Article written by Adam Dornbusch, the Founder & CEO ofEnTribe, one of the first SaaS platforms helping build a community of creators for brands.
Since the start of the pandemic, the travel industry has been going through constant changes in demand as COVID-19 cases continue to fluctuate, making it difficult for brands to implement traditional marketing strategies that stay consistent with consumer behaviors. On top of an ever-changing landscape, the industry has also had to tackle different traveler preferences and less consumer trust than before, as safety and health have become the top priority.
As the industry slowly continues its road to pre-COVID traveling numbers, it's critical for hospitality brands to introduce effective marketing strategies that focus on re-building consumer trust and excitement over traveling. One way to achieve this is through activating your community of loyal customers to share authentic, high-quality content of their experience with your brand to use in marketing initiatives. This material, known as user-generated content (UGC), is found to be90% more helpful to consumers than traditional marketing content by serving as an organic testament to the quality of your brand's products or services from real people. To help understand how hospitality and travel brands can improve their consumer trust, below are a few ways UGC can help the travel industry create more authentic content.
Reconnect With Your Customers Organically To Build Trust
Reports have indicated92% of consumers believe suggestions from friends and family are more valuable when compared to traditional advertising efforts, with these numbers increasing since the start of the pandemic. Rather than pursuing traditional social media influencers or creating ads across websites, hospitality brands can activate creators from their existing customer base to capture real, personal and unbiased experiences to showcase.
By recruiting customers to join a creator community, brands have the power to connect directly with targeted audiences and engage them in campaigns to create new assets for marketing materials through a quicker and more manageable process. This enables travel and hospitality brands to strengthen their relationships with consumers and increase audience engagement through sourcing authentic content directly from real customers.
Ability To Capture and Control Content Quickly
As stated above, the hospitality industry has had to become more flexible as fluctuating COVID cases influence consumer travel constantly. This makes it difficult for brands to plan ahead, which is needed for traditional advertising campaigns, such as partnering with a celebrity influencer or working with a creative agency on a new ad. By tapping into UGC, brands can encourage real-time guests and travelers to participate in marketing campaigns by making it easy for them to share content, providing the perfect solution for brands to capture content that aligns with consumer trends. Brands can capitalize on guests' excitement about their ability to travel and safely stay at hotels or resorts again by strategically identifying key areas to display signage to encourage users to upload content via social media or a simple web portal. This can range from displaying a QR code on a nightstand in a hotel room to signage on elevators/lobbies encouraging guests to post on social media using a specific hashtag.
Travel and hospitality marketers can also create social posts with a call to action to encourage consumers to participate in the campaign, such as photo or video challenges. To ensure brands are receiving the high-quality assets that they wish to obtain, they will need to communicate expectations with creators. This can be a simple set of tips and tricks that are posted on a brand's website, included in social media posts or displayed on signs around the resort with QR codes. These tips can include cleaning your camera/phone lens, ensuring you have a great background, lighting and positioning, and that the brand logo or a key brand identifier is visible somewhere in the image.
Develop Long-Lasting Relationships by Providing Incentives
Rewarding creators for their hard work and energy to create content is crucial for strengthening relationships for your brand and is something hoteliers have known for a long time. Back in 2014,Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants began rewarding creators for sharing their experiences on social media through incentives like in-room spa treatments and other amenities. If a brand has the means, they can also provide complimentary property tours to really capture room features and details. These incentives, though an investment for brands, help develop a deeper relationship with current guests. Through the help of user-generated content, loyal customers can then spread the word to future guests to continue deepening relationships with the brand's customer base.
The pandemic has changed the way consumers view travel and trust brands, creating a marketing challenge for many in the hospitality space. As more consumers begin to plan their vacations in the upcoming year, hotels and destinations hoping to stand out amongst their competitors will need to rethink their marketing strategies and tap into UGC to connect with new customers and strengthen their relationships with existing customers.
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