Karey Mackin

Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once. Stephen King said that, and we agree. In fact, we say the exact same thing about the clients and brands we help build – especially our hoteliers.

It’s no secret that hotel guests value complimentary meals and drinks over most of the other usual perks. It’s hard to find a guest today who doesn’t know your hotel’s well-advertised free breakfast, not to mention your happy hour fare.

But have you considered offering something more unique? More guest-specific? More insider-esque?

See, there is power in spilling your more special secrets seemingly one guest at a time. Giving out off-the-menu perks, special rates, and even tiny freebies cultivates a generous, highly personalized, and attentive atmosphere. Guests on the receiving end of your front desk’s random acts of kindness will feel it, and you’ll feel their loyalty grow in direct response. Same goes for hyper-targeted email and social media campaigns.

There are a few simple ways to achieve this boutique, almost small-town vibe that’s trending among frequent travelers. Here are some of our favorites:

• Work your analytics to discover more than the basics about your guests. Check out their social media to learn their likes and dislikes, from hobbies to fitness profiles and family life. You never know the trends you can foresee by simply studying your client base more closely.
• While we’re talking about social media, make sure to build real relationships with them through engaged conversations. Think real-time responses and real-time service. It also doesn’t hurt to have some Instagram-able scenes scattered throughout your property so brand ambassadors can spread the word. It works.
• Forget about the usual perks: room upgrades, discounted drinks, and happy hour freebies. Those are expected at this point, and don’t help you stand out. Instead, consider partnering with an area restaurant that really matches your guests’ aesthetic, from steak houses that can handle large groups, to fun spots for families, and healthy options for those travelers who don’t want to gain the dreaded travel ten!
• In-room perks are the new black. Women tend to love the spa treatments, and male guests are typically drawn to the minibar. Consider offering free, personalized room service on your traditionally low-occupancy days.

One final tip: Loosen up your hotel’s loyalty program, which tend to keep guests at one hotel brand where they’re most invested.

If you’re a hotelier interested in fresh branding concepts to set you apart from the rest of hotel row, give us a call. We’ve always got a suite deal for you at The Found Gen.

At The Found Gen, we believe you can do anything, but not everything. Just kidding. That’s what David Allen believes, and we know this because literally everyone on Pinterest has his words formatted in inspirational all-capped fonts on a brightly colored background.

I mean, we mostly agree with Mr. Allen, but we also know a secret to being able to do anything and everything. It’s called outsourcing. Also known as delegating.

Also known as what we do here at The Found Gen.

We help companies like yours do everything. Maybe you want to grow your community, but aren’t sure the best way to do so; we can do that for you. Perhaps you want your company to stand out in an otherwise crowded industry, inspiring supreme confidence and authority in the services you offer; we can do that for you. Could be you finally realize you need a social media presence and a solid, winning direction; we can do that for you.

“It’s just…here’s the problem…no offense, The Found Gen…but we want to do it ourselves. Because we know our company best, and…you know how it is…”

Actually, we do. We know how it is, and we understand your hesitation. But we also know your company in a much different way than you ever could, since we see it as content and marketing professionals with years and years of words and ideas in our portfolios. We see instantly what’s missing, and we know exactly where to find it.

Our advice? Delegate the work to us.

Here are a few ways you can make the delegating process truly pain-free:

• Educate us. Tell us the non-negotiable messages you want to share, and be honest when we talk about goals. Show us the styles of sites and writing you like, and tell us why you gravitate toward them.
• Commit to a content calendar. Our goal is always to plan so well that there are no surprises. Except for the good ones, like “How did we reach so many followers?”
• Be prepared for the long game. Very rarely does a marketing and content campaign become viral and lead to an overnight success situation. It’s going to take a minute, so be sure you’ve got the budget and patience to ride a wave that doesn’t always travel toward the shore; sometimes it heads sideways, and that’s okay, too. Think in terms of years, not minutes.

Above all, trust us. You’ve done your homework and found us to be the best team to take your company’s brand to the next level. Trust us because you trust your instincts.

Basically, surround yourself with great people and get out of the way. Ronald Reagan said that, and we totally agree. Which is why we formatted his words in an all-capped inspirational font and threw it on a brightly colored background.

We can give you one if you’d like.

Our clients always ask us the secret to social media success, and we just shrug. The secret may be that there’s really no one secret.

But if we look at the most successful campaigns we’ve created at The Found Gen, there’s often one key ingredient we’ve added to the mix that makes them uniquely effective: kindness.

The secret always seems to be rooted in the idea to persuade people to like you and your brand more than they like someone else.

We’ve revamped more than a few accounts where the content managers wondered why more conversations weren’t happening on their feeds. We found most of them to be perfectly informative and generous with their expertise. But they were missing the personal element of basic kindness.

Now, more than ever, your audience wants to be part of an intimate conversation. They want to be charmed. They want to belong.

There are three ways to make sure that happens:

• Be contagious. Kindness inspires more kindness. In fact, researchers found that the ripple effect of one act of kindness is at least three degrees. Think about your content as a conversation, and a nice one at that. Give away insider information, and also ask questions of your customers. “What are your concerns? How can we help?” Those questions are a fantastic start to approaching fresh content.
• Be specific. If you value kindness in your content, what does that look like in terms of daily output? Create a list of actions, big and small, that you can implement immediately. And not just for yourself: Create calls-to-action for your customers, too: Share this information with your friend, get more information here, and sign up now are all workable directives.
• Your metrics, if you pay attention, will tell you exactly how your audience responds to your content. We’re guessing they’re most responsive to your most authentic, compassionate content, right? (You can get back to us later, but we’re pretty sure we’re right on this one.)

Most importantly, be kind even when it’s difficult. One of life’s most important skills is writing a nasty, angry email, letting it sit for a minute, then deleting it and moving on.

Kind content marketing is not a one-hit wonder or a viral hit-or-miss. It’s a daily habit that involves building excellent, share-worthy content, tweaking, optimizing, and trying like crazy to help your customer base in whatever way you can.

At The Found Gen, we know the best ways to achieve this kind of content. And we also know your customers are just waiting for you to go there.

SEO is so 2017. Today, our attention is being pulled in a million directions, and no amount of brilliant blog writing can fight for attention with video, micro influencers…and personalized content.

Want to stay ahead of the curve so your content gets the attention it deserves? Then we should really look at the trends coming fast at us in 2018.

• Brand engagement. How many times do you see brands mentioned on social media in unsponsored posts? A lot, right? That’s because customers are craving relationships, authentic conversations, and ways to send their thanks. It’s more essential than ever to create a network where customers can reach you, and you can reach them.
• Okay, maybe you’re not ready to incorporate chatbots into your marketing strategy. (If you are, we can help you get started. The amount of workload it decreases for your social media team is kind of staggering.) But understanding that instant engagement, 24-7 is an expectation should bolster your commitment to connectivity.
• Use Instagram. The ephemeralness of Instagram stories has amped up direct messaging between consumer and brand, and it’s not going anywhere. It’s far more intimate – and visual – than Twitter, and more professional yet creative than Facebook.
• Be accountable. Social media has increased accountability for businesses. In today’s instant gratification world, it’s difficult for even your most loyal followers to stay silent if your message sours. Some brands think it’s too risky to address major issues – politics, discrimination, and other social topics – but just a bit more than 10% of consumers turn on brands for being too political.

Content marketing still remains on top of all activities that will make the largest commercial impact for brands and their clients, ahead of Big Data and far surpassing SEO. It remains the engagement fuel that powers all communications from search to social to email marketing to creating websites experiences that convert.

Times are changing on the hour, and it’s crucial for your social media to keep up. If you sign on with us, you might find yourself far ahead of the pack. At The Found Gen, we like being ahead of the pack.