Other than brand awareness, the single most important thing for your marketing to inspire in potential customers is trust. You will experience a much shorter sales cycle when your customers believe your company to be credible and trustworthy, as they will require less prompting to convert from lookers into bookers or buyers.
So, what can your company do to increase the trust that your potential customers have in your company?
Use content marketing
Content marketingÊis a marketing tactic that involves creating insightful, engaging and interesting content, like expert articles about your area of expertise within the hospitality industry, and submitting it for publication to hospitality trade media outlets.
An effective content marketing strategy will help your business engage with potential customers, leaving them better informed and interested in finding out more about your company. Content marketing is not a direct sales tactic; however, it can have significant effect on building trust and credibility with potential customers, which can boost your company’s sales.
Let’s look at an example of how content marketing will help you to boost sales. When writing your article about the operational problem that your product or service solves, you should mention features that only your product offers as must-haves for effectively fixing the problem. For example, if you offer the only machine learning RMS available on the market, your company should be educating hoteliers on the importance of a machine learning-based RMS, as opposed to a regular RMS. Focus on how much more impact the RMS will have on their bookings and revenue when it’s a machine learning system.
If a potential client repeatedly reads that machine learning-based RMS are the best available solutions, this message will eventually lodge itself in the reader’s brain. Over time, reading your expert articles will help build their trust in your company because they have seen that you are a credible expert in your subject area. When shopping for a new RMS, they will think back to the messages that they’ve received about what types of RMS are the most effective and then they will either look up your company directly, as they already actively follow your highly educational content, or will Google Òmachine learning RMSÓ and your website will be one of the first, if not the only, results?
That’s how content marketing converts awareness and trust into sales.
Showcase customer testimonials
As I’m sure you’re aware, word-of-mouth advertising is a highly effective tactic for converting sales, especially with younger demographics, like the valuable Millennial market. As such, it is very important that you ask for testimonials from your company’s satisfied customers and post them prominently in of your marketing materials and on your website.
If you are a hotel, it is also important that you respond to both positive and negative reviews on all booking channels to ensure that your potential guests see that you care about your past guests’ experiences and that you do everything possible to address any issues that may have arisen during their stay.
Use consistentÊand truthful messaging
Obviously, the more honest and transparent that your company is in all aspects of your business Ð and especially in your marketing outreach, the better! Like in all types of relationships, it takes years to build trust and only one tiny mistake to break that trust irreparably. Also, remember that withholding information is as bad as an outright lie, as it can still breed distrust, which will decrease the efficacy of your marketing and negatively impact your sales conversion rate.
The bottom line: To ensure that your hospitality business is as profitable as possible over the long term, implement these three tips today to inspire potential customers to trust your company and make the smart decision to purchase your product or service!
ByÊJennifer Nagy,ÊPresident ofÊJLNPR Inc.
About JLNPR Inc.
JLNPR Inc. is a full-service public relations and marketing agency that lives and breathes all facets of the travel technology industry. From online travel agencies to revenue management systems, tablet-based aviation automation solutions to IFE technology, hotels to airlines and everything in between, JLNPR uses our knowledge and experience to get your B2B travel technology company noticed by media, influencers and potential customers Ð and whenever possible, without the overused, often abused press release. In addition to traditional media relations outreach, we also ghost-write exciting, informational copy that will be published (in our client’s name) by top hotel industry media outlets Ð in order to increase your company’s visibility with potential customers, boost brand awareness and increase sales.ÊTo learn how to do your own PR for your company, download JLNPR’s free guide:ÊHow to Use Public Relations to Boost Your Sales – Without Blowing Your Budget. To find out more about JLNPR (including our services and out-of-the-box philosophy on press releases), please visitÊwww.jlnpr.com.
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