Find success in 2014 digital marketing strategies for hotel marketers
1. Find Success in 2014:
Digital Marketing Strategies for Hotel Marketers
November 21, 2013
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7. 2013’s Biggest Marketing Trends
Emergence of visual storytelling
Content became snackable
Social media went visual and video crazy
Video continued its dominance
Mobile grew…and grew some more
Rise of the Digital Elite
10. From SEO to booking
Search engine optimization and search engine
marketing will get customers to your front door,
but what will make them choose you?
11.
12. Why
Social Media?
Ability to offer special
promotions to fans and
followers
Opportunities to connect
with fans on a regular basis
Cross-promotion for sister
properties
Direct booking
18. Key Takeaways
Web Appeal is the new Curb Appeal – Be sure
your online presence has good “Web Appeal”
Gain the edge on your competitors - Be “outgoing”
and interact with guests on the most underutilized
channel - Social Media
Our guests are on the go! – Ensure your “web
appeal” is Mobile Friendly for easy access
Use video to sell your hotel and enhance your
“web appeal”
19. Reach Millions of Travel Shoppers
with the ultimate visual storytelling solution for
hotels.
One stop shop.
An easy to use webbased management
tool makes it easy to
manage all of your
visual storytelling
elements all in one
place.
23. Telling your Story – Facebook
Visual impact
Connect with target market (guests)
Book now options
24. increases engagement
Photos and special offers
drive more engagement
than simple text
Engagement on Facebook
higher than other types of
communication
Hotels with 1400-1500 fans
get much more
engagement
25.
26. Make sure your stories are
available
Website
◦ Brand.com
◦ Independent
◦ Mobile
OTA’s
◦ Expedia/Hotels.com
Social Media
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Instagram
27. 2014 To Do’s
I.
II.
III.
Share
Beyond your own site, leverage videos across multiple channels
Facebook and other social networks are obvious channels to
showcase your video
Engage your guests: before, during and after their visit
Be where your guests are
Guests are searching, sharing and interacting – be there with
them
Strong visuals that tell a compelling story are key to a successful
online presence
Use multimedia
Photos, videos, panoramas, 3D virtual tours and more – tell your
hotel’s story visually
Hire professional photographer, videographer – quality photos
are key
28. Key Takeaways
Show, don’t tell
Be snackable!
The social channels are engaging with big,
beautiful visuals on their pages
◦ Facebook, Pinterest, TripAdvisor
Informally interview your guests and your staff to
uncover your story
Be where your guests are shopping
Stay up-to-date with hotel marketing “to do’s” by
reading our eBook: Find Success in 2014
29. Bring on the Bookings
Enable guests to book directly from your Facebook or your
mobile optimized website
31. It’s a Wrap!
About VFM Leonardo
Invitations to upcoming webinars
◦ Topics include telling your story with VBrochure, getting
mobile optimized and more!
Recording of this webinar
◦ Share it with your colleagues
Don’t forget to head over to
vfmleonardo.com to download our eBook
“Find Success In 2014”
What 2014 eMarketing challenges keep you up at night? How do I find the time to manage social media Am I allocating budget appropriately across the major areas (search, mobile, social, website, visuals) Technology is changing so quickly. How do I keep up?
A travelers experience begins right when they click “Enter” or “Search” on google, Bing, yahoo, etc after typing in their needs – “Hotels near Disneyland” or “Hotels in San Francisco”. From this click on, the guests experience with you hotel has begun. The easier you are to find from the search, the better the experience for the traveler.Lets hypothetically say that you show up on page 3 of searches. Your “Curb/Web Appeal” is non-existent because your building/website is covered by several other hotels that the shopper will “click on, or walk-in to”. With this said, your hotel will never get selected.
This shows the importance of SEO or Search Engine Optimization to ensure people can find you easily. Now, lets say that your hotel is easy to find and are on page 1. Your appeal starts off well and needs to end well by having an up to date, fresh website with may pictures, videos, tours, etc. with clear concise content. Having all of these factors secured will provide a solid “web appeal” to the shopper which will then convert the shopper into a reservation.
As we all know, curb appeal is one of the most important factors in any real estate. For hotels, this was the first thing guests would see when arriving at a hotel since we never had websites or multiple photos for potential guests to see. This was their first visual of the hotel and in many cases still is today; however, It is no secret that almost all travelers find their travel needs online. “Curb Appeal” is not “Web Appeal”. All brands have their own SEO strategies for guests to find your hotel; however, many hoteliers that have branded hotels and boutique hotels have vanity websites such as myself.
As I mentioned before, “Curb Appeal” has become “Web Appeal”. Social Media is another huge channel of “Web Appeal” that will influence a shopper’s decision on selecting a hotel. Lets say that a shopper finds your website per the example in the previous slides, and likes what they see. In many cases, this may not be the last stop for the shopper. The shopper may search for you on Social channels such as TripAdvisor, Facebook, Yelp, etc. to see what your online reputation is and what other guests experienced with your hotel. Having a proper management system for your online reputation is crucial as these comments, surveys, blogs, etc. are online for life! In addition to the online reputation factor of Social Media, there is also now the loyalty factor.
When you have a facebook, tripadvisor, yelp, twitter, etc. that you are constantly monitoring and engaging in with your guests, your guests start looking at you as a Family or Friend since they constantly are up to date with your hotel. Once you have accomplished this interaction, the guest will tend to return to your property since they would rather stay with a “Friend” rather than a stranger. Keeping up with human behavior and what they look for is key to gaining new guests and creating loyalty. Social Media is the newest, strongest channel that is being under utilized by many hoteliers.
As we all know, we have shifted our use of computers to Mobile devises in many cases. Having access to the web at any given minute, people will search for things right on their phone or tablet including hotels. Personally, I have vanity websites for all of my hotels. With my website tracking system through Google Analytics, I can see just how many people are using computers, phones, and tablets.
In this slide, you will see that visits from Mobile and Tablet devices make up a great amount of my total users – in fact, at one of my hotels, the top devices for my website views came from a mobile device! This tells me that I need to make sure I am visually attractive on a 5” screen just as I am on a 17” monitor of a desktop. Best thing to do is search yourself on your mobile device to see what the guest sees. If you website is not mobile or not a design which works on mobile devises, then you are missing out on a high volume of potential guests. If you are a VBrochure user, you can redirect your website on mobile searches to the VBrochure which is mobile friendly with videos, pictures, virtual tours, and much more. Straight from the VBrochure, the user can click through to make a reservation, call your hotel, or share the page with a friend.
This is where VBrochure is another great tool with their platform supporting full motion video or photo montages with voice. These short 2-3 minute videos outline your entire hotel, from the services, amenities, location, and the design of your hotel. This video saves the urgent consumer time on clicking through different tabs of your website and gives them a true first hand experience. Videos are not online something that we promote online on our websites, TPI’s, brand.com, etc, but we also use them on our sales proposals. The video gives us an edge on our competitors and allows the decision maker to experience the hotel since in many cases they are not local. I would say that the video has not only increased our conversion rate on sales proposal, but it has made the decision time much shorter. This allows my team to keeping moving and capturing new business.
Tell your hotel’s story with VBrochure, and manage all your visual content in VScape, the web-based management tool empowering you to organize and amplify your story.
Why Visuals?People don’t want to read a lot of textAs the old saying goes “Picture is Worth 1000 Words”Darlene - Click for picture to show upPair graphics with short descriptive textLet the photos tell your storyHigh quality, updated photos are crucialIncreased Engagement from photosFacebook is a great example
Ask your:Guests Read reviews – Trip Advisor, Third Party Sites, etcEngage them on social mediaCompetitorsStaffLook aroundLocationStyleamenities
Helps make a more visual impact and connect with target guestsTelling your story on Facebook is easyEasy to leverage all of the great visual featuresCommitted to furthering my properties using Facebook and VBrochureFacebookApps Suite
Three clicks – one, photos and special offers; two, engagement higher; three, more fansPromotionsBoosting
It’s important to be where your guests are at.We cannot control where or how a guest will book, it’s our job to be where they are looking/researching
With VFM Leonardo’s VPowered Mobile and Facebook solutions, you can empower travel shoppers to book directly from your Facebook page or mobile optimized website. The booking widget on each app leads visitors down the booking path and is fully integrated with your chain’s booking engine - providing a seamless experience for the consumer.
Based on today’s content, will you attend future webinars on different topics?1 = For sure2 = Don’t know3 = Not likely