Tip #1: Find your USP
Each of us is unique, and so is your property. This uniqueness is what your potential guests want to see: Storytell your difference, make it your strength.
Find what's the unique selling point in your property, what makes it stand out from the competition and gives you the competitive advantage to convince guests to choose you over others. Make it your "secret weapon" to win.
Connect to your audience emotionally, stories are meant to talk right to the heart of people. What are you waiting for?
Tip #2: Pick a theme
Same as for the unique selling point, which might be an amazing infinity pool, your hotel can be branded also according to a specific theme that will become your special something. This is always a good way to attract specific targets and better direct your communication and marketing efforts. Find out what your customers want, and how your offer overlaps with them, where can you fill their need. Are you a wine hotel? Then you can target your offer to wine and relax lovers, partner with activities' suppliers nearby (great initiative to boost local production as well) and participate to big wine fairs to meet your guests. Or maybe you are a wedding hotel. Then you will adjust your strategy and communication to this target, offering rooms to couples and their families and friends. There's plenty of room for creativity here, just understand what the soul of your property is.
Tip #3: Brand your products
Successful brands are the ones you don't forget about, that's a fact. Their story is so powerful it stays in your head. After all, consumers buy what they like, what they know. This means your branding strategy needs to be very well thought: If you are focused on your property's branding and consistent across all (online and offline) channels, your hotel can come closer to guests and even influence them. You can as well brand gadgets and freebies you give away to your guests: It will be like taking home a little piece of the vacation and they will be natural brand ambassadors of your property. Even better, if you succeeded in your job, they will be the storytellers of what it's like the experience at your property. Word of mouth marketing is still the best one.
Tip #4: Employees are your treasure
Consistency is paramount when it comes to branding, we got this. Here's a simple example: If your support team is nice and fast in the website chat when customers are booking their stay, they will feel disoriented if your reception staff is rude and cold at their arrival. The growing fever of technology has made personal interaction as we know it evolve, change. As a people's driven business, though, you need to make sure that you keep the human touch more alive than ever and that your customers-facing teams are in line with your brand's image and voice. Of course, you also need to make sure your employees are happy to work for a brand they like, and they feel like promoting outside. This also indicates a healthy work environment and a healthy business, and customers will feel it when interacting with your staff. If we were not clear enough: Keep your employees happy!
Tip #5: Keep your brand together
Keep your brand personality, your voice and your tone consistent across all channels. It is paramount that customers have the same perception about your brand at any moment of their "journey" with you. What you want is to be remembered, but also, you want to be recognizable at any moment. In order to achieve this, pay attention to small details that make the difference: Develop a memorable slogan and logo, take great care of your website image and the colours you pick to represent your brand. Everything needs to speak for what your property is, what it truly means, including even the fairs you attend. "Keeping your brand together" is the foundation of success and can definitely come in handy if you plan on expanding to more properties. You never know.
