In our webinar poll, we asked viewers how often they are currently refreshing their creatives. The majority said they were doing monthly updates (29%), followed by quarterly (27%), and the remaining results fell into buckets of every six months (17%), over six months (15%) and can’t remember/don’t know (12%).
NB: This is an article from Sojern
In today’s ever changing world, where travelers need reassurance to trust the safety and cleanliness of your destination or property, updating advertising copy has become a necessity to drive engagement and bookings. What’s more, with the right creatives, you can ensure you’re flexible on cancellation policies, and advertise promotions and special offers to your audience.
Here we take a look at 7 tips for your advertising creative during COVID-19 recovery with a few examples for each.
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Target Locals: Staycation copy is the most requested copy the creative team at Sojern has been receiving during the pandemic. Travelers are staying closer to home more than ever before. Try these in your ad copy.
- Road Trip Anyone?
- Stay 3 Nights, Get a $15 Gas Card at Check-In
- 10% Off With Local Drivers License
Safety and Cleanliness: Remind your potential customers that you are committed to a safe and clean environment. This doesn’t have to mean showcasing masks in your images or specifically calling out COVID in your copy, but rather the unique offering you have or precautions you’re taking to give guests a safe experience. Here are a few copy recommendations you can use in your ads.
- Stay Small, Stay Safe
- Space to Social Distance
- Small Group Adventures Available
Show Flexibility: Travelers are reluctant to book in advance in uncertain times. If they can’t change or cancel reservations as things fluctuate with COVID-19, they’ll be less likely to book with you. Better yet, give guests the opportunity to make a purchase at a later date. Here are a couple of ways you could use this in your own ad copy.
- Book knowing today and everyday, we won’t charge a cancellation fee
- Book When You’re Ready, 10% Off Gift Cards That Can Be Used At A Later Date
Remote Working: People around the globe are working and learning from home. Some are looking for a safe and comfortable place where they can focus outside of their homes. The latest trend arising during the pandemic is remote work and learning opportunities from hotels. Some hotels are offering “schoolcations” with desks for Zoom meetings, fast wifi speeds, and kitchens for family dining. Do you have a unique offering to support remote work or homeschooling? If you do, try using one of these copy options.
- Work & Learn From Paradise
- “Work From Home” Away From Home
Call-to-Actions: Your call-to-action can and should vary depending on where you’re located and the phase of reopening you’re in. We’ve seen that softer calls-to-action are performing better right now in some of our A/B testing. For example, in an A/B test performed in Asia Pacific, when paired against a lower funnel “book now”, the upper funnel phrasing “start planning” had a 7% higher click-through rate (CTR) and an 88% higher conversion rate. Consider using one of these softer call-to-actions in your ad copy today.
- Book Now, Stay Later
- Book In Advance
- Book Without Worry
Images: Your images tell the story of your offering. When social distancing is top of mind, you should avoid showcasing images with crowds. Try these suggestions:
- A couple people enjoying themselves
- Images with appropriate seasons (think beautiful fall leaves or a fire pit as the fall season officially kicked off, or a lovely beach if it’s still warm where you are)
- Drive market imagery
Don’t forget the holidays: Amidst the chaos, it’s easy to forget the holidays and the major shopping events they bring in some regions, for example, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Combined with holiday travel–which may be lighter this year but is sure to happen–this is an opportunity to advertise you don’t want to miss.
- Do: Show prices in your ad and use a multichannel strategy, advertising across several channels with cohesive messaging
- Don’t: Use the seasons in your copy, like summer and winter for example, as we saw lower conversions for both seasons in copy
This is just the “tip” of the tips you’ll find in our webinar, loaded with inspirational ideas for driving engagement with your advertising as we near the end of 2020.
