The Innkeeper's Resource

We are a Visual Society...and Your B&B Can Exploit it!

Check out the statistics:
  -  32% of all Internet activity is made up of Video
  -  Consumers prefer video 6 to 1 over text
  -  Facebook video viewers are up 2000% in the last year
  -  It was discovered by Forrester Research that videos increase Search Engine Optimization on Google's (and other search engine's) algorithms by up to 53 times.
  -  40% of Internet activity last year was on CONTENT...whereas only 20% was on search and commerce activities.

The numbers are convincing, but not surprising when you see the explosion of Social Media and technology in our industry.  These figures, presented by Stephen Schweickart, CEO of VScreen, were detailed by Stephanie Andre in an interview published in RISMedia's April 28 Ezine.

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH A B&B?  Everything!

Gone are the days when having a few photos on your website was all you needed.  The leaders in the inn industry recognize the power that video offers when grabbing the attention of the consumer.  Everybody has heard that you have 3 secondsto grab the attention of a web surfer once your SEO efforts brings him to your site.  If he subconsciously discovers he likes the look of the site, he gives you another 4 seconds to discover if your site can meet his needs by looking at the functionality and navigation. If you fail at either of these steps, he hits the BACK button and he's lost.

Video, per Mr. Schweickart, extends that window of attention-span to 14 seconds.  People enjoy movies, they like the action.  We are a visual society and the days of stagnant photos of the bed in the guest room will not grab the attention of the potential booking anymore. 

It's time to update websites to meet these evolving interestsof the traveling market.  Check out the YouTube video made by Dallas and Nancy Renner of the Chocolate Turtle B&Bin Corrales, NM.  Not only do you get to see a bit of the inn and its colors, but the video takes you into the community to see the shops, the animals and the mountains, and you get to meet the innkeepers as well...always a part of the guest memories you want to create.  That's a marketing advantage over the competition that throws water on the fiery argument that it's the current recession that is causing business to be down.

Your breakfast presentations are fabulous.  Make your inn's presentation on the internet fabulous too.

Here are a few ideas to consider as you work to improve your website:

• Replace the stills of the guest bed with video of the guest rooms...panning around the room and out the windows to the scenic river below.
• Pan across the deck or private patio with the colorful breakfast settings to the bird feeder with the orioles and bluebirds or to the water feature in the garden.
• Film the scarecrow festival in October, the strawberry festival in June, the sleigh rides in January and the flower fairs in April in your region.  These are the places your guests are going to want to see to have the full experience.
• Loan your digital camera to your guests heading out hiking or to the battlefield re-enactment, show them how to use the video feature, and put their live testimonial on your site and blog.
• Link your blog with a feed to your Facebook account to have your videos shown to your fans around the world.

Grab them with your inn's beauty, your creativity and your innovation.  You only have 3 seconds.    Scott

   

We're Stuck with Social Media: Capitalize On It!

I subscribe to piles of blogs and newsletters about marketing and advertising, social media, hospitality, demographics, and trends that affect all of the above. Some of these are pretty esoteric, and some are very down-to-earth practical. One of our jobs at The B&B Team® is to weave the mass of information together and make at least some of it useful to Innkeepers, saving you time and helping you sell more rooms, make more money, and have more fun.

By now most of you realize that social media and consumer generated content, whether it be blogs, Facebook and Twitter, TripAdvisor, or product reviews on e-commerce sites, are essential to long term business success. After all, while Boomers still make up the lion’s share of inn guests (and, by the way, females aged 55-65 are the fastest growing segment of Facebook users), Gen X and Gen Y (the Millenials) are forming a growing percentage of the traveling public. And, since most businesses (like your inn) want to be around in a few years, paying attention is a smart choice.

A great article in Hotelmarketing.com called “Gen Y and the online travel marketer” by Caroline Gates of TIG has some eye-popping statistics blended with some good advice. For instance, not only did this generation (born between 1977 and 1995) grow up with an electronic device in their hand and a computer at every turn, but they are already spending about $200 Billion a year.  The younger ones aren’t booking rooms at your B&B, but the older ones are starting to, especially if you give them a compelling reason and show them that you “get it.” Gen Xers, more than Millenials, are definitely part of every inn’s guest roster, and they’re pretty plugged in, too.

If 78% of people trust peer reviews and only 14% trust advertisements, and your website is an advertisement, the importance of bringing those reviews front and center is critical. If you’re already doing this, good for you. If you aren’t, start engaging your guests in the process and build a reserve of great reviews on all the main travel sites. And put those reviews on your home page.  This is pretty basic.

The younger generations, who are the future of travel, want to be entertained and respected, too. Keep your content on Facebook, your blog (which you should be doing) and your website fresh. Keep and show a sense of humor. Seek out places where all your guests might congregate, and join the conversation. Read and respond to travel blogs. In other words, engage.

In branding and marketing we talk about the fact that travelers want “bragging rights” when they return home. Where once being able to have stayed at the most luxurious, well known, and expensive place constituted the only important thing to brag about, today people want to brag about what they did on their vacation. And increasingly what they did may have social implications. They helped build a Habitat house, volunteered to clean up a park, ran a race for the cure, or otherwise did something that, in their opinion, “mattered.” And hopefully they also stayed at a great inn whose owners helped them find the opportunities and took good care of them. They’ll tell all their friends (via social media), and we’ve always known how important word of mouth is.

We all know about SEO, search engine optimization, and how important it is for travelers to find your website. But are you aware of Google’s new real-time search results? There’s a new wrinkle in SEO, and it involves social media. Google can now find and index information about your inn as it is being published on Facebook, Twitter, and other media. What does this mean for you? The more people you can have writing about their great weekend with you (bragging about it), posting pictures, telling their friends, the more prominent you’re going to show up in the new search results. Will it affect traditional search ranking? No one knows for sure. But “social rank” is increasingly more important to many than organic Google ranking.

But let’s be honest, innkeepers don’t have to obsess about this the way Pepsi or Apple do, but you do have to be in the game. For years at conferences in our blog (The Innkeeper’s Resource™) and in personal consultations with clients we’ve spoken and written about changing trends, tastes, and demographics, social media marketing, and the basics of hospitality. In the end, the important thing is not to get discouraged. Take bite sizes. Put together a plan for reinventing and reinvigorating your marketing. This may have to start with reinventing your inn, but you won’t know if you don’t ask. Sound daunting? It doesn’t have to be. Think of it as FUN! And if you can have fun, you’ll be happier, your guests will be happier, and your bed & breakfast will be more successful. Did I hear “exit strategy?”

What are YOU doing to be part of the new world we live in?

Peter