DIGITAL MARKETING FOR HOTELS AND RESORTS
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Rapid changes on the way people plan, book and review their travel products requires hotels and resorts to adapt their marketing strategies to new social networking marketing methods, or die.
Whether you believe it or not, the new era of marketing relies heavily on the web and social networking. Additionally, the new marketing methods heavily rely on building relationships in new ways, specifically social network relationships. This requires a significant portion of hospitality companies’ resources to be put toward development of new socially effective marketing programs. Research indicates the web medium will continue to grow. For example, we now know that regardless of how prospective clients find us, at some point in the various stages of the buying process, more than 85% of those prospects use the web to make the booking or buying decision. This is a statistic that no hospitality company can afford to ignore. Most importantly, future generations who are natives to the web, will expect that any hotel or resort, regardless of its size be able to adapt to the new socially adept and reliant prospects.
If your hotel or resort is complaining about less bookings in this pre-recession, it probably has not fully explored and developed the new social marketing tactics:
For each hotel or resort which complains about a reduction in bookings, there are those hotels which have embraced the opening of new markets by the use of social networking media on the web. Just think, 10 years ago, only the national hotel brands were advertising on a national basis. Now, independent non branded and small hotels are able and are advertising on a national level on the net. If your marketing strategy has slowed, your hotel must rethink and develop new marketing strategies beyond its current ones.
Not a substitute:
Social networking on the is not a substitute for a plan or strategy, this is simply a newer method of marketing with a variety of tools which need to be mastered. So if you are already generating a lot of bookings through a very successful Pay Per Click campaign, don’t stop doing it, simply bring additional business with these new social media tools. A marketing strategist should first identify objectives, develop a plan only then choosing tools, and in that order.
Online Advertising:
Online ad spending was expected to reach 20 percent of the total U.S. ad spend in 2007. That’s according to an annual ad spending study for 2007 released by Outsell.
A survey of marketers found companies plan to increase their online spending 18 percent in 2007. The Internet channel is expected to reach 20 percent of total ad spend. Online will continue to chip away at print, which is expected to maintain 40 percent of ad spend. The share held by TV, radio, and movie ad spending is expected to slip 3.5 percent this year.
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads will take a one percent hit this year due to concerns over click fraud and almost half of the advertisers surveyed (49 percent) have reduced or plan to reduce their PPC spending.
In my personal opinion as these new social media marketing tools start gaining traction and provide good results for advertisers, PPC ad spending will represent less and less of the total overall online advertising spending for most travel companies.
So start planning and budgeting for Social Media Advertising.
Conclusions
Markets are conversations, and in the travel industry, people are talking are commenting, and reviewing their travel experiences, we need to adapt all of your hotel web properties to be able to let your travelers participate in these conversations.
So please adapt and adopt all new social technologies ASAP or else, your marketing will die !!!
