Hotel marketing: the smart hotelier’s compass
Dear hotelier,
as you have already noted, the needs and preferences of the tourist market are constantly changing and so are also the strategies of hotel marketing and promotion of its accommodation.
The last few years have seen web marketing gaining ground step by step compared to what the manuals define “classic” marketing. Now all the hoteliers, despite some initial diffidence, have realized the enormous potential hidden in the online channels of communication and diffusion, tools that are able to increase the visibility of their hotel by increasing direct bookings and disintermediation in general.
The online sales and communication channels are all those channels that allow to increase the visibility and presence of their hotel on the web. These channels range from the official website, to the OTA portals, up to the engagement on social networks.
With this preamble, we are not saying that digital marketing must completely replace traditional marketing, the two modes must be balanced and coexist, but web marketing allows a stronger and more direct interaction between the customer and the accommodation in the selection phase of the ideal structure by the traveler.
Why is web marketing prevailing?
The first question is not why web marketing is dominating over classic marketing, as the answer is quite obvious: “now if you are not present online, you do not exist“.
So the question to ask is “why can I no longer do without web marketing?“.
We answer this epochal question with 3 reasons:
1) Power goes to connected customers
Globalization has paved the playing field, so with a proper web marketing strategy you can get almost anywhere.
The 30-room boutique hotel can reach customers all over the world, and must not do so through wasteful advertising campaigns “heaped” on television, on the radio or in print media. It can do so through targeted and highly targeted ads that also offer more precise and measurable results through the principle of conscious demand and latent demand (we talked about it here).
At this precise moment in history, power is in the hands of connected clients, and it is to them that web advertising must be directed.
2) F Factor
Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing, claims that most customers believe more in “Factor F” (friends, families, Facebook fans) that is friends, family and online followers.
So word of mouth, reviews, brands … are the keys that determine the choice of one structure over another.
3) 75% Marketing – 25% Sale
Emblematic is a sentence by Frank Merenda, marketing and sales expert, who states:
“The secret of selling today is to understand that 75% of the work must be done before, and this job is called Marketing.
The secret is that – today more than ever – the things you do before getting in touch with the customer are important”.
For this reason, marketing, and in particular web marketing, must be able to attract customers’ attention and communicate effectively the reality of their accommodation.
What are the four cardinal points of hotel web marketing?
After understanding how the web is now an irreplaceable source for developing communication and the promotion of its accommodation, let’s define what are the four cardinal points of the hotel web marketing.
Peering the list you realize how the items listed are a real funnel, in fact in a first phase are going to create the contents necessary to advertise their accommodation (content marketing). These contents must be presented in a captivating and professional form that have a specific graphic appearance (visual marketing).
At this point the contents must be promoted; promotion can take place through various strategies such as email marketing or through social media. Social media is a promotional vehicle with a huge size and an important step to reach the ultimate goal ie direct bookings.
To address these issues in depth, we have dedicated an article to each of them, simply click on the links to be redirected to the respective topic of hotel marketing.
Enjoy the reading 🙂
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