A Hotelier’s Guide to Online Hotel Marketing Strategies

Nothing is predictable in any industry. Even the best known names in the hospitality industry cannot determine or predict how consumers will buy or make their choices. No doubt, online hotel marketing strategies will be very strong in creating a well-executed presence for every hotel in the virtual world.

Three effective tips to consider are:

• Analyze where you have spent your money for marketing and determine the returns you have received from your spend.
• Consider that meta and search that are important areas to spend on in years to come.
• Offer useful website tools such as currency converter to engage customers on your website.

Here is a checklist for you to consider if you plan to grow your hotel’s visibility through smart online marketing strategies.

What are Your Hotel’s Distribution Channels?

• Does your hotel associate itself with major credit card companies?
• Are there some major airlines that support you to sell what’s on your inventory?
• How many online portals such as Google and Yahoo refer your products?
• Do you conduct analysis often enough to improve the way your products and services are currently distributed?
• What initiatives do you pursue to create a great deal of brand awareness?

How effectively do you check that your online hotel marketing expenses are paying off well?

• Online media spend is measurable but are you tracking yours regularly?
• Are your promotional offers clearly highlighted on your site or buried in oblivion?
• Is your inventory online or kept under wraps?
• How effectively do you calculate the click through rate and monitor whether its results show increase in the hotel’s annual sales?
• Is there an effective online content strategy that continues the already built online momentum?
• Have you devised a blog or any interactive content medium to ensure that your customers are aware about your hotel’s growth and new offerings?
• What strategies have helped you to coordinate more effectively with country-specific tourism boards to create a distinct destination experience that explores the best range of hotels, transportation options and tourist attractions?

Does Your Online Hotel Marketing Strategy Customize Content Rich Campaigns?

• Does your online hotel marketing strategy enable you to customize and target specific groups of customers?
• Do you feature proactive content-rich campaigns to help customers make informed choices?
• How effectively does your online marketing strategy enable you to creatively stimulate higher demand across your wide customer base?
• Does your online marketing strategy identify micro site offerings for its niche marketing segment?

How Effectively Do R&D Help You Innovate Your Hotel Marketing Strategy?

• Does your R&D serve the hospitality industry to innovate effectively?
• Are website tools used to simplify planning, booking and payment options for customers?
• Does it enable you to customize and target specific groups of customers?

Given the success of social media, it is clear that user generated ratings, reviews and contents are a huge high for those who love to travel, stay in hotels and enjoy a dynamic hospitality experience.

The key to success is to innovate by introducing attractive options like customized maps with virtual map pins that help customers to identify other attractions around a hotel. Such techniques will double the hotel’s conversion rates and bring in more traffic than before.

Just think differently in establishing your hotel marketing strategies and make things happen by being ahead of how the world is likely to think tomorrow.


Swapna Raghu Sanand
http://www.vedainformatics.com/