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Travel Restrictions Are Lifting – What that Means for Your Hotel Marketing Plan

It is safe to say that the pandemic-that-shall-not-be-named made a big impact on the world. As we all know, travel and tourism has been one of the sectors most impacted over the course of the past 20 months. 

The good news is as the vaccine becomes more easily accessible globally and available to children (for now, ages 5 – 17), travelers are ready to hit the road, air, and sea. 

The bad news? Your marketing efforts waned a bit over the course of the pandemic due to border closures, travel restrictions, and a bonafide lack of demand. 

But to quote Bob Dylan, these times they are a-changing. 

So, here are a few ways that you can beef up your marketing strategy as travel restrictions lift. 

1. Align your Marketing and Revenue Management Strategy: When developing a strong marketing strategy, it is vital to align every aspect of the business. This means that direct booking perks, new offers, benefits and packages, and flexible cancellation policies should be known and out there for the world to find. 

2. Prepare Your Website: Your website should serve as a peek into what’s happening with the hotel and allow potential guests to find information they need to easily (key word there) book online. 

Take the guesswork out of the experience for potential clients and repeat guests. Example: the hotel is open and accepting reservations, our restaurant is currently closed during this time, the spa is taking limited reservations, etc.

In addition, make sure you highlight that the hotel is still taking proper precautions (and list those precautions as they evolve) to ensure the overall safety of everyone.

Lastly, it never hurt to have a blog that you continually update to highlight any new amenities, rooms, menu changes, etc. 

  • Implement a Flexible Cancellation Policy: This added peace of mind for guests can be just what they need to commit to booking with you. Life happens, as we’ve seen these COVID years; the assurance that they could rearrange their schedule or cancel without penalty puts less pressure on the guests.
  • Amp up your posting, blogging, and email marketing: if you slowed your pace, now is a great time to pick it back up again. Start showing what’s going on, start opening a more continuous dialogue with guests and travelers.

And, as always, continue to stay on top of any potential changes in travel restrictions. As the times are still delicate and flexing, it’s best to be informed so that you can better assist guests as they make their own plans. 

Good luck! 

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Hotel Marketing In a Post-Pandemic World

For hotels and hospitality, trying to beat back the epic whiplash that has been the Covid Pandemic this past 19 months has been one for the books. 

Guests want to travel. Guests cannot travel. Countries have opened borders, countries have closed borders. Travelers need a covid test. Travelers need a vaccine. 

One word: chaos. 

So, as a hotel or a business in the hospitality arena – how do you focus on growth and driving bookings in the face of all the back-and-forth?

It’s simple really: you focus on the experience. We are all in desperate need of a vacation, or three. Guests are ready to go and primed for the pump, as they say. It’s not a question of are people ready to travel, it’s a question of “where to first?”

While the digital world has made of-the-moment marketing that much easier and more accessible, it is imperative to break through some of the white noise and make your property stand out. Guests need to go from “this property is on my list” to “I’ve just booked a trip!”

It’s All About Allure

A picture is worth a thousand words. As a content marketing company, that means quite a bit. If you haven’t updated your image bank during the pandemic, now is the time. Snap some Gram-worthy shots of food, rooms, and the overall experience of your property. Be sure to get photos that both capture the lifestyle and feel of the hotel as well as some standard lay-flats, and product shots. One key note: don’t use the same models in each photo – you want to extend the life of the photography and having a number of models at one shoot is a great way to do that. 

The photos should be used across mediums: blog posts, website portfolio, social media channels, and of course, email marketing. 

Create Enticing Promotions

When building promotions for your hotel, try and get creative today. Most hotels will also be offering promotions (stay 3 nights, 4 night free; credits at the restaurant or spa, etc). While all promotions are fun, it captures the attention better when your promotions are playful and unique. Create something that will entice guests not only to book with you but also to share in the joy of this great promotion you’ve created. Capture the tone and feel of your space and go wild. 

Don’t Go Too Deep into the New

A lot of times, when we are hungry for growth – we tend to throw a fair amount of ideas at the walls and see what sticks. The same is true for hotel and hospitality marketing. Trust us when we say: avoid this at all costs. Focus on key avenues that you want to pursue and see them through. Don’t waste time, energy and money trying to find out-of-the-box ways to drum bookings. 

You’ve got this. Guests will come. If you need help executing your marketing or creating new property-specific strategies, give us a call today. 

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How Much Should Your Company Spend on Marketing?

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times – marketing matters. Effective marketing is the peanut butter to your jelly, the donut to your coffee, and the Ted Lasso to your pandemic.  It can make a business or break it.

To see the kind of growth that leaps off planning sheets and converts into real customers, you will need to rely on experts that can get your brand out in the world.

But, how much is too much to spend on your marketing game, and how should said money be spent?

That is the question of the century!

So, let’s start at the basics.

Evaluate Your Current Expenses

Before you start thinking about how you want to allocate your funds and create a marketing budget, it’s helpful to know how much you’re spending overall.

The size of your marketing budget will solely depend on your goals and how much money you have to spend.

While many companies can spend anywhere from 7-15% of their overall revenue on marketing, does that number work for you, or should you aim higher?

If you’re a new start-up looking for quick growth and new leads, 7-15% might be a bit low of a number. For this reason, you might decide to spend around 20% on your marketing efforts.

In the end, it all depends on your needs, and your goals.

Whatever you decide, remember to not spend money that you can’t afford to lose.

Deciding Your Marketing Budget

Now, that you’ve decided how much you can spend on your marketing, you have to determine how you should allocate the funds you have.

That is why we have three steps that can help you in this thing called marketing. 

Set marketing goals

“Don’t move until you see it.” That principle can honestly apply to any situation and especially in situations concerning your business.

You can’t know what to give out until you know how much you have to give and what your limits are. This is why it is crucial that you set up a marketing budget to house all of your goals (and realistic ways to get there).

Consider making SMART goals

Specific: Include details in your goals and avoid vagueness.

Measurable: Ensure you can measure your progress toward your goals.

Attainable: Your goals can be ambitious, but they should also be realistically achievable.

Relevant: Your marketing goals should be relevant to your overall business objectives.

Time-bound: Set a time limit for achieving your goals to help keep you on track.

Here is an example: “work to increase revenue by 50% by the middle of the year” or “acquire 10 new leads by the end of the quarter.”

Create a Plan for the Year

Plan ahead, like way ahead. Try sitting down and planning the vision for your business for the full year and what you can do to make that happen. Don’t forget to keep your marketing goals at the forefront as you’re planning. This can give you a great forecast to keep you on track and save you time so you don’t have to go month to month or by quarter.

Some marketing avenues to consider:

  • Content Marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media marketing

Hire professionals

How are you planning on executing your plans? Will your internal marketing team do the work, will you hire a marketing agency, or will you work with freelancers? You might use a combination of these methods.

When choosing marketing channels, a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is the 70-20-10 rule. This guideline says that:

  • 70% of your budget should go towards strategies you know work well
  • 20% should go to new strategies that help your business grow
  • 10% of your budget should go towards emerging or experimental strategies to keep you ahead of the competition

To save money, you could write your own blog posts and manage your own social media.

If, later in the year, you notice competitors overtaking you in search engine results, you might shift some of your PPC budgets to content marketing. All of this might be overwhelming at first, but you got this.

So, how about it? Are you ready to get your marketing strategy in gear? Take a targeted approach, and let us help you see growth! We’re here for you.

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Building Your Marketing Budget: Where to Best Allocate Your Funds

Bread and butter…That is what marketing is to your business. Now, before you say anything, just think about how much marketing has already helped your business and given you awareness in otherwise closed places.

It might be bold, but hey, we’re those kind of people, so we’ll just come out and say it. Your business is only as good as its marketing strategy.

It can be hard to determine what the best fit is for your budget and your needs. In fact, it is part of the entrepreneurial challenge to figure out how to spend limited funds.

Where do you start, and how can you get the most out of your marketing while still adhering to a budget?

A good place to start is by thinking about your customers, audience, and potential audience. How do you want to reach them? What would be the best way to reach them? What medium would they respond to most?

This will help you navigate the allocation process and aim for profitable avenues of marketing. While the U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending about 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenue, it won’t do you any good without knowledge on where to spend it.

Our advice is to try and narrow down things that you might want your marketing to include first before spending anything.

Look at the competition and do your research on marketing tools that have a proven rate of success.

Common marketing methods like:

Blogs: One of the best ways to improve drive traffic and boost your SEO ranking, blogs can also serve as an information warehouse, where readers can see that you really do have a great wealth of knowledge to share. If you had to choose a strong marketing tool for your business, blogging should be the first place you start.

Email Marketing: Emails are not going anywhere anytime soon.  With a proven track record of being solid forms of marketing that yield real growth, email is one of (if not the most) the highest drivers of ROI in marketing today. (Read more about that here: https://www.thefoundgen.com/is-email-marketing-really-as-good-as-we-keep-preaching/ )

Social Media: What can we say? Social media is – all around us (please read this in Hugh Grant voiceover tone). You can reach people you never thought possible just by being active, consistent, and engaging. Remember those three, because that is the key to social media working for you.

Videos: Video is an another way to engage your clients and potential clients. Some people won’t want to read a blog (we don’t trust those people), but will respond better to video. It can be a strong marketing tool across platforms and an easy way to step up your content and reach those who prefer a few seconds of live action before they swipe to some cats doing some cat thing.  

All of these can serve the purpose of marketing your business and reaching your target audience – where they are.

However, now you have to decide which ones to put your money toward. That is where the second piece of the puzzle comes in: determining what the right fit is for you.

This can quickly turn into a trial-and-error situation without the help of seasoned marketing professionals. You know your business (probably backward and forwards). Marketing firms know how to help bring the best out of your business and increase revenue at the same time.

It would be a shame to spend money and not see any returns. Wouldn’t it? Let’s chat about what tools your business would most benefit from and how you can see real growth.

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Sales v. Advertising v. Marketing: What’s The Difference?

Here’s the thing, sales and advertising are not the same things. While they both share the same parent (which is marketing, by the way) and share a similar goal for business growth, they are fundamentally different.

We can tell that a little crash course is needed here, so we’ll begin. Many smaller companies see advertising as a way to support the selling portion of the business. The advertising can help inform potential customers about the company’s products and varied services. Sales, however, seeks to close the deal with those customers and get them to commit.  Starting to see the difference?

Here are few more ways that these two differ.

The One Vs. The Many

Did you know that sales are more personal than advertising? From phone conversations to in-person, there is no way around customer interaction. Those in sales have direct access to customers, allowing for a more personalized experience and allowing them to interact with the product. Advertising, on the other hand, is non-personal in nature. It involves one-way communication and focuses on reaching many people at the same time. There are also many mediums advertising can use, including billboards, television, the Internet, radio, etc.

Push vs. Pull

Why do companies use sales and marketing? To put it simply, you need both to succeed in your business. However, the function is where the difference lies. Let’s frame it with an example, shall we? Sales reps go out and push the company’s product. Wholesalers then run with the baton and push the product on retailers, and retailers on the consumers. Advertising, however, pulls products through different distribution channels to deliver a brand’s unique message to consumers. In turn, the consumers desire the product and apply pressure for it. 

Priorities, Priorities, Priorities.

Sales introduce the key benefits and features of any product during events and presentations. They may even compare their product and its features to competitors with similar products. What is the objective? It always remains the same: close the sale. Advertising has a different goal. It is designed to follow the AIDA principle (attention, interest, desire, and action). Advertisers may use catchy headlines or noises to attract attention from potential clients. They also dabble in the art of writing and produce compelling copy to keep the consumer’s interest. Advertisers may then have the consumer picture herself using the product to create desire.

Frequency

Last but not least is frequency. Sales is usually more infrequent than advertising and cannot hold the sustainable message like a good advertisement. While sales reps may see a customer one or two times (depending on the need for the product), an advertisement has a lasting reach and impact.

And with that, the game of sales vs. advertisement is done. If you have further questions on how to increase either in your business, shoot us an email and see how we can help.

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3 Core Things All Architecture Firms Should Be Doing This Year for Marketing

Seeing beyond what’s there is your job. Testing the limits of what’s possible is in your blood. Strategy is your rulebook, you my friend, are an architect.

That’s why it would only make sense that you would want to take the reins and build a stronger marketing foundation for your architecture firm. Whether the goal is more clients or just better clients, there are strategies to get you to the top of your marketing game.

You’ve just been enrolled in architecture marketing 101, and you’re about to pass the class if you read on as we drop some knowledge.

Lesson 1: Know What’s Going on in Your Marketing

Question: How would you know if any of your marketing strategies thus far have worked or even given you the slightest inch towards seeing the kind of results you desire without the data?

Where is your traffic coming from?

What is the most effective way to connect with your clientele?

Why does it seem like people aren’t reaching out?

All of these questions are important and contribute to real organic growth.

Can you draw your latest masterpiece in the dark? Probably not (and if so, you’re someone that is beyond us mortal humans). Nothing you do should be left in the dark, especially when it comes to marketing. We’re not saying that you need to strictly measure KPI’s and hire a huge marketing company that charges more than you make in a year to track numbers, but we are saying that a healthy interest in how your firm is doing and how things are performing is okay.

Think tactics with proven statistical data behind it. Start with things that have been proven to work time-and-time again and pay attention to any changes in growth that you see.

Lesson 2: Who is Your Audience?

For your marketing strategy to work, you need a specific POA when it comes to who you’re trying to target. Without that, you could be throwing darts out into the atmosphere with no real target.

Seth Godin summarizes this idea well:

“When you seek to engage with everyone, you rarely delight anyone. And if you’re not the irreplaceable, essential, one-of-a-kind changemaker, you never get a chance to engage with the market.

“The solution is simple but counterintuitive: Stake out the smallest market you can imagine. The smallest market that can sustain you, the smallest market you can adequately serve. This goes against everything you learned in capitalism school, but in fact, it’s the simplest way to matter. “

This, in a nutshell, is the foundation of modern-day marketing. You aren’t seeking to speak to everyone, just the select few that you determine are your true audience.

Sit down and actually think about who you’re trying to reach, why you want to reach them, what they might be looking for, and where they live in relation to your services. Just starting here can make a world of difference as your charting out your marketing strategy.

Lesson 3: Establish an Email List

Why do people see hiring an architect as a luxury, you might ask? Because it isn’t something that the average person seeks out every day. In fact, the select few people who need an architect rarely ever need one more than once in their entire lifetime. So, what does that mean for you? The people who are looking are more than vital for your business; they are essential for you making your mark.

The ideal client doesn’t just haphazardly pick an architect right away. They often lurk in the shadows, learning all they can learn about your work and capabilities before committing. Leaving the “close the deal” mentality to realtors will be your best friend because you already know that it works a bit differently in your work line. It takes patience and an abundance of information for a potential client to become an onboard client. 

It is much more pertinent to build a relationship with your client than you think. And a way to do this is through email marketing. Email marketing can keep potential clients in the loop with the latest information, the latest trends, your most recent work, and anything else you choose to share with them. This may seem tedious at first, but the dividends have been proven.  Nothing beats email for reaching your core.

We’ve got the skills, experience, and expertise to help bring your business to the next level. Contact us today to amplify your efforts and let the people come to you!