The whole point of your digital marketing strategy is to convert visitors into customers and generate sales and revenues – a task which most industry professionals are eager to master. The problem is the lack of digital knowledge, training and the inability to set a clear target. Today, how much sales and revenue your online campaigns reel in is entirely dependent on how far your customer outreach is and how technologically aware and prevalent you are.
Deepak Singhal, Director of Sales, Mondo Hospitality, UAE, has been in the industry for more than 15 years and has worked with some of the biggest names of the Hospitality Sector. With a clear knowledge of the global trends in digitalism, the mastermind behind Mondo Hospitality’s sales management, Deepak and I had a long chat while I was in Dubai for a presentation at the Emirates Hospitality Academy late last year. He gave me a some good insight into how you can overcome the minor hurdles that prevent you from reaching a higher ROI and what are some of the tips that you should be following. The excerpts from the interview:
Q: What kind of changes has the hospitality industry seen over these 15 years?
A: Technologies have advanced manifold and so have hotel marketing strategies. The conventional marketing tactics have been sidelined which is a good thing because online marketing is faster and the results are quicker to analyse today. With social media and online marketing taking over, our distribution patterns have changed. Today, the customers’ feedback creates an impactful reputation for hotels and so, we have to constantly keep ourselves up-to-date with the changing mood of the online consumer.
Q: What are some of the online revenue and sales management trends that have been continuing ever since?
A: The management of guest expectations, responding to every review online and acknowledging a mistake whenever we are in the wrong, as well as accepting and embracing a greatonline campaign or move – these are just some of the little patterns that continue to remain a prerequisite for us in the industry.
Q: What is the secret to a successful marketing strategy?
A: Being honest and upfront in each and every move and having a reason behind every decision and strategy.
Q: Where do you think our Indian hotels lack? Why do you think so?
In terms of revenue management, technologies are being developed and sometimes the management is skeptical about whether or not they should embrace and accept this development because they are still unclear as to how it will or won’t benefit them. So that hesitance of adapting to change, especially in the digital world, needs to change. The level of forecasting and the revenue management strategies and how to interact with the previous guest as well as the future guest - these are all the issues that most managements find it difficult to deal with as they are hesitant about adopting an online marketing strategy. In terms of ORM, hotels are catching up but it is only the professionals who are embracing these newer strategies and this can actually prevent the industry from flourishing and reaching their true potential only because they are apprehensive. The operators still do not consider that social media greatly impacts their reviews and revenues – a statement which has been proven wrong time and again, especially in the past two-three years, with respect to the hospitality industry.
Q: How important are the online travel agencies in driving ROIs?
A: OTAs are merely a marketing channel. It is how you promote yourself on these online channels that determine the importance of OTAs and how they add to your returns on investment. The online user merely looks at your property on these travel channels and compares it with others. It comes down to who offers the better deal and what else are you offering as incentives. It is about how you market your hotel online that determines how the OTAs will affect you.
Q: How does one drive direct bookings instead of relying on OTAs?
A: Pay-Per-Clicks and interacting with the past guest more often on forums and sites are two ways of ensuring that the customer comes back to your hotel website to make a booking. Social media is another way to really go out and interact, broadcast and promote your brand. It’s all about converting the visitor or passerby into a guest who will come back again.
Q: Which social media platform proves great for business and helps in converting reviews into revenues?
A: Facebook and TripAdvisor are the most prominent ones for online engagement, promotions and checking reviews and rankings. LinkedIn works for the professionals within the industry to connect and share views about the trends and strategies.
Q: What are some of the basic steps that revenue managers and sales directors should follow for a good revenue management strategy?
A: It depends on the different aspects of online marketing. For instance, when managing sales, you need to be in the market to know what’s happening. You need to keep coming up with promotional offers and events revolving around your brand and the property. How you present your brand online and then, how you sell it to the operators and agents is what matters.
In terms of revenue management, the sales should be a three-tier system instead of a two-tier one as it makes the forecasting more accurate and with the knowledge of how the online market works, it becomes easier to manipulate the effect of how the market will impact you. Generating good returns on your online campaigns is about successful integrations, how you make your systems talk to each other – it’s about the human intelligence and the capacity to integrate these all of these systems together as a synchronized team.
Q: What is the winning formula for the success of your hotel’s marketing strategy?
A: Our marketing strategy is cost efficient. It is all about ROIs but it’s also about the marketing, the revenue and the sales departments’ working in tandem. At the end it is just one department sitting at one table discussing and coming up with a wholesome strategy.
Deepak Singhal, Director of Sales, Mondo Hospitality, UAE, has been in the industry for more than 15 years and has worked with some of the biggest names of the Hospitality Sector. With a clear knowledge of the global trends in digitalism, the mastermind behind Mondo Hospitality’s sales management, Deepak and I had a long chat while I was in Dubai for a presentation at the Emirates Hospitality Academy late last year. He gave me a some good insight into how you can overcome the minor hurdles that prevent you from reaching a higher ROI and what are some of the tips that you should be following. The excerpts from the interview:
Q: What kind of changes has the hospitality industry seen over these 15 years?
A: Technologies have advanced manifold and so have hotel marketing strategies. The conventional marketing tactics have been sidelined which is a good thing because online marketing is faster and the results are quicker to analyse today. With social media and online marketing taking over, our distribution patterns have changed. Today, the customers’ feedback creates an impactful reputation for hotels and so, we have to constantly keep ourselves up-to-date with the changing mood of the online consumer.
Q: What are some of the online revenue and sales management trends that have been continuing ever since?
A: The management of guest expectations, responding to every review online and acknowledging a mistake whenever we are in the wrong, as well as accepting and embracing a greatonline campaign or move – these are just some of the little patterns that continue to remain a prerequisite for us in the industry.
Q: What is the secret to a successful marketing strategy?
A: Being honest and upfront in each and every move and having a reason behind every decision and strategy.
Q: Where do you think our Indian hotels lack? Why do you think so?
In terms of revenue management, technologies are being developed and sometimes the management is skeptical about whether or not they should embrace and accept this development because they are still unclear as to how it will or won’t benefit them. So that hesitance of adapting to change, especially in the digital world, needs to change. The level of forecasting and the revenue management strategies and how to interact with the previous guest as well as the future guest - these are all the issues that most managements find it difficult to deal with as they are hesitant about adopting an online marketing strategy. In terms of ORM, hotels are catching up but it is only the professionals who are embracing these newer strategies and this can actually prevent the industry from flourishing and reaching their true potential only because they are apprehensive. The operators still do not consider that social media greatly impacts their reviews and revenues – a statement which has been proven wrong time and again, especially in the past two-three years, with respect to the hospitality industry.
Q: How important are the online travel agencies in driving ROIs?
A: OTAs are merely a marketing channel. It is how you promote yourself on these online channels that determine the importance of OTAs and how they add to your returns on investment. The online user merely looks at your property on these travel channels and compares it with others. It comes down to who offers the better deal and what else are you offering as incentives. It is about how you market your hotel online that determines how the OTAs will affect you.
Q: How does one drive direct bookings instead of relying on OTAs?
A: Pay-Per-Clicks and interacting with the past guest more often on forums and sites are two ways of ensuring that the customer comes back to your hotel website to make a booking. Social media is another way to really go out and interact, broadcast and promote your brand. It’s all about converting the visitor or passerby into a guest who will come back again.
Q: Which social media platform proves great for business and helps in converting reviews into revenues?
A: Facebook and TripAdvisor are the most prominent ones for online engagement, promotions and checking reviews and rankings. LinkedIn works for the professionals within the industry to connect and share views about the trends and strategies.
Q: What are some of the basic steps that revenue managers and sales directors should follow for a good revenue management strategy?
A: It depends on the different aspects of online marketing. For instance, when managing sales, you need to be in the market to know what’s happening. You need to keep coming up with promotional offers and events revolving around your brand and the property. How you present your brand online and then, how you sell it to the operators and agents is what matters.
In terms of revenue management, the sales should be a three-tier system instead of a two-tier one as it makes the forecasting more accurate and with the knowledge of how the online market works, it becomes easier to manipulate the effect of how the market will impact you. Generating good returns on your online campaigns is about successful integrations, how you make your systems talk to each other – it’s about the human intelligence and the capacity to integrate these all of these systems together as a synchronized team.
Q: What is the winning formula for the success of your hotel’s marketing strategy?
A: Our marketing strategy is cost efficient. It is all about ROIs but it’s also about the marketing, the revenue and the sales departments’ working in tandem. At the end it is just one department sitting at one table discussing and coming up with a wholesome strategy.
