Description

Discover the step-by-step process to start using influencer marketing and attract hordes of guests to your hotel in no time.

When travelers or tourists look for hotels with good places to stay, their first stop is usually an online review site. Wondering why? Well, it's a simple rule of feelings. People prefer to buy services based on recommendations from others.

For example, if a travel influencer writes on their social media, "How exceptional service of Hotel XYZ made my stay unforgettable."

And influencer continues to share their great experience, what do you think is going on in followers' minds?

I'll tell you. It's way they can have the same exciting experience influencer had at the same hotel. This speaks volumes about how effective influencer marketing can be to increase hotel bookings and conversions.

So, if you want to take advantage of influencer marketing, this blog post will walk you through the process step by step.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing for hotels is a form of marketing where brands collaborate with influencers who have an impressive social media following and are engaged.

The purpose of this collaboration is that influencers can help hotels promote their services to their numerous followers.

This form of marketing is effective because influencers reveal unique features of hotels in real time. They can share their experiences with others and sometimes showcase the hotel's environment, amenities, food and overall guest experience.

In other words, influencers act as social proof for your hotel, which is sometimes enough for potential guests to make a booking.

An important aspect of influencer marketing is finding people whose personal brand fits your business.

Collaborating with an influencer known for promoting cosmetics could be a waste of investment if you only offer accommodation services.

Benefits of Influencer Marketing

Many people save all year long just to take a trip or vacation at the end of the year. If your hotel can bring the "wow factor" to the relaxation game, then you're off to a great start.
But it's one thing to offer quality services, help guests feel comfortable and enjoy their stay, another is to reach the right people who need your services.

Influencer marketing is the modern equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing that can help you spread the word about your unique services to potential guests.

Let's look at some of the benefits hotels benefit from:

Targeted Reach

Influencers give hotels access to a wide range of specific audience demographics. In other words, influencer marketing allows you to show up to the right people at the right time, something that traditional marketing channels don't necessarily offer.

Create Authentic Connections

In addition to the increased visibility it offers, influencer marketing creates an authentic connection with potential customers. For example, a hotel can partner with travel influencers whose recommendations are widely accepted and recognized.

After being given the opportunity to experience your hotel, the influencer can share their experiences and highlight unique features of the hotel.

In this way, influencers advocate for the hotel. The followers (some of whom may be tourists or travelers) who trust their judgments will also be interested in the hotel in question.

Establish Credibility

It's hard to generate sales in a market if you don't have the trust of the audience. It's even harder for new hotels with little name recognition and without many credentials to boast about.

However, when hotels (large and small) partner with influencers, they can leverage credibility and the trust that influencers have built in the minds of their target audience. This automatically fosters trust between a hotel brand and potential customers.

Cost-effectiveness

Some influencers agree to receive commissions for their marketing and referral efforts. That is, they receive a certain percentage for each guest who books directly through their affiliate link.

This form of influencer marketing hotel strategy is cost-effective. You can reach a wide range of interested audiences without the astronomical costs of traditional marketing methods.

Increased brand exposure

By working with influencers, your hotel brand will be seen by hundreds and millions of people.

When your brand and your unique services are seen by millions of people, you will attract potential guests who would not have otherwise discovered your brand. This level of visibility can increase your engagement and lead to more bookings.

Better conversion rate

Influencer content usually leads to more engagement than branded content. Influencers have an established relationship with the audience, so content they create is usually more credible and engaging.

With higher engagement metrics, likes, comments and shares, the chance of getting more bookings is higher than ever.

Influencer marketing challenges

Influencer marketing undoubtedly offers hotels numerous benefits to increase their profits. One of the biggest challenges is that the industry is full of problems such as fake followers and scammers. Partnering with influencers in these unpleasant categories would cast a bad light on your brand.

Aside from the risk of being scammed, influencer marketing campaigns may not produce desired results despite your efforts. In most cases, this is the result of a mismatch with the target audience. To overcome both challenges, it is important to conduct thorough research before entering into an agreement with an influencer.

Also, do a quick background check and try to understand their target audience as well. This way, you can determine which influencers are a perfect fit for your brand.

Getting Started in Influencer Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide

By now, you already know how influencer marketing can influence potential guests' decisions and increase conversion rates, but how do you develop an effective influencer marketing strategy for your hotel? And how can you make sure your investment pays off? Read on and find out!

Define your goals and objectives

When it comes to developing effective marketing strategies, the first thing you need to do is set your goals.

What do you want to achieve with your influencer marketing efforts? Do you want to increase visibility, generate more bookings? Promote special events or reach a specific target audience?

Whatever it is, make it clear and document it for reference. Setting your marketing goals not only gives you a clear roadmap, it also allows you to measure the performance of your campaigns.

Know your audience

While influencers can help spread the word about your brand, that's no use if they aren't interested in what you have to offer. So take the time to research, identify and carefully understand your target audience.

Identify influencers in your niche:

You may be working with the biggest influencers in the world and still see little or no impact on your conversion rates. Do your research and choose influencers with a target audience that aligns with yours.

For your hotel, you should partner with an influencer who has a track record of promoting hotel services. Such influencers already have followers who are interested in what your hotel has to offer.

Send outreach messages to selected influencers

Contact selected influencers to propose a partnership. In your proposal, address the scope, compensation offer, and branded content guidelines. This is important to ensure you are on the same page.

Access to hotel amenities

Make sure influencers have access to the hotel's unique services and amenities. This will help them create authentic and compelling content for their audience.

Promote campaigns

Work with the influencer to plan promotional sponsored posts across all social media platforms. Better yet, share content generated by the influencers and embed it on your hotel's official website to increase campaign reach.

Track key performance indicators

Use KPI tools like Google Analytics to measure the success and effectiveness of your influencer marketing campaigns.

Pay attention to key metrics like reach and impressions, engagement (likes, comments, shares, etc.), click-through rates, and conversion rates (i.e. the number of sales recorded).

Tracking these metrics will help you identify areas for improvement and measure the influencer's impact efforts.

Conclusion

The top priority of hotels is to offer high-quality services and create experiences that leave a lasting impression on guests.
Influencer marketing plays a key role in delighting guests. It is a powerful addition to your digital marketing efforts and gives brands a vote of confidence that can potentially turn visitors into repeat guests.

If you use the influencer marketing strategies mentioned above, your hotel will reap the numerous benefits.

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Influential overnight stays: How hotels attract guests and strengthen their brand through strategic influencer marketing