If you’re in the hospitality industry, then you know how much work goes into running a bed and breakfast. You have a lot to think about, from providing superb customer service to keeping up with the day-to-day tasks around the property. One aspect of your business that you shouldn’t overlook is marketing. After all, it’s essential to attracting new guests and growing your business. Don’t worry if it seems daunting — we’ll give you an overview of five essential marketing tips for inns.
Read on to see our initial recommendations, and then attend one of our Current Innkeeping Workshops for a more detailed look at what it takes to run a successful B&B. You’ll learn about everything from amenities to maintenance to the best in marketing practices.
Here Are 5 Key Marketing Tips for Inns
Know Your Target Audience
One of the most important tips for marketing, and a topic that we discuss in our blog on running a B&B, is to know your target audience. Think about the key demographics of your guests. Create a full, theoretical profile of someone who would visit your inn. Consider details such as age, income, and interests. This profile will be incredibly helpful as you create strategies and conduct marketing campaigns.
Have an Effective Website Design
Is your current website designed to convert visitors into customers? It’s often the first impression that potential guests get of your property. And, we all know how important first impressions can be! The hospitality industry is no exception. You want your website to have an excellent load time, captivating content, and an easy-to-read layout. Put your best foot forward and lead people down the sales funnel.
Conduct Search Engine Optimization
Whether you’re targeting keywords organically with blog content or utilizing paid search ads, SEO is essential. Consider using a healthy mix of both strategies to make the most of your efforts. Incorporate keywords into content that your target audience would enter into search engines. This will help people find your website and hopefully turn into guests. You can also bid on certain phrases to show up at the top of the results. Just keep in mind the level of competition and cost-effectiveness of this as you choose keywords and set your budget.
Connect With Your Audience
Once you get visitors to your optimized website, it’s time to turn them into leads. We recommend setting up at least one lead generation resource that visitors enter their email or contact information to receive. This can be a wedding planning guide if you perform weddings on-site or an itinerary to help guests experience your area. Then, connect with these leads via email with information and offers that will entice them to a reservation. There are several email services that you can use for this, such as MailChimp and ActiveCampaign.
Don’t forget to connect with your audience via regular posts on social media, too! Facebook can be a very effective platform for engaging past and potential guests.
Consider Hiring a Marketing Team
Like we mentioned earlier, we know you have a lot going on. Running a bed and breakfast is definitely a full-time job. Marketing can be very time-consuming, so it’s a good idea to see if hiring a marketing team is right for you. Conduct research and find an agency that suits your individual needs. Or, consider hiring an in-house employee to handle tasks like social media management and content creation. This frees up time you can use to focus on running your inn.
Bonus Tip: Consider taking advantage of a program like Google Analytics so that you can track the performance of your marketing efforts and adjust them accordingly. It’s ok if you don’t get it right the first time!
Learn More With Inn Partners
Are you ready to take your inn to the next level? The Inn Partners team is here to help! We have over 40 years of experience in the hospitality industry, and we’d love to share our experience and knowledge with you. Take a moment now to learn about our Current Innkeeping Workshops. When you’re ready, register, and get ready to discover everything you need to know about the world of innkeeping.
