There’s a reason why promotional partnerships are an increasingly growing tactic being used by marketers. As more and more brands are embracing these strategies we uncover exactly how promotional partnerships with travel brands can benefit and boost your business.
By Dana Baasiri
Increasing sales, boosting loyalty and deepening brand affinity are cornerstones of every brand’s marketing plan, and promotional partnerships have become a pivotal tactic in reaching those goals. In fact, more and more brands are embracing this marketing tactic with 54% of companies saying partnerships drive more than 20% of their total revenue.
It’s no secret that the marketplace is increasingly crowded as ever and brands are competing to acquire new customers and reward existing ones. While a dollar can go a long way in doing so, it doesn’t take much money to effectively grow your customer base and add value to your customer experience. Promotional partnership marketing can do just that for brands. In fact, its proven success says a lot about the power of partnership.
The key to a successful partnership is strategically aligning with a brand that carries its own equity and appeals to your audiences. Travel brands are among the most lucrative, particularly in a post-pandemic world where pent-up travel demand is soaring. Offering a free getaway to a beach destination in the Caribbean or an exclusive discount to an all-inclusive hotel in Mexico is a surefire way of capturing customers’ attention. Not to mention, travel partnerships can range from simple giveaways to deeper integrated partnerships, event activations or even on-resort programming.
If you’re wondering how exactly your brand can benefit from a promotional partnership with a hotel, we round these up below:
Enhance Your Marketing Plan
Promotional partnership marketing is a cost-effective way to enhance existing marketing efforts and keep your brand top of mind. Rather than focusing all efforts on traditional media buys or hard-sell ads, promotional partnerships allow you to create and distribute authentic content that will engage and resonate with your customers in a whole new way. By adding travel to the mix, you can complement your seasonal campaigns or a new product launch. Announcing a new resort wear line for the upcoming season? Pair it with a Caribbean getaway allowing customers to show off their new looks, or level up your window display and partner with a resort to lure in your customers and spice up their in-store experience. Amplify it on social media to further heighten engagement and generate UGC for more impact.
Surprise and Delight Existing Customers
Brand collaborations can offer exclusive access to bespoke experiences, products, or deals that surprise and delight your customers. In turn, this not only reinforces your brand but refreshes their relationship with you. Surprise and delight marketing is a critical path of a brand’s retention strategies. By treating customers to something of value, you’re improving their overall experience with your brand and keeping them plugged in. One study found that 94% of customers said that surprise and delight led them to feel more positive about the company with 34% saying it led them to spend more with the company. Whether you’re honoring frontline workers with a much-needed vacation or surprising a deserving family with an all-expenses-paid trip, promotional partnerships will deepen your relationship with your existing customers.
Acquire New Customers in New Market Segments
In the last 6 years, the cost of new customer acquisition has skyrocketed by at least 60%. Traditional marketing is generally becoming more expensive and customers are increasingly less trusting of brands making it that much more difficult. The good news is promotional partnerships catapult your brand to a pool of potential customers with aligned demographics. By aligning with a like-minded hotel or resort, you can attract new audiences who have shared interests that cross over with your brand. It’s an extra push that some customers need to start engaging with new brands they may not have heard of or been familiar with. And while travel may be the hook that reels them in, they’re more likely to hang around as part of your customer base because you’re giving them a reason to be highly engaged and tapped in with your brand. If you’re trying to market to a specific segment of engaged couples, for example, partnering with a resort to offer a destination wedding package sweepstakes during the height of the engagement season will get the job done.
Grow Loyalty Numbers & Incentivize Subscriptions
Perhaps your focus for the year is to launch a new loyalty program or grow your membership numbers. A promotional partnership can reward loyalty members with an exclusive opportunity to win a stay or take advantage of a member-only promotion to a hot destination. Similarly, you can strategically use the same partnership to incentivize non-members to sign up and subscribe. Take FabFitFun as an example, a quarterly subscription box with a digital marketing platform reaching over 2 million affluent women. When we paired them up with one of our travel clients for an in-box travel sweepstakes for subscribers, it added immense value to their offerings by including a chance to win and exclusive travel offers.
Brings your Brand to Life
All marketers are tasked with crafting inventive ways to bring brands to life and stretch their campaigns beyond the typical digital distribution channels. One way of doing so is through branded programming and live experiences in partnership with a resort. Caribbean and Mexican hotels host millions of travelers per year, with the majority of them being U.S. consumers. It’s no secret that guests are looking to stay at hotels that offer dynamic experiences and hotels are always on a mission to meet their demands. Branded programming like a KIDZ BOP Experience for little travelers with themed activities or even a fully branded resort will take your relationship with customers offline and to a whole new level. It will position your brand front and center in front of millions, and allow them to connect with your brand on a deeper level. Lastly, it will give hotel partners incentive to market the partnership through their channels and on-property.
Increase Sales
Brand partnerships and promotional marketing produce a measurable boost in sales. Easier access to new markets, customer acquisition, successful client retention, increased loyalty and subscriptions — these are all crucial pieces to the revenue puzzle. Promotional partnerships give you more opportunities to drive engagement throughout your sales funnel, helping you earn your customers’ trust by deepening their loyalty. Aligning with travel, whether through prizing or exclusive offers, creates for a meaningful alliance that drives increased results and truly captures audience attention and excitement. Paired with tactical timing, whether a seasonal push or a soft-sale period, joining forces with a credible travel brand will help you keep customers returning and reach new ones more efficiently and effectively.
Simply put, brand partnerships and promotions are a win-win for everyone. To see how it all works, click here and let us know if you’re ready to tap into our portfolio of resorts.
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