Promotional campaigns are an essential aspect of marketing for hospitality businesses to increase brand awareness and sales. However, without careful planning, the results may not meet the brand’s expectations and may ultimately affect your sales. In this article, we will explore some of the common promotional mistakes made by brands and how to employ brand engagement strategies for your bar, restaurant and hotels.
- You’re not targeting your customer: One of the most significant promotional mistakes made by most brands is a lack of targeting. Promotional campaigns that are too broad and not targeted at specific demographics or audiences will likely fail to resonate with consumers. As a hospitality business, you need to clearly define your core audience, understand their needs and develop targeted ad campaigns to reach them.
- You’re Ignoring or Neglecting Social Media Social media platforms are now an essential tool for businesses to interact and connect with their customers. However, some brands still ignore social media or fail to use it effectively. Restaurants and hotels are in the service industry and most make the customer experience a priority. You require a strong and active social media presence to visually showcase this experience and more importantly, share feedback and reviews. You must constantly engage with your audience, not only on your own social media pages, to increase brand awareness and loyalty.
- Your Brand Messaging is Inconsistent: Consistency is crucial in promotional campaigns. Make sure your messaging is solid, detailed, and credible. You don’t want to keep changing narratives every time. Take control of the narrative! Once you’ve got your messaging right, you need to ensure that it is consistent across all the promotional channels you’re leveraging. Inconsistent messaging can confuse consumers and damage a brand’s reputation.
- You’re using boring promotional materials: Once your brand messaging is solid, how do you visually present it in a way your customers can understand it? Promotional campaigns that lack creativity are unlikely to capture consumers’ attention and may be quickly forgotten. As a hospitality business, you need to constantly think outside the box and come up with innovative and exciting promotional materials that can quickly catch the attention of your customers. Videos have become more accepted, so instead of sharing a promo flyer, you can record a video of your staff taking a tour of your facility and inviting the audience to come experience your service. This also helps you stand out from your competitors.
- You’re Using the wrong channels: What good is a great material if it is not seen by the right people? Your promotional materials should be strategically distributed across channels important to your target audience. A physical flyer will be more appropriate if you are targeting low-income earners, whereas social media platforms such as TikTok may be more appropriate if you are targeting Gen Z.
- You’re Promoting Too Late: Avoid making last-minute marketing and promotion decisions. The first important step is to develop a plan to ensure that your promotional activities are happening at the right time in order to maximise reach and engagement. By starting your promotion early, you can track customer behaviour toward it and quickly adapt and make changes as needed.
In conclusion, promotional campaigns are a crucial part of marketing for brands, but promotional mistakes can have a severe impact on a brand’s reputation and bottom line. Brands need to avoid these common promotional mistakes by targeting their campaigns effectively, engaging with their audience on social media, providing value beyond discounts, being creative, delivering consistent messaging, and avoiding over-promotion. By doing so, brands can create successful promotional campaigns that resonate with their audience and drive sales.
