These 11 Hotel Digital Marketing Strategies Have Hoteliers Going Crazy

We’ve all learned that humans have three basic needs: food, water, and shelter. This list’s newest entry is the Internet.

People nowadays rely on the internet for almost everything. The internet contains solutions to all of your questions, from a neighbouring tea shop to a hotel hundreds of miles away. ‘The Internet is the Epitome of Information,’ to put it succinctly.

The first step in finding a hotel in any place is to Google ‘Hotels In XYZ.’ And, before booking a reservation, you’d be looking for three things:

Price Ranges

Guest Comments

Website of the hotel

The search ranking of your hotel is solely determined by its visibility, which is determined by algorithms, quality content, and how people interact with your website. Your Google ranking is determined by your visibility. Your hotel’s digital marketing strategy will determine its online presence.

You could be asking yourself a lot of questions right now. What is the definition of digital marketing? How do you go about doing it? How will it be more beneficial to me?

All of your questions have been answered. So take a cup of hot tea and let’s get this ball rolling.

What is Digital Marketing in the Hotel Industry?

Building and maintaining your hotel’s online presence is referred to as hotel digital marketing (also known as hotel internet marketing or hospitality marketing). This includes Google and other search engines as well as social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

As a result, you should accept the reality that hotel digital marketing leads to increased bookings, increased visibility, and, of course, a more stable brand identity in the marketplace.

Why is it crucial for your hotel to have a digital marketing strategy?

The majority of travellers in today’s world look for hotels and other services. You can reach all of these potential customers and establish a loyal client base for your hotel with a smart hotel web marketing strategy.

The guest’s trip begins when they find your hotel using metasearch engines, social media, or organic search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and others. It’s more vital than ever to be visible on these platforms.

Search engine optimization, as well as a variety of sponsored and organic channels, should be included in hotel digital marketing strategy to ensure that your hotel is visible during the research, consideration, and final booking phases.

We’ve compiled a list of some of the most effective tactics that you should use to achieve the best outcomes.

The 11 Most Effective Hotel Online Marketing Techniques

1. Add your hotel to Google Maps

Prior to the internet era, individuals relied on the “Yellow Pages” to find any business-related information. The ‘Yellow Pages’ was a directory that listed all types of businesses. Everyone was on it, from a plumber to a government figure.

With the advent of the internet and, eventually, search engines, this paradigm became obsolete. Everyone now wants their company to be listed on Google. It lists every business, from a barbershop to the world’s tallest hotel, the Burj Al Arab.

You could have two queries as a hotelier —

What is the best way to list my hotel on Google?

Is it a free service?

‘Yes, registering your hotel on Google is free!’ is the response to your second query.

Let me walk you through the first question step by step, while also addressing potential elements that can be used to improve it.

GMB (Google My Business) is similar to producing an E-Card for your company. It aids in the communication between business owners and end users.

Guests basically browse for any property they’d like to stay at before making a reservation. A potential guest searches everything from amenities to star categories, ratings and reviews to photographs, price range to FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions).

Install “Google My Business” on your smartphones for easy updates at any time to begin with the listing section. A online version is also available.

All you have to do now is fill out the registration form with the necessary information, such as the hotel’s name, star category, location, and amenities.

It’s critical to double-check your hotel’s contact information. Incorrect location and phone number have an influence on search results and booking flow.

You’ll receive a code for business verification once you’ve completed and submitted the form. After your hotel has been verified, you must improve your listing.

‘Google My Business’ has a number of useful features, including:

Review and rating.

Collection on the business page of your hotel.

User-generated content geotagged with your brand can be updated automatically.

Site manager has been added.

Bookings made simple with an integrated meta-search.

Characteristics of the hotel

Now that your company has been listed and updated with content, you must concentrate on increasing your audience reach. Because if you’re not even visible online, it’s not going to work no matter how hard you try.

You could wonder how to be available online. It’s all about the oomph factor –

“Simple create a website for your hotel”

2. Have your website up and running

The next phase in a hotel’s digital marketing plan is to create a website. And by “hotel website,” I don’t just mean putting up some crappy photos and two lines of material about your hotel and calling it a day.

Simply put, no. I’m referring to a hotel website that highlights your hotel’s facilities, location, rooms, and other features.

We developed a hotel website for one of our users in the same way:

Optimisation of Website in Mobile

People prefer to search for information on their smartphones rather than on their computers. Smartphone users are most likely to recommend mobile-friendly websites.

From Think Google, here are several analytic components of mobile optimization:

In the last two years, mobile searches for “hotels with XYZ facility” have increased by more than 60%. (AC Hotels with pools, Albany airport hotels with shuttle service, anchorage hotels with a hot tub in the room, Arizona hotels with lazy river, Atlanta hotels with smoking rooms).

Over the last two years, mobile searches for “place to travel” in various combinations have more than doubled.

Researching hotels and airfares on a mobile device is as usual as shopping for clothes in nine markets.

When using a mobile site to complete a booking, friction can cause travellers to switch to another site.

Guests nowadays prefer a simple booking process. According to the statistics above, mobile optimization boosts booking inflow and maximises revenue production.

Now that the website has been created, you must optimise it as much as possible. Keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to rank among the top search results. You’ll need to do some SEO work for this.

3. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the foundation of any website.

The term SEO refers to the process of optimising a website for search engines. A effective SEO strategy will help your hotel rank higher in search engines, providing it the visibility it requires.

Above all, it is critical that you improve your web presence.

Hotels that rank high in search results spend more money on SEO.

Although other people prefer paid or organic listings. But did you know there’s a little-known strategy that almost no hoteliers use? The emphasis of this covert strategy is on local SEO.

Local SEO is emphasised.

So, what does local SEO entail?

This aspect of SEO focuses on your company’s visibility in local search results. Let’s imagine you own a hotel in Chennai’s Anna Nagar neighbourhood. As a result, local SEO continues to focus on your hotel in order for it to appear in searches for “hotels near me” or “hotels in Anna Nagar.”

Instant exposure has many advantages. It does, however, have some disadvantages if your adverts aren’t managed and optimised.

You should conduct separate ad campaigns on Google and Facebook (here are some FREE Google Ad templates to get you started) (Instagram comes with it). There are numerous advantages to participating in such initiatives. Furthermore, they ensure that your hotel is visible and that word about your excellent services reaches the appropriate individuals.

Other Advertisements

However, Facebook Ads are the most cost-effective strategy to increase visitor numbers. So, while maintaining within your budget, you may simply gain additional reservations through the site.

Local SEO is emphasised.

So, what does local SEO entail?

This aspect of SEO focuses on your company’s visibility in local search results. Let’s imagine you own a hotel in New Delhi’s Paharganj neighbourhood. As a result, local SEO continues to focus on your hotel in order for it to appear in searches for “hotels near me” or “hotels in Paharganj.”

The task is straightforward. Simply include Google maps locations around your hotel in your about us or fact sheets. It could be anything from a well-known landmark to a particular route. Following that, you can improve your search results by optimising certain keywords.

4. Advertisements, advertisements, and more advertisements!

Following that, we’ll discuss Metasearch Engines, such as Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor, and Trivago. Not only will listing on these metasearch engines increase your visibility, but it will also increase the worth of your brand.

Being found on metasearch does, however, need being available for direct reservations. The more direct reservations you acquire, the further up the industry you’ll go.

Particularly when it comes to Google Hotel Ads. It’s gradually proving to be Google’s rescuer in disguise for hotels looking to lessen their reliance on online travel agencies. Check out our blog post on how Google Hotel Ads assist enhance hotel revenue for more information.

Instant exposure has many advantages. It does, however, have some disadvantages if your adverts aren’t managed and optimised.

You should conduct separate ad campaigns on Google and Facebook (here are some FREE Google Ad templates to get you started) (Instagram comes with it). There are numerous advantages to participating in such initiatives. Furthermore, they ensure that your hotel is visible and that word about your excellent services reaches the appropriate individuals.

Other Advertisements

However, Facebook Ads are the most cost-effective strategy to increase visitor numbers. So, while maintaining within your budget, you may simply gain additional reservations through the site.

Similarly, Remarketing Ads provide fantastic opportunity to promote your hotel business by focusing on people who have already visited your website. As a result, they are more likely to visit your website and book with you.

So, if you haven’t yet registered with any metasearch engines, now is the time to do so.

5. Use social media to connect with others

It is no longer unusual to have a presence on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. However, in your hotel digital marketing plans, you must make the most of this and use it to its full potential.

Second, going live on these platforms is an excellent way to enhance your followers’ engagement.

Listening to others on social media

Monitoring your social media accounts for mentions, promotions, user content generation, lead generation, and more is known as social listening. This is an opportunity to advertise yourself by engaging on postings that emphasise your brand across all of your social media accounts.

To put it another way, how would you react if someone mentioned you in an Instagram post? It’s as simple as that: you’ll promote that post on your Instagram page.

In other words, acknowledge it any time someone geotags your hotel or mentions it in a post on social media. This increases your level of engagement and makes a positive impression on your potential guests.

6. Use video to tell your narrative

You may have noticed video-based content on any hotel’s website while looking through their galleries. The hotels are shown in 360-degrees in these films. They involve capturing all parts of a hotel, such as the lobby, room interiors, restaurant, swimming pool, and so on, from a wide-angle perspective.

This assists in winning the guests’ trust. Let’s have a look at a video from one of our clients to get a better idea.

Hotels are making movies to show the hygienic precautions they’ve taken in the aftermath of COVID-19. The movie discusses preventive methods such as daily hotel sanitization, workers being checked for COVID-19 and temperature before entering the hotel, and staff wearing masks, gloves, and sanitizers, among other things.

Here’s a quick video showcasing GoStop Hotels in action. They’ve made this one-of-a-kind video to commemorate the reopening of COVID-19.

These kind of videos assist customers in selecting the ideal hotel for their stay. It also gives them a behind-the-scenes look into the hotel’s amenities, making it a valuable resource. Uploading the video on YouTube is the greatest way to get the most views. You can use YouTube SEO after the video has been uploaded to the platform.

What is YouTube SEO and how does it work?

The practise of optimising your videos, channel, or playlist on YouTube in order to rank better in relevant search results is known as YouTube SEO. This includes your video’s textual context, such as the meta description, keywords in titles, hashtags, and so on.

Because the technology cannot understand photos or videos, the concentration is on keywords.

However, many people are unaware that the title and description are not the sole text sources.

It also makes use of transcripts, Closed Captions (CC), and subtitles. You can use any marketing professional to help you execute this in your YouTube videos. This improves viewership, user engagement, and SEO when used in videos.

Subtitles, CC, and transcript are technically part of your keywords. Including this in your video will help you rank higher in search results.

7. Don’t overlook the importance of email marketing

In today’s world, most people overlook email marketing. Hotels, on the other hand, can make good use of it if they want to.

Emails are, in fact, the ideal way to communicate in both our professional and personal lives.

You’ll be able to communicate with guests via email marketing by sending them pre-arrival letters and advising them on the finest amenities to choose based on their budget.

It also allows you to communicate with them after they leave your hotel via post emails.

In a similar vein, booking confirmation emails can be used to engage guests who have reserved a hotel stay.

This method attracts new guests while also retaining existing ones, which is crucial for generating a high return on investment for your company.

8. Use influencer marketing to your advantage.

One of the most efficient online marketing tactics for hotels is influencer marketing. It is a method that a hotel can utilise to attract a large number of people. Hotels make touch with an influencer who has the power to influence other people’s purchasing decisions.

However, because an influencer has a high reputation for their knowledge, it’s a simple alternative for hotels.

9. Make sure you blog it correctly

Hotel blogging is a fantastic opportunity for hotels to take use of the blogosphere. It allows you to delve further into issues and attract like-minded readers (guests).

Blogging is a terrific tool since it not only gives visitors with in-depth knowledge about a particular issue, but it also persuades them to explore deeper for your services, which is a win-win situation for you.

Travel blogs are becoming increasingly popular among travellers. Everyone, whether a traveller or a group of wanderlust buddies, researches a destination before going there.

10. Get in on the trend using chatbots

In recent years, chatbots have become increasingly popular in the hospitality industry. They can not only aid with conversions, but also with your brand’s reputation. As a result, your potential guests will have more trust and involvement with you.

Use chatbots to respond to your visitors’ questions.

As a result, chatbots increase communication, drive individuals down the booking process, ensure your availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and reconnect with guests who have abandoned their appointments.

Try using chatbots on your website to see how your reservations rise along with a significant boost in visitor happiness.

11. Keep your internet reputation up to date

Regardless of your feelings about your hotel’s internet image, you must embrace the truth that the hotel industry was, is, and will continue to revolve around guest happiness.

After all, why not? You must be aware of what your visitors are saying about you. What other ways do you have to improve your services?

Furthermore, these online reviews are essential these days. All of your guests, both present and potential, will read the reviews and ratings before deciding whether or not to stay with you.

As a result, preserving your internet reputation is a crucial part of your hotel’s digital marketing strategy. Maintain a close eye on your ratings and main review sites, and set a solid target for where you want to be!

Make a goal for what you want your guests to say about your hotel after they’ve left. As a result, having a good internet hotel reputation will help you receive more reservations.

Conclusion

Hotel digital marketing tactics are critical for generating money.

Of certainly, the market will see bigger and better firms emerge. Guests, on the other hand, are increasingly wanting more customization.

Today’s visitors expect user-friendly websites. Because they’re growing increasingly computer aware and won’t accept anything less than the best from hoteliers.

To ensure that all channels are utilised to their full potential, use digital marketing for hotels.

In a word, make 2022 your best business year yet by increasing bookings, streamlining operations, and receiving favourable feedback.

So, this year, try these methods for hotel digital marketing to acquire more bookings. And you’ll be a step ahead of your competitors in the industry.