Keeping up with the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape can be like navigating a maze without a map. But with the right strategy in place, businesses have endless opportunities to captivate and engage their audience. Whether you're an experienced marketer or just dipping your toes into the digital world, understanding the basic principles is crucial. In this comprehensive article, we'll uncover 15 key “dos” and 15 key “don'ts” to ensure your digital marketing efforts are successful, helping you leverage the power of online platforms to propel your brand forward.
- Optimized for mobile: With 70% of research now being conducted on mobile, adaptive web design ensures your website is mobile-friendly and provides a seamless experience across all devices.
- Use social media: Engage with your audience on platforms like Meta (Instagram, Facebook) and showcase your hotel's unique features to attract potential guests through organic posts, reels and stories. Including paid social in your digital marketing strategy can help you increase awareness and access a pool of qualified travelers.
- Invest in quality visuals: Use high-resolution images and videos to showcase your hotel amenities, rooms, and surrounding area to attract potential guests. High-quality images (especially videos) greatly improve user experience and encourage direct bookings from your website, so prioritize professionally shot photos and videos.
- Tell a unique and impactful story: Tell your hotel's story and what makes it unique. Web and advertising content should be supported by images that convey emotion with clear, precise, positive and impactful language. Storytelling should be well written and highlight the appeal of your hotel while connecting with your audience.
- Use email marketing: Build and manage email lists based on CRM data and customer behavior to send targeted promotions, special offers, and newsletters to past and potential guests. Thoughtful email campaigns help attract new guests, build loyalty, and encourage repeat bookings.
- Create a content calendar: Creating a content calendar ensures consistency in your digital marketing efforts by allowing you to plan and schedule your content in advance. This helps you stay organized, maintain strategic focus, and align your content with your marketing goals. Additionally, a content calendar improves collaboration among team members and provides a clear roadmap for content creation, ultimately saving you time and maximizing the impact of your efforts.
- Use retargeting: Retarget previous website visitors or those who abandoned their cart. By pairing these individuals with targeted offers based on their past behavior, you can increase the likelihood of conversion, improve brand recall, and maximize the efficiency of your advertising budget. Bonus: You can easily set this up as an automated email with personalization in your CRM.
- Provide a seamless booking process: Less is more. Make it easy for guests to book directly through your website by providing an intuitive, user-centric booking interface with a prominent “Book” CTA and sleek design. Otherwise, you’ll lose direct bookings.
- Encourage reviews: Encourage satisfied guests to leave positive reviews on platforms like Tripadvisor, Google, Yelp, etc., building trust and credibility. By 2023, 92% of consumers will look at reviews before purchasing a product or service.
- Personalize content: Tailor marketing messages and offers based on guest preferences and past interactions for a more personalized experience. Leverage CRM data integrated into your digital marketing platform to enhance your advertising efforts and optimize campaigns.
- Encourage direct bookings: In addition to competitive rates, offer additional benefits for booking directly, like free breakfast or discounts on spa services. Highlight these special offers and make sure they are clearly displayed on your booking page.
- Increase your visibility with paid search: Run paid search campaigns such as Google Search Ads and launch brand safety campaigns to grab the top spot on search engine result pages, protect your brand name from competitors and OTAs, and win back direct bookings. You can now launch Google Search Ads in just a few clicks in the Cendyn Digital Marketing Platform, alongside other campaign types.
- Track your KPIs: Monitor metrics like booking conversion rates, website traffic, and ROI to measure the success of your marketing efforts, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy and achieve better results.
- Launch a Google Performance Max campaign for your travel goals: Leverages Google's machine learning and artificial intelligence to increase visibility, reach qualified users across all Google surfaces, and improve conversion rates. This type of campaign, in addition to other automated or manual campaigns, can help you gain immediate media coverage and increase visibility across all Google platforms.
- Be visible in metasearch: Metasearch engines are used by 72% of travelers when planning a trip. Having your rates listed on metasearch engines can increase your visibility and boost direct bookings to your hotel website by up to 30%.
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