Times are changing, the Internet is slowly sweeping everything into his net, that’s why you need to be prepared and ready to keep up the pace with the market.
Down below are 7 things that you can use in order to get back on the track with your marketing.
1. Website
The most important part of any online strategy is your own website. There are a few questions that you might want to ask yourself in order to see how well is your website doing.
Is my website mobile optimized? – Lately, most people are surfing the internet from their mobile phones. It is a lot more convenient and faster way to get the information you need. That’s why your website needs to be mobile optimized, otherwise, you will lose potential clients and even get penalized by Google for having a non-responsive website.
Do I have guest reviews? – Having guest reviews gives you more credibility. People will more likely go to a hotel that has a lot of testimonials than to one without any.
Are my photos up to date? – Photos are very important for hotels. If you have old pictures, go ahead and change them.
Do I have any videos? – Videos are key in the selling process, a great video about your hotel spread across social media and also on your website is a great conversion tool.
Can my content be updated quickly? – If you are relying on others to update your content, this is not the best idea when we are living in an era where content is king. Updating your website should be a question of minutes.
Is my website language friendly? – You’ll probably have clients from all over the world, and I’m sure that you don’t want them to go for the competition only because they are unable to read your website.
2. Booking engine
Is it easy to use? Not all your clients will have the knowledge of a manager (only if managers are your only target), that’s why you have to make sure your booking engine is as easy to use as possible.
Create separate booking engines for unique offers – Having your booking engine in more pages with a few of your greatest promotions is a good way to drive more revenue.
3. Connectivity
Connect to Google/Tripadvisor /Trivago and other meta search agencies. You need to be available everywhere, even if your main focus is only on a few channels.
Your booking success depends on how much and well is your provider keeping up with the latest trends. Separating the channel manager from the booking engine will allow you to move more freely between providers.
4. Advertising/SEO
Is your hotel already investing in Adwords but it is not connected to Google HPA? If that’s so, then you should consider doing it. This is a great way to become more visible and get more revenue.
Before deciding where are they going to book, most people check for multiple choices. That’s why retargeting ads could be a wise investment.
Make sure your website is optimized for SEO. For starters, you need to have high-ranked keywords, meta title/description,headings, quality content, sitemap.
5. Online reputation
Your reputation is key, not only from a point of monitoring but also to incentivise direct reservations. Make sure your business has a well-structured brand with core values, after you have built the brand and defined your values, give all you have to stick to them.
Communicate with your customers and ask them to leave feedback on your website,social media and so on.
6. Social Media
Be transparent, if you have something to hide then you might as well leave social media. Being authentic is something people will appreciate.
Create great content and offer valuable information. You can write about local restaurants, local events, best locations for summer/winter, how to make sure you’re having the most out of your vacation, and so on.
Having a Youtube channel is also a great thing to do. Almost half of the searches are for videos and it’s easier to convince your potential clients with a video than to do it with images.
7. Other
Social WI-FI – By getting your guests to connect to your FREE WI-FI through their social media accounts should be a no brainer for hotels. No only do they get more followers, you also get their email address, that can be added to your marketing database.
I think we can agree that there are more ways of improving your online marketing presence, but only by doing all the above is a great way to start.