Struggling to market your brand without breaking the bank?
Stretched between running your accommodation property and keeping your finances in order?
Here`re five tried and tested tips to help you market your property on a low budget:
1.Create relevant and consistent content
As you`ve probably heard, traditional marketing is not effective anymore. There must be a better way to keep your target clients interested in you and your services– it`s called content marketing. The definition crafted by The Content Marketing Institute describes the approach in the following way:
“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
But remember: your content should be in line with your business goals.
Let`s say you run a family hotel in the countryside. The summer is approaching, and you want to sell as many vacations as possible to the right prospects.
So, what do you do?
- Define your business goals
- Define your buyer personas (create a profile of the people you`re targeting)
- Brainstorm ideas/create a content strategy, covering topics that`re relevant for your audience and help you achieve your business goals.
For example:
If some of your potential buyer personas include families in their 60s from Scandinavia, you can consider publishing content on how nature and sun exposure might prolong life/have a positive impact on mental well-being or anything else that might be of interest.
Alternatively, you can create a short educational video on how to milk a cow or grow your own tomatoes (considering you offer the same activities to your guests).
2. Repurpose and republish content
Let`s face it:
Successful marketing strategies are based on great content. But producing high quality content consumes both money and time.
Here`s how to extend the shelf life of content you already have:
Repurpose your content.
HubSpot describes repurposing as transforming content into new formats.
Example:
You`ve recently created a video with tips on how to plan a summer vacation in the region, where your property is situated. Repurpose the video into a blog post. Make a series of blog posts exploring in-depth different aspects of the subject. Then, turn them into an e-book or a podcast.
Adjusting your content, removing or adding new value and meaning that matches the specific format will help you make the most of your existent content.
Republishing is even easier. It refers to distributing your best performing content across various channels
Here`re HubSpot’s best tips on republishing:
- Republish only your best performing content.
- Update and rewrite the headlines.
- Include internal links throughout your posts.
- Make use of republishing platforms like LinkedIn, Medium, Reddit, and other relevant channels.
- Don`t forget to include a relevant call to action.
3.Collaborate with other brands and influencers
Here`s an idea:
Why not working with other brands to cross-promote each other?
Search for brands that are positioned in your niche but solve different problems for similar buyer personas.
Example:
If you run a guest house in the mountain, for example, you can collaborate with brands selling mountaineering equipment and shoes.
In this way, both businesses can reach out to a wider audience that`s interested in what they offer. In addition, you split the efforts of creating content. You could, for example, publish an educational article about the mountaineering equipment hikers need during different seasons and mention the brands you partner with. In turn, they could do the same for you.
Influencer marketing is another way to reach a wider audience. Influencers are individuals who have managed to establish authority and built relationships with their audience. They`re actively engaging with people in a given niche and could affect their purchasing decision. Influencers can belong to one of the following types:
- Celebrities
- Industry experts
- Bloggers
- Micro influencers
Reaching out to these people and forming a collaboration with them can help you attract new followers and customers. Don`t miss this opportunity to increase brand recognition with minimum efforts.
4.Create Groups on Social Media
Want to form a community around your accommodation property?
Consider tapping into the potential of groups on social media. Groups are perfect platforms for interaction, promotion, and gathering insights into what your potential customers want.
But why starting a group on social media platforms like Facebook?
- Social media groups are places, where people with common interests come together to start a discussion. Business pages are promotional, whereas groups encourage community building.
- You can create a group focused on the specific interests of your existent and potential customers. For instance, if you`re a hotel, you might want to create a travel group.
As far as accommodation properties are concerned, Facebook might be the best platform to consider. Here`s why:
The benefits of running a group on Facebook
- Facebook has 2.38 billion monthly active users as of March 31, 2019, according to statistics (https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/) provided by the company.
- Facebook groups have better organic reach than Facebook pages as the members of the group see posts of the group in their newsfeeds.
- The members of your Facebook group are automatically set up to receive notifications about updates and new conversations in the group.
- If you set the group privacy to public, the posts of the members are often shared with their Facebook friends in the news feed.
- In the pinned post (appearing to the top of the group), you can include a link to your website.
The benefits of running a group on LinkedIn
- LinkedIn has more than 610 million users in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, as the statistics claim.
- LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to customize emails sent to new members of your group.
- The platform allows you to send emails once a week to your group member if they haven`t opted out of it.
- You can feature posts in your group and link to your website.
- You can add groups to LinkedIn company pages.
We wrote a complete guide to leveraging LinkedIn in the hospitality industry. Check it out here.
5.Be different
Marketing on a budget is tough. Why? Because everyone`s trying to do it these days. The messages are repetitive and well…boring.
So, how to cut through the noise?
By doing things differently. By making an extra effort, by delivering an added value.
Example
Try applying Brian Dean`s Skyscraper Technique. Here`s how it works:
Step 1: Find content that`s worthy to be linked to
Step 2: Create something better
Step 3: Reach out to the right people
Find a piece of content that has already generated a thousand links (something related to your niche) and make it longer, more in-depth and/or more up-to-date.
Another example
If everybody is blogging, start producing videos. If your competitors are producing videos, start podcasting. You get the idea. Be unique and start a movement of your own. In this way, you can exploit the gaps, get viral, and attract the attention of your targeted audience.
Your Turn
Hope these five tips can help you market your accommodation property without spending too much money.
Let`s be honest here:
It takes a lot of hard work. But it pays off.
Which of these tips resonates most with you and your property? Ready to try it out? Let us know how it went in the comments down below.
