The travel and tourism industry has hit a low in 2020 but will hopefully revive soon with the normalcy knocking our doors again. And to make your hotel big and gain new customers, digital marketing for hotels is the only technique one would require in this internet driven world. To answer your ‘IFs’ and ‘BUTs’, we would like to tell you about the importance of digital marketing.
Digital marketing in present times is one of the fastest developing industries in the world, the reason being expanding penetration of the internet. The marketing technique has evolved drastically in recent years to establish itself as a solid professional field in today’s world. The digitization has essentially made this internet era one that will only prosper in the years to come. Internet marketing as one of the most required strategies has helped enterprises build themselves from scratch to big. When implemented and taken care of properly, the marketing tool brings you profits like no other.
A vast majority of customers check a hotel’s website and other digital platforms before booking a reservation. If you do not maintain an online reputation, you might potentially lose a lot of customers. Now that you are convinced about the importance of internet marketing, we bring to you the various important techniques that come under digital marketing for hotels.
Make an attractive and responsive website
A website is necessarily your first step in the vast landscape of online marketing. Digital marketing for hotels consists of web designing and development. These help you in building a website to provide any information that customers need before making a hotel reservation. A website is the first impression you make on your online guests. Your primary goal should be to develop a fascinating website to arouse the customers’ interest and make them stay engaged browsing through the content available. Use attractive designs, layout, and color schemes to structure your site. Add information about your hotel, its experienced staff, and other highlights
A good hotel website should definitely include images of your rooms, suites, dining area, and other ambiances such as pool and garden. As they say, images speak louder and words. They can effectively assist in converting customers that might not feel interested in looking at the written content. Videos can add on to the positive experience people landing on your website gain. Add a detailed brochure consisting of the reservation charges for different rooms and suites along with the discounts and promotional offers available. Moreover, do provide information about your location with easy to understand landmarks, contact details, and customer care services. Specifically, mention the column where people can place an online booking for a room. This is done so that they don’t have to hunt for the most important section.
Optimize your website using SEO
Building a website and leaving it on its own to gather you leads does not work in the competitive markets. Consistent efforts to put the site in front of people’s eyes is as important as making the website in the first place. Search Engine Optimization is one of the crucial techniques of digital marketing for hotels that ensures your website remains in the popular public domain. The strategy helps you place your website amongst the top listed search results on the web when people search for hotels online. This is done in accordance with people’s behavior that they only browse through the websites attaining the top spots. If you are not one of them, people will not come to your website and make reservations. The process involves updating the website’s content, links, code, and overall presentation to make search engines believe that you have the answers to people’s queries.
SEO efforts for hotels essentially include local SEO strategies by putting the name of your city multiple times in the site’s content to target people in your location. This means if rightfully done, your website will show up when looking for hotels in your particular location. These can consist of search terms like “hotels in Manhattan” or “hotels near me”.
Stay active on social media
Most of the hotel chains and resorts have over the years invested efforts into making themselves big on social media. They have worked over increasing their followers and upscaling their brand name. Therefore, social media marketing can be a part of digital marketing for hotels for big brand hotel chains. These platforms can be beneficial for posting images of the ambiance and guest satisfaction. But as hotels and resorts play a temporary role in their guests’ lives, individual hotels might not prove successful in a social media marketing campaign.
Content marketing for digital marketing for hotels
Content marketing is one of the most used techniques of digital marketing for hotels. The practice of including well-informed and quality control on your website helps a lot in improving your SEO rankings. Hotel websites can include travel blogs of the relevant locations they are situated in. This might not be the best of your expertise but your working staff does know a lot about the local specialties of a particular tourist spot that many travel advisors on the web might miss out on. Hence, use this information and some content writing skills to curate tourist guides, articles, and blog posts. This leaves an impressive mark on those coming to your website and boosts user engagement beneficial for your marketing strategy.
Furthermore, other content to consider adding to your website is reviews and customer testimonials. Add a review section on your website for guests to rate your hotel services in the form of start ratings or statements. The more the reviews, the more validation your prospective customers get and build trust upon you.
