130 Hotel Marketing Ideas for.docx

1、130 Hotel Marketing Ideas for130 Hotel Marketing Ideas for 2010by Josiah Mackenzie on December 28, 2009To help you prepare for the upcoming year, Ive assembled my annual list of hotel marketing ideas.They say 80% of results come from 20% of work. Its more like 95% from 5%. I spend several hours blog

2、ging each day, yet my “120 Marketing Ideas for 2009 was many times more popular than any other post I published this year. Thousands of people found this blog each month through this list of marketing strategies.Well, today Im going to create an all-new version for 2010with even more ideas. Im proud

3、 to present:130 Hotel Marketing Ideas for 2010Strategy 90% of purchasing decisions begin online (Forrester) Educated buyers now solve problems through Google searches Marketing goals in the past: create brand awareness, target mass media, interrupt and repeat. Marketing now: create behavior change,

4、create conversation, communicate directly New goal: 100% engagement (not 2% conversion) What should you publish online? Anything that saves people time and gives info that positions you as a good source. Understand what your customers need to know, and deliver it in a compelling way What online chan

5、nels does your demographic spend time in? Find out, then develop a strong presence there. Dont make people come to you put content where they already are online. Think like a “content DJ”: use and reuse your content in many different formats: blog posts, email, newsletters, articles, PDFs, press rel

6、eases, case studies, video, and social media updates Spend the large majority of your time trying to reach the most likely buyers instead of the entire market. “The smaller the target, the bigger the bulls eye.” If youre small, you can be quick & nimble. Capitalize on that. We have 3 jobs as markete

7、rs: obtain profitable customers, keep them, and expand their lifetime value People admire complexity, but reward simplicity Dont do something unless youre the best in the world at it. If someone else does something better, use their services. Focus only on what you do best, and outsource everything

8、else. Planning The #1 failure in marketing plans: no clear measures of success You must differentiate to avoid becoming a price-driven commodity Not a lot of hotels know where their market position is. Define and position yourself. On metasearch sites, hotels should move away from price commoditizat

9、ion by providing product-level custom messages to differentiate their offers To find differentiating factors, thoroughly study the service you offer and interview the people that provide it If you spend your resources like everyone else, youll get results like everyone else. Breakthrough campaigns o

10、ften require unusual approaches. Selling to your best guests is the best way to maximize profits. Setup systems for recognizing and rewarding these people. Identify and test the key strategies your marketing plan hinges upon. The more facts and research you can include in your plans, the better. Har

11、d data is far more valuable than guesswork. Decide what success means to you. Its different for everyone. Website Give visual priority to the most important elements of your site Put your offer front and center make it extremely clear (”What do you want me to do?”) Booking modules should be prominen

12、t and above the fold Create guest personas to help you develop content for each target audience People scan web pages, and probably wont take a long time to read all the text. Include stunning visuals. People buy travel on emotion. Write page content from the mindset of the customer. Use their langu

13、age. Publish guest comments, reviews, and feedback directly on your website Leverage social proof. Everyone likes what everyone likes. First impressions make or break landing page conversion rates Provide “next steps” for all web content Organic traffic provides you with a low level of control, so m

14、ake sure these pages appeal to everyone. With paid search & advertising campaign traffic you have a higher level of control. Create landing pages that match the ad creative for higher conversions. Use video to convey emotion or compelling visuals that are hard to show through written words View your

15、 main website not as the final destination, but a hub to refer people elsewhere in your online network Search Marketing The top 3 results on a search results page gets 79% of the clicks Result #10 only gets 3%and appearing on page #2 and onwards means you are practically invisible Travel queries hav

16、e increased 40% in 2009 (over 2008) SEO (organic search) can give much better returns than SEM (paid inclusion). According to Yen Lee of Uptake, 86% of travel sales leads are generated by organic search listings. Dont worry about how search engines work as much as how customers use web search When s

17、omeone types in a search query, theyre giving you the opportunity to solve their problem The search funnel typically follows this pattern: Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Purchase Identify keywords that are relevant to your hotel, and popular with searchers. Use research tools so you dont get mi

18、slead. Consider targeting 2-3 word phrases that are more targeted and obtainable Blogs can be your #1 tool for building search visibility Organizations that blog get 97% more inbound links to their website, and 55% more website visitors according to Hubspot research Reciprocal links less valuable th

19、an one-way, because it tells Google that youve arranged it, rather than earned the link through creating great content The best incoming links are earned by merit. Create content people cant help linking to. “See SEO as a profit center, not a cost center” Yen Lee, Uptake “You cannot have a set it an

20、d forget it approach to SEO. Constantly create fresh content.” Microsoft Be diligent search marketing is an ongoing process Reputation Management Your online reputation plays a huge role in the level of success you achieve The majority of travelers today use the internet to make travel plans, and sa

21、y the reviews they read from other guests influence their buying decision Reputation management begins by listening to what people are saying about you online Use tools like Google Alerts, Technorati, and Radian 6 to track praise and criticism Monitor all important terms: your hotel name, any old ho

22、tel names, your restaurants, the names of your manager and concierge Review sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Qype allow management responses, and this is a good chance to participate in the conversation. A recent survey by TripAdvisor/Market Metrix found that 85% of hotels have no guidelines on

23、how to handle negative guest reviews published online Develop your response policy ahead of time, and make an effort to followup with all feedback Complaints can be an excellent opportunity to improve your hotel If you get legitimate negative feedback, thank the reviewer for pointing it outand expla

24、in the steps youre taking to ensure it never happens again TripAdvisor: The most important thing a hotel can do to improve rankings is provide a great experience for their guests Effective online reputation management is more than just playing defense its all about proactively building a positive bu

25、zz. Social media is a great way to begin doing this. Social Media The conversation about you will go on with or without you. Its better to be involved. Serve as a concierge of the organization “how may I help?” Start by figuring out your social media goals. Is it education? sharing? community? Prese

26、nt your blog and social media presence as a way for people to connect with their peers, not just receive your marketing messages Embrace a light branding approach let your customers tell the story and build the brand. “Guestsourcing” is the technique savvy hotels are using to involve their guests in

27、 the content production process. Its the combination of user-generated content and crowdsourcing. Guestsourcing can build loyalty and raise your online visibility. Active participation in content production creates a sense of brand ownership. If youre small, people may not be talking about your busi

28、ness by name.but theyre probably talking about your region and issues you care about. Monitor who writes about the topics you care about. Build relationships with them. If your online content sucks, youre wasting your money and my time. Make something remarkable. People love to look at picturesare y

29、ou giving people lots of pictures online? Encourage your fans to take & upload their own photos. Add photos of your hotels design to the Hotel Design Blog Hosting your hotel photos on Flickr increases your web presence, building awareness among potential guests Use Creative Commons licensing on all

30、Flickr photos to increase distribution Introduce your staff with video interviews, and post to YouTube Viral video is for generating buzz and awarenessbut its not the best way to generate sales Hyatt Hotels launched HyattConcierge to provide 24/7 global concierge services via Twitter. Could you do t

31、he same? Use Twitter search to locate people searching for solutions Facebook marketing is all about “transitive trust” reaching people through people. Helping your fans tell their friends. Facebook isnt about answers. Its friends sharing with friends. This makes Facebook a poor platform for direct marketing. Facebook adds new features fairly rapidly, so take the time to educate your readers about how they can use the new tools. Encourage people to like and comment on your Facebook content as much as possible to raise visibility. Get a “vanity” personalized Facebook URL