Ep. 47: 5 Hotel Marketing Trends For Fall
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My three year old has been asking me a lot of questions lately. I think it’s safe to say he’s been bitten by the travel bug. Ever since our trip in June, he’s been asking to fly on an airplane again. We can’t drive past the airport, let alone watch a plane fly overhead without that little, incessant voice saying, “I wish I could go on an airplane again.”
It’s almost like the voice inside my head, only cuter. “I wish we could go back to Hawaii” has been his latest repent, along with asking to visit the ocean, the beach, pretty much all the places I’d rather be, too.
With any luck, we will get to take Reu on more adventures in the near future, in fact we’ve been quietly making plans to get back down to Baja in October. But there is something looming—hanging in the air, if you will—that’s keeping us from making solid plans just yet. That thing is a big unknown called the Delta variant. While my family and I are fully vaccinated, we can help but worry about what the variant may do to detract people from traveling as we move into the fall and winter months.
Is it possible that things could shut down again, and if they did, how might we pandemic-proof our hotels and restaurants?
And—in the interim—in this period we’re optimistically calling post-pandemic recovery, how can we speak to guests needs with that dreaded Delta looming in the not so distant background?
Today, I’m sharing 5 hotel marketing trends to take advantage of in the months ahead. These are strategies I’m using with the hotels and restaurants I market, to continue communicating with guests—and prospective guests—throughout this celebratory but still slightly cautionary time.
So let’s get into it!
Here are 5 hotel marketing trends for fall:
1. Strategic email marketing communications.
Specifically lifecycle campaigns built to re-engage with past guests. For those of us in the marketing world, lifecycle campaigns are segmented email communications that automate based on certain lifecycle milestones. Sure, birthdays and anniversaries, if you collect that information, but the life cycle milestones I’m really talking about are those that align with the guest’s past stay and their potential future plans. In the current climate, we’ve had a lot of past guests coming back to stay with us again this summer, but there’s also a heap of contacts who haven’t taken that leap just yet. If fall is looking soft, now would be a great time to create a lifecycle campaign to reach potential guests.
Here’s what I recommend—take all the guests who stayed on property in September and October of the last two years (2020, but also 2019), who haven’t yet rebooked, and send them a re-engagement email. Something along the lines of “We’ve missed you—and we’d love for you to come back and see us again this fall. Here’s what’s new…or everything you loved is still here, all that’s missing is you!” By reaching out to a guest around the same time that they booked or stayed in previous years, you’re essentially marketing to low hanging fruit instead of reaching out to your full database with a blanket offer. In fact, lifecycle messages don’t require an offer when there’s a “we’re thinking about you” message and the timing is right. These campaigns have proven to drive incremental revenue in need periods. If you like the sound of this—it gets better—you can actually set up automation if you use a system like Revinate or TravelClick, to automatically reach out to past guests on their booking anniversary—a year after they’ve stayed with the caveat that they haven’t rebooked. This is a really sophisticated way to drive incremental revenue throughout the entire year.
2. Strategic social media posting.
Specifically sharing as much quality, short form video content as possible. Instagram recently announced that they’re on the other end of their transition from a photo-sharing app to a video-sharing app. When Reels came out last October, many marketers saw the writing on the wall, but this transition still feels “soon,” almost too soon for hotels and restaurants who are just getting back into the groove. To further cement the switch over, Instagram has earmarked $1 billion to incentivize creators to use IG’s video tools to their fullest—including Instagram Reels, IG Live, and IGTV.
The bottom line: if you aren’t using these tools for your hotel or restaurant, you will get left behind. If you’ve been using a same-as-2019 approach to social media, you’ve probably noticed your engagement has taken a serious nose dive in the last year, that’s because Instagram has been prioritizing video content. At the same time, if you’ve posted video to your feed, to IG stories, or as an Instagram Reel or IGTV, you’ve probably noticed five to ten times more video views than static post engagements—maybe even more.
So how can you use the time you’re spending to promote your property on social media, more effectively? It’s all about video content. Yes, it takes far more time to create video content, but it’s ten times more effective than static posts. Video content puts your prospective guests into the action, it can create some serious FOMO, and honestly, Instagram has you set up for success with built in editing tools. You can start by sharing behind-the-scenes content, nothing overly produced, on IG Stories, like a great room, a beautiful sunset, plates coming out of the kitchen, or re-share guests enjoying themselves who are tagging you in their photos. You can also take static imagery from your existing assets library, animate it using a tool like InShot, and turn multiple static images into a little video slideshow. Add some music from Instagram’s library and guess what? You’ve got yourself a Reel.
Because here’s the thing, Instagram is prioritizing video content for a few reasons—first, it’s causing users to spend more time on the app, second, video content is more likely to convert. According to a recent test conducted on Facebook, video ads converted at a 25% higher rate than static ads. While I can’t predict the future, my hunch is that video advertising dollars and spend is a major reason why Instagram is prioritizing video content.
On the hotel marketing side, we’ve certainly seen an uptick in bookings from social media like never before. People are spending more time on social media apps, and they’re more comfortable with making big ticket purchases on their phones than ever before. Social media might actually be a direct line to hotel bookings and restaurant reservations. So don’t get left behind, start building short form video content into your marketing strategy for fall and beyond.
3. Influencer marketing.
I cannot stress enough that influencers are like teeny—and not so teeny—marketing engines in their own right. Partnering with influencers is one of the smartest things you can do to reach new and diverse audiences, and to drive bookings to your property and guests through your doors. Hotels need to be building influencer marketing into their 2022 budgets because guess what? Influencers are content creators—and what you give is what you get. If you’re looking for content creation—from photography, to video content, to content writing you can repurpose on social media and beyond—influencers might be the perfect partner. The cost of influencer marketing continues to be a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising, so my advice is to run a few tests ASAP, and see what working with influencers might yield for your hotel or restaurant. Be VERY transparent when it comes to setting expectations and the deliverables you’re expecting, and make sure to follow up with the influencers to get their stats following their visit and after they’ve shared their experiences—so you can start to track and measure the success of the campaigns. Just like short form video, influencer marketing is the present and the future.
4. Text messaging.
Although by many accounts, including airline data, the travel floodgates have reopened, on the other hand, many people are still proceeding with caution when it comes to planning and booking future travel. Many travelers are still seeking out seclusion, safety, time in nature, and focused on cleanliness when staying in hotels. One of the ways that we can meet guests needs on property, in order to reassure them while still remaining somewhat contactless, is through text messaging. You can actually create an entirely virtual concierge experience powered by texting and chances are more guests than ever will be open and willing to give it a try. And while you’re at it, it’s not the worst idea to reach out to guests who have engaged with you during their stay, who you know have had a great experience (because they’ve expressed it to you), to drop a short and sweet link to your TripAdvisor page to drop in their review of their experience. It turns out that text messaging has an 80% open rate, and although I don’t have data on click throughs, when a brand that I love and respect reaches out to me via text, guess what? I click. I almost always click. So if you can nail that timing, guess what? You’ll bolster your positive reviews on TripAdvisor with a few thumb taps from your adoring recent guests. Will you be building text messaging into your fall and future marketing plans? I sure hope so.
5. Build over the top hotel packages
The 5th and final trend I’ll talk about today is building over the top hotel packages. Now that people are traveling again, many are ready to spend the money they saved this last year. Luxury vacations and bucket list destinations from Antarctica to the Maldives are having their moment in the sun, but no matter what size or shape your hotel takes, you can benefit by thinking about up-sell opportunities and building out packages accordingly. Maybe that means adding an option to book a spa treatment or dinner reservations at the time of booking, or maybe you’re bundling in some activities or itinerary planning for your guests. Whatever it is, people are more likely to book the add-ons after having spent so much time grounded and at home this past year. Take advantage of this carpe diem moment—and help your guests seize the day. Dangle those “go big” carrots as often as possible to increase revenue before and during your guests’ stay.
Well, there you have it. To summarize—The 5 hospitality marketing trends you should be building into your fall strategy and beyond, are:
Build strategic email marketing campaigns to re-engage your past guests.
Ensure you’re remaining relevant on social media by layering in short form video.
Add influencer marketing to your arsenal of marketing, advertising, and content creation channels.
It’s time to respond to that salesperson who’s been knocking on your door for years trying to sell you text messaging technology — truly truly - the time is now!
And finally, dream big when it comes to hotel packages and experiences for your guests. Many of them are seeking out bigger, better vacations than ever before. How can you fulfill that need and make up for the time and revenues lost last year.
If you found this episode insightful and helpful, please reach out. Did I miss any marketing trends that are hot on your list? Let me know by swinging by @howtosharepodcast on Instagram and leaving a comment, or leaving a comment down below.
As always, keep sharing your stories.
