What you should be doing to get corporate planners’ attention.

Building a brand is tough! Trust me, we know how it feels. Hours spent making phone calls, “connecting” on LinkedIn, and hilarious tweets that go unnoticed can feel like you’re never going to get out of the starting gate.

It’s easy to lose motivation, and even easier to say, “Well, this just isn’t for us,” and give up. I’m here to tell you, don’t give in! Getting corporate planner’s attention can be hard at first, but if you continue to press on and adhere to a few key points, you may need to start thinking about having a wait list!

Website

You thought this was going to be some kind of magic eh? Surely, there will be some sort of Earth-moving concept in this article that will solve all of my problems? Well hold on before you get in a tiff with us! Your website, done THE RIGHT WAY is the most important way to get a corporate planner’s attention.

The Problem – Corporate Planners’ Time

One of the most important things you need to understand about corporate planners is that they are extremely busy people. Many of them are planning a company wide event during lunch breaks, on weekends, and in between family and household responsibilities. So when they can give their attention, they need everything laid out for them, in one place.

I challenge you, look at some of the nicest and highest rated hotels in your area. Check out their websites. I guarantee you will notice that a common strategy here is information overload. Am I right? The process usually looks like this:

1. Get to the homepage
2. Find the right link to your corporate events section (is it events, banquets, group reservations?)
3. Mindlessly navigate forward and back, until you find what you’ve been looking for
4. Be severely let down when you find a short blurb about events and a CONTACT FORM for more information

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily disagree with the plethora of information, nor do I dislike using contact forms as a means of communication. What I can’t stand (and frankly will never comprehend) is why make step 3 so difficult, and step 4 should only be for when you have a “strong bite” from a client. If you make the process too difficult, the planner will get tired of spending their limited time and they will go somewhere they can get fast answers to their questions.

The Solution – Make Your Website Fit Corporate Planner’s Needs

Our main focus at BeesNest Web Design is to filter down the hotel or resort experience into the exact formula that demands corporate planner’s attention. We focus on the 3 main things corporate planners are concerned with: Work, Play, and Stay.

Work

This is the most important of the 3 pillars. You need to remember, they are not planning a family vacation… This is a work trip. Planners need to quickly know if your establishment is a viable option. Do you have the space to host a 200 person meeting? This type of information is crucial to have on your website because it saves everybody time. If you can’t do that, well, it’s a waste of the planner’s time to reach out and a waste of YOUR time to go through the typical sales process. Again, you want a hot lead when you finally talk to these planners.

At BeesNest, we suggest having a simple layout with many of these details on full display. We also suggest a downloadable PDF that contains all in depth information that planner’s can easily share with their peers (planning committees) and superiors (people paying for the trip).

Play

This is where you put the retreat in corporate retreat. Yes, work is the most important, but what are the guests going to do when they’re not working? Are they just supposed to go back to the hotel room and wait for the next meal or meeting? No! This is where the fun begins and is also where you can stand out and really differentiate what it means to do a corporate event at your resort.

Every corporate planner is interested in delivering an unforgettable experience. It is crucial that you can demonstrate your unique guest experience to your clients. Tailor your offerings to match the interests of working professionals. With a little spark of creativity and the desire to have fun, you can put together an amazing Team Building program.

Stay

I think this one is the most straightforward of all, but important to present with mindfulness and tact. If you go down the “typical” guest booking rabbit hole, you are going to make a big mistake. You’ve got to remember, these groups are not your normal guests. Booking them will be entirely different as their particular needs will stray quite far from the typical guest.

When it comes to food and beverage, you’re usually going to be offering a completely different set of meals. I mean, you don’t offer 2 adults and 2 kids a surf and turf buffet on a typical night, but you very well may want to offer that to a high end corporate group. Again, your website doesn’t need to specify every detail and package that you have (that’s what that PDF is for), but instead should showcase the diverse options you can offer.

Same thing goes for lodging. A typical corporate group may want to forego the usual single occupancy hotel rooms and go for a “live under the same roof” experience in a large guest home. The important thing to remember here is you need to clearly demonstrate what possibilities you have to offer.

Blog

I know, blogging just sounds like a ton of work. I mean, the thought of adding another chore to your weekly responsibilities can seem overwhelming. Here’s the honest truth though, if you want to get noticed (especially online), blogging is a great way to do that!

SEO

I’m sure you’ve heard this term before, “Search Engine Optimization”, but what does that really mean? Well, it’s an extremely fancy way of saying that you are streamlining your website to be as “findable” as possible to the likes of Bing, Yahoo, and Google.

We’ve found that one of the best ways to get into their field of vision is by using a blog. I mean, you’re currently reading ours, so you somehow found us. What was the term you put into the search bar? Was it “BeesNest Web Design” or possibly “How to get corporate planner’s attention”? Believe it or not, just by writing those two phrases, it increases our possibility of being seen by those search engines.

You know what else? You can use links like BeesNest Web Design to increase the chance that the connection between the phrase “corporate planner’s attention” and “BeesNest Web Design” are connected.

Do this once a week or even better, once a day, and you will quickly break into the top search results. It takes some understanding and know how but having a blog is a must to help corporate planners find you online.

The best part of this all is, when you work with BeesNest Web Design, we will set you up with a blog that is super easy to manage. All you’ll need are some great ideas for content, and you’re well on your way.

Start Getting Noticed

Although this may seem like a daunting task, BeesNest Web Design has made it a smooth process. We have over 17 years of working with corporate planners and know exactly what they are looking for in a destination.

We have put together the secret formula to help you get corporate planners’ attention and can back that up with real world experience. Our solutions are built for hospitality workers, not web developers. We put the power in your hands and let you control your content and ultimately your destiny.

The hints mentioned in this article will get you started, but if you really want to take your hotel or resort to the next level, why don’t you book a meeting with us today?

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