storytelling

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.

It’s common for hotels to see a lot of business during the weekend, but unfortunately, some may remain pretty quiet during the week. Increasing visits from business guests is a great way to improve your occupancy during the week—you just need to let them know you have their needs covered.

Business travelers are looking for an office-away-from-home, as well as a home-away-from-home. It’s important to offer your business guests a comfortable and convenient stay as well as the amenities and services that will help them work efficiently. You probably already have conference rooms, wi-fi and efficient transportation, but you need to spread the word about why your offerings are the best in town.

Business travelers are a great target audience for any hotel to cater to, because they often turn into repeat business. So, how do you keep them coming back? Here’s how hotels should focus their content to lure in business travelers:

Take them to your site

A solid online presence will help you increase bookings from business travelers. All of your email and web content should eventually lead them to your site. Your website should highlight your property’s location and the amenities and services that business travelers care about, including business equipment, meeting space, dry cleaning services, transportation, dining options and anything else that’s unique about your property.

And, if your site isn’t mobile friendly, you need to put that at the top of your to-do list. Businesspeople are busy and will appreciate anything that saves them time and lets them access the information that they need really quickly.

Help them be productive

Each time a business traveler sets foot on your property, be sure to collect their email addresses so that you can stay in contact through email newsletters. Constant communication is key when it comes to maintaining relationships with your business guests. Tell them about what will help make their stay more productive and efficient before they arrive. Give them details about how to reserve the meeting rooms, request an airport pick-up, or make restaurant reservations through your email content.

Post-stay communication with business guests is just as important as the communication before their arrival. Send special business packages and discounts through email for their next stay. And, always encourage them to tell you what services or amenities will help improve their future stays and then inform them of any new changes made.

Generic emails or those that promote amenities and services geared more toward leisure guests will seem irrelevant and unhelpful to most business guests. And, always focus on convenience, efficiency, and smooth-running technology.

Need some help focusing your email content? Let’s talk.

Your hotel probably has all the amenities to that offer visitors a comfortable home-away-from-home stay. But, Location is actually your hotel’s best asset, and you need to show it off.

Through their web and email content, hotels need to describe the amenities and services they provide, but the content should also push the location of the hotel. If you’re trying to lure in vacationers, they’ll be extremely interested in what’s close by.

Here’s why you should focus your content on what’s outside of your walls:

You’re selling the local area

Hotels are selling much more than a place to sleep. You’re selling an experience, which includes a getaway to your great location and area. The first thing most travelers want to know is where they’ll be staying in relation to the rest of the destination. Is your hotel in an arts district or downtown area? It’s important to highlight the unique places that are next to your hotel.

Local activities and events

Tout the local attractions and activities they can enjoy in their spare time. Location is a key decision factor. If the attractions vacationers are most interested in are close to your hotel, they’ll be 10 times more likely to stay with you. Highlight the restaurants, bars or other activities that are within walking distance. Help your guests get to their destination easily by providing them with information about the nearest bus, train, and other transportation options.

Localizing keywords

A current, searchable web presence is one of the most important things a hotel can have. To retain highly searched keywords, you need to make sure you have localized keywords for your search engine optimization. Most people book vacations while on the go now, so making sure your searchable keywords are up-to-date and local should be a top priority so that people can find you.

Your content marketing strategy should highlight the location of your hotel as much as the basic amenities and services. This will help you sell them on the complete weekend getaway instead of just where they’ll be spending the night.

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.

LinkedIn is one of the best places to network

Creating valuable content is the first step in any content marketing strategy. Your next step should be focused on sharing that content with the right audience. The key to reaching your target audience is first knowing who your audience is and where to find them, and then widening your network.

LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for finding and sharing professionally relevant content, networking, and generating new leads. This is especially true if you’re offering a B2B product or service. Being active on LinkedIn lets you target the audience of your choice and reach them extremely quickly.

So, how do you incorporate LinkedIn into your content strategy?

Set up a business page/profile 

If you haven’t already created your business page on LinkedIn, do it now. Your business page is where you include details about the nature of your business. Your profile should include your company’s logo, a compelling summary, and relevant keywords to make your page rank higher in search engines.

Let goals drive your content marketing 

If you want to effectively reach your audience on LinkedIn, you need to make sure your content marketing strategy is goal driven. With each post you share, your aim should be to:

• Provide original information. Instead of always pushing a sell, try sharing your unique knowledge of the industry. Don’t be afraid to share any ideas that you think might help.
• Keep your content interesting and approachable. Stay away from boring or overused content. Focus on unique problems or issues that people will enjoy reading.
• Be engaging. Posting is important, but engaging with other LinkedIn users will let you make connections that can lead to customers. Participate in relevant groups and forums on LinkedIn. It’s important that your peers notice your content, as well as your customers. Also, take the time to read and discuss other company’s content.

Stay professional and consistent

Don’t use LinkedIn as an outlet for your personal thoughts or messages—save that for your personal Facebook page. Because LinkedIn is a professional networking site, make sure you consistently share business-related advice, company updates, or industry news or trends.

Keep it short

Everyone is busy, so keep your posts short and to the point. Remember, LinkedIn is a professional network, and people don’t want to spend a huge chunk of their time reading a long, boring post. Use bulleted lists to break up information and save readers time, and make sure to use strong headlines and subheadings.

By utilizing LinkedIn’s professional network, you can find the right audience for your content and be seen as an authoritative voice in the industry. Need help with your content marketing strategy? Let’s talk.

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.