When doing research on products and travel accommodations, many people turn to the internet or friends for recommendations. Bloggers have become the online best friends we trust with all our product and travel recommendations. So when Forbes looked at businesses across the country in 2018, about 72% of brands had Influencer Marketing as a line item in their marketing budget.
But what is Influencer Marketing, or, as we call it, Blogger Outreach? Influencer Marketing is the act of creating relationships with bloggers and other content creators with relevant audiences. With those relationships, the content creator speaks to their very local audience on behalf of your product or service to increase brand awareness.
At Blue Magnet, we have a database of highly qualified influencers in different regions as well as with specific specialties. Once we establish a campaign idea that suits your hotel and the clientele you are looking for, we reach out to suitable bloggers with a pitch. From there, they will visit the property, take photos and even talk about their experience on their blog and social media platforms.
For example, Las Vegas travel resource site Vegas.com used a similar database to reach out to fashion bloggers across the world to write about what their “Las Vegas Style” would be. Through this campaign, Vegas.com was able to influence blog posts about hotels like the Aria and the Cosmopolitan over the course of 3 years. These blog posts included information on nearby attractions and unique things to do within the hotels, enticing readers to stay at specific properties.
A more targeted campaign can also be very effective in blogger outreach. Vegas.com also used a campaign to reach out to food bloggers to talk about the Wynn Hotel’s unique vegan menu and asked these influencers to recreate dishes in their own home. With both campaigns, Vegas.com was able to create relationships with these bloggers and the result was creative content focused on events and attractions all over Las Vegas, positioning Vegas.com as an authority on the city.
Another great example of a hotel using a relationship with an influential content creator in a unique way is the collaboration between Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Instagram creator Randomly Riley. Randomly Riley Instagram’s account is dedicated to a family of 4 and their adventures in Disneyland. Riley first got fame for the beautiful and creative costumes her mother made for her to wear to the park. The family takes weekly trips to the park and shares their adventures with their almost 100,000 followers. During their most recent stay at the Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel, they did an account take over of the hotel’s Instagram. They alerted their followers that they would be sharing their day on the hotel’s account. This was a great way for the hotel to get new followers and share a unique and authentic point of view of a day at the hotel.
Why would bloggers agree to collaborate with brands, putting their reputation with their followers on the line?
It is all about the relationship; bloggers want to work with brands they can stand behind. “I want to work with brands that I truly love. My blog is putting a piece of myself out into the world, so being authentic is essential!” says Chicago based blogger Julez of xoxo Julz Chez.
Bloggers want to work on campaigns that are mutually beneficial and where they are allowed to share their personal style and creativity freely through these projects. Authenticity is something most bloggers take pride in and is a reason why consumers turn to these influencers over celebrity endorsements today.
These collaborations not only get the word out about your brand and get your name in front of very targeted individuals, but also fits seamlessly into any marketing plan. Blogger outreach helps with SEO by creating backlinks to your website. The content created around these links to your website will include information about the local area, which helps the intended landing page rank well for regional terms.
Blogger outreach, as shown in the Randomly Riley example, can also be a great way to generate content for your hotel’s social media platforms. Whether it is content created by the blogger on your hotel’s platform or it is using the influencer’s content and sharing it with credit given, this is a great way of reaching a wider audience within that blogger’s community. Along with images and content, these relationships can also give your PR team the opportunity to acquire even more press opportunities.
As more and more influencers grow their reach, more brands are jumping on the opportunity to work with these individuals because they have a very loyal fan base who value their opinions. By including Blogger Outreach into your Digital Marketing budget, not only can you reach your ideal audience easily, but it can also be a positive influence on many other aspects of your holistic digital marketing plan. Creating authoritative content focused around your brand and other topical keywords, Blogger Outreach creates beautiful and authentic visual content for your social media and helps with your Public Relations branding.
Try Your Own Blogger Outreach Campaign
A blogger outreach campaign can have a lot of different parts, from identifying the bloggers to contact to the final deliverable. Not sure where to start? We can help you identify a campaign, contact bloggers, and turn Influencer Marketing into a reality for your hotel. Contact us to talk about how to start today.
