Hotel Industry has always been competitive. Every other month you have new hotels or resorts coming up, and the competition heats up further. Add to this, the rising over-head costs which agonize the hoteliers further. Unsurprisingly, the challenges before the hotelier are numerous, irrespective of the fact whether he is a veteran or a newcomer.
The hotelier has to keep his existing customers happy, make them come back and, maybe, even make them refer their friends or colleagues. And this mad rush to please existing guests and adding new ones, we’re constantly looking for newer things to do and newer technologies. However, the solution may actually lie in going back to the basics, ensuring those are still being done the right way.
And that is what I tell all my friends in the hospitality industry during many seminars I give. And yet, my answer surprises them: Combine digitalism and traditional marketing techniques.
Social media has started influencing customers in a big way and those who have failed to understand digitalism are bearing the brunt of reduced clientele.
Facebook, Twitter, TripAdvisor, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, mobile Apps and your website - How do you combine all these to portray a good picture to a prospective online customer?
Just following a few basic rules will make sure that you have an ideal digital presence. Optimization, conversion, SEO, social media and brand consistency - build your brand on these five strong pillars for an absolute masterpiece.
Optimisation
Be it the ATM Dubai or the SATTE Delhi, one question I hear consistently is “How do I attract the online user to my website?”.
My answer: “Choose your words carefully.”
Content speaks volumes about your hotel's online presence - the way you portray yourself is driven primarily by content. Let your content be keyword-friendly. Make the most of Google keywords and queries which gives you an insight into some of the most frequently searched topics, words and questions on the search engine.
Then determine how your content can answer those questions and use those keywords. But it’s not just about your website and social media content. A slight amount of attention should also go towards optimizing your email content. After all, on an average, an Internet user spends 21.3% of their time on social networks and blog sites, 6.5% on emails and a whopping 56.5% on other channels on the Internet.
An effective way to optimize your content – set up a blog and get bloggers involved in writing about your hotel.
Conversions and sales leads
When it comes to digital hospitality, it's not just about engaging your users online. It takes more than one website visit for an onlooker to turn into a booker. At most, it takes up to seven associations - direct or indirect – for an online visitor to become your customer.
So, how do you ensure that your online efforts are converting into sales?
You start by using Google Analytics extensively. Analytics lets you track your visitors on a geographical platform; you can see which places draw the most online users to your site, what other online platforms drive traffic to your website and the search phrases and keywords that are being used to direct this traffic to your website.
Invite your new visitors to like your Facebook page, sign up for your newsletter and download a whitepaper. In no time, you will have widened your fan base over more than one platform. Audit your onsite optimization to track the number of visitors your website has and whether or not your website is increasing your ROIs. Through these basic tracking analytics, you’ve already segregated an audience that is interested in your service and can drive higher conversions.
SEO
70% of your online consumers’ purchase decisions begin with search engine results and 89% of digital consumers use a search engine to find a product or service that they end up purchasing.
Meta descriptions are important for conversations and communicating about your brand. Google+ picks up your meta-tags on shared links. Through the use of these 155 snippets, you eliminate the truncated text and put out a crisper account of your link which fits the Google+ format and has more chances of going viral.
Social Media
Keep this channel interactive. Create a buzz about your brand online and attract the right audience. Your social media outreach, if approached the right way, can even boost your email marketing tactics. Through your social media platforms, get online users to sign up for news about your hotel, events, campaigns and giveaways.
It’s most beneficial to choose two or three of your most powerful online platforms and master your outreach on these. Deal with each query properly. 37% of users report that online reviews have prompted them to book a particular hotel. So, use Facebook for fan engagements and TripAdvisor to promote offers and keep tabs on reviews. You could even benefit from FourSquare when it comes to location-based marketing.
If you’re not all that active on Google+, high time you tapped it too. The network has become the second largest social media platform in a short span of time.
Brand Consistency
My last peg, and probably the most important one, is how you identify your brand and portray it to the online viewers.
A clear understanding of your own brand ideology helps you promote your hotel better. Knowing your goals and your target audience is of prime importance. So, define a brand ideology, figure out your goals and strategies. Then, base your content, language, keywords and campaigns around that.
Everything from your website design, social media platforms to your mobile apps and content should identify with your brand’s ideology.
While I do suggest that your online marketing strategy should incorporate all the advancements in the digital world, but make sure the above listed five basics do not get ignored. Your online marketing structure should be able to manage your web-presence, SEO, pay per clicks (PPC), channel management, reservations, analytics and CRM just as easily.
Designate a team of experts who understand the rules of basic digital marketing and believe that they are the holy grail.
Go digital the right way and let the results speak for you.
