Guest Marketing After the Checkout Process
Guest Marketing After the Checkout Process
April 3rd, 2019
In this post, we’re going to talk about the importance of continuing the guest experience beyond check-out. As a property manager, once your guest has returned home, you need to make an effort to keep your brand front-and-center.
A happy guest is a business asset. They will be a vocal proponent telling friends and colleagues about the amazing vacation they enjoyed at your property. Keeping your brand top-of-mind is a smart marketing move.
Let’s explore some of the ways that we can take that satisfied guest and continue to make a positive brand impression upon them after they’ve returned home.
Personalizing Your Brand
There are a lot of things you can do to make sure your brand is kept top-of-mind when former guests are planning their next trip. For example, having personalized branded items in the home that guests are free to take with them can make a major brand impression. Think, coffee mugs, koozies or wine openers. Low-cost items your guests will take home and use. It’s a great way to reinforce your brand. Even something like a branded kitchen magnet calendar is an easy, affordable way to keep your brand top-of-mind every time they go to the fridge for a soda!
There are high-end and low-end ways to do this. Whichever you choose, make sure your guests understand that it’s a free item that they can take home. Consider creating a gift bag to let them know that the mugs they’re drinking their coffee in can go home with them as a reminder of their amazing vacation. Be upfront – say “please feel free to take these home with you as our gift when you leave.”
More Traditional “Marketing” Outreach
Remember how we mentioned that a happy guest is a marketing asset? Well, there are many ways to re-engage with former guests through traditional and digital marketing methods to keep your brand in front of your customers.
You have their guest data from their previous stay and they may even be subscribed to your emails or digital newsletters. Taking this information (name, phone, and email address), you can then create a “custom audience” on Facebook. Using this customer list information, you’ll generally get about a 50% matching rate. You can then send them ad campaigns to their Facebook feeds.
This isn’t a tactic you want to begin immediately. Think in terms of when they will be planning their next vacation (6 months or so). That’s the time to reintroduce them to your brand via their Facebook feed.
Be Persistent, But Not A Pest!
So how much is too much? Where is the line drawn? It’s an interesting question. As a general rule, a potential guest will need to experience 7 or more ad impressions before they act. Because you’re building a custom list of prior guests, your brand will have already made an impression.
While it will take fewer impressions to re-engage former guests, you need to avoid using a single ad. It’s best to create a series of images, headlines, and text to avoid “ad burnout.” This will keep it fresh. If you creatively have click-throughs on each ad go to other content, like a blog post about things to do, or why they should return, as opposed to a unit page, you’re providing value rather than “selling.”
To increase your reach, use the same campaign for your Google display ads. This will not only have previous users re-engaging (Your custom list on Facebook) but will be exposing your properties to another potential audience via Google impressions. It’s a smart strategy to grow your brand.
April 3rd, 2019
In this post, we’re going to talk about the importance of continuing the guest experience beyond check-out. As a property manager, once your guest has returned home, you need to make an effort to keep your brand front-and-center.
A happy guest is a business asset. They will be a vocal proponent telling friends and colleagues about the amazing vacation they enjoyed at your property. Keeping your brand top-of-mind is a smart marketing move.
Let’s explore some of the ways that we can take that satisfied guest and continue to make a positive brand impression upon them after they’ve returned home.
Personalizing Your Brand
There are a lot of things you can do to make sure your brand is kept top-of-mind when former guests are planning their next trip. For example, having personalized branded items in the home that guests are free to take with them can make a major brand impression. Think, coffee mugs, koozies or wine openers. Low-cost items your guests will take home and use. It’s a great way to reinforce your brand. Even something like a branded kitchen magnet calendar is an easy, affordable way to keep your brand top-of-mind every time they go to the fridge for a soda!
There are high-end and low-end ways to do this. Whichever you choose, make sure your guests understand that it’s a free item that they can take home. Consider creating a gift bag to let them know that the mugs they’re drinking their coffee in can go home with them as a reminder of their amazing vacation. Be upfront – say “please feel free to take these home with you as our gift when you leave.”
More Traditional “Marketing” Outreach
Remember how we mentioned that a happy guest is a marketing asset? Well, there are many ways to re-engage with former guests through traditional and digital marketing methods to keep your brand in front of your customers.
You have their guest data from their previous stay and they may even be subscribed to your emails or digital newsletters. Taking this information (name, phone, and email address), you can then create a “custom audience” on Facebook. Using this customer list information, you’ll generally get about a 50% matching rate. You can then send them ad campaigns to their Facebook feeds.
This isn’t a tactic you want to begin immediately. Think in terms of when they will be planning their next vacation (6 months or so). That’s the time to reintroduce them to your brand via their Facebook feed.
Be Persistent, But Not A Pest!
So how much is too much? Where is the line drawn? It’s an interesting question. As a general rule, a potential guest will need to experience 7 or more ad impressions before they act. Because you’re building a custom list of prior guests, your brand will have already made an impression.
While it will take fewer impressions to re-engage former guests, you need to avoid using a single ad. It’s best to create a series of images, headlines, and text to avoid “ad burnout.” This will keep it fresh. If you creatively have click-throughs on each ad go to other content, like a blog post about things to do, or why they should return, as opposed to a unit page, you’re providing value rather than “selling.”
To increase your reach, use the same campaign for your Google display ads. This will not only have previous users re-engaging (Your custom list on Facebook) but will be exposing your properties to another potential audience via Google impressions. It’s a smart strategy to grow your brand.
