5 Lessons B-to-B Marketers Can Learn From an Island Resort

There are benefits to experiencing marketing from a customer’s lens with a work-free brain

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A secret ingredient to better marketing that I’ve only just rediscovered: a good vacation.

Sure, a vacation helps beat burnout, reduce stress and increase motivation levels. You’ve probably heard of that already. But the most underrated benefit? You start experiencing marketing from a customer’s lens with a work-free brain.

This is what happened as I headed to Maldives for my summer break. I started noticing all the creative ways that the island resort I chose to stay at (out of 132 resorts total) was winning me over, from before I chose it until my flight back home.

Here are the top five lessons marketers can apply from an island resort experience to their own consumer relationships.

Consider all consumer touch points, especially at the beginning

Just as noise makes it hard for marketers to stand out, tons of inhabitable islands in the Maldives make it tough for resorts to stand out and convince visitors to stay at theirs.

The differentiator? Social proof. Because no matter how on-point your marketing is, it’s incomplete without featuring customer reviews and community-recognized trust badges.

The reason behind this is simple: People trust what their peers say, not marketers. And this is what goes through the consumer’s mind as they juggle their research between tabs, trying to choose a resort for their stay.

I wasn’t ready to believe the website copy during my own research. But a 2022 Travelers’ Choice Trip Advisor badge on Heritance Aarah’s website, coupled with fresh reviews on third-party sites, won me over.

The lesson for b-to-b marketers: There’s no such thing as enough customer reviews. But also, the more recent the reviews, the more convincing, because fresh testimonials signal to the target audience that the establishment is keeping its word.

Get to know your customers and show up

Personalization has become synonymous with using your target’s name at the start of your emails. But there’s so much untapped potential there.

Heritance Aarah, for example, won me on our first contact upon landing, simply by empathizing with me on my flight delay.

Those who have been desperately waiting for a vacation and had to deal with a sudden flight cancellation from the air carrier’s side know all too well the frustration stemming from the experience. Not only did the resort quickly change the reservation, but they also remembered the tiny detail and empathized with us.

There’s a simple lesson for marketers here: Personalization goes beyond your customers’ names. Taking the time to know your customers beyond the generalized fluff isn’t easily scalable—but it helps you delight customers like no other tactic ever will.

Make the first encounter memorable

Upon entering the Heritance Aarah, we were greeted with a live welcome song, a refreshing cocktail and an attendant taking over check-in while handing over the Wi-Fi password.

The attendant now is no longer just any attendant, but rather a brand representative taking the consumer experience further by being proactive in meeting people’s needs and making them feel special.

For marketers, there are two key lessons in this. First, offer an excellent welcome experience. Your “onboarding” needs to make users feel welcomed. As for ecommerce marketers, this translates to making sure the product packaging delights customers and makes them feel great buying from you.

Second, provide welcome resources that are helpful and informative about your product.

Maintain the momentum throughout the experience

The resort created an island culture that was a class apart. Everyone at the resort wore a smile as part of their uniform. And every time you’d pass a bartender, a butler or just about anyone, they’d smile and greet you with “marhaba”—”hello” in Arabic.

Plus, all of the resort islanders focused on providing an exceptional experience with everything, be it an Italian soda or a fun tube ride, evident from the way they asked, “did you enjoy yourself?”

The takeaway: Create a brand culture. Stand for something that makes people appreciate the experience they have with you, whether they buy from you or not.

Creating memorable experiences at each step of the customer journey is one of the most effective ways to win and retain customers and generate positive word of mouth.

Let consumers confirm the relationship, don’t pressure them into it

In a world where everyone asks for email addresses, from the cashier at a shoe shop to a marketer allowing access to your survey results, Heritance Aarah stood out. They never once forced me to share my email. Instead, I gave it away willingly.

There were two prompts, once upon reviewing my check-in documents and once when I was departing and filling out the feedback form. But both times, they said, “Please share your email but only if you’re comfortable.”

What that means for marketers: Less forcing people into begrudgingly sharing their email addresses (only to unsubscribe later) and more building meaningful relationships while offering value to win hearts (and with that, emails). This also means to stop gating survey results—prompt survey-takers to share their contact details but also give them access to results without it.

In short, take the time to understand and build relationships with your customers and provide remarkable experiences. Let the magic happen next.