actionable marketing guide

Dear ,

Greetings!

As you may know, I just spent 2 weeks on vacation in Portugal.

I truly believe vacations are sacred time to unplug from work and your daily routines.

To do your best work, you need time and space to recharge. You need both small increments every day and every week as well as vacations.

Early in my career, I had a boss who believed in vacations. Not as a badge of honor that you showed up and worked through, but rather to use to recharge and allow your creative juices to flow. In today’s non-stop world, this need is even greater. Your mind and body need to stop revving constantly. 

Currently there’s a television ad playing in New York where actors dress in yellow t-shirts that read “Vacation Day”. They complain about being wasted on stuff like waiting for the repairman. It’s for Ocean City, Maryland and sells a memorable vacation experience.

Think about your childhood. What stands out?

If you’re like a lot of people I know, it’s your family vacations.

Why? Regardless of where you went, they were different, a break from the regular routine.

Give yourself permission to take a break and change things up.

While I was “unplugged” in Portugal I still saw things through my marketing glasses especially our restaurant visits and hotel stays.

Nothing puts the “customer” in customer experience (CX for short) than a vacation. By their nature, they’re experiences.

Hotels and restaurants live and die by their TripAdvisor and Booking.com ratings.

Astute travelers read these reviews with keen eyes. This doesn’t necessarily ensure you’ll get a superior stay or meal but rather they allow you to select options based on your preferences. 

Beyond diminishing overall rankings, one star reviews don’t necessarily hurt hotels or restaurants especially if they’re popular. Most people will look at the rant and see it as just that. If the point is important to them, it’ll qualify their decision.

Further, what one person perceives is a good review may turn others away. An Australian couple sitting at an outside table at a restaurant in Sintra told us their meal was pretty good for the money. A different couple at the restaurant in the adjacent building had high praise for their meals.

The first couple had ordered steak whereas the second had ordered Portuguese dishes: Bacalhau – a combination of codfish, onions, potatoes and eggs. We took a table next to them.

This small restaurant in the middle of the tourist section of town was one of the most delightful meals of our trip. While the food was good, the service was friendly and we had fun to engaging with the staff and patrons.

At Incomum run by cooking star Luis Santos one of the best restaurants we ate at, a patron complained about not being seated in a prime area since she had a baby. This made us decide yes.

By contrast the Eurostar Porto Douro had the hotel basics down. They had bathrobes and slippers in the room and offered each guest a free non-alcoholic drink during Happy Hour.We were thrilled to check in early. Even better, we received a suite with wonderful river view.

But our joy soon dissipated when we spent over an hour trying to get the wifi to work in our room. Even worse, the front desk staff insisted the issue was our devices. (BTW—It took 3+ hours to get their technology specialist to work with my husband to determine that our  wonderful room was a wifi dead zone.)

The problem:

• When you’re part of a chain, everything runs on set standards. While the front desk staff were polite and tried hard, they didn’t have freedom to make any changes or offers on their own.

Yet small gestures that cost the hotel very little would have made us feel cared for.

• Cup of coffee
• Glass of wine or port (We were in Porto!)
• Breakfast (We had declined the 12 euro breakfast)

These are high margin products. They’re relatively low cost to offer but can make an upset customer feel better.

Fabio the front desk manager worked hard to improve our stay and I give him kudos for trying. He had a fruit platter and a liter of bottled water left in our room to surprise us.

If I were the Hotel Director I’d use Fabio’s example to empower my front desk staff to improve customer experiences. I’d make it into a monthly challenge and spotlight the employee with the best feedback for the period.

Your challenge: Your experiential product is only as good as the last person you speak or interact with.

Ask your staff:

• How can we empower you to handle to improve our customers’ experiences? 
• What do perks or options do you need to make our patrons happy?

I’d love to know what are your key marketing challenges? What keeps you awake at night?

Just hit reply now and let me know what you think.

Happy Marketing
Heidi.

Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing Guide

PS: Please join me at Content Marketing World 2017 this September in Cleveland.

Content Marketing World is a stand out event for the people who go there!  You need to be where the top marketers are to make the face-to-face connections and to learn the latest trends. 

The Road to Recognition – Book Interview

In case you missed it, Kantar MillwardBrown announced the top 100 global brands. (Don’t worry I’ve got you covered.) It’s ungated and packs a dense 150+ pages (actually it’s a book on branding—my suggestion: read the summary). Here’s the Top 50 listing.

• Heidi Cohen gave her top link building advice in this roundup. What is your top link building tip?
  
  
• Heidi is also one of 17 Digital Marketing Experts Share Their Most Successful Lead Generation Strategies in RealPhoneValidation roundup post.
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• Heidi Cohen was one of the experts tapped in JohnTP's roundup post: How To Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic: 31 Experts Share Their #1 Tip