The hospitality industry keeps changing throughout the year. Some of the seasons may bring in abundant bookings, while others may be slim pickings. However, a good business owner should predict the ups and downs in the industry. Despite the constant fluctuations, there are some foolproof ways to increase your bookings. In this blog post, you will learn how to get more customers to your hotel through traditional and digital marketing strategies.
Traditional marketing or conventional marketing, refers to all non-digital strategies that help you gain attention. It is a widely used method to target a specific group of people. It includes flyers, newspaper ads, telemarketing, TV ads and travel magazine ads. Traditional marketing will help you gain local attention. When a person keeps seeing a particular brand everywhere, the name will register in their mind. This is called brand awareness.
Although traditional marketing for hotels is declining, it has not ceased to exist.
The best place to start is with your previous customers. So, start a loyalty programme and publicise it. Create a grading or points system. For every point gained, give the customers certain incentives. As the person goes up the scale, the incentives should be at a higher level. For example, you can offer free stay for 3 nights.
Some of the famous customer loyalty programmes are Wyndham Rewards, World of Hyatt and IHG Rewards.
Right before your guests check-out, it is a good idea to capture their feedback. It can be a simple yes-or-no questionnaire. Ask them a few questions regarding your hotel’s amenities, ambience, food, hotel staff etc. Try to keep the questionnaire as crisp as possible. Once a week
Digital marketing refers to promoting your hotel through online media. In this day and age, it is essential that you maintain a healthy online presence to reach a wider audience.
OTAs (online travel agencies) are used to distribute rooms and sell them online. OTAs are a great way to reach international tourists. Every time a reservation is made through an OTA, a commission is charged. Aim to rank higher in OTA listings. Post high-quality images of your hotel, list down the services and amenities you provide, ask your guests to leave reviews, answer user queries, etc.
Connect with people through email marketing. Segregate your email list based on parameters like location, age, previous customers, potential customers and more. Then, send them targeted emails like discount coupons, special offers, last-minute deals. All your emails do not have to be promotional or sales-oriented. You can send resource materials like newsletters, webinar invitations, links of your latest podcasts and YouTube videos.
You can use tools like MailChimp, Brevo and Ominsend. The most important thing to keep in mind is your email contacts must be opt-ins. That is, they should have given their consent to be contacted through email. If you violate this policy, your account might get suspended.
If you want to survive in a B2C industry, you need to be active on social media.
Read our blog to learn how to promote your hotel on each social media. You
Ask your customers to leave a review about your hotel. Their reviews will create a sense of trust and authenticity for others. When users are looking for a hotel, they will do a background research. According to research, users look at rates and immediately proceed to the reviews section on OTAs.
SEO (search engine optimisation) refers to improving the quality of your website so that it ranks higher in search engine results. Improving your site’s SEO will help in driving direct bookings to your hotel. So, you can get more customers to your hotel without paying a commission to OTAs. You can hire an SEO consultant to audit your site and suggest changes for better performance.
Some of the common ways to increase your website’s SEO is by decreasing the loading time, adding relevant keywords to your homepage, posting helpful content, optimising for mobiles and enhancing the user experience.
If your website is not performing well organically, you can spend money on advertising. Hotel Ads by Google is an effective investment to grab more eyeballs when a user searches for hotels in a particular locality. You can choose the bidding according to your goals. Some of the popular campaigns are ‘Commission-per-conversion’. That is, you only pay when the user makes a reservation at your hotel based on the payment model you choose.
You can also run Facebook ads. To create an ad, you need a Facebook page, ad account, catalogue and meta pixel installed on your website. Your ads will also appear on Instagram automatically as it is integrated with Meta. You can upload images of your hotel, show the current status of rooms with their prices and generate bookings.
The hospitality industry will seem scary at times. Whether your hotel is big or small, you will always have competitors. Some of them can be your fellow hoteliers while the others can be external factors like inflation, pandemic, companies like Airbnb and new industry standards. But challenges are a part of any business. The ones that stay at the top are the ones that keep innovating. So, make sure to keep an eye on your competitors and keep up with new trends in the industry.
Follow the steps mentioned in this blog post to get more customers to your hotel.
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