12 Hotel Digital Marketing Tips You Need Today

For many hotel owners, internet marketing is uncharted territory.

While well-known marketing methods may still be useful in some circumstances, changing customer behaviour necessitates the development of new and effective strategies in order to get traction and increase sales. It’s also critical to recognise that the market is increasingly driven by convenience and experiences, and that change is required to stay ahead of the competition.

Millennials, for example, now control two-thirds of global purchasing power, and recent estimates suggest that the average millennial spends more than five hours each day on social media. With this in mind, hotels that fail to publish material for Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms are almost invisible, which may be immensely detrimental to hotel sales and reputation, especially when considering the buying power mentioned above.

In this post, we’ll go over some of the nuances of hotel digital marketing, as well as some particular steps you may take to move ahead in the sector.

How do hotels sell themselves?

Hotels that are successful will have a digital marketing plan that incorporates all of the things discussed in this article. While some encounters are digital, others are far more personal, and the consumer is always right throughout all of these activities.

In any event, it’s not just a matter of doing a few things here and there; it’s about building a marketing strategy that will help the hotel succeed.

Now, let’s look at twelve actionable hotel digital marketing tips.

1. To assist your hotel’s digital marketing activities, you’ll need a fantastic website.

Many people use Hotels.com or one of the other numerous booking engines to find the greatest bargains. However, you should be aware that many online users will then go to the hotel’s website to find out more information or to get a better night’s rate. With this in mind, you’ll need a visually appealing website to achieve the best outcomes. And whether you operate in the hotel industry, the healthcare digital industry, the financial industry, the IT industry, or any other industry, having a strong website is essential.

Here are a few more advantages of having a fantastic website:

Instead of just stating how a tourist may get to your hotel, you can elaborate on the location and detail the features in the region. In most cases, a hotel’s location is the first way to set itself apart from the competition.

Booking engines are generic by nature, but having your own website allows hotels to communicate directly with customers. In other words, in order to develop a relationship with potential clients, you might keep things more personal or conversational and “speak their language.”

Features – What makes your hotel stand out from the rest? Having a separate website allows you to highlight the most appealing aspects that distinguish you from competing hotels. Booking engines, as you may be aware, rarely take the effort to showcase these features in the way that they should.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for long-term success, and hotel digital marketing will increasingly rely on this endeavour to provide useful information to end users. You may increase keyword and social media links to booking search ranks with your own website, which can minimise a hotel’s reliance on such engines over time.

2. Create a lot of material for your website or hotel listings.

Content marketing may appear to be all the rage right now, but there’s a good reason for it. To put it another way, content is the most effective approach to attract long-term traffic to hotel listings, and developing it is unquestionably the most effective strategy.

There are two types of content in general: photos and descriptions:

Images

A professional photographer is required for a hotel website, and anything less will not suffice. Professional photographers know how to capture this story in every shot with high-quality images.

When you consider that these images represent the face of your company, and that every booking engine will utilise them as well, it makes sense to invest time, effort, and money in producing the best first impression possible.

Descriptions

Whether the hotel breakfast is legendary or each room has a balcony with breathtaking views, you must make these things known loud and clear. Luxury bedding, pleasant staff, and saunas are all characteristics you’re probably pleased of, and you should let potential guests know about them.

Simply said, your guests will not know what you don’t tell them, and these are the elements that most people consider when deciding on the best option for a future stay.

3. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Did you know that online travel agencies (OTAs) like Kayak, Priceline, and Expedia account for more than 70% of hotel bookings? True, and meta search marketing is the most effective technique to promote direct reservations on your hotel’s website. Indeed, utilising a meta search approach for hotel digital marketing can significantly lessen the requirement for these OTAs, allowing the hotel to build a far more effective sales funnel.

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To clarify, meta-search marketing screens hotel availability and rates and displays the results in a single location. For example, you go to expedia.com and search for hotels in Chicago. You will be able to see all of the hotels in Chicago that are listed on Expedia. As a result, a hotel can create regular advertising campaigns and employ click-based ads to reach millions of web customers with weekly or monthly promotions.

Obtaining favourable reviews and social signals, on the other hand, is just as vital for this process, therefore hotels should urge visitors to post reviews or positive comments about their experience on a regular basis.

4. Manage your internet reputation and reviews.

As you may be aware, Tripadvisor has been under fire in recent years for fraudulent reviews and other nefarious actions – and has responded ruthlessly against offenders, resulting in prosecutions and prison sentences.

However, in the hotel industry, reputation is everything, and internet reviews are still the only method to get an unbiased perspective on a hotel stay.

While hundreds of five-star ratings will surely lead to more sales, even one negative review can seriously harm a hotel’s reputation.

As a result, it’s critical to urge customers for favourable reviews and to remind them of this request at every opportunity. You should also share these excellent evaluations on social media and take the time to thank them for their kind words, proving that you care.

Finally, for online reputation management, responding to bad reviews is critical. That is to say, here is your chance to apologise and improve, as well as to allay any fears that these reviews may cause prospective visitors.

5. Search engine optimization (SEO) for hotel digital marketing

Hotel digital marketing is heavily reliant on SEO, which is divided into two types: on-site and off-site SEO. While on-site SEO is more faster and easier to deploy, off-site SEO is frequently the most effective strategy to get traction online.

On-site SEO — On-site SEO refers to how features on a hotel website can be optimised to improve internet visibility. This method can be used to improve pages, posts, graphics, and even the website’s structure. However, keyword strategy is undoubtedly the most important component of on-site SEO, and it may significantly increase the quantity of traffic and visitors to a hotel website.

Off-site SEO — Building external backlinks to a hotel website from other internet resources and directories is a common part of off-site SEO. Off-site SEO can also be improved through social sharing signals, but guest articles, sponsored pieces, and referrals are some of the more typical methods.

6. Concentrate on local SEO.

Any sort of SEO is beneficial, but local SEO for a hotel website can yield rapid benefits. While many people believe that local SEO is all about optimising photos, descriptions, tags, and titles on a website, it is much more.

Yelp, Tripadvisor, and other listing websites, for example, have valuable information about your website.

You may begin your local SEO efforts by upgrading and refining the information on these listings. In addition, Google My Business is becoming more successful in terms of ranking for local search inquiries, so make sure every component of your profile is comprehensive to take advantage of this possibility.

On the other hand, you can concentrate on local content by writing or filming posts or films on local activities, events, or places. With this in mind, local SEO may help your hotel website appear more relevant for search queries, which is important for hotel digital marketing.

“Any sort of SEO is beneficial, but local SEO for a hotel website can yield quick benefits.”

7. How do hotels use social media to advertise themselves?

Many hoteliers overlook the fact that Facebook is still the king of social media and the most powerful tool for hotel digital marketing.

Positive reviews — If you think about it, the review area of a Facebook page is right at the top, but many hotels appear to overlook it completely. Positive evaluations in this part can build confidence and trust in potential guests, whether you have a stack of ratings on Tripadvisor or elsewhere.

Facebook sales — Facebook now allows business owners to accept reservations and even payments via the network. Trivago recently recognised a resort in Mexico for outstanding social media initiatives that resulted in a very high number of direct reservations via Facebook.

Twitter – Twitter is a terrific tool for reaching a very precise target market, despite being overshadowed by Instagram and Facebook. Trivago also gave Cedar Manor in the UK an award for how it uses hashtags to highlight events, news, and attractions in the area, which helps the hotel drive a lot of traffic.

Instagram — Needless to say, Instagram allows hotels to reach a massive audience, and with the proper photographs, this is another clear option to demonstrate the hotel’s high quality.

People — Social media, on the other hand, is all about people, and some of the most effective hotel digital marketing methods involve including the staff and people behind the hotel. After all, tales are extremely powerful in content marketing, and providing stories about the hotel’s employees is a terrific approach to establish a meaningful bond between the hotel and potential customers.

8. Hotel social media monitoring

If you’re wondering, social listening is a hotel digital marketing technique that use trackers and technologies to notify the company of internet remarks.

But why is this so significant?

This is your opportunity to communicate with guests and demonstrate your concern for prospective consumers. At the same time, you can’t respond to something you don’t understand, and the following tools can alert firms when they’ve been mentioned online:

Hootsuite – While many individuals use Hootsuite to automate social media posts, the dashboard can also be used to search for mentions on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and other key sites.

Curalate – Curalate is a technology that helps hotels improve their selling processes by allowing you to connect social media content to your website while also looking for mentions.

Sprout Social – Forging meaningful connections with guests is critical for a hotel, and Sprout Social has a number of solutions that may help you track down online interactions related to your brand.

Buzzsumo – BuzzSumo is a great monitoring tool that may help you find hotel-related material on social media. You can even type in the domain name, and links should display right away.

9. Experiment with Facebook’s hotel Dynamic Ads.

If you’re wondering, Facebook Ads are far from “dead,” and many businesses still spend the majority of their marketing budget on this platform. Wish is currently one of the world’s largest e-commerce stores, with five million members, and it was created almost exclusively on Facebook Ads during the last three years.

Travel Adverts is a new project that allows hotels to target their ads to those who are most likely to travel on Facebook and Instagram. For example, if a user is looking for hotels but hasn’t made a reservation, travel advertisements would show them your hotel for specified dates and costs.

10. Hotel email marketing

In the hotel sector, email marketing is becoming increasingly vital, especially at a time when commercials and social media marketing are so prevalent. At the same time, this is still one of the most cost-effective methods of reaching an audience, as it involves no initial investment.

However, it’s critical to handle hotel digital marketing correctly, and here are three of the most crucial aspects to bear in mind:

Segmentation – You can’t start an email marketing campaign without a solid plan, and defining your audience is crucial for ensuring your emails get delivered to the correct people. To put it another way, you can’t just send everyone the same email and expect to get results; your database needs to be segmented into interest categories.

Grab attention — It should go without saying that generic material has no place in email marketing; instead, you’ll need to employ promotions, discounts, or information about local events to pique your ideal users’ interest. In order for an email to have any impact, it must provide true and distinctive value.

Respect your customers – You should treat them like royalty and strive to build a meaningful relationship with them that will make them desire to open your emails in the first place. You should also embrace email feedback and try to figure out exactly what the consumer wants to hear from you.

Needless to say, these are just a few considerations, but the general lesson is that email marketing can be beneficial if approached correctly.

11. Enable remarketing on the internet (DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!)

Hotel remarketing is a method of reaching out to potential clients who have viewed the hotel’s website but left without booking. That is, you can utilise this method to persuade these users to return to the website and make a purchase at a later date. When you think about it, this is a very effective strategy because you already know the user is ready to buy.

However, how can you include remarking into your hotel’s digital marketing strategy?

To re-engage prior users, remarketing advertising will simply target them with discounts or incentives.

As a result, your ad will appear in the user’s newsfeed, tempting them with a better offer. In general, this campaign should provide a lot of value, and the correct keywords should be employed to attract the greatest possible audience.

Remember that being subtle rather than “in your face” is just as vital, and the value on offer should hopefully be enough to persuade this customer to book the hotel.

12. New Technological Advancements

In the hotel industry, new technologies are proving to be incredibly beneficial, with chatbots in particular having a huge impact. Developers construct chatbots, which have a variety of features that improve the performance and user experience on a website.

Chatbots for the hotel website and chatbots for the hotel room via Alexa are two sorts of chat bots that can be utilised for hotel digital marketing.

Many people are aware that chat bots can successfully communicate with customers via messenger and harvest vital data that can be used by the hotel for further follow-up.

On the other side, voice-enabled gadgets, like the Amazon Echo in the kitchen, may use Alexa to improve the hotel experience and provide important assistance to visitors.

Conclusion

As you can see, hotel digital marketing is a broad issue, but the aforementioned suggestions are some of the most realistic techniques and solutions for staying ahead of the competition.

While some approaches necessitate monetary investment, much of this process is based on information or experience, and having a sound marketing plan is usually sufficient to ensure your hotel is improving and going in the right direction at all times.