So you’re thinking of creating an awesome promotional video for your hotel or resort, but don’t know where to start? Well, we are here to help! Let’s sit and break this down.
To begin it is important to understand one key thing, video is king but strategy is queen. Approximately 86% of companies rely on video as a primary marketing tool. - resorttrades.com Why? Simply because we as humans are hard wired to respond well to movement. This is because human psychology dictates that utilising non-textual elements on your website for example, breaks the users field of view and catches their attention.
But, a video is only as good as how relevant or engaging it is. It needs to be strategically designed to speak to the right audience, give the right feeling and give the right value/offer to who is watching.
Great, so now that we know how to get their attention, but what are the steps in creating the perfect hotel resort promotional video, hold on tight to your Margarita because it’s going to get interesting!
Before we can begin coming up with any ideas and concepts, we first need to really understand not only who our ideal customer is, but also how they communicate and what their interests are. How do we do this you might ask? Well, asking the right questions to understand them better are key.
From this information, you will be able to clearly see exactly what type of benefits and experiences to highlight in your video. You will also gain a better understanding of how to communicate better to your audience.
We can capture all elements of your resort, pretty visuals, add cool music and some captivating voice overs. But, if we don’t have a definite goal in exactly what we want to show, then we’re just creating pretty videos without purpose, without strategy. Understand your competitors and hone in on what makes your resort DIFFERENT!
List down 5 key elements that you would like to promote in your video and be specific. Here are some examples:
Now we know what content we are potentially going to film and include in our video, but we need to dive deeper into the strategy behind it. Now strategy is all about igniting a “feeling” in our audience. We want them to watch our video and walk away with some sort of a feeling, and in this case we want them to feel that this is 110% the next resort they want to spend their next holiday at!
So how do we create a feeling for a viewer? Well there are various methods but the key method is all about story. Create an authentic story that is relevant to your audience and you have that emotion in the bag.
This involves a little history – Write down why you started and what is the core of who you are as a brand.
Why do they stand out, how are they different – what makes them the best?
Put some extra heart into this one, we can all provide luxury experiences but what is it that truly drives your resort at the core? Is it that your goal is to provide a second home to families? Is it to create a space for people to meet and for long life friendships? Is it a haven for escape, mental and physical rejuvenation? Etc.
What is it that you want your guests to do after watching this video – This would usually be to make a booking or to go and look at your booking process. Map this out clearly so that you have an end goal of how you want to end the video and convert a viewer into a potential customer!
By defining the above we are able to create a story that will not only engage viewers of the video, but also give them an insight into your unique experience, and give them an option to take action.
The key whenever attempting to engage a potential customer with what you are offering is always to link between features and benefits. For example; “Let your kids enjoy our entertainment center” (Feature) “While you take a break with your significant other” (Benefit). Benefits are what customers are interested in the most, it’s all about how a feature can benefit their experience from your offering.
We really want to show off the benefits of your resort or hotel to guests and how these benefits may also differentiate from other resorts and hotels. Make two columns, on one side your hotel or resort features and on the other, the benefits. List all of your features and really think about how these features create benefits. These benefits should also relate to what your potential customers are looking for in a vacation. Benefits such as unique experiences, relaxation, fun etc.
You have your visual strategy, you have our story now it’s time to capture those visuals and create this beautiful video content!
There are many production companies out there which cover production right through to voice over, music etc. It is important to do your research and find a team that speaks to your visual and narrative goals! Go through their previous work online and see if it is at the quality you envision. Once you have narrowed down a few production companies, reach out to them and set up a meeting. Budget is always a discussion once when finding a quality team, so remember to have a budget and communicate this transparently to them.
If you can’t find a strong production team and you are feeling proactive, you can always put a word out there to hire some freelance crew to do the work.
Usually you will be looking at the following services to cater to such a video:
And from there you should be good to go!
It’s almost time for your shoot day! So now we need to make sure that all the scenes we are going to shoot are perfect. This will take a bit of time and preparation. For each of the locations within your resort that you are aiming to film, you will need to ensure that everything is in top condition and prepared! For example this might mean that there are meals being prepared for filming your restaurant’s cuisine or there are spa treatments being done when filming your wellness and spa experiences etc.
Also don't forget to do a rain check or weather forecast to make sure that the right weather conditions will be forecast for your shoot day.
Once everything is prepared, it’s in the hands of all the work done in the build-up to this day! The production team is aligned, the narrative is crafted and of course your staff and resort itself are in optimum condition to be filmed.
To wrap it up, creating the perfect hotel or travel resort promotional video is all about showcasing your strength and experiences all while telling a story that really connects with your ideal client. This is the key to achieving great engagement and in turn, getting more bookings.
If you have any more questions about how to create a great hotel or resort video, feel free to reach out to us and we would be happy to help.
