Editor’s Note:We ask PR leaders to tell us about trends, people who’ve influenced their career, the best advice they’ve received and what advice they give students. This week we talk with Amanda Harris, senior director of PR & marketing at the Diplomat Beach Resort.
Several years ago I received what I consider to be some of the best advice I could have gotten as a communicator and marketer; it is to learn to appreciate and work with the sales team. I think we, as creatives, sometimes tend to stray from the business goals and understanding why we are here. A few years ago I received advice about really bunking up with the director of sales and all the salespeople, understanding their markets and making sure we are bringing the PR and marketing story to life. It’s not only for the brand, but ultimately for the business goals.
I’ve had what I’d call fantastic mentors at many points in my life. I recommend that you find someone at all points in your life that you can learn from. My biggest mentor is my dad. He started out in the Army and then developed his own company and is doing very well in life. It’s the great American dream story. And then my aunt was deputy director of national intelligence. Seeing a female leader in that role really helped me as a young woman to realize that I could be something. I always went to female mentors in my professional life. I went to women in every company that I worked for and asked, “Can we meet once a month and have lunch? Would you be interested in mentoring me? I admire you and I’d really like to learn from you.” I’ve also managed to keep relationships with all of them.
We can talk about digital trends or print trends, but what we’ve been having a lot of conversations about is bringing authenticity back into our PR and marketing. If you are focusing on digital or influencers, for example, is it real? Or are you just paying for an influencer to come in and take photos? But you’re really not creating lines to your property. How do you bring realness, long-term trust and return relationships into PR? I think authenticity in content marketing and experiential marketing is the hottest trend now in my world.
To boost authenticity we build personalized relationships with influencers. We have our PR agencies, local and national, and they help us with the initial relationships with influencers. But then I take time to go and meet people, do the tours and pick up a phone and call people. I try to avoid email communications as much as possible because things can get so lost in the digital world these days. So I try to spend a lot of personal time with influencers and help them get to know not only me, but the team here, so they feel like it is a family and they can come back anytime and will be taken care of by any member of our team just as they would be with me. The influencers we use are micro-influencers and we’re very, very lucky not to pay them a monetary value for their services. We offer complimentary rooms and cover restaurant experiences, however. The micro-influencers we pick are extensions of our brand and they want to be on our property and tell its story. We believe they are more relatable for our brand than celebrity influencers.
With social media, the most effective marketing platform depends on your target demographic. You really need to understand your target customer. So if you’re looking to talk to baby boomers, maybe you spend more time on Facebook advertising and posts. And I don’t mean using traditional advertising. Maybe you create an article that’s beneficial and enhancing to someone’s life and that can also sell your brand story by being authentic and talking to the right audience on Facebook. If you’re looking to speak to a younger audience maybe you put up a lot of beautiful photography on Instagram and use fewer words to engage with a younger crowd. You just can’t create marketing ideas that aren’t relevant to the target audience.
If I had an unlimited budget I’d do a lot more ambassador campaigns. We could give influencers a certain amount of credit to enjoy on our property, so they could get even more of a feel for what we do. I’d also try pop-up marketing. Maybe traveling to Coachella and participating in a music conference or going to Carnival and doing something there, where you can bring your brand to life in different cities. Like Star Wars did recently, where if you’re in certain parts of a city and click on an app you can play with virtual reality with Star Wars’ planes flying by; I think that is such a cool concept. I’d like to do that with our brand, some kind of experiential marketing and virtual reality type of thing.
Stay humble. I think young people expect to get a great job as soon as they get out of school. I began as an actress. During times when I couldn’t find enough work I got a spa job in a resort. That’s what got me interested in resorts. I kept taking jobs that were going to introduce me to the right people. Every job takes you to another opportunity.
I wish I understood more about the basics of business when I got out of school. When I went to school the PR and communications education didn’t give you enough of the basic business classes, so understanding a budget or forecasting was lacking. My suggestion to young people is to take online courses. The internet is excellent, you can educate yourself. You can make yourself a 360 degree candidate by taking courses and going to conferences.
CONTACT: [email protected]