With the hospitality industry shifting toward a new normal, there is an opportunity to re-evaluate your online marketing strategies to determine if you’re making the most of the tools at your disposal. Properly implementing social media strategies into your hotel marketing will help you grow a stronger relationship with future travelers. Social media may not have been a top priority for your hotel in the past, but the industry shift is resetting the reputation bar back to zero for many hotels. As many states prepare to step into a new normal, the time to rebuild that reputation and get a head start on raising your brand awareness is now. 

Brand Awareness and Success Metrics to Measure

Brand awareness is the best strategy you can utilize during a time where travelers are unable to leave their homes. It’s fairly straightforward – you make posts to increase the visibility of your hotel, earning active engagement from users across the internet. This strategy puts your hotel on the map and in the mind of consumers for the future, and you’re able to build up a lasting trust that will make you first in their mind when the time comes to book.

Increasing your brand awareness sounds easy on paper, but hoteliers may still ask: “How do I measure success with my brand awareness campaign?” Brand awareness is unlike other marketing strategies in that success is not measured by revenue. Increased booking and heightened revenue are metrics to measure success specifically for revenue-generating objectives: posts that encourage guests to look at your website, sign up for a newsletter, or book a hotel room. For brand awareness, it’s easier to think of it like building your hotel’s voice. The success metrics are about engagement, impressions, and sentiment. We discuss these three metrics in our previous post about maximizing ROI using social media, but now is the time to answer what kinds of posts you should be making to boost your engagement and prepare your audience to be ready to book.

Types of Posts to Make for Brand Awareness

Right now, most of your hotel’s audience falls under the “cold” category – a group not ready to book with your property yet. Brand awareness helps you identify potential guests ready to become your “warm” audience, who then become targets for your revenue-generating marketing strategies. But what types of posts should you be making? Your goal may feel different than what is typically associated with hotel marketing strategies: you’re aiming to boost engagement, not sales. With language like “book your stay today” off the table, what does that leave you?

Informative Posts

The first major category of posts perfect for brand awareness is informative posts. You could fill a content calendar with important, informative updates about your hotel during this time of shifting expectations. Advertising changes made to your policies, cleanliness initiatives, or other on-site amenities starts a valuable conversation with your guests. Their expectations will be clearly defined for when travel is deemed safe and they return to the “warm” zone. Social media posts in this category encourage questions and comments, which allows you to further identify potentially interested guests for future marketing. Setting guest expectations carries over to other elements of your reputation, as well – your property is perceived as more reliable, and in turn you’ll earn better reviews.

Posts that are straightforward and informative lay the groundwork for your guests when travel resumes – taking the time to reassure potential travelers while hesitation is prevalent will help you grow a stronger warm audience for booking.

Friendly, Casual Posts

When you’ve exhausted your resources for informing your guests, it’s best to take a break and share other news. These posts don’t need to strictly relate to your hotel, and again, are geared toward getting comments, shares, or additional user-generated content. You can share anything, from your staff’s favorite meditation tips to recipes for favorite foods in the area. If you’ve caught wind of uplifting local news stories, you can post these to your page as well. Social media users enjoy consuming content relevant to them, and many users will be happy to share experiences related to your content if the post is compelling enough.

Posts geared to be casual and friendly can include questions at the end. These posts also help to give your company some personality. If you’re able to make a human connection with your audience, you’ll become memorable. After all, guests are more reassured and comforted to meet the personality behind the place they’ve chosen for their vacation.

To optimize your brand awareness strategy, the content you’re generating must be unique for every post. Eye-catching images with creative, fun captions will inject personality between reassuring, serious informational posts. Balancing these elements will make your property searchable, relatable, and memorable to future travelers, moving them into the “warm” zone for you to direct your revenue-generating content toward. Narrowing down your audience through brand awareness will help make conversions easier and more successful for your property.

Our team at Travel Media Group is happy to help you make the most of every social post. Check out our page for more information about how our experts can assist you.