Resort Marketing With Online Video Increases Visitors?
Resort marketing in the traditional sense has worked great for decades. Even the advent of the Internet didn’t pose much of a threat since you can’t replicate the relaxing and luxurious vacation resort experience online.
But with high bandwidth readily available to the most desired and affluent clientele, increasingly more resorts turn to media-rich experiences for promoting their properties online. At the top of the list of new technologies, web video helps to break down the barriers between people looking for a great vacation experience and the resorts that provide exactly that.
Reaching New People
Affluent families, the ones most desired by vacation resorts, are very selective when it comes to where they spend their time. While a nice vacation may not be strain on the budget, it is time spent away from their homes and businesses. They need to be sure that time will be spent having an exceptional experience.
Up until recently, the only way they could be assured of a top rate experience was to rely on the knowledge and feedback of people they trust. So they turn to friends and family for advice and likely travel to the same places since they have a reasonable expectation of having a good time.
This makes it even more difficult for a new or recently refurbished resort to compete since that resort would not have a large number of people to share their knowledge of your hospitality.
This is where video comes to the rescue.
By creating a video that documents the experience you provide at your resort, you help break down the barriers of fear and begin to build up a bridge of trust. Thanks to some well publicized instances in the news, people know that unscrupulous individuals can fake photos, enhance them, or even just shoot a single picture at an angle that is most flattering, carefully leaving out undesirable elements.
With video its much more difficult to fake the footage, plus there is an audio track. If you can hear a freeway near what is supposed to be a pristine getaway, that gets picked up and the person watching will know what to expect. But if a person looking at your resort video sees and hears only the sights and sounds of nature, that will reinforce the photos and descriptions you place in your other marketing materials.
Showing affluent families enjoying the guest rooms, the pool, the golf course, the spa and other amenities will clue in other affluent individuals who watch your video that this is the place for them.
Beating The Competition
There are a few resort owners and managers now bringing online videos to their web sites. They are setting themselves above and apart from other resorts by providing this more engaging experience. They’re targeting people who have not been to their resort previously, competing against the hundreds of other options for unique getaways.
And they’re going to win.
By embracing online video in their resort marketing, the early adopters recognize the inevitable continuing growth of online video. And by leading with video, they’re providing what will bring in first-time guests: an online media-rich experience that has them at the resort and enjoying themselves before they even step on the plane.
Resort owners and managers who choose not to dip a toe into online video set themselves up for a long slide into oblivion. Quality video is taking it’s place alongside quality photos in the importance of presenting the resort experience online. Get familiar with it and plan for it as part of your online marketing strategy.