Leveraging Your Influencers. Every hotel marketing professional has… | by Bethany Mae | Aug, 2023

Every hotel marketing professional has encountered endless DM’s of influencers reaching out, pitching their services in return for a free hotel stay, comped girls trip to the spa, or even a coveted invite to a hotel-exclusive event.

This is for good reason, hotels across the world have discovered the power these influencers can have in reaching their target demographic, resulting in a powerful boost in occupancy, and increased social media engagement.

Influencers spend years cultivating a trusting relationship with their online audience. With their demonstrated flair in language, photography, and audience engagement, they have already proven their effectiveness in attracting the audience you desire. By leveraging their skills, you can expect increased engagement, steer clear of costly faux pas, and drive more followers and leads to your website and social pages.

Selecting an influencer

What is their audience? Does this influencer regularly post/recommend services that are at a similar price point? If you are a luxury brand and the influencer focuses her content on affordable travel destinations, you may not be the best fit. Alternatively, if you are a budget inn, and the influencer is consistently recommending luxury skincare and high end clothing, her audience may not engage well with that offering. You want to ensure that the target audience demographic seeing this post will have the resources and are the people likely to book through the influencers content.

Have your media consultant or marketing manager detail what type of content you are looking for. Your audience can only see so many photos of a girl eating in-room-dining in bed, before they start to tune out. Keeping the content fresh and engaging is a perk to bringing on new influencers regularly.

An important metric to pay attention to, is the engagement rate of the influencer you are considering bringing on for collaboration. An easy and free tool we use is the Phlanx Engagement Calculator.

We like this industry-standard guideline from SCRUNCH.COM:

• Less than 1% = low engagement rate
• Between 1% and 3.5% = average/good engagement rate
• Between 3.5% and 6% = high engagement rate
• Above 6% = very high engagement rate

Building a Contract

Once you have connected with an influencer who is excited to work with you, you need to discuss the campaign details with them. This includes the scope of work, timelines, deliverables, compensation, and performance metrics. One of the perks of partnering with an influencer is to gain access to first-hand high-quality content of your property, so you will want to make sure this is laid out clearly in your contract. This includes the rights to use the content, the duration of the license, and any restrictions on the use of the content. Who will own the content created by the influencer? Just you? Both of you?

Ensure you provide the influencer with custom booking links for the restaurant, or a partner affiliate promotional code for hotel bookings. Technology is an incredible tool you can leverage to track the ROI and engagement between the influencer, and your target audience.

Gauging the Success. Every influencer partnership will be a learning opportunity. The work doesn’t end once the contract is signed. An important step will be tracking the engagement and bookings etc through examining the dollar value of the first contract. Here are some effective ways to measure the success of such collaborations:

Reach and Impressions: Track the influencer’s reach and impressions through their content related to the hotel. This will help you understand the potential exposure the hotel gained through the influencer’s audience.

Engagement Metrics: Monitor the likes, comments, shares, and overall engagement on the influencer’s posts about the hotel. High engagement indicates that the content resonated with the audience.

Follower Growth: Observe any significant spikes in the hotel’s social media followers during or after the partnership period. A successful influencer collaboration can attract new followers to the hotel’s social media accounts.

Website Traffic: Use tools like Google Analytics to analyze the referral traffic from the influencer’s content to the hotel’s website. Increased traffic may indicate the influencer’s effectiveness in driving potential guests.

Bookings and Reservations: Measure any changes in bookings or reservations during and after the influencer campaign. Analyzing the direct impact on revenue is crucial to determine the partnership’s success.Tracking is the best available through using direct affiliate or unique promo codes.

Below are two helpful links on how to create custom booking links for your F&B outlets, depending on what software you use.

Open Table: How to Create URLs with Tracking Parameters?

Resy: How to create Online Booking Channels

In conclusion, leveraging influencers can be a powerful strategy for hotels to reach their target demographic, boost occupancy, and increase social media engagement. By carefully selecting influencers whose audience aligns with the hotel’s offerings, and defining clear campaign objectives, hotels can ensure a successful partnership. It is essential to establish a comprehensive contract that outlines the scope of work, compensation, and content rights. Utilizing technology to provide custom booking links and track ROI adds value to the collaboration.

However, the work doesn’t end with the contract signing. Success is measured through various metrics, such as reach, impressions, engagement, follower growth, website traffic, and bookings. By analyzing these key indicators, hotels can assess the impact of the influencer partnership and identify areas for improvement. Every influencer collaboration presents a valuable learning opportunity, allowing hotels to refine their strategies and maximize the benefits of future partnerships.

In the ever-evolving world of influencer marketing, staying informed and adapting to the changing landscape is crucial. With careful planning, effective execution, and continuous evaluation, hotels can harness the potential of influencers to drive growth and success in their marketing efforts.