Any good hotel online marketing strategy will include the usual techniques, such as updating websites with long tail keywords and ensuring all content is optimised for mobile.
However, there are a few other, newer methods that can be tried out in order to ensure your property stands out from the competition in the crowded hospitality market.Let’s take a look at just a few of them so that you can see if they would be suitable for your accommodation.
1. Segmenting social audiences Today’s consumers are very much about the social experience. They look around for peer reviews before shopping and they share their opinions on products after buying. This need for sharing translates into how they travel, with millennials in particular keener for a social, experienced-based holiday.You can market your hotel to this type of traveller by segmenting the audience and then marketing ideas aimed at them, including meet-and-greets, activities based around the hotel and guided tours of the nearby resorts.This should help to get your name out to the guests who don’t just want an ordinary hotel stay, but something they can remember long afterwards.
2. Facebook Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) You’ll probably have seen Facebook Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) even if you don’t really know what they are. They’re a form of retargeted marketing, whereby people who have visited your site but haven’t made a booking may see an advert for your hotel the next time they long on to their social media accounts.This allows you to keep your brand at the forefront of their minds in case they are still thinking about booking a holiday, as well as catching them during ‘downtime’ when they may be more receptive to marketing messages.With DPAs, you can even target people based on the specific dates of their trip and eliminate those whose dates have passed or who have made a booking elsewhere. Better still, it’s all automatic once you have set it up, so you don’t have to lift a finger to potentially boost your direct bookings.
3. Metasearch sites Metasearch sites are those like Trivago, which allow travellers to compare their booking options based on specific parameters and to look for types of accommodation once their results have been listed.They appeal to people because they incorporate location, information about the hotels, reviews and rate information in real time, which you can use to your advantage if you operate a pay-per-click model.However, it’s important to remember that a metasearch presence should be seen as something that needs to be maintained just like any other marketing campaign, meaning staff will need to manage room availability, react to other advertisers, check rate parity and monitor budgets on a regular basis.
4. Online reputation management Reviews are now a crucial part of the hotel booking experience, with many travellers not reserving a room until they have checked out what other people thought of it first. That means that hotels need to keep careful tabs on any feedback shared about them, whether that’s positive or negative. Negative reviews must be responded to in a timely fashion and a solution provided if possible so that other people can see how committed you are to customer service.Reviews should also be shared with staff to use as a training tool in order to ensure the whole hotel is working together towards the same goals.
Reviews are a form of free marketing, so always make the most of them.For digital marketing solutions by hoteliers, for hoteliers, check out the options available from World Hotel Marketing.
