Today’s any kinds of business
needs to marketing to grow business and also increase visitors of sites.
Hotel Business is the most interesting business for marketing strategies.
In today’s operating environment, hotel marketing strategies have put
an overwhelming emphasis on immediacy. And with good reason; with demand and
average rates at or near historic lows in many markets, marketing is needed to
reinforce occupancy and keep a property fresh in consumers’ minds. The fact is,
hoteliers are more concerned about their marketing programs drawing in new
guests right away than about developing a brand or laying the groundwork for a
successful 2014.
While understandable, this is ultimately a shortsighted approach to hotel
marketing. Setting a discounted rate and blasting out an announcement about it
may yield some short-term results, but at what long-term cost? How will heavy
discounting affect the brand over the next year or 18 months? How will loyal
customers react to the initiative? These considerations should be weighed as
carefully as ROI projections.
Fortunately, positioning your hotel for future success and accomplishing
your short-term marketing goals are not mutually exclusive concepts. There are
several ways to market your hotel for future success without compromising the
pressing needs of today. In many cases, these tactics don’t even involve large
financial investments, but rather rely upon a focus on multilayer aims; good
analysis of markets, customers, strengths and weaknesses; the utilization of
emerging technologies; and a strong brand identity.
Many of the marketing hints below are rooted in common sense, and can seem
quite obvious when taking the long view of things, but often get trumped by the
unrelenting urgency of now. So let’s get started sowing your property’s seeds
of success.
This is marketing 101 and it holds especially true when you’re planning for
long-term success. Define your audience, segment it in terms of demographics,
and target them with relevant messaging. Too often hospitality marketers cast
the widest net possible, acting under the rationale that a mass market approach
will attract the most potential customers.
But are they the right customers?
This question goes to the core of brand definition. It doesn’t make sense
for a super-luxury resort to reach out to short-haul business travelers, just
as it may not make sense for a boutique center-city property to target the
family leisure travel set. Complicating matters further is the fact that there
are different optimal channels for reaching each of these demographics. Social
media may be the fastest-growing marketing tool available, but will it resonate
with the doyenne planning a 3-week stay at a historic five-star hotel?
Likewise, will a national ad campaign effectively reach the Gen X citybreak
weekender? These basic questions must be the jumping-off point of a successful
medium-to-long range marketing strategy.
Embrace non-traditional media
There are some outreach channels that are growing across all demographics.
Online has become the booking standard, but both web 2.0 (social media) and the
mobile web have become crucial standalone marketing channels in their own
right. Take mobile for instance: with more than 82% of US residents owning and
using a mobile device, and 24% responding to a mobile offer of some sort within
the last year, this single channel represents a huge opportunity for both
outreach and interaction with a valuable segment of consumers. Seizing this
channel also represents a competitive advantage for hospitality organizations
willing to engage in mobile marketing initiatives, as only 12% of mobile offers
are centered around vacation or travel.
Value is timeless - and universal
Of course, the number one competitive advantage is- and always has been-
value. The concept of value, most often associated with budget or discount
properties, actually applies to all ends of the quality and price spectrum. Value
has taken a prominent position in the minds of both consumers and marketers
recently, and it is likely to remain there for the foreseeable future. The
trick for hotel marketers is to find the value inherent to the property’s
operation and to then define the property’s value proposition succinctly. This
simple message will resonate with potential guests- irrespective of
demographic- and, if delivered correctly, serve as the cornerstone of a
long-term marketing strategy.
Get social - establish a strong social media presence
Once the value proposition is defined and established as the core of all
marketing messaging, the question of how to disseminate that messaging arises.
The old-school approach was simple (and costly!)- educate travel agents, take
out newspaper ads, launch a regional or national TV or radio campaign, all
relaying an integrated marketing message. But the landscape is changed, and
these tactics are irrelevant to much, if not most, of your target audience.
Unilateral communication, the fundamental milieu of mass media, has given way
to a more interactive, multilateral ecosystem, the most visible example of
which is social media. Any forward-looking marketing strategy must incorporate
a strong social media component, from engaging profiles to timely updates to
relevant postings. After all, what social media is really about is the
oldest-school marketing approach there is: word of mouth, gone digital.
tweeter
No social media discussion could be complete these days without a mention of
Twitter. This section could stop right at the imperative heading above- tweet!-
or go on for the length of a book. This is the irony- and beauty- of Twitter:
it is at once incredibly straightforward and incredibly complex. No matter how
familiar you are with Twitter, there are a few important “rules” to follow for
effective tweeting. Emphasize value (as we’ve already mentioned), leverage your
reputation, tweet regularly and during peak times (US business hours), address
larger issues other than the goings-on at your hotel, provide actionable
incentives, and (most importantly of all) be responsive.
Tell About You
Blogging is a critical component of getting your marketing message out, and
a core aspect of controlling your own story going forward into a long-term marketing
strategy. Unlike space-limited tweets or interactive social media sites, blogs
offer a way for hotel marketers to deliver their messages without the
interference of customer interaction. This is not to say that blogs are a
digital op-ed column for your hotel; blogs can be quite useful at gathering
feedback in the form of comments, and diagnostic in terms of tracking what
readers are interested in concerning your property. But ultimately, blogging is
about telling your story to the public, on your own terms.
Pay attention to your rankings
Blogging and other marketing tactics all hopefully lead to one thing: more
bookings at your hotel. Just because a marketing strategy considers and plans
for the long-term, doesn’t mean it lacks a concrete business objective, which
is, of course, more bookings at higher rates. The single greatest determining
factor for these business goals is online rankings, both on user-generated
review sites like TripAdvisor and on search engines and OTAs like Expedia and
Orbitz. Search engine optimization must be a key component of a long-term
marketing strategy (the implementation of which will certainly have a positive
short-term effect as well), and maintaining positive consumer reviews should be
the most prominent objective of all facets of a hotel’s operation (not just the
marketing efforts).
Listen Carefully to your guests For Provide Better Services
Maybe the most effective means of boosting your hotel’s consumer rankings is
to simply listen to your guests. This may be the most common-sensical of these
marketing tips, but it is one that is absolutely central to a long-term
marketing strategy. Opening a dialogue with existing guests, either through
social media, loyalty programs, or other touchpoints, will open the doors to a
wealth of usable information on which to base an effective marketing push. Your
guests know you best; it’s important to leverage that knowledge to your
advantage.
Knowing how to market your hotel not just for short-term occupancy gains but
for future growth is a hallmark of a successful hospitality organization. It is
always the laggards in an economy that sacrifice strategic goals for immediate
returns, and in a recession it is those businesses that keep their eyes on the
future that find themselves in the best position after the storm. These marketing
steps should put you on the right path for long-term success, without
compromising your immediate objectives
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