Creating that ultimate yearly comms plan

As we approach 2018 it’s essential to have your yearly communications plan in place, so that your marketing is in sync with your hotel’s business objectives for the year ahead.

But what do we mean by ‘comms plan’? Well, it’s essentially your 2018 marketing plan and should include all of your marketing tactics (at least those that can be planned) for the year: from press relations and events through to social media and advertising.

To work effectively, this plan will need to be a working document. It’s more than likely it will be shared by several people, both in house and potentially externally if you’re using any agencies for marketing support. Using Google docs for something like this ensures changes are made and updated in real-time. This means everyone is working on the same document and there’s no risk of duplication, which can often lead to confusion when trying to keep track of the most recent version.

Here, we use various formats for working docs, which very much depends on the individual needs of our clients. More often than not though, the comms plan will be timeline based for ease of use and because it’s generally the most sensible approach when planning something spread over a prolonged period.

But where to start when looking to create that ultimate comms plan?

Key dates / events

First things first, you need to map out the key dates. This should include all of the usual suspects such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas Day and so on. On top of this, you should also look at awareness days and weeks that could be relevant to your establishment, as these are perhaps something you can ride on the back of. Are there any unusual ones that stand out?

July 7th, for example, is International Chocolate Day. It should be fairly easy to mark the occasion with chocolate related social posts or perhaps a chocolate themed event. 26th of August is National Dog Day. This could be a perfect opportunity for a dog friendly hotel to showcase its canine welcome, perhaps with a dog centric offer.

Don’t just stop there though. Look to include key dates or events that are specific to you. You may as a hotel for instance, decide to host a live music night on the first Thursday of every month, or perhaps host a wedding fair on certain dates across the year. All of these things should be included within the plan to be shouted about and highlighted.

Partnerships & Packages

Any partnerships and packages that you put in place are obviously going to be a big part of your communications plan. So this may also be a good time to review your current partnerships and see who else you can be working with to help fill those quieter months when there’s nothing obvious to shout about. Are there any events in the local area that you can join in with for mutual promotion? Perhaps food festivals or music/comedy gigs? Any sporting occasions? Forming a partnership with an event to offer a package combining a stay with tickets makes you more appealing to prospective guests, with the chance that the event organisers will promote your establishment too.

You don’t just need to rely on external influences either. Review your current packages and see if there’s anything else you can be doing. Make sure you maximise what your hotel has to offer. Play on its location. A country hotel with great cycling routes for example could perhaps look to invest in some electric bikes (or indeed normal bikes), which can then be hired out to guests. Furnish them with a picnic, map and any other necessaries and combine it with an end of day treatment in the spa. Not only would this form a great new package for guests to enjoy, but it also provides you with plenty of fodder for your marketing channels.

Highlighting this in your yearly comms plan allows you to take advantage of it across multiple channels, such as shouting about it to the local press, putting adverts in relevant magazines (cycling magazines could open you up to a new audience) and using social posts.

Campaigns

While It’s all well and good setting out your key dates, for these to be marketed effectively, you need to create engaging campaigns. Let’s look at International Chocolate Day again. This falls on a Saturday in 2018, so it could be a great opportunity to create a bespoke menu, with chocolate led dishes and cocktails. You can then create some teaser videos of the dishes, or perhaps of the cocktail creation, and send them out on social, and via email beforehand to generate interest/anticipation. What might seem like a simple concept at first could then evolve into a larger, and potentially more rewarding undertaking.

You should also look at challenges you face and see if you can flip these on their head. North East based hotels may struggle to attract Londoners to venture that far for a weekend country break. Create a video that dispels the travel as an issue. A promotional campaign video focusing on a couple leaving work in the capital on a Friday afternoon, before enjoying a meal in your restaurant in the evening after just a few hours on the train, helps prospective guests visualise a scenario. Invite London press to experience your country weekend break to put you in front of the right audience.

Campaign approaches need to be included in your comms plan and joined up. Campaign planning days, where you map all of this out, need to be in there too.

Be different

Hotel marketing itself isn’t difficult. The difficulty lies in being different. Christmas time is the perfect example. You don’t want to be another hotel who just does a ’12 days of Christmas’ give away competition. To offer differentiation you need to be original, and originality needs thought.

Actively plan ‘think’ days in your communications calendar. These can give you the time to consider what works best in your offering to make you stand out and to persuade guests to visit you rather than neighbouring hotels.

Involve your staff

Share your comms plan with key staff. Inspiration comes from all sorts of avenues, so including more staff opens these up. I talk a lot about how hotel’s really need to inject personality into their marketing activities; this comes from involving staff and ensuring their understanding of the overall plan. Book in brainstorm sessions and includes these in your timeline. Key staff help to make your marketing more engaging as they offer an additional well of expertise to dip into.>

Identify key areas of the business

As a hotel owner or a GM, the financials of the business will be in your head. You will know the areas of the business that need addressing, and indeed what areas, if cranked up, can make a real difference to the bottom line. Make sure these are the areas that get addressed properly in your comms plan.

The ‘comms plan’ is a basic tool. But one that ensures the basics are getting done. If this is happening, it provides you with a great platform to build on, and really produce some smart, hard-hitting marketing campaigns. You can’t leave everything to chance, and look to be re-active. Clever comms needs clever planning.