Hotel Marketing Ideas for 2010

Hotel Marketing Strategies has released their 130 “Hotel Marketing Ideas for 2010″

Travel queries have increased 40% in 2009 (over 2008). Here are some great tips for the hospitality industry - 

Strategy

• 90% of purchasing decisions begin online (Forrester)
• Educated buyers now solve problems through Google searches
• Don’t make people come to you – put content where they already are online.
• Think like a “content DJ”: use and reuse your content in many different formats: blog posts, email, newsletters, articles, PDFs, press releases, case studies, video, and social media updates
• If you’re small, you can be quick & nimble. Capitalize on that.
• Don’t do something unless you’re the best in the world at it. If someone else does something better, use their services. Focus only on what you do best, and outsource everything else.

Planning

• The #1 failure in marketing plans: no clear measures of success
• You must differentiate to avoid becoming a price-driven commodity
• Not a lot of hotels know where their market position is. Define and position yourself.
• Decide what success means to you. It’s different for everyone.

Website

• Give visual priority to the most important elements of your site
• Put your offer front and center – make it extremely clear (”What do you want me to do?”)
• Booking modules should be prominent and above the fold
• People scan web pages, and probably won’t take a long time to read all the text.
• Include stunning visuals. People buy travel on emotion.
• Write page content from the mindset of the customer. Use their language.
• Publish guest comments, reviews, and feedback directly on your website
• Use video to convey emotion or compelling visuals that are hard to show through written words. 

Search Marketing

• The top 3 results on a search results page gets 79% of the clicks
• Result #10 only gets 3%…and appearing on page #2 and onwards means you are practically invisible
• Don’t worry about how search engines work as much as how customers use web search
• “You cannot have a ’set it and forget it’ approach to SEO. Constantly create fresh content.” – Microsoft
• Be diligent – search marketing is an ongoing process

Reputation Management

• Your online reputation plays a huge role in the level of success you achieve
• Reputation management begins by listening to what people are saying about you online
• Monitor all important terms: your hotel name, any old hotel names, your restaurants, the names of your manager and concierge
• A recent survey by TripAdvisor/Market Metrix found that 85% of hotels have no guidelines on how to handle negative guest reviews published online
• Complaints can be an excellent opportunity to improve your hotel
• Effective online reputation management is more than just playing defense – it’s all about proactively building a positive buzz. Social media is a great way to begin doing this.

Social Media

• The conversation about you will go on with or without you. It’s better to be involved.
• “Guestsourcing” is the technique savvy hotels are using to involve their guests in the content production process. It’s the combination of user-generated content and crowdsourcing.
• If you’re small, people may not be talking about your business by name….but they’re probably talking about your region and issues you care about.
• Add photos of your hotel’s design to the Hotel Design Blog
• Hosting your hotel photos on Flickr increases your web presence, building awareness among potential guests
• Introduce your staff with video interviews, and post to YouTube
• Use Twitter search to locate people searching for solutions
• Facebook isn’t about answers. It’s friends sharing with friends.
• Encourage people to like and comment on your Facebook content as much as possible to raise visibility.
• Get a “vanity” personalized Facebook URL as soon as you can for search optimization purposes (you need 25 fans first)
• Employee blogging is more powerful than executive blogging. According to Edelman research, readers find them five times more credible. Get your team involved.

Customer Service

• Getting a new customer costs approximately five times what it costs to keep an existing one
• Make collecting guest feedback a top priority. Make sure employees understand the value of this.
• Never ask a guest “Have you stayed with us before?” Build a great recognition system so you know that answer already.
• Offer free WiFi. As Rajul points out, it makes for happier guests, and just might help you rank higher in TripAdvisor.
• Build loyalty through offering unique amenities, not just slashing prices [New York Times]
• Get inspiration from Ritz Carlton, which permits each employee to spend up to $2,000 to “move heaven and earth” to satisfy a guest – without obtaining prior permission

Measurement & Metrics

• What is measured gets improved
• Metrics can (and should) determine the direction you take your internet marketing campaign
• Use Analytics to show which keywords are most important to your website (by time on site, bounce rate, etc)
• Always ask guests, “How did you hear about us?”

Read the entire article here.