Hotel Digital Marketing Trend

In 2014, the World Tourism Organization emphasized the potential of digital marketing in the tourism and hospitality industry. Changes in customers’ behavior and the emergence of the Internet have led to changes in hotels’ marketing strategies, shifting to digital marketing.

Digital marketing and the hotel industry

In the hotel industry, digital marketing focuses on customers’ feedback and uses personalized marketing to convince people to book online. The requirements of digital marketing in the hotel industry has increased with fascinating contents and videos posting for a hotel’s website, utilizing the power of Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) making the website rank first on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) with online advertisements using Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Go Mobile

Travelers will get used to hotel services - booking, check-in, get itinerary updates - via a mobile device, thus, having a mobile-friendly hotel website is really important.

Read Also: Mobile-Friendly Hotel Website

Captivating website design

Digital marketing tools help the hotel to appear visible online with a website. By incorporating the use of SEO and providing clear and complete information on your hotel’s website, your website will have more chance to be ranked higher in the SERP. Through content marketing and by having a website equipped with a Content Management System (CMS), hotels can add valuable content to attract prospective guests, who are more influenced to book a hotel based on shared experiences, photos, and videos.

Utilize the power of SMM by linking your website to social media. Let your hotel website work for you by engaging with more potential leads through Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

One of the marketing trends on the rise now is video marketing. Take advantage of this to market your hotel visually, from live streaming of your hotel’s events to promotional videos highlighting your hotel’s uniqueness. Engage with your prospective guests by posting your videos on YouTube, going live on Facebook or Instagram. Get your audiences’ attention with the popular 360º video.

Read Also: The 5 Important Things Needed For Your Hotel Website

Invest in paid ads

Invest in SEM to stay ahead of your competitors. Apart from Google AdWords, Pay Per Click, and Facebook advertising, SEO is also important for the hotel industry. Hotels can bid on keywords, which determines the ads that are more likely to appear. Maximizing your local SEO through TripAdvisor or Booking.com will make your hotel more visible to potential guests.

Personalized email marketing

Since customers prefer a more personalized experience, sending random emails to all of your hotel’s subscribers is considered an old tactic. Email marketing is the bridge between the top of the sales funnel and the sale itself. Shoot your best offers to customers through personalized emails and see the impact. Make use of tools such as the Promo Code System to create different promotions for your different customer segments. Only by personalizing your offer, you will be able to outrun your competitors.

PMS to simplify day to day operations

Property Management Systems (PMS) acts as a bridge in digital marketing for the hotel by making reservations through the website and sending automated confirmation emails to the guest. An effective PMS is becoming even more useful in accessing data from an increasing number of sources for the hotel. A hotel PMS, regardless if it’s on-site or cloud-based, should be able to cover everything from guest’s reservation, housekeeping, room allocations, and more. With a good PMS being used, not just hotels will be able to improve efficiency and productivity, but it will also create a better guest experience.

As hotel shifts towards digital, hoteliers need to stay current with the latest hotel digital marketing trends to have a competitive advantage over the other competitors.

Read Also: What Hotel PMS is All About?

Conclusion

Digital marketing playing a huge role in every business including the hotel industry. Make use of digital marketing, online to boost up your business. Analytic your website traffic, study and observe where your main audience from. Try it out on online advertisement and share your hotel services on your social media page to help you to increase more exposure. Also, try email marketing to sent emails to your existing guests to keep them warm and posted with your hotel's promotion, new services, facilities, upcoming events, and so on.