Being able to really maximise your ROI can be a tricky thing to do within the hotel industry, however it is not impossible. With some careful planning and decent investments, you should soon see your bookings fly through the roof.
Email marketing
One thing that hotels have that many companies don’t is access to a decent amount of emails from their previous bookings. Don’t ever overlook this as email marketing is a powerful tool. You can directly speak to customers and even tailor your emails to each individual if you wish to add a bit of personality to it. Plan your emails so that they are sent at pivotal times when they are more likely to be read, after 5pm for example or during lunch are good times as people are either doing their daily commute and reading through their smartphones, or trying to get a break from work. The most important thing to remember when you are creating emails to send to customers is to make sure that they are valuable as you don’t want to see a load of unsubscription notifications. Don’t make them salesy and don’t send them just for the sake of it. Make sure you are offering your customers something they will want to see – think exclusives that your hotel has coming up or anything that will increase loyalty and bookings.
Target social media campaigns
Social media is a marketing game changer and something that all hotels really must utilise. It’s cheap, easy to use and the number of people you can target is fantastic. However, you can also pay for targeted campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, and we recommend looking into these to really boost your social media presence. You can target specific audiences. For example, if you have a wedding package you want to push, you can target your post to couples who have recently become engaged within a 20 mile radius. It’s all very clever and is a real cost-effective way of ensuring you target the right customers.
Meta Search
Don’t overlook the power of Meta Search, which uses information (location, availability, prices) to compare and put the hotels into a Meta Search site, like TripAdvisor or Google Hotel Finder. These marketing campaigns are run through a cost-per-click basis (CPC), so that the hotel will pay a small fee each time a user clicks through. However, aside from TripAdvisor which uses TripConnect, it is hard for smaller hotel companies to use a metasearch engine, so look to hire a professional who can help amplify your Meta Search marketing power.
