Influencer Marketing for Hospo

The term “influencer” holds a whole lot of connotation, opinion and meaning. It’s still a fairly new occupation that can work wonders for your business to get social media exposure and attraction. But, how can your hospitality business harness the power of influencer marketing? Let’s find out…

When the social media boom happened in the late naughties, customers who may previously have purchased from television ads could now run their own research for recommendations from real people via social media. With this shift to social media being a huge power house for product reviews, trends in what’s hot and what’s not, the influencer was born. A user who has a specialised authority, knowledge or experience in a certain area that can sway the audience on an industry. 

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways for brand adoption amongst a target audience online. In this article, we’re going to look at a few benefits and hospo specific reasons why you should slide into the DMs of an influencer in your field you follow!

Exposure

One of the main draw cards for getting on the influencer bandwagon is that they often boast a huge audience in your field. And usually, if you’re working with the good ones, their audience will be specific for your field and will genuinely turn their followers into your customers!

Influencers are considered experts in their field, most influencers will have one main focus, be that fashion, food, tech, toys or anything and everything else - I’m sure whatever your niche, they’ll be a few key influencers in your market. 

Being experts, they attract a following of people with the same interests. Their recommendations become trustworthy sources for reliable reviews, ‘influencing’ others’ opinions. 

Cost Effective

According to a poll by Tomoson, businesses can make an average of $6.50 in revenue for each $1 spent on influencer marketing. That is an incredible ROI that makes it hard not to join in on the fun! 

Influencers can range in price for their services from gifting them a meal or voucher for your eatery/business to thousands of dollars! And with that, an influencer’s audience can range from a few thousand, very niche followers (micro influencers) to millions. For me, and for small businesses, I recommend looking into micro influencers; they’re cheaper, probably more effective for genuine followers who might actually come into your restaurant and micro influencers often still hold a good level of reliability. 

Content Creation!

Influencers are awesome at creating some fresh content for your socials too! Each has their own process, but usually I’ve found they’ll send through an album of images/videos from their experience in your eatery for you to use on your own accounts. It’ a 2 for 1 deal (we love those at Treat NZ), get influencer marketing and get the promo plus the content!

How to find influencers that will work well with you hospitality business? 

If you spend some time on social media, it’s likely that you’re already familiar with a handful of influencers in your niche. There’s a few rules to keep in mind when reaching out: 

• Respect the influencer! They have the choice to work with you. Influencers only want to work with brands that will be of interest to their audience. So when you’re messaging or contacting them, be friendly, real and personal! Try not to send a generic message to multiple people, personalise your pitch!
• Give them freedom. All influencers have their own style, leave it up to them to come up with content for your business. Of course they’ll allow you to proof it before posting, but remember, they’re the social media experts… let them take the reigns. 

Final thoughts

Social media and influencer marketing can have a huge effect on your hospitality or tourism business. Helping you build relationships with experts in your field, reach a wider audience and get more customers, which is the main thing we’re all looking for!

Influencer marketing is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future, and it’s proven to work! 

If you’re looking to get started in influencer marketing, we at Treat NZ have a good foodie influencer network and would be happy to help you! (And if you’re on Treat NZ and would like another influencer to visit, let us know and we’ll organise it for you, for free, because that’s just what we do! #buildthebuzz)