A hotel's marketing strategies are strategies designed to promote its good and service to get the most profit.
This article will help you understand the key points of hotel marketing, the most important thing to consider before deciding on your hotel marketing strategies, some best practices of hotel marketing strategies, and finally reveal two of Marriott’s marketing strategies.
As stated by Paul Bates, the future of hospitality marketing lies in technology, customer loyalty, creativity, and new concepts in the business model. Bring in new concepts for your hotel, adapt modern technology in your hotel business, and be creative; you’re going to build customer loyalty based on your guests’ experience. I still believe that word-of-mouth marketing is the most efficient driver to sustain business in any challenging industry.
Before deciding what marketing strategies to implement for your hotel, you must first determine your hotel:
brand message; and
Basically, the brand message you’re working with will affect the kind of guests you’re attracting. Therefore, it is crucial to understand who is your target market, so you’re able to implement an appropriate marketing strategy targeting prospective guests that suit your brand message.
We listed five best practices in hotel marketing that your hotel should consider:
Stay connected with your potential guests by integrating your messages on social media. To make your content searchable, use hashtags. Hashtags are most popular among Instagram users. Engage with people that respond to your posts and hashtagging your hotel.
Podcast popularity is booming especially among younger generations. Hotels should never be left behind in such emerging media formats. Storytelling using podcasts based on audio formats will attract potential guests if applied correctly.
As mentioned earlier, word-of-mouth marketing is important for any business to survive longer. Therefore, let your current guests review positive feedback about your hotel that in turn, will help you attract more guests.
You can’t deny how smartphones and the Internet have changed the way people interact nowadays. Being online means you have various ways to connect with your prospective guests - social media marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing, or content marketing. How to be reachable online? Designed your own hotel website. Avoid using Blogspot as your hotel website. Look at how we designed the hotel website for one of our users:
Read also: Hotel Digital Marketing Trend
Video tends to engage an audience at a much higher level than any other type of content. Search for YouTube and you will be amazed at how videos are widely used not only by the hotel industry but also by other businesses.
Read also: How Hotels Can Use Video Marketing To Increase Sales
Marriott uses video marketing to make its brand visible. Have you watched the short-film series, Two Bellmen? Marriott's Two Bellmen short film series has received millions of YouTube viewers around the world. Look at how video marketing help to increase Marriott’s brand awareness.
"Two Bellmen Three" released in January 2017 by Marriott's Content Studio. Video courtesy of YouTube.
Intending to attract Gen X and Gen Y travelers, Marriott starts a campaign known as Travel Brilliantly. To attract attention towards this campaign, Marriott has adapted the hashtag trends by tagging #TravelBrilliantly.
Read also: How Hotels Can Learn From Marriott Marketing Strategy
A hotel marketing strategy is a long-term plan. Stand out from your competitors. Prioritize your customers’ experience and develop the most effective marketing strategies that can increase your hotel’s brand awareness.