10 Ways To Keep Up with Online Marketing Best Practices 

Under specific market conditions, each establishment is competitive for certain users. For that reason it’s important that all decisions be client-centered.  If this is done correctly, your hotel will rate higher on guest satisfaction and guests will be more likely to repeat business, increasing your hotel’s revenue. These are the 10 factors marketing and sales departments ought to consider when selling travel experiences:

• Focus on the product. Marketing is useless if you don’t have a good product. No matter how much you talk about platforms and channels, your campaigns’ success or failure depends on your ability to align the traveler’s value perception with the product. Even if you are really good at selling, you can still make the mistake of basing your strategy solely on marketing rather than defining and executing a quality product. Creating the  “wow” effect  for your guests is crucial for enhancing traveler experience and offering a quality product.

• Use storytelling to transmit your hotel’s value proposition. Storytelling is a powerful content marketing tool because it captures the traveler’s attention. If you tell a captivating story, you will attract your audience emotionally and incite them to want more. Get travelers craving adventure and make them feel special! They should feel like they are part of the experience. Connecting travelers emotionally to the product will generate a stream of positive energy and guests will be more likely to make recommendations, repeat business and be loyal.

• Use integrated technology. A recipe for disaster is having different providers for each of your hotel’s day-to-day technological needs-systems like CRS, websites, hotel booking engines, PMS, CRM and RMS. Many hotels are having problems because there’s a lack of system integration. If you want to avoid many headaches, contract systems that are compatible and integratable with each other.

•  Measure costs per bookings. Quantifying reservations is a process that is complex in nature. It’s necessary to analyze distribution channels, actions and marketing campaigns to know which hotel resources to invest in and be able to attract more guests. The idea is to determine where most of your bookings are coming from and to strengthen those channels. Adopting this new way of thinking won’t be easy, especially with some channels, but it will prevent you from using a sledgehammer to crack a nut by making you more conscious.

• Supplier consolidation. The more marketing providers your hotel has, the greater the potential for confusion. All communications made should be looked into very carefully so that efforts made aren’t in vain. Hiring multiple and different suppliers to handle hotel marketing tasks such as website design, email marketing, social networking or PPC campaigns makes it’s easy to lose control and opens the door for many potential problems. Some issues with distributed management include problems with pricing, with sending duplicate communications, and campaign effectiveness.

• Strategy planning with objectives. Marketing to all potential customers is pointless. If you want to plan effective strategies that will lead your hotel in the right direction, then your hotel’s budget needs to be tailored to each market segment. The objective is to calculate your campaigns around ROI, seeking to always minimize costs and maximize revenues.

• Consistency in all channels. Having the right pricing strategy set for different channels is essential. When you are aware of margins and cancellation and parity policies, you are being consistent with your distribution. Part of the daily work involves adapting your hotel’s value proposition to each channel. Doing so, will give you a competitive edge and will help you adapt your product to your guests.

• Quality photographs. If your hotel is selling quality, comfort, proximity, or a destination, etc., all audiovisual content must inspire travelers to book with your hotel. Sell a complete, unique, share-worthy travel experience and make it very easy for travelers to book with you rather than with your competitors. Your hotel’s facilities or ability to adapt images to each moment of the year aren’t enough to make your hotel stand out in the marketplace. It may be a good time to hire photographers who are more experienced in portrait or landscape photography rather than in architecture or interior design, although both are quite important.

• Simultaneous promotion campaigns on all channels. Travelers are used to checking many channels before booking,  so it’s important that hoteliers set promotions at the same time in all channels. Activating promotions in real time will transmit coherence and confidence.

• Boost online reputation through third parties to gain visibility. Travelers trust other travelers more than they trust you. The most recent guest reviews about your hotel influence bookings, especially the ratings associated with these opinions. Responding to negative reviews and highlighting any changes you have made or intend to make will improve the impression guests have of your hotel. Also, communicating with your guests after their trip can benefit you more than you expect.
  

If you add innovation, the desire to improve the guest experience and these 10 tips, you will definitely be able to stay up to date with your online hotel marketing. Although things haven’t changed much, product quality is still the most important factor to consider. We do see, however, that product quality is supported by new and more transparent channels, reflecting the relationship between traveler and hotel.