Hotel Digital Marketing: How To Promote Hotels
Want to know the fastest way to get bookings in your hotel? Deploy a hotel digital marketing strategy that has you looking for room to extend booking capacity. Our 16 tips on how to promote hotels in 2020 will help you do just that.
The digital marketing world for the hospitality industry has been booming for the last 10 years. The competition out there is fierce. If you haven’t thought about enlisting the help of a digital marketing agency before, now’s the time to think about it.
This is the digital marketing agency we recommend because they offer a free consultation on exactly the approach that would work for your hotel (and if you mention our site, they’ll give you 5% off your bill).
So, you run or own a hotel and you’re wondering how is marketing important for the hospitality industry? Maybe you’ve been looking for the best hotel marketing strategy or best marketing practices for the holiday industry. Without further ado, let’s jump into our 16 tips on promoting hotel rooms in 2020.
Tip #1: Make It Easy To Find Your Hotel (SEO)
First and foremost, SEO (search engine optimisation) is fast becoming the only way that you can really compete in the hotel industry. If you’re not ranking on Google, chances are, you’re probably not getting many bookings.
The question is, how do you get your hotel to rank on Google? Well, there are some important factors to consider before you start down this road:
- What kinds of things do you clients google before booking?
- Do you want to attract clients ready to buy or clients in the browsing process?
- What information would be helpful for your clients before clicking the “reserve now” button?
These are the kinds of things that a content marketing agency for hotels would think about every day. If you’re just not sure where to start with all this, contact Toot Marketing and we will walk you through where to start for free.
Don’t Let Your Customers Go – Remarket
Did you know that 3 out of 4 holiday customers abandon their booking before completion?
“How do I get people who abandoned their hotel reservation back to my website?”
Remarketing my friend, remarketing.
Remarketing is a tool used by marketing experts to target people who have been onto your website but didn’t complete the conversion funnel process. Campaigns can be set up to draw those people back to your site so that you don’t lose out on 3 out of 4 customers that abandon their holiday booking. Need someone to set up a remarketing campaign for you? Contact us.
Tip #3: Target the Right Travelers
There’s no point in putting adverts in front of the wrong clients. If you’re a luxury resort in Barbados then it’s unlikely you’re going to get any bookings from people looking for “cheap Magaluf bars”.
If you’re wonder how to sell hotel rooms effectively online, start by understanding who would book a room at your hotel or resort.
Ask yourself: What gender are they? What age are they? What are they interested in? Where do they spend their time? Where could I tell them about my hotel? How would they want me to contact them?
These are all valuable hotel digital marketing fundamentals and marketing specialists will know exactly where to find this data rather than guessing. Head over to Google Analytics (if you have this set up) and explore the section titled “Audience” for some amazing insight on your online traffic.
Don’t have Google Analytics set up yet?
Toot Marketing can help you with that and show you how to more effectively target the right clientele for your holiday resort.
Tip #4: Paid Adverts – PPC Google Pay-To-Play
Have you heard that you can rank #1 on Google for less than £0.50? It’s true: but you have to keep paying £0.50 for every click through to your website and £0.50 probably won’t bring you a very good lead.
The trick is to find the search terms (words that people put into google to find things) that people are using for hotel booking.
Things like: “Luxury Holidays in Mallorca” Or “Hotel in Barbados with Sea Views” Or “4 Star Hotel in France with Indoor Pool”
If you have a Google Adwords account, you can use the “Keyword Planner” to identify the search volumes behind these particular search terms (keywords). Once you have a good understanding of the keywords that will bring you traffic that converts on your website, build an ad campaign. You can find a useful youtube video on building Google Ad Campaigns here.
If you’re out of your depth when it comes to PPC or SEM marketing with Google. Get in touch with SEOBush and they can talk about setting up your ads for you and overseeing their performance for ROI.
How much do hotel resorts spend on marketing?
Hotels and resorts can spend anywhere between £500/month to £20,000/month on their digital marketing efforts. Digital marketing spend is determined by the size of your business. If you’re a large hotel with potential for large amounts of bookings, making sure you configure your digital marketing efforts for a solid return on investment is smart. If you’re spending £1000/month on google ads or digital marketing strategies, then you should be aiming for between 2-5X ROI as a minimum rule.
Wondering what could be done for your hotel? – Contact a digital marketing specialist now.
Tip #5: More Marketing in Peak Season
What’s the weather like in the Algarve in July? Ask a local – they’ll tell you, HOT. Sunseekers paradise and it is peak season for hotels in Portugal.
IfIf you know that your hotel/resort has peaks and troughs throughout the year then mirror that with your marketing efforts.
For example, say you know that your hotel will almost always be fully booked in July and August. But when September comes you have 50% For example, say you know that your hotel will almost always be fully booked in July and August. But when September comes you have 50% of rooms suddenly available. In this example it might be wise for you to consider a discount scheme for the month of September to incentivise bookings for that month. Alternatively, you could consider creating a promotion on PPC during the month of September for last minute bookings. Most hotels and resorts try not to deal in too many last-minute bookings. It can be a real strain on the heart! So what about for the majority of hotels who want bookings in advance? If you know peak season is from June-September, start promoting from March. Getting those ads out there in the peak spots as people book for their summer holidays is a great hotel marketing strategy.
Tip #6: Discount and Offers
As previously mentioned, in off-peak seasons you may want to consider discounted rates for your hotel or resort. Offering a good 30% or more off has proven an incredibly effective way of incentivising hesitant buyers to take a trip even in the off-season months of given destinations.
You don’t have to offer a percentage off. If this would eat into your margins too heavily then why not consider running a seasonal campaign instead? Recognise the needs of your clients and appeal to them. For example, perhaps you appeal to the needs of the British during November-February for some sunshine! “Winter Sun” is a popular offering that you can use that doesn’t require you to offer a discount on bookings and appeals to clients that might be booking out of the usual holiday
Tip #7: Make Industry Relationships
Making industry relationships can be the make or break of a company. In the hotel industry it’s critically important.
You don’t have to link up with other hotels (though we would also consider that, explanation below) but you should think about the other connections that might improve your offering. Are there any local restaurants that you might be able to strike a deal with? Are there any local excursion guides that would offer your clients a discount? Are there any awards programmes that might increase your visibility in the hospitality sector?
Forming bonds like this allows you to become the insider in your hotels location and makes bookings more like as you build a strong reputation.
Linking up with other hotel resorts can allow you the capacity to expand during periods of high demand. In addition, if all goes well, you might end up with a partnership that returns the favour when times are quiet for you!
Tip #8: Don’t Forget About Booking Engines Like Airbnb
If you think that you can outrun the giants of the hotel digital marketing world then you are sadly mistaken. In hotel marketing strategy there’s no-one better to team up with than the giants.
Airbnb, Expedia, Booking.com and all sorts of other room selling search-platforms are happy to list your vacancies. They will, of course, take a cut for the service – but if you’re looking to get a boost to your hotel sales then this is an easy place to start.
Why would I list my hotel on Airbnb if I can get them to my own site? In short, people may not know about your hotel – but they most certainly will know the giants of the holiday world like Airbnb. You can benefit from the added security of their booking systems and it provides you an additional marketing avenue for you to sell more rooms.
Creating valuable connections between your site and reputable brands such as these will help Google to rank your page higher in SERPS (Search Engine Result Previews).
Tip #9: Sell the Hotel AND the Destination
The first thing that people think about is WHERE in the world they want to go. That means if you can convince people to go to the part of the world that your hotel sits in, you’ve got more potential clients!
Think about why someone might want to travel to the area that your hotel is located within. What is great about the food? What is there to do? What can they see? What does this destination have that no other place in the world has?
Once you have the answer to these questions you can start to think about blog content. Don’t think blogging works? You’re reading a blog right now! Blog writing can be extremely time-consuming and there is a real art to attracting an audience.
If you’re looking for blog writing services, Toot Marketing would be happy to hook you up (and you’ll get 5% off the bill if you reference this article!).
Tip #10: Think Big: Even If You’re A Small Hotel
Hotel digital marketing is a big space. The tourism industry is one of the largest in the world and competing in this dynamic environment can feel dog-eat-dog.
f you’re a small hotel trying to compete it can feel very overwhelming and extremely daunting.
Try to prioritize which avenues of digital marketing you think will be most effective. If you have no idea where to start, why not speak to a digital marketing expert that can talk you through a strategy for free?
Tip #11: Make Sure Your Web Design Is On Point
You have a fantastic search engine optimisation (SEO) team that helps you rank on Google. But your bounce rate is really high. Google won’t continue to rank you.
There are two factors to consider when thinking about hotel rankings on Google.
The first is whether you offer the correct service for what a client is looking for. You can signal this to Google by making sure that your text and meta-descriptions are all up to scratch. The second involves UX (user-experience). Your website needs to look great and function in a way that makes everything super-super-super easy for potential hotel guests.
If you’re looking If you’re looking for a company to handle a redesign give our friends at Geekr a shout. They have some really low-cost options that allow you continued tech-support throughout the year.
Tip #12: Customer Service is Critical in Hospitality
Don’t forget about customer service in Hospitality. We love this article on customer service in hotels (https://www.socialtables.com/blog/hospitality/hotel-customer-service/).
Customer service isn’t a marketing technique per-se, but we thought we should remind you that without it you won’t get re-bookings! You want them to return!
Tip #13: Loyalty Programme
Loyalty programmes are a fantastic way to increase repeat bookings at your hotel or resort. Guests like to feel that they are part of a community and that they’re getting something special.
Why not offer guests a discount if they return for another stay?Why not offer guests a discount if they return for another stay? E.g. “10% OFF your next stay with us as a valued guest”.
If you don’t want to offer discounts on your rooms then there are a multitude of other ways that you can create loyalty schemes for your hotel guests. Hotel digital marketing doesn’t have to be all about what you offer.
Why not partner with local restaurants or service providers (tour guides, holiday parks, bars, clubs) to see if you can offer discounts in the surrounding areas of your hotel destination?
Tip #14: Social Media: The importance of Facebook and Instagram
Still not convinced social media works for your business? – Then yStill not convinced social media works for your business? – Then you haven’t been doing social media marketing correctly for your hotel.
The benefits of using Instagram in hotel marketing are ENDLESS. Not only is it a fantastic visual aid to market your business, it’s also a great way to generate traffic to your website.
Here’s 5 reasons you should use Instagram if you’re running a hotel:
– People will discover your hotel more. Literally 1000s of times more every day.
– Potential clients have a visual aid to help them see the fantastic destination you are selling.
– Instagram increases your website traffic by referring clients through a link in your profile.
– People who stay at your hotel can tag you in part of a digital conversation that allows you to generate some free PR for your resort.
– You can join the local conversation and follow local events to keep your guests in the loop.
Facebook still generates around 15% of most of my clients’ online revenue. It’s absolutely critical to your hotel digital marketing strategy and if you’re not sure how to convert using Facebook, chat to SEOBlush. Other valuable social media channels include Pinterest (fantastic conversion rates), Snapchat, Tumblr and TikTok (great for targeting younger markets).
Tip #15: Remember International Guest Requirements: Website Language
Not all of your guests speak English. Make sure that your website translates into the languages of the guests that might be booking. It’s a simple point but all of your hotel’s digital marketing efforts will be lost if they can’t read your site’s content.
Tip #16: Follow Hotel Marketing Blogs: Master Hotel Digital Marketing
There are some fantastic travel, hotel and destination marketing blogs out there. We always try to keep our pulse on the radar for hotel digital marketing and you can sign up to receive notifications on our new article releases.
Aside from us, here are our top picks for hotel marketing blogs:
Hotel Speak: https://www.hotelspeak.com/
Sojern: https://www.sojern.com/blog/
Hey Nadine: http://www.heynadine.com/
