Top 11 Tips for Holiday Resort Marketing
Almost everyone has a travel destination on their bucket list. Even as we age and settle down, we still continue to travel with our families. However, while the need to travel is constant, the trends surrounding travel destinations shift, influencing how people sort out accommodation needs.
Do you need to attract more tourism to your holiday resort? Here are 11 tips for resort marketing to try!
1. Know Your Clients
Are you a high-end hotel? Are your conference facilities your biggest selling point? It is important to identify your selling points and reflect that on your online communication. Speak in a tone that is appealing to the business, give an aura of professional, without being too stuffy.
Similarly, if you are targeting budget travelers, then ooze that personality. The tone you set in your marketing communications ought to be consistent across all your platforms. Once you have narrowed down your profile and that of your target audience, draw them to your online platforms by offering small discounts.
These will be a great source of reviews after the visit, both on your platforms and independent ones like Tripadvisor.
2. Instagram Marketing for Your Resort
Social media is a great marketing tool. You should use all your different platforms to build a community around your resort. However, each platform works uniquely with respect to the different features they offer.
Instagram, for instance, is a great avenue for publishing pictures and videos. People will often share amazing experiences with the people in their lives via Instagram and will often tag their service providers as well as their locations while at it.
Make sure you are part of the conversation by making their stay great even before your guests arrive. Make your guests excited about their stay before they arrive by publishing beautiful pictures of your resort taken from different angles. Accompany the pictures with amazing captions to further reel in your visitors.
3. Run Promotions and Special Offers
Promotions are a great way to garner publicity for your resort. Get your online community to act as your marketing tool by offering a free night for two or a meal at your resort’s restaurant. Have them share why they would like to stay at tour resort, for instance, tagging their friends and family.
Award the promised package to the user with the highest number of engagements by the end of the stipulated period of time for the promotion.
4. Partner With Online Personalities
In a world where social media influencers often command a bigger audience than mainstream celebrities, you need to work with them to effectively market your resort. The first step is to set aside a budget for this. Based on your budget, identify a YouTube personality or travel blogger that speaks to the audience you have marked as your target audience.
Approach them with an offer to visit your property and create content around it. If their asking price is higher than you are willing to spend, don’t fret. Instead, approach someone in the same industry but fewer followers. They are known as micro-influencers and are a lot cheaper.
The key to picking the right micro-influencer to market your resort is not in the number of followers they have but in their engagement rate. Make sure to check what percentage of people interact with their content compared to their number of followers.
5. People Love Stories
How do you attract tourism in a market that is already flooded with resorts? Visual storytelling is the best way to go about this, especially in the age of social media.
Share beautiful images of your resort a few times a week and try and incorporate a story within the captions. This could be in relation to your chain of resorts as this resort does, your location, or even the tourist destinations in the area.
The caption should be written in a conversational tone and should offer more information on your property or the particular service highlighted in the photo. Use niche hashtags to boost the photo’s performance.
6. Respond to Queries
When marketing your resort online, queries are one of the best ways to develop leads and convert them into bookings. Be warm in your responses, courteous and patient as this is an opportunity to build your brand.
Be sure to answer your queries within the hour they are posted, to improve your ranking.
7. Twitter as a Resort Marketing Tool
Twitter is a great platform to engage with your potential visitors but you can also use it to attract visitors to your resort. Share links to your promotions and offers on Twitter and do not forget to geotag the tweets. This way, you are sure to reach tourists looking to travel to your destination.
8. An Updated Website
A website is like your ‘office’ but on the internet. All your social media activity is bound to lead your audience to the resort’s website. Make sure it is updated with all the offers, correct pricing, and contact information.
9. Promote Events in Your Resort and City
If a huge festival or event is planned at your city, then it is bound to draw a huge number of tourists to your location. Capitalize on this by posting about the event on your social media platforms. Some of the attendees, who might be looking for accommodation, will surely get in touch with you.
10. TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is a great platform for visitors to leave impartial reviews but there is also room for you to advertise your resort. Write a brief but detailed description of your resort, the amenities and services offered and do not forget to add photos.
11. Paid Resort Advertisement
As part of your marketing plan, you might need to run paid advertisements for your resort. Contact a reputable marketing agency in your area to help you with this.
Content Is the Reason Search Began in the First Place
Before travelers make a booking at your resort, high chances are that they will have done a fair amount of research online. This might be via search engines such as Google or on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Bearing this in mind, create an online profile for your resort and the kind of business you hope to attract.
If you follow these steps in your resort marketing, you are bound to see a surge in your resort bookings. Read our blog for more information on branding your resort.