How to Get More Bookings with Influencer Marketing

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Transcript from the Episode

[00:00:00] Mark: All right, everybody. Welcome to a very special episode of the Boostly Podcast. We are live, and if you are joining us live, please let us know where you're tuning in from around the world. This is one for you not to miss out on because if there's one area of marketing that the hospitality industry is currently not paying enough attention to, it's the influencer market marketing world.

[00:00:22] Mark: For years, I've been calling out for a service that connects influences to hospitality venues, and today I've discovered and found one that I wanna share with you. So make sure you're tapping in. Leave a hashtag live, let me know where you're tuning in from around the world. If you wanna promote your business in any way, that's fine.

[00:00:36] Mark: Just leave a little web link, tell us where you are, tell us who you service and look after best and who knows, and maybe a book in waiting for you as you're tuning in. So let's do this. Let's get the intro going and then we will introduce our. This is a freestyle. I'm going off the

[00:00:52] Jordon: dump.

[00:00:56] Jordon: Ready for my closeup. Good looking. Let me tell you. Get more bookings. Ah, that'd be nice. Giving me tips, tools and advice. Yeah, you're gonna get 'em hun. You're gonna sit back. Listen to Mark

[00:01:06] Mark: Simpson. Whoa. Having a blast. Gonna get it on the

[00:01:09] Jordon: Bruce Lee Pod cars. Bruce Lee led Bruce Lee cuz it's so hard on the tea years Loose leaf.

[00:01:13] Jordon: Making up those rhymes. Don't write it. Just do a loose leaf if you want my respect. You are better. Put direct. Mm. Here are the words in the podcast.

[00:01:22] Mark: That's what. Hi, Jordon. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Boostly Podcast experience. How are we and where are you tuning in from around the

[00:01:30] Jordon: world? I'm great.

[00:01:32] Jordon: Thank you so much for having me. That was a, was that you wrapping

[00:01:35] Mark: over that? Uh, I'm afraid I cannot take credit for that. That's a guy called Chris Turner. Check him out on YouTube. Okay. He is a, a freestyle rapper from England, very well educated, and he will take anything that you throw at him and he will turn it into a, into a wrap.

[00:01:48] Mark: I discovered him during, I discovered him on cameo of all places. No way. Cool. Yeah, yeah, you can, I love cameo. You can send little requests in and get things out. And you did that for me, which was, which was amazing. So, Jordan, tell us, uh, where you are in the world. Tell us a little bit about what you have created and then what we'll do is we'll dig into some questions, but please can everybody, whatever you do, listen to this cuz this is gonna help you massively in terms of boosting your direct booking.

[00:02:14] Mark: So please, Jordan, the floor

[00:02:16] Jordon: is, Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I am, uh, one of the co-founders of STA ammo. Um, it is a marketplace that connects Airbnbs and boutique hotels from all over the world. Um, with influencers and photographers. We, uh, make sure that everyone is of a certain quality.

[00:02:34] Jordon: Everyone goes through us in both homes and, uh, influencers and photographers, and we connect them through this marketplace. Uh, we've been in business for over three. We launched January of 2019 and, uh, yeah, it has been an amazing ride and connection and learnings that we've had from both hosts and the creators along the way.

[00:02:57] Jordon: Um, my background is in production and media. Uh, I've been full-time freelance in the social media content creator space for over five years. Um, and my co-founder. Is in the, um, ho hospitality space. So we are a great ying and yang partner of what like, brought us together.

[00:03:16] Mark: Amazing. Thank you very much. Okay, so let's boil it down to stay ammo.

[00:03:19] Mark: Um, what is the name, how did you come up with it and what is the general sort of aspect of, of how this all came about?

[00:03:26] Jordon: Yeah. Uh, so Temo in Spanish is, I love you. And so we were just trying to find the right name of like, love where you stay or, you know, something along those lines. We were throwing up so many names against the wall at this coffee shop, um, out in la back in.

[00:03:42] Jordon: 2000, end of 2018, early 2019, trying to figure out what, what to do with this. And so, uh, it came together of just like, man, love where you stay. There should be love behind this. And both from a photographer standpoint as well as these homeowners and, and bringing people into their experiences. Uh, and so yeah, it, it just kind of came together and once it clicked and once we saw that all the domains were available, it was kind of a, a no-brainer from.

[00:04:08] Mark: Brilliant. So stayamo.com. So stayamo.com. Please can everybody, whether you are live, and we've got Isabel, Stacy, Leanne, Paula, hello For John and his live, or if you're on the replay, tune in on the, on the back. Make sure you gotta check it out. So, um, it is free for everybody to list their services.

Jordons thought process behind Stayamo

[00:04:25] Mark: So walk us through why you decided to do this, why you f thought the connection is, and, and, and why you've sort of kept it free. Like what's the sort of thinking.

[00:04:33] Jordon: Yeah, absolutely. So this was back, uh, probably in 2018, 2017, 2018. I was doing a road trip. Um, I was creating content and I reached out to a couple homes via Airbnb in Joshua Tree.

[00:04:47] Jordon: And to my luck, I found some people who were willing to provide me a free stay in exchange for providing them exposure and content. It was one of those like light bulb moments. And one of the hosts, actually, this was out in um, Zion actually, he brought up, Hey, I know some other homes that are interested in doing this.

[00:05:07] Jordon: I'd love to work with more influencers. And it was just this like brewing of an idea. And so, interestingly enough is that a friend of mine who isn't even a content creator, got featured by, um, best Airbnb, which is, uh, the page that my co-founder. Um, managed at the time. And so I reached out to them being like, Hey, I'd love to work with you.

[00:05:29] Jordon: And, and so kind of pitched him on this idea and he had been thinking about it as well. And so, once again, another like perfect storm. And the thing is, is when you reach out on V R B O or uh, Airbnb about being like, Hey, can I stay at your house and take you photos and check out my social media is your account can get flagged and or banned and.

[00:05:50] Jordon: obviously we don't want that. We want you to be able to continue to use their services and, and the importance around that. But I also think that, um, where this works out well is that these homes are interested in the marketing as well. So not every home wants the social media exposure or needs the photography help and a lot of homes.

[00:06:09] Jordon: Do. And that's not a problem if you're one of the homeowners that do need that. That's just the space that we're in right now. And so to give people this platform of both homes that are willing and looking to work with them, and photographers and influencers that are right for you, and not every influencer and photographer is right for every home.

[00:06:27] Jordon: There are some people that. Travel on a more higher level, uh, lifestyle content. And then there's other people that travel on the cabin space and the more like grittier if your home's a little more off the reservation. So we're trying to connect all these people. There's all these marketing and strategy opportunities here and uh, we're just trying to make sure that everyone comes together appropriately.

[00:06:50] Mark: Yeah, amazing. So, A hundred percent. Right. There's, there's, and this is something that we talk about and we coach a lot at Boley, is about knowing your customer avatar. It's like taking that guest to avatar of a customer avatar and putting it into the world of an influencer, because if, mm-hmm. , people with influencer, and there's so many different, like misinterpretations when we say influencer marketing, but if you think about it on the, on the most basic level, you're able to work with somebody that has got a really engaged audience that follows this person.

[00:07:16] Mark: and if this person fits your avatar to a T for example, it could be a family blogger. They've got kids, they talk about their adventures. They love to travel, and they, they fit what you offer perfectly. Why wouldn't you want to work? With them because then they've got, say, a thousand, 2000, 5,000, 10,000 followers who absolutely adore this person, follow this person, love to follow their story.

[00:07:40] Mark: It is, there's so many wins around this. Now my question to you, because obviously now you've got over 500 properties on the platform. What's one of the biggest mistakes that you see, uh, a homeowner, a management company make when they first try and work with an influencer? What's one of the biggest mistakes that you see?

[00:07:59] Mark: The majority of people.

[00:08:01] Jordon: People get excited by seeing the, the size of the, the following. And I'm just assuming that because this person has 150,000 followers and you know that you create a deal with them where they're gonna post one photo from your home, um, that you're gonna get. 10% of that followers in return like that.

[00:08:21] Jordon: This one small little experience and this small in return deliverable is going to max the exposure and the experience. And what we've learned over time is to, to build on that relationship and that creating, uh, having a social media presence, if not just a beautifully aesthetic. Page that when you do work with someone who is a larger influencer and they bring the eyeballs to your page, that your page is aesthetically pleasing, that they're like, man, I want to follow this and keep tabs cuz I wanna stay at this home cuz they're not selling a t-shirt.

[00:08:57] Jordon: You know, a lot of influencer marketing is, Hey, buy this product and they can get it right away because it. Uh, you know, a a t-shirt or any kind of quick thing that can just get mailed to them. When it comes to vacation homes, you have to, where is it located? Do they have availability? Is it in my price range?

[00:09:15] Jordon: Like there, there's a lot of factors in a slow burn that come with it. So this immediate gratification, cuz they see an influencer with 150,000, even 250,000, even like a little. Thinking that they're gonna get this huge influx of growth if their social media pages don't look the part, um, is probably the, the quickest or the earliest mistakes that we see.

[00:09:39] Jordon: And then they get disappointed and then they're upset. Um, so I can definitely talk more about. The best practices for that as well. But, but I'll let you wrap

[00:09:47] Mark: on the show. We'll definitely come on together. I've got some good news. So while we're being live, we've had the amazing Paula Revel Jones sign up on the on the live.

[00:09:55] Mark: So there's Paula who's signed up. So you'll have one person to uh, uh, chat with, which is amazing. So yeah, if you want to go and sign up, just like Paula has done, go to stay ammo.com, S T A Y A M o.com. It's absolutely free to list your services. So we've gone through the biggest mistake. . Now you've led me on nicely to my next question, which is best practices.

Advice to people watching about influencer marketing

[00:10:15] Mark: So you are a, a host, whether you've got one property or you've got 50 properties and you're really wanting to increase the awareness of your properties, your business, and you wanna work with, uh, an influencer. What is some of the best practices that you have seen that you can sort of give advice to everybody watching?

[00:10:32] Jordon: Uh, I, uh, the, the main thing, and, and this goes back to my last point of having a page that is aesthetically pleasing and so that when someone who doesn't know about your property gets sent, there they are, they're sucked in and they know what they're getting themselves into. And so I think it's important for these homes, especially on off times, that if there's an available Monday through Wednesday, Tuesday through Thursday, even if you like, have a free weekend and you're just like, man, I want to do this, is bringing in someone.

[00:11:00] Jordon: Who May, who doesn't have a large following, who is, is very hungry to create content and build out their portfolio, but also showcases that they can create really good content for you. So from that, the deal that you create with them is, Hey, stay at my house for two nights and you get 20, 30 photos for your use.

[00:11:24] Jordon: On top of them sharing on. Uh, their space. And it's not like you're not looking for this immediate jump in this growth, but you now have a set of content that you can slowly build out, you can get within the algorithms of social media. That is so important in an education that people need to learn is that, you know, one photo is not gonna, like, you have to slowly build in there and build this audience and, and grow on that.

[00:11:47] Jordon: So, working with smaller influencers, or even if you wanna just refer to them as photographers and content creators, Most people who like in the influencer space, aren't truly influencers. Yes, they have a big audience and they may create beautiful work, but the the term influencer means, Hey, go do this thing.

[00:12:08] Jordon: And they go do that thing. And that is a very small percentage of the population of people who have large followings on social media. So that's what we try to educate them. every three to six months brings someone in when you have the availability. A couple, uh, uh, you know, we've seen best practices as two nights.

[00:12:29] Jordon: Gives the opportunity for three sunrises, two sunsets, the, the influence the creator can at least just like. Enjoy their time a little bit. See how the lighting hits certain areas in the house to create the best content for you. You know, to be like, Hey, you get one night here, it's a, you know, eight of those hours they're sleeping, or eight of those hours, it's pitch black and the lighting is not good in your house, and so you're not gonna.

[00:12:58] Jordon: Get the content that's gonna benefit you on social media. Um, so there's a lot of best practices. There's a lot of importance that we've learned along the way, but I think vetting and communicating and also making sure that you're getting content for your use versus one post that goes up on their page is not gonna benefit.

[00:13:15] Mark: I think you've, you've hit an l head massively as communication, uh, because one of the big pain points and the big mistakes I see so many people make is that, Reporting our group saying, Hey, we're gonna work with an influencer. Fantastic. And at the end of it they go, oh, that's a bit disappointing. But the problem is, is that they didn't actually treat it as work.

[00:13:34] Mark: They treated it as a free stay, like I was giving it to a fam, family member or a friend. One of the best things that I have seen, and I've seen this from both angles working, you know, in the hospitality and working with an influencer and being an influencer and staying at someone's place, is that you've got to have an itinerary for 'em.

[00:13:49] Mark: You, you can't let them think at any point, should I be doing something now or what? So, you know, schedule an itinerary. So for the moment they arrived, at the moment that they leave, they know exactly what they need to be doing. Where, and. . And even if that means you reaching out to other local businesses in the area and maybe go and arrange like an activity or a place for them to eat or something, then it's only going to make the end result better and you hit the nail perfectly on the head where it's don't treat 'em as an influencer, treat 'em as a content creator.

[00:14:18] Mark: Because if you boil this down to the bear of what it could be is that instead of you paying for a very expensive photo shoot, you could put the equivalent of that budget to working with somebody from Stay am. And you could get fantastic results because what content creators have to be now in 2022 and beyond, they have to be really, really good at creating content.

[00:14:40] Mark: They can't just be taking up any old crap and be posting it. They've gotta have a really good camera. They've gotta know how to do editing, and whether that is a still or a video or whatever that may be, they're very good at it. So this is a great way of like budgeting our X and Y and at the same time, you're gonna.

What type of hosts are Stayamo looking to attract?

[00:14:56] Mark: Posts online and all of that stuff. So it's a really good way of looking at it. So thank you very much describing it as that. So, um, I guess the best place to sort of go next and sort of the final question is would be what type of hosts are you looking to attract into stay ammo? Who are you appealing to?

[00:15:15] Mark: Who are you, who are you talking to who could be watching this that you want now to come onto the website and, and sort of apply to be part. ,

[00:15:21] Jordon: uh, yeah. I mean, we, you know, not, and this goes back into a discussion of like, not every home. Equal as well. Like some homes present themselves a little bit more aesthetically, and, and, and I think we're, we're wanting to work, um, with, with anyone who is eager to learn and is understanding of this space and, and the patience around that.

[00:15:43] Jordon: So, um, I, I, I do think that there's a wide variety, like, like we said at the beginning, um, we have homes all over the world in, in many different locations that, you know, Range in a lot of variety of, of looks, and, and it's important to know that people are always looking to build out their portfolio, help people out, uh, uh, you know, establish this and have these experiences.

[00:16:05] Jordon: And so, um, you know, we're looking for people who are just willing to understand and have the patience to know that, um, there is this opportunity out there.

[00:16:14] Mark: Fantastic. Okay, so one final time. Stay ammo.com if anybody wants. Interact with you on social media. Where's the best places for 'em to go to? Is it Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook?

[00:16:24] Mark: Where, where, where would.

[00:16:26] Jordon: Yeah. Yeah, I'd definitely say Instagram is, is, is the most prominent that we're putting focus on. We're about to do some TikTok stuff as well since obviously that is the place to be. But, um, yeah, in Instagram for sure on social is we're, we're across the board on all social platforms, but Instagram is where, um, we're at and where we're putting a lot of focus.

[00:16:44] Jordon: And so, um, come say hi as well as, uh, you know, check us out, uh, on our.

[00:16:49] Mark: Brilliant. So please don't be shy. Please do go over, go and register, go and apply stay ammo.com. It's absolutely free to do so. And who knows, this could be, um, the, the moment that you either fill that midweek gap that you're struggling to fill or not.

[00:17:04] Mark: So go and do it. It's absolutely free. You've got nothing to lose by doing. So gotta stay ammo.com. Jordan, thank you so much, uh, for doing this and being part of this, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of the Boley people come over and, uh, and work.

[00:17:15] Jordon: Thank you. I really appreciate the time. All

[00:17:17] Mark: right. Take care everybody.

[00:17:18] Mark: Have a good one. And we'll be back again tomorrow with another podcast. But still then be proactive. Don't be reactive, and let's go and get some diet bookings. Take care everybody.

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