Online Marketing Strategies for Hotels

In recent years, online marketing for hotels has increased in both importance and complexity. With the hotel and hospitality industry confronted with the disruption presented by newer online competitors, hotel marketing experts are looking to online marketing to boost brand awareness and booking rates. While the larger hotel chains tend to focus on building effective long-term strategies through content marketing, smaller and mid-sized brands have looked to email marketing, online ads, and other tactics that focus on quicker lead generation.

In all cases, the foundation of a solution for this growing challenge is a digital marketing program and tools that offer a consistent multi-channel customer experience that prepares hotels for future digital marketing demands.

Components of an Online Marketing Strategy for Hotels

Some of the available online marketing tactics to consider as part of your overall strategy can include:

Website Design and Content

Offering an easy to navigate website with relevant, useful content is essential to attracting and retaining guests. Making it easy to find important information, such as amenities and rates and using language that speaks to a general audience are some of the important factors in effective website design. It’s also important to leverage good photos to showcase your hotel experience and make it easy for visitors to book a reservation directly from your website.

Search Engine Optimization

As any online marketer know, it’s not enough to just have a website, your site has to be found in the search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) is about the process of making your web pages rank well on the search engines. And on of the most effective ways to accomplish this is by linking a blog to your website. Frequent posting to a blog will enable you to share content that is valuable and interesting to your target consumers while allowing you to target specific keywords that these consumers are likely to target when they are researching products and companies in your industry.

Social Media Marketing

Developing a well-design social media marketing program has become critical in the hotel industry. Simply having a Facebook and Twitter account is not enough, you have to create a real social presence and engagement on social media platforms. Use these platforms to offer special deals and to share valuable information about your brand and your industry. And include links to your website and other sources of relevant content.

Online Review Sites

Review sites such as Trip Advisor and Yelp are of critical importance to the hospitality industry and can be either positive or negative for your brand, depending on what people are saying about you on these sites. Studies have shown that any client review, whether positive or negative, can have a dramatic impact on a potential guest’s decision to stay at your hotel. Given this, it is very important to find ways to encourage positive reviews as part of your online marketing strategy.

Chatbots for Hotel Online Marketing

Chatbots are software programs developed to initiate and manage online chat communications with website and social media visitors. Chatbots can serve as a valuable tool for engaging with visitors as they are researching your brand and guiding them to the information they need or invite them to initiate a call-to-action (CTA) that will allow you to collect their contact information for future marketing efforts.

Chatbots are available on a 24/7 basis and offer immediate access to visitors who may be researching your brand after hours. And chatbots present a cost-effective alternative to increased sales and marketing staffing to answer visitor requests.

Contact us to discuss the use of chatbots in hotel online marketing.