The Importance Of Hospitality PR Coming Out From COVID-19
At the moment, it’s difficult to envisage life back in normality. It hasn’t taken long for the surrealistic nature of the lockdown to have become our new reality. This will pass, however, no matter how long that may take; we will come through and return to some semblance of normality in the coming months.
When this easing does occur, businesses will start going back to work and the hospitality sector is one that has to bounce back strongly. Mainly because it’s been one of the most, if not the most hit industry. The team here at VerriBerri, a leading hospitality PR agency in Essex, realises the importance of putting in work now in order to rebound strongly going forward.
Stay Relevant
One of the biggest dangers of the pandemic for hospitality businesses asides from the obvious one of simply surviving, is staying relevant. Nobody is using hospitality businesses as it stands. When you don’t use something for an extended period of time; that certain something begins to fade and filter out of the mind, purely because it isn’t being used. This fading brand recognition can be killer for a business if you’re not weary to it.
Doubling down on your exposure and coverage at this time is therefore going to be crucial to your rebuilding effort post-pandemic. There are going to be so many restaurants and hotels vying for people’s attention in the future, you can’t afford to take your foot off the pedal.
A hospitality PR agency has a team of PR specialists, from executives through to assistants whose job it is to secure you that vital coverage. Working on behalf of your hospitality brand, they will process the main messages and selling points of your brand, and pitch it to journalists at leading publications. The hospitality industry is one that still very much relies on reputation and word of mouth from leading industry bodies.
Even with review sites such as TripAdvisor nipping at the tails of these more traditional heavy-hitters, securing a piece in a leading magazine is still one of the most sure-fire ways of cementing reputation that’s out there. Importantly, these PR specialists will work on securing coverage in both print and digital media. At the minute, people aren’t going out and buying physical copies of magazines. What they are doing, however, is spending a lot of time surfing the internet.
Broaden Your Reach
Now is not the time to buckling down on one area in particular. Now is the time to incorporate as many useful tools at your disposal as is possible. One such tool is social media marketing. We’ve just touched upon the fact that people, having nothing else to do, are currently spending a lot of time online. Most of that internet time is spent on their phones, of which a huge proportion is spent on various social media channels. People crave things even more when they can’t have them, which means a lot of people currently are ‘window-shopping’ for holidays, hotels and restaurants that they can cling to for beyond the crisis. So, with that in mind, take a look at your social media channels as they currently stand. Do you think they’re portraying the adventure/luxury/comfort/quality that is necessary to reel people in? If not, then why not?
Social media needn’t be as tedious or tricky as many people make out. Implementing curated content and themes into your accounts is crucial;, but that’s not to say that you yourself have to do it. A hospitality PR agency will almost always have its own team of social media specialists. These aficionados live, breathe and sleep social media. They know the trends inside out and love nothing more than to take on an account and start growing it organically. They will curate the content for your brand, schedule it so that there’s consistency on your account (something that’s crucial for continuous social media growth) and handle user enquiries and comments. There’s no excuse, then, for not having top-quality social media channels, especially at a time like now.
Factor In Change Now, Not Later
Even when things do go back to normal, there’s very little chance that that normal will be what we would’ve described it as, previously. Social distancing measures will no doubt carry on long into the future. People are going to be more inclined, therefore, to prioritise those hospitality establishments which better enable them to follow these measures. Restaurants, for example, that introduce much greater distances between their tables. Hotels can implement Perspex screens between receptionists and guests, as well as adopting even stricter and more regular cleaning routines. By implementing these changes visibly into your codes of conduct; best practices and also into the public eye by utilising PR exposure (make sure people know what proactive steps you’re taking to ensure their future safety.) You’ll slip into the sub-conscious of more people as a business that they can trust; one that they’re willing to step foot into beyond the outbreak.
Accept It Won’t Be Easy
This is something you’ve almost certainly already realised, but it’s going to be a long, old road to industry recovery. The hospitality sector is going to be permanently scarred and changed by this virus; so adaptability and diversification is essential where you’re able. To use restaurants as an example once more, many eateries that didn’t previously offer takeaway services are doing so and it would make sense for them to continue to do so well into the future.
Hotels, restaurants and other hospitality businesses are having a rough old time of it at the minute. You can mitigate some of this stress, however, by focusing on what you can control, as opposed to getting bogged down in the uncertainties. So, if you’d like to find out more about our hospitality PR agency, then get in touch! Contact VerriBerri today on 01376 386 850. We’d love to discuss how your hospitality business can get back on track once all of this is over.
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