Nowadays, everyone is always accessible online, but engaging and activating potential and previous guests is a significant challenge in the extremely noisy online environment. A flexible, creative approach can be very helpful, so in this article, we’ve gathered the most important hotel marketing trends that you can easily incorporate into your daily practice.
Good to Know: What is the Difference Between Digital Marketing and Online Marketing?
Hotel marketing is an umbrella term that encompasses the digital and offline tools and strategies that increase a property’s popularity and strengthen guest trust. Digital marketing and online marketing are both parts of hotel marketing, but the two terms are often used interchangeably, even though their toolsets differ significantly.
Online marketing is considered digital marketing since it utilises the internet and all devices that provide internet access, including computers, smart TVs, and mobile phones.
In contrast, digital marketing also covers non-internet channels such as television (TV ads) and mobile phones (SMS and MMS), which online marketing does not include.
The Key Areas of Online Marketing:
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Content Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
- Content Automation
- Campaign Marketing
- Data-Driven Marketing
- E-commerce Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Direct Marketing (EDM)
In recent years, due to changes in user behaviour and attention spans, online marketing has become a central focus. Its tools are often cheaper, more measurable, and offer higher returns compared to traditional digital channels. Users can encounter your services multiple times in various forms, find all the information they need on your website, and even book their stay instantly.
The Most Important Hotel Marketing Trends
- Personalised and direct marketing: It refers to the practice of creating communications that tailor your hotel’s promotion to individual guests by utilising and analysing their data. The simplest way to implement this is to allow guests to register on your website, where you can request additional information about their preferences, such as dietary restrictions or sports interests. You can then incorporate this information into your future newsletters.
- Customer Experience Marketing: This approach is based on the idea that hotel guests are paying not just for products or services but for experiences. Enhancing the customer experience can involve offering excellent customer service, unique room features, and special amenities.
- Health and Wellness Tourism: This emerging luxury hotel trend is expected to continue thriving. The pandemic has prompted many to prioritise their health, leading to a surge in the health and wellness tourism market. You don’t need huge investments for this; for example, you can start by offering healthier options on the menu or surprise your guests with a pampering face mask on the nightstand. These small touches can make a big difference, positively impact the guest experience, and provide content for your marketing activities.
Essential Marketing Tools to Promote Your Hotel
In the hotel and hospitality industry, competition is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face. Effective hotel marketing is crucial for promoting your services, highlighting your unique features, standing out from competitors, and convincing potential guests to stay with you. Keeping up with the latest hotel marketing trends can ultimately maximise your bookings and revenue.
A well-designed online marketing strategy includes the tools to be used, the goals, and the associated tasks.
- It’s helpful to plan at least a quarter ahead for promotional periods, long weekends, and holidays, as their communication needs to start in advance.
- To reach the largest portion of your target audience, it’s not enough to use just one tool. The tools you’ll need can vary by hotel. It’s definitely worth being present on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, but don’t forget about Google and social media ads.
- A well-maintained newsletter database can be a great asset in acquiring hard-to-convert guests. Don’t lose track of those who exit the booking page after providing their email address; use remarketing tools to increase the number of returning guests.
- The foundation of online marketing is a good website. It’s important that your hotel’s website is user-friendly and fast. Use SEO tools to ensure potential guests can find it.
- Last but not least, don’t overlook reputation management and dynamic pricing! Guest reviews enhance your credibility online, and a positive review can lead to more bookings. With revenue management, you can dynamically price your rooms by monitoring peak and promotional periods, thereby maximising your revenue.
360 Degrees Hospitality Management with Everguest
Want to make the most of your opportunities and increase your online visibility? Everguest offers comprehensive services in Reputation Management, Revenue Management, and Marketing Management. How will our expert team guide you?…
- First of all, discover Everguest Intelligence with our help! Our AI-based software not only aids in guest communication but also provides detailed analyses enhanced with AI-generated summaries. This allows you to gain a deep understanding of your guests’ needs, enabling you to respond quickly and effectively in practice.
- Maximising your revenue with continuous dynamic pricing, market analysis, and competitor monitoring.
- Managing your online presence, ads, and social media platforms.
Call us or write to us to ensure you don’t miss out on a single guest! We can even personally introduce you to our services and the potential opportunities they can unlock for you and your hotel or restaurant!
