If you work in the hospitality industry, you probably don’t need to be told it’s competitive. There are plenty of other hotels and resorts targeting the same potential guests as your brand.
That’s why you need a strong hotel marketing plan. Without one, you can’t get the attention of customers in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Keep these points in mind as you develop your strategy. They’ll help you design campaigns that deliver results.
Identify Unique Ways to Show Off Your Properties
One of the most effective ways to attract guests to hotels is also one of the simplest: show off.
This isn’t the time for modesty. You want to make your hotels look as appealing as possible. That doesn’t simply involve posting beautiful pictures on your website. To truly stand out among the competition, you also need to show off your hotels in memorable and eye-catching ways.
For example, some hospitality brands use 360-degree videos to give potential guests a clearer sense of how a room or particular area of a hotel will look. Some go a step further, using virtual reality to immerse guests in the environment before they actually book a room. This is much more dynamic than simply posting photos.
That’s not to say photos can’t be useful. You just need to expand the platforms they’re shared on. Along with posting beautiful photos of your hotels on your website, you might also partner with a social media influencer to further promote your brand. A trusted social media influencer posting gorgeous photos of your hotel or resort could make a stronger impression on their followers (and reach more potential guests) than traditional promotional photos on your site.
Improve Upon the Basics of Your Hotel Marketing Plan
Seeking innovative ways to promote your brand is important. That said, it’s also important to optimize your traditional marketing channels.
That means making sure your website’s SEO is strong. If you don’t have familiarity with SEO best practices, you may benefit from partnering with a marketing agency to make the necessary adjustments.
Email is another channel to prioritize. In fact, to some degree, email may still be more effective than social media. This is partially because it allows you to maintain contact with your followers, cultivating a relationship on a more personal level.
You simply need to be certain your email strategy is as strong as possible. For example, did you know that segmenting your email lists into multiple smaller lists boosts open rates? Or that most people tend to read emails on mobile devices (rather than desktop computers) now? Or that sending too many emails can actually have a negative impact on your campaigns, as your followers may unsubscribe if you crowd up their inboxes?
This is another reason you may benefit from coordinating with professionals. Experts can help you better understand how to optimize email, leveraging it to its full potential.
Consider Branded Experiences
It’s also worth noting that, in the social media age, it’s possible to get your guests to do some marketing work for you.
How? Quite simply, if you host exciting branded events at your hotels, guests who participate in them will potentially share photos and posts about the events on their own social media channels. Others will see these posts, responding to them more positively than they might to other forms of marketing content. A social media recommendation from a trusted friend (“You have to check out this hotel’s rooftop bar!”) is a lot more convincing than a blatant advertisement.
Just make sure to monitor your performance. You may need to adjust your hotel marketing plan once you learn which tactics yield the best results. By keeping these tips in mind and proactively tracking your campaigns, you’ll make sure your brand is a hit with guests.
