Say Goodbye to Traditional PR and Say Hello to Influencer Marketing!
Meet Lauren Wood, a luxury travel influencer who also happens to be a prestigious lawyer. Not only is she a fantastic litigatorbut she takes amazing drone footage, beautiful photography, and tells the story of your resort in an authentic way on her blog Travel is the Cure and social media sites. Her followers trust her opinions and advice.
Lauren chooses where she wants to travel, sends a pitch deck to the resort, and then shares her experience with her followers.
The Younger Generation Searches Instagram, Pinterest & TikTok for Travel Inspiration
I was shocked when my 18-year-old was researching vacation ideas for our trip. First, she went to Google (of course)… but then she clicked the Image Search tab and searched images! Next, she went to Instagram and Pinterest. She knew about specific destinations from TikTok and had even shared a few TikToks with me via text. Not once did she share a hotel or resorts post or website. Rather, she looked for real people’s experiences and shared their photos and videos. If you want to reach a new market, you need to try something new. To create the trust that your resort is a great destination, you need someone else to share that story. Influencer marketing is Word of Mouth Marketing.
If Your Website or Instagram Feed is Boring! It’s time for Influencer Marketing!
Let’s face it. You struggled to find great images for your website and your Instagram feed is boring. That’s where Influencers can help. While staying at your resort, they know what images, which perspectives will excite envy and create the travel bug! Most influencers will include photography that you can use in your social media and in your marketing as part of their package. This alone is worth the tradeoff.
Influencers Help Your Google Search Ranking (SEO)
In addition to improving your image with better photography, influencer marketing is good for SEO and ranking well on Google. Brand buzz and backlinks are still a major part of Google’s algorithm and help determine where you will rank when someone searches for resorts in your destination. Influencers will not only post on social media, create Instagram stories but they will often also write a blog post about their experience. The mentions and links to your resort all add up to building brand buzz and improve your ranking
How to Hire the Right Influencer for the Right Price
The number of followers determines the value of the Influencer’s posts. WebFX reports that 1000 Facebook followers are worth $25/1000, 1000 Instagram followers are worth $10/1000 per post. When an influencer visits, they will do multiple posts and multiple stories which builds the frequency that you need in order to truly influence travel. However, don’t underestimate the value of the photography and video that you can also receive as part of the package. Having full rights to use images with the influencer at your resort can be priceless. When considering which influencers to invite to your resort, check out their engagement, are people responding, liking sharing? Do you love their content? Is there a website as well as social posts and is it well-written? Don’t be fooled by influencers with fake followers (bots), it’s engagement that matters. So an influencer with 30k followers with 2000 likes and 100 shares is worth more than an influencer with 300k followers with 500 likes and 20 shares.