What Is Digital Marketing For Hotels and Why Is It Important?
Hotel digital marketing is a term used to cover a number of different methods to promote your hotel online and build your online presence. There are over 5 billion internet users worldwide and it’s most people's first stop in their buying journey. So what can you do to make the most of it for your hotel? And why is it so important?
Digital marketing for hotels (also known as hotel online marketing or hospitality marketing) is vital to drive direct bookings, reduce commissions being paid to OTAs, boost visibility, fend off competition and grow your brand online.
A complete digital marketing strategy for your hotel will help with all of the above and ensure that your hotel is in front of more potential guests, whilst nurturing existing customers and building brand loyalty.
How To Manage Hotel Digital Marketing
As previously mentioned, digital marketing is a term used to describe a number of different online methods to showcase your hotel. Some of the main ones include…
PPC (Pay Per Click - AKA. Google Ads & Bing Ads)
The primary aim of hotel PPC is to ensure your hotel is getting more bookings, but not relying on OTAs for this.
The likelihood is that if you sell your rooms through OTAs (online travel agents) like Booking.com, they could be running PPC ads for people searching your brand name and stealing potential traffic from coming direct.
Whether it’s through an OTA or your own website, a booking is still a good thing. However, wouldn’t you rather reduce the commission being paid to these OTA’s and encourage people to come direct?
That’s where PPC comes in! PPC for hotels gets your website visibility on search engines for lucrative keywords relevant to your hotel.
We’d always recommend two types of campaigns here; a brand campaign protecting your brand name, encouraging people to come direct, and a competitive campaign targeting more generic, yet related keywords such as "hotel in your location".
An effective hotel PPC marketing strategy can quickly get your hotel excellent visibility on search engines to encourage more direct bookings, usually for less than you’d pay in commission to the OTAs. And what's more, you'll be visible for more widespread searches you weren't visible for before. Win-win!
Not only can you advertise on search engines, but you can also run metasearch ads to gain visibility on other sites such as TripAdvisor and Google Hotels.
Rather than bidding on keywords, metasearch is much more brand-led and is a great way to showcase your business on hyper-relevant websites, for people already searching for your brand or related searches.
Want to start PPC for your hotel but don’t have the resource? Get in touch with us to see how we can help.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Gone are the days of the Yellow Pages, most people nowadays will start their hotel booking journey with a search engine, whether searching for a brand they already know or looking for something completely new.
Have you ever Googled “hotels in your area” and wondered why your website isn’t showing?
Well, that’s where SEO (search engine optimisation) comes in. Nowadays, gaining visibility high up those search engine results pages (SERPs) is becoming increasingly difficult with big OTAs and Google’s own listings taking up the majority of real estate.
But a well-planned, well-researched and well-executed SEO strategy can help your website claw back some of those positions.
Similarly to PPC, SEO for hotels is all about getting seen on search engines. Google processes over 8.5 billion searches per day, so visibility here can be game-changing. SEO helps new (and existing) customers discover your hotel and everything it offers when they search for relevant keywords. But, the main thing here, is it’s free.
SEO is an ever-changing craft, weathering regular algorithm updates, and producing regular top-quality content to help your site rank. However, put simply, it involves optimising and maintaining your hotel's website to be as search engine friendly as possible. To find out more about SEO and what it involves, check out this post.
To fully utilise search engines, we’d always recommend that alongside optimising your site for search engine results, you set up a Google Business Profile and Bing Places profile to maximise your visibility on the SERPs.
Unfortunately, there are no quick wins with SEO. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to achieve truly noticeable results. So if you need extra support with your hotel’s SEO, get in touch with our experts.
Social Media
Social media is essential for any hospitality business. There are almost 5 billion social media users worldwide so having visibility on key social media channels can be game-changing and is necessary for any business these days. This could be building exposure on Facebook, sharing imagery on Instagram, or building connections on LinkedIn.
Social media marketing and management for hotels can open up your brand to a large number of potential customers whilst nurturing existing ones. It’s a great place to build trust, boost your reputation and engage with your existing customer base.
Whether you choose to run organic social, invest in social media marketing, or explore influencer marketing, social media invites plenty of opportunities for you to encourage reviews, start conversations, and show off your hotel.
For more tips on how to market a boutique hotel on social media, check out the rest of our blog. Or for expert help and advice with your social media marketing, get in touch with our team.
Websites
It’s likely that the first touchpoint of any new customer’s journey will be your website. Well-built and well-designed hotel websites can engage customers, increase your direct bookings and produce excellent results.
It’s vital that your hotel’s website is SEO friendly, user-friendly, mobile-friendly and in the best condition to climb those rankings and be seen by more people.
Fully bespoke hotel websites allow you to have all the flexibility to integrate with a variety of hotel-specific platforms creating a truly seamless user journey, therefore it should integrate seamlessly with your internet booking engine (IBE) for a smooth and effective user journey that portrays your brand and hotel in the best possible light. After all, you want to encourage customers to book direct, rather than going through an OTA because your website doesn’t work as it should.
It's crucial to make sure your website is up-to-date and visually appealing with amazing imagery showcasing every unique feature of your hotel. Check out this post for more information on how to ensure that your hotel website produces excellent results.
Time to refresh your website? We can help with that! Feel free to get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat.
Email Marketing
According to research from Hubspot, on average, for every $1 spent $36 is returned from email marketing campaigns.
Email marketing for hotels is a great way not only to generate bookings but to build repeat custom and keep customers coming back. In such a competitive industry, email marketing is crucial to build personal relationships with your customers.
The term email marketing covers a wide range of things, but you can separate it into two main strands - new and existing.
Both of these channels should hold equal importance as it’s just as important to keep people coming back as it is to attract new business.
If your email system is correctly set up and synced to your CRM/ PMS you’ll have the ability to set up complex campaigns, reaching customers at every touch point in their journey.
A few examples of what email marketing could be used for would include loyalty programs, room upgrades, seasonal promotions etc.
Why Hotel Digital Marketing Is Important
So by now you probably realise why hotel digital marketing is so important to establish a good online presence and to help drive direct bookings.
People rely on the internet for everything these days, so it’s crucial your hotel is in front of as many eyes as possible. Therefore, a solid, future-proof digital marketing strategy will help your hotel in countless ways.
For more helpful tips and tricks, check out the rest of our blog. Or to get in touch with our hotel marketing team to see how we can help your digital marketing efforts.