Marketing concisely leads to generating awareness and building an image of the brand in the market. It is a broad concept involving multiple strategies and processes of execution to attract bookings and optimize revenue. With the ever-flourishing trends, it becomes inevitable for brands to keep up with the latest ones and continue to engage and preserve the interests of the guests. Moreover, the advancement in terms of technology acts as a fuel to all the marketing practices.
The challenge of being in the hotel industry is the overwhelming amount of competition and corresponding to the swiftly changing demands of the present day visitors. Especially with the growth in popularity of a variety of accommodation choices like apartments and homestays, it becomes even more challenging to stand out against the competition to gather more bookings.
Here are a few hacks that would assist hotels to ace their marketing game:
Be Present Everywhere: In order to win any game it is vital for all to first participate in it. People are present at all places but in this blooming tech-savvy world, it becomes essential for the marketing leaders to understand the demographics of their target segment and study their active presence across platforms. These would be the ideal spaces to narrate the brand stories and offerings to the desired set of audiences only. This practice further enables the marketing leader to broaden their knowledge through the guest engagements witnessed around the brand while keeping a check on their changing behaviors and accordingly framing tailored marketing strategies.
Up your Social Media Game: Social media has now turned out to be more than just a mere tool. It is no secret that guests’ decisions are usually influenced by the easy access to the content of these channels. Moreover, these platforms not only provide the gateway to the brands to highlight itself to their potential set of viewers but also aids the viewer to get a chance to interact with the brand directly. The insights garnered through these mediums assist the brands to convey the appropriate information to related audiences. This protects both- the efforts taken by the brand to reach out to its desired viewers and the viewer’s time by catering to the relevant facts.
Seek Collaboration Opportunities: In the hospitality industry, guests are often referred to as ‘King’ and this is because hoteliers believe in curating memorable experiences for them by extending the best offerings based on their requirements. Collaborating with other businesses whose association accelerates the fundamental intent of enhancing the guests’ experiences, is the most sought after exercise for any hotel property. Such initiatives boost the brand to reach out to wider, specific and segmented audiences yielding appreciable results.
Personalize Experiences: Personalized hotel marketing is a vast topic in the hospitality industry and hence is essential to timely remember the fact that every guest is unique. Adding a personal touch to the marketing plan in every possible form right from extending specially portioned food & beverage selections, AI-focused concierge systems, quick and online check-in processes to data driven personalization of ads cast a strong impression in the minds of the brand viewers. The present day guests seek for more and the marketing framework that involves adapting products or services meets the purpose of improving guest experiences while responding effectively to their needs within a short span of time.
Gather User- Generated Content: There is no other practice, which is certain to champion than the guests sharing their stories about the brand themselves. User-Generating Content is similar to the word-of-mouth, a proven age-old practice assuring publicity of the brand at no cost. In other terms, existing guests validate the quality and value of the hotel based on their experiences, which is not possible in brand-generated advertising campaigns. Additionally, studies over the years have confirmed that guests trust content created by other guests more than content created by brands and are more likely to affect them while making a reservation decision. Both marketers and guests agree that peer-influencers are more effective than any other marketing method. To build a trusting relationship with the guests and their communities, incorporating the authenticity of these user-generated contents into the marketing strategy is the way forward.
