HOW TO USE INFLUENCERS TO BOOST YOUR HOTEL MARKETING STRATEGY
Marketing Wizard Seth Godin once said “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.”
The entire marketing industry used to be viewed as magic. From the conceptualization stage to its creation and implementation, coming up with an amazing marketing strategy used to take the powers of a wizard to be able to conjure. What was once costly, complicated and scarce ― now, has never been cheaper, simpler, or more readily available to both large and small scale establishments.
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Influencer marketing has become an integral part of a social media strategy for many brands. Integrating a solid influencer marketing strategy into your existing hotel marketing strategies involves finding and leveraging the influencers that best fit your establishment.
1. Determine Your Goals
Travel influencers are an excellent source of social proof for hotels, but before selecting top influencers, you should set goals. First, define your target audience - who are you trying to reach with your influencer campaign? Once your target audience is established, set a budget. With the rise of social media influencer marketing, more and more influencers are being well compensated for brand partnership. After determining your budget, select which KPIs to measure. Some KPIs to consider are audience reach, views, engagement, and an increase in followers.
2. Identify Influencers
Currently, the most popular influencer marketing platform is Instagram. Once you recognize your target audience, you can begin to search for influencers, for instance via hashtags on Instagram. Choose influencers that are relevant, have a large enough reach, and whose content resonates with your desired audience. For smaller establishments or boutique hotels, micro-influencers are a better option than a celebrity endorsement. Micro-influencers are proven to be more successful than traditional celebrity influencers because of their authenticity.
3. Focus on Organic Posts and Content
Influencer marketing ads appear to be organic when done well. Rather than having influencers outright push your hotel, influencers should integrate the hotel into their natural itinerary. The credibility of a successful influencer lies in their authenticity - too much “product placement” and saturated content negates that.
4. Measure Results
If your establishment has been consistently measuring KPIs, the effectiveness of influencers will be easily measured. Other than meeting all goals set for KPIs, establishments should know which posts perform best or worst from measuring engagement and views.
