Travelers will always need someplace to stay when out of town on business or on vacation. Make your hotel their preferred option by offering the right balance of customer service and price. Offer a unique environment or specialty services to differentiate yourself from the competition, and limit the number of rooms you offer at discounted rates. Consider hiring an expert in hotel revenue management to study your operations and identify areas in which you can increase revenue, as well as provide associated training to your staff.
Social Media continues to grow in importance. It has not only become a critical tool to interact with customers, but is also a key element that impacts organic search rankings for your hotel. Hotels that take advantage of this hot trend are seeing significant benefits in terms of online placement and revenue.
Growth of mobile as a channel – Mobile has grown as a key channel for search. The universe of mobile users is massive – 3 in 5 people use mobile devices to search and 80% of local searches on mobile devices convert into purchases.
Enhancing Your Hotel’s Local Presence – Your website has to tap into the possibilities of enhanced local search. The goal is to create optimized content and local profiles, manage quality citations and directory listings, and deliver a seamless brand experience across devices.
Social Media Marketing – In our connected online community, the synergy of social engagement empowers your digital marketing. Most travelers use social media sites including Google+, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Social media is a driver of brand awareness, customer relationships and retention. To be part of your guest’s social conversation and drive traffic on social platforms, your web content must be interesting, build relevant connections, and inspire conversion.
Content Marketing – Content marketing starts with understanding your audience and their purchase journey. Content should engage, inspire and enhance the user experience. Empower your audience with engaging content; include local attractions and activities, compelling visuals and trending topics to be on top of customers mind.
User Experience – An important aspect of digital marketing is the user experience. Your guests expect a seamless journey during their hotel search process. They expect to be able to navigate through your website without having to look for answers – your site should be intuitive and user friendly. Conversion optimization starts with usability factors such as speed and performance, information architecture, legibility, colors and images.
Understanding the Hotel Customer Journey – From travel inspiration and research to booking to post-stay reviews, understanding the customer journey is paramount to your digital marketing strategy. In hospitality domain, and just about any industry or business, customers refer to search results and reviews to plan a trip or book a room.
Discounts – Business hotels sell rooms during the week. Resort hotels generate the most revenue during high season. Selling rooms at discounted rates or offering interesting promotions during off-peak season helps generate additional revenue by improving the occupancy rate.
Choose the right distribution channels – How do you choose which e-distribution channels are right for your hotel? Several factors need to be taken into consideration, from channel contribution potential, distribution spread and cost to how easy the channels are to manage, what types of marketing exposure they can provide and the sort of technology they use. Choosing the right channels and the tools to manage those channels play a crucial role in a hotel’s online revenue generation strategy. Partnering with connectivity providers like eRevMax that can assist in choosing the right channels that bring maximum business to your city is important. Further, use a cloud based channel manager to manage all your OTAs in real-time.
Social Media is an integral part of the real-time search algorithm. Social media creates real connection between companies and customers, and that connection equals purchase intent. Ongoing connection and relationship with your customers will eventually turn them into a volunteer marketing army. Make sure that social media is an integral part of your overall marketing plan. If you are limited on budget and resources, still keep monitoring the social media domain and do the best you can. Hoteliers who want to be ahead of the curve, should invest today in the media that is fast emerging as the future of internet marketing.