Connection is Key in Hospitality — Here’s How to Do It

By Gavin Fraser | March 20, 2024

A few months back I was thinking of how I could get closer connected with my social media audience. I still post daily, but I would engage in simple conversations and then after a few days sizzle out and never interact again. I wasn’t giving them anything of value. This is when I came across Matt Gray. He is a social media wizard and the king of systems. I don’t want to take credit for the growth I’ve experienced from his advice, which is why I simply want to share his blueprint and what I’ve implemented myself to help your hospitality journey flourish and to make a deeper and longer lasting impact with the people who follow and interact with YOU. The power of a newsletter:

I upgraded to ConvertKit

Choosing your email service provider is like choosing a car. Your first four-door sedan will get you from point A to B, but if you want to zoom past everyone in style, ConvertKit is the Ferrari you’re looking for. I’ve done some research on different platforms, and personally, ConvertKit has everything I need, plus more, to ensure a highly customizable and engineered for performance platform. This is my suggestion since I use it, but there are others such as Beehiv, MailChimp, and ActiveCampaign that may suit your needs.

I began segmenting my audience

I have a couple different groups of people who join my newsletter:

• Those who want to start a business/balancing the 9-5 lifestyle.
• Those who already have a business.
• Those who want better mindset tips and advice.

Creating one-size-fits-all content would not be beneficial for everyone, which is why I segment my subscribers, so they receive the emails they want. Segmenting is simply dividing your email list to target specific reader groups. This helps give the reader exactly what they need and nothing more.

Personalize the reader experience

The more specific you can make the communication, the easier it is to consume. I’ll provide a simple example. Let’s say you run a restaurant, it’s open 4-11pm on Saturday’s, and you had 50 reservations that evening. 25 of those are new and 25 of those are returning customers. Perfect, you now have two segmented groups. Assuming they needed to put in their email address to receive a confirmation email, you now can follow up. Automate an email sequence that begins the day after they dined at your restaurant. Understand what they liked, what they didn’t like, offer discounts on their next meal, highlight specials and new food and drink items that get them excited to come back again.

These are powerful ways to ensure repeat business and customer satisfaction for, in this example, your restaurant.