Hotel Marketing Checklist: 10 Strategies to Land You More Bookings At your Hotel
Your hotel marketing plan is a critical piece of your business. If you want to drive your marketing strategy forward, you need a checklist of action!
You have just established an independent hotel or looking at enhancing your hotel marketing strategies to fit and rip in the ever-demanding travel industry. If you’re reading this you might be like, how will this help me?” Well, today you’ll learn how to land more bookings from your well-curated marketing efforts.
Optimise your website for direct bookings
Make sure your website is free of technical issues that can affect your website’s crawlability and indexability (and hence visibility in Google search results). By following this guide, ensure that your website meets all the technical requirements of Google and other search engines.
Adopt the best on-page SEO practices: conduct keyword research before creating your content and measure the performance of your pages afterwards. Use tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush or Google Keyword Planner to find the most relevant keywords for your website.
Work on your off-page SEO by earning links to your website, leveraging PR, and collaborating with influencers and bloggers in order for your website to get more traction on the web.
Get mobile optimisation right — as a big part of bookings happen on mobile devices, your website should load fast on mobile and provide a smooth user experience (think website design).
Create listings on the most popular OTAs
In addition to having a direct booking website, it’s essential to reach travellers through online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, etc.
Research the popularity of OTAs depending on the geographical location of your target guests to invest only in those that will attract your target guest segments.
Create eye-catching listings with great photos and detailed descriptions of your hotel amenities and hotel perks.
Master your email marketing
Send special offers and add-ons as part of your pre-arrival communication. Use software solutions to automate and maximise the effectiveness of your pre-arrival upselling.
Send monthly newsletters to stay on top of your guests’ minds and generate more returning guests.
Share important news and developments about your hotel (for instance, new services on offer and refreshed facilities).
Grow your brand
Create a strong value proposition — think about how your hotel stands out from the rest. (who your ideal guest is, and which unique hotel features you can harness to attract them).
Align the tone of voice, visuals, font and the look and feel of your website with your story.
Distribute your story via all possible channels where your target audience is (showcase this on OTAs, your website, social media, etc.)
Implement word-of-mouth marketing
Keep track of your guests’ feedback on review platforms to continuously improve your guest experience.
Encourage your guests to leave reviews — you can do so in the post-departure email or when guests check out.
Incentivise guests to share their positive experiences with family and friends — provide a discount for referring a friend (use referral links).
Collaborate with influencers to promote your hotel — aim for finding micro-influencers from the relevant domain and engaged audience. Micro-influencers are more trusted by their followers and charge less for their services.
Utilise Facebook ads
Start with Facebook and Instagram pay-per-click ads, as they are the most affordable options on the market.
Shape up your content for ads
Prepare attention-grabbing visuals (or short videos that will perform exquisitely well on Instagram)
Brainstorm the most enticing messaging and content to use across your ad channels.
Give retargeted ads a try - these are the ads that are aimed at users who have already visited your website and are more likely to make a booking. These ads are usually cheaper than regular ones and demonstrate higher conversion rates.
Connect with your guests on social media
Set up your social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook to engage with your audience and grow brand awareness.
In addition to sharing company news and updates, put a spotlight on your employees to create a brand with a human face.
Create content about things to do in your hotel’s location and the best places to visit around.
Involve partners to run joint marketing campaigns.
Integrate video into your marketing efforts
Make sure videos are professionally made to reveal the aesthetics and functionality of your hotel. The wise move is to hire an in-house videographer who will take care of your video content.
Start a YouTube channel and grow your fan base by filming videos not only about your hotel but its surroundings and local attractions. Add guest testimonials in the mix to strengthen social proof.
Let your employees share their journey in the hospitality industry by recording short interviews with each of them. This will contribute to humanising your brand.
Uncover the power of Google Hotel Ads
Get a connectivity provider to set up Google Hotel Ads for you so that your hotel will be displayed at the top of the search results once your property matches the user’s query and when you have the inventory to accommodate the guest.
Read more here on how to get started with your Google Hotel Ads campaigns.
Launch a loyalty program
Define your goals and budget and work out a strategy to make sure you’ll hit the targets you’ve planned initially (giving out discounts without a clear goal in mind is unlikely to bring you the desired results).
Select a type of program to go with — this can be either a tiered program, points program or paid program or any other type that fits your goals and budget.
Promote your loyalty program to entice your current and prospective guests to participate in it.
Analyse performance and make tweaks to increase effectiveness and maximise ROI.
Go now and put heads to bed!!
Thank you for putting this all together. Very informative piece.