Instagram Stories is a powerful tool for hospitality marketing. Hotels can use Instagram to create a buzz of engagement around their brand, location, and guest services—driving guest engagement, boosting brand awareness, and increasing occupancy rates. With more than 500 million accounts using Instagram Stories every single day, hoteliers can’t afford to ignore this platform’s potential.
Instagram Stories’ marketing tools include:
- The ability to add location geotags in Stories. As all hoteliers know, location is vital. In Stories, hoteliers can tag their property’s location for easy search, but also associated content and other accounts too.
- Hoteliers can use hashtags in stories. This is useful for driving guests to book a stay during specific holiday events or other booking drivers. It’s also a great way for hotels to respond to current trending topics—keeping the property consistently current with fresh marketing content.
- Unlike normal Instagram posts, hoteliers can share links directly in Stories. This can include links to positive reviews to support bookings, or encourage followers to book a stay directly with a link to their booking page. It makes it easy for followers to act.
Instagram Stories is a gamechanger when it comes to showcasing a hotel’s personality, story, and boosting its marketing reach. But what type of content should hotels be using to maximize their potential and reach? Below are five ways hotels can leverage the power of Instagram Stories in their marketing mix.
1Reward hotel followers with special Instagram Stories offers.
Hotels can tap into the psychological theory of scarcity by giving viewers of a story a special booking or offer code. Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours, so it’s an effective way to motivate action. As well as driving bookings, this will also encourage followers to keep checking Stories for repeated offers—ensuring continued engagement.
2Follow-up with leads via Instagram Stories.
A useful feature of Stories for any marketer is the ability to see exactly who has viewed it. This gives hotels the opportunity to contact these followers directly, sending micro-targeted offers to warm leads to encourage bookings. Not only will this help boost conversion rates for bookings; contacting these followers with relevant content or questions will drive engagement, and ultimately, loyalty. This is important for gaining an edge over competitors—especially for hotels in crowded markets.
3Ask followers engaging questions for real feedback.
Hotel marketers can use the AMA (ask me anything) question sticker in Instagram Stories to boost follower and guest engagement, as well as generate instant and honest feedback. Hotels can ask followers to vote in polls based on their recent experience, vote for their favorite hotel restaurant dish, and even what they want to see in the future. This creates a dialogue with followers that’s essential for lasting brand awareness, as well as demonstrates a hotel’s commitment to taking guest experience and satisfaction seriously.
4Leverage the power of guest reviews and content with Stories.
Social proof is important for every hotel—people want to have the same positive experience they see others posting about. Hotels can use Instagram Stories to highlight guest experiences and encourage future bookings. They can also automatically generate review requests or encourage user-generated content via guest WiFi, email, or SMS. Then, they can highlight the best, most engaging content via Stories.
5Give guests a look behind the scenes.
Potential hotel guests love to see behind-the-scenes of a property. This can include showing off a busy check-in operation, interviews with hotel staff, or exploring back-of-the-house operations. This is top content for Instagram Stories, allowing hotels to share their brand with the authenticity that potential guests want to see. Even better, hotels can tag staff member and supplier accounts to increase engagement even further.
Instagram Stories offers hotels great ways to interact with their customers, creating engagement and loyalty that drives bookings and revenue. Stories allows hotels to show off their brand values, create buzz, and boost brand awareness. Hoteliers must make Stories an important part of their marketing mix.
