin Exfoliation: Where To Begin?” and “The Benefits of Washing Your Face Multiple Times Per Day.” Their approach to offering up useful content before clients even walk through the door helps establish this med spa as an authority on beauty and wellness – and may even introduce existing clients to a treatment they didn’t know they wanted.

Video as a Teaching & Trust-Building Tool

It’s plain to see that Dr. Sheena Kong Med Spa’s signature selling point is its main practitioner and namesake, Dr. Sheena Kong. She’s not only an MD, but an expert at conveying treatment benefits in a way that’s easy to understand. So this San Francisco practice capitalizes on that by featuring Dr. Kong throughout the med spa’s website through the use of video. From the introductory video, where she establishes her credentials and how her practice operates, to putting her expertise and knowledge on display by breaking down the body contouring Emsculpt system, this med spa uses video as a way to explain complex treatments and develop trust with its patients and prospective clients.

Accolades and Client Endorsements to Impact Buying Decisions

The Flatiron neighborhood of New York City is home to a med spa whose website is truly hitting all the marks. Tracie Martyn rises above the competition with well-written website copy and blog content, high-quality and inspirational beauty visuals, and video content that reinforces the brand’s unique guiding principles. But another unique feature that this med spa’s website does really well is its testimonials, particularly by offering a healthy (not overwhelming) mix of endorsements woven throughout the user experience.

We’re talking reviews from everyday clients to accolades awarded by media outlets, like Coveteur, to direct quotes from a range of celebrities of all ages, like actress Diane Lane, model Karlie Kloss, and fashion house icon Diane von Fürstenberg. Even the online store boasts reviews for each product. Sure, you may not have celebrity patients at your disposal, but you do have loyal clients with valuable feedback to work in as powerful touchpoints throughout your website. Why so important? Because, now more than ever, peer-to-peer testimonials hugely impact consumer buying decisions. Here’s some proof: A 2019 study survey from Wyzowl showed that 95% of people say that reviews (whether positive or negative) influence their purchasing decisions.

If you’re a med spa with a knowledgeable staff, helpful online resources, and rave reviews from existing clients to back up the former, your website has the potential to be one of your most powerful marketing tools. Just remember to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s working for your competitors and businesses in similar industries – wellness centers, beauty salons, etc. As with any other part of your business, it will need to grow and change with the industry.

How to Keep Your Venue Afloat Amid the COVID-19 Crisis

in Brand Strategy, Event Venues by Corey Scarano

There’s no denying it: We’re living through a period of uncertainty and angst that we won’t soon forget. Like many of you, we’re doing our best to navigate these uncharted waters with empathy and optimism. With each day comes updated news and discoveries on the many impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19), which means your game plan has likely shifted each day as well. Here, we’ve provided some concrete, actionable steps to consider – from securing cash flow to communicating with your customers during this time – that can help keep your business above water, your company healthy, and the future of the hospitality industry secure.

First Things First: Get Your Finances in Order

The unprecedented public health shutdown due to coronavirus is posing serious challenges to small businesses, many of which have been forced to cease normal operations. “If any hard but important lessons are to be learned from this devastation, it’s that is cash and access to cash is the life of one’s business; therefore, planning for adequate cash reserves should be the number-one priority of all businesses,” said California-based CPA, Trina Rosen, when providing strategies on how to stay afloat until the storm passes. During this downtime, Rosen suggests that business owners evaluate their contracts and especially cancellation clauses, look into budgeting tools for the future, and establish working capital and cash reserve goals to be implemented after this disaster passes.

Take Advantage of Federal Relief…ASAP

Coronavirus is making a huge dent in the business world and economy, but don’t panic: The government is feeling the heat to pass legislation to help small businesses and individuals negatively impacted by the virus. The government will be providing millions of dollars in funds for low-interest federal disaster loans, backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA). This SBA loan has an interest rate of 3.75 percent, a loan term of 30 years, and repayments don’t begin for at least four months from the date the loan is secured. Businesses can apply for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan to help cover expenses that companies can’t afford due to the virus. This includes payroll expenses, accounts payable, and fixed debts.

We’re also closely watching the details that are unfolding regarding the $2 trillion economic stimulus package that’s being made available to small businesses that have been forced to shut down, or that have seen at least a 50 percent decline in gross revenue over the same period last year. As of right now, it appears that at least a portion of the government-funded loans through the SBA may be forgiven after June 30 if businesses are able to maintain payroll levels through the end of Q2. In addition to low-interest SBA loans, the government is offsetting mandatory paid sick and paid leave costs (signed into law on March 18) for employers with an employer tax credit, equal to 100 percent of the benefits doled out. We also recommend looking at your corporate insurance to determine if you have business disruption insurance and if there’s a clause for viruses. If you’re one of the fortunate few without a clause, you can also file a business disruption claim. You can find additional small business relief programs here.

Work with Vendors & Clients to Pause, Not Cancel

Remember that many businesses are feeling the same hit you are. Practicing empathy, sharing experiences, and being authentic with client communication right now will go a long way. Letting your valuable vendors or clients know that you are willing to work with them at a slower pace or even hitting “pause” on ongoing or larger projects for the immediate future can prevent cancellations and preserve relationships for the future. Slowing down accounts payable payments is a strategy that can stretch the cash. And chances are, your clients will be grateful to be able to hit “pause” or work out a payment plan instead of going through an entire cancellation process for a product or service they actually love and find great value in.

Communicate Internally Often & Honestly

No one likes being left out of the loop, especially when something like the coronavirus strikes. When it comes to protecting your business, you must, must, must communicate with your managers and keep them up to date, which means you must stay up to date as well. Check the CDC’s website every day for more information about the outbreak, as well as your state and local news for details about the spread and regulations pertaining to COVID-19 (e.g., closing of schools, restaurants). Company-wide uncertainty and anxiety will not result in good or meaningful work, which may be what you need most right now. With more and more companies implementing work-from-home plans, that internal connectedness becomes even more crucial to the health of your company and culture. Managers should check in with their teams at least twice a week and be available to talk through their employees’ concerns or questions.

Communicate with Your Audience

How do you encourage your audience to book during a pandemic? You don’t. It’s no surprise that most businesses can’t run their campaigns, social media, or content marketing as usual right now. But by no means should you drop all communication. You just need to take a step back and ask, “How can we positively provide content for our people right now?” The biggest challenge going forward is identifying precisely what you can contribute right now to inspire brighter times to come (future bookings) while striking the right tone in the meantime. The experiences your company provides are already inspirational, which means that right now, it can provide a lot of hope. Practice being human and communicate on social platforms more with your comments, messages, and feed, rather than pushing out your own posts. Being authentic, empathetic, and mindful with all outlets of your messaging right now will go a long way when normalcy returns.


POSTS OF POSITIVITY: Four Seasons spotlights some of their past pup guests, saying, “four-legged friends make our days brighter – at the hotel and at home.”


SHOWING SUPPORT INDUSTRY-WIDE: A simple message of support and empathy goes a long way, Longwood Venues writes, “…No one wants things to be back to normal more than the hospitality industry and our amazing couples. Feeling all of your love.”


PROVIDING VIRTUAL TOURS: A great outlet to remind couples of right now, as The Vine does with a light-hearted post, that allows them to keep their excitement and planning alive amid the crisis and social distancing.


A SIMPLE, POWERFUL SHIFT: Utilizing existing imagery, VisitColorado has shifted to posting short videos of the state’s stunning settings for users to enjoy daily doses of “Colorado Calm.”

Stay Positive & Prepare for Recovery

When the immediate future is full of unknowns, we can keep a level head by setting aside some time each day to look ahead to when we recover. Take what you’ve learned and work on new policies or plans for your business, revisit paused projects, campaigns, and ad copy and update where necessary – make sure you’re ready to hit the ground running when the time is right, Perhaps you prepare an email or paid social media campaign to go out when normalcy returns in an effort to reach those potential customers and get them to book a new trip, stay, or event.

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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.

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