Facebook Marketing for Hotels – Is it Really Worth the “Trouble”? Part 2

If you have been convinced by Part 1 that the answer is yes to the question in the title and you have the courage to start the serious stuff then read on and get ready to learn how to create brilliant content yet use Facebook in a budget-friendly way.

Melinda Klausz, social media specialist and the author of A közösségi média nagykönyve (The Big Book of Social Media) at BookDirect MeetUp 2016 drew the at that time social media sceptic participants’ attention to the importance of a solid fan base and good settings of posts (you can read more about it in the first part of the article.) Her convincing and clear explanations demonstrated that Facebook can be a great yet economical marketing tool for hoteliers as well. How? Let’s see.

How to Create Unbeatable Content?

Branded content on Facebook is diverse as the services themselves that are being offered are also – ideally – unique and different, so giving the perfect content recipe is possible only after examining the services one by one. However, general guiding principles exist and one of the most important ones is to stand out from the crowd by making the exceptional, distinctive features of your business shine out. It is also good to occasionally give up the “let’s sell in every minute” attitude and besides special offers, contests etc., express and communicate thoughts, emotions, feelings etc. with photos, quotes and so on. They may seem to offer only some nice or funny moments to your fans but they also convey values and/or entertain people so visitors will have pleasant memories of your business and will want to return again, which is every hotelier’s main goal.

How to Build your Facebook Page?

Although it is desirable, maybe even essential to create a page that matches your hotel and website in design to emphasize your brand, it is important to understand that the strategy, short-term goals and tools of your Facebook page and webpage are not the same. Your aim should be to make them complement each other to increase the conversion rate. Facebook pages have typical unexploited places: your cover photo (you can promote your website or your Facebook page tab here), empty place under/on your cover photo (you can place e.g. a “Book now” call-to-action button here to encourage direct reservations, you can even see how many clicks it has received in Insights), your profile image and your photos. You can also create a matchless landing page (new visitors who are not fans yet will be directed here) to introduce your hotel and encourage people to like your page. These are the first things users see, they have the power to leave a lasting impression so choose content that is exciting, captures attention and lures visitors to take a closer look at your page (and make certain that your images are properly formatted). Publish interesting and relevant content and update regularly so fans will keep coming back to your page, getting new information and concept of your hotel, which builds and strengthens brand awareness.

Let’s get Visual.

Why are images so important? Researchers have found that human brain remembers only 10% of the textual information 3 days later; however, when a picture is added to the information we are able to recall the 65% of it. (John Medina, Brain Rules, 2008.) Good to know, right? So it is time to get visual and Facebook is a helpful partner with its endless possibilities and techniques to enhance your message visually, for instance Facebook Pixel supports you to measure and analyze your page’s conversion, audiences, to get insights about how people use your page, which helps you to find your best advertising strategy and technique with the best settings. (Find it at Facebook Business Ads Help.) To have successful remarketing it is crucial to develop your website as well so visitors who are attracted there from your Facebook page (and vice versa) will enjoy unforgettable experiences with such technical background that immediately converts lookers into bookers.

Budget-friendly Advertising on Facebook?

In the previous paragraph a subtle hint was dropped about Facebook Ads that most people may consider to be unnecessary and pricey, something they want to avoid. It is true that Facebook campaigns, ads, boost posts, promoted posts etc. should be handled with care: use and set them skilfully that is maximize targeting options and check advertising efficiency frequently (e.g. you can pause or delete boost posts if you don’t see the results you expected, you will only be charged for the portion of your budget that you already spent.) Facebook has excellent advertising and promoting solutions but it is worth thinking over every solution carefully keeping your budget in mind (people at Facebook are also brilliant in sales and marketing). You can also increase engagement (and direct sales) on your page with e.g. a Facebook promotion, a sweepstake where contestants need to answer questions to have the chance to win. Pose questions and ask for answers that can only be found on your website (Mission 1: boost the number of your webpage visitors completed) and also ask for some personal details (e.g. email address, age etc.) and/or preferences (“Who would you take on holiday to our hotel?”) as the condition of participation (Mission 2: increase your high-quality fan data base completed.) With promotions, sweepstakes, contests etc. you can move your audience to action, which leads to active and eager fans who help your posts (and your hotel’s awesome reputation and services) spread like wildfire without you paying for it. If your hotel has YouTube channel or Instagram or other social media accounts it is advisable to insert their links to your Facebook page to connect the users to strengthen your web presence and communication.

The Bottom Line

Facebook has over a billion daily active users (source: Facebook, 2016), which makes it a powerful and indispensable marketing tool. It would be foolish not to exploit it just because you are not sure what to do with it and you are afraid of getting lost on the way. Having read these ideas, tips and tricks, you can see that Facebook can be used in a trouble-free and painless way to increase engagement, find new fans, new returning hotel guests so increase conversion rate. If you can create content regularly, your target groups are on Facebook and you have modern communication tools available for using Facebook, then let’s give it a try and make the best of the chance that your promising audience is only a “like” away from you.

Are you getting the picture or it is not crystal clear yet? The 10 golden rules of Facebook communication in Part 3 will be the missing piece of the puzzle.