As I pondered the ideal opening for this blog post on hotel marketing strategies, several ideas crossed my mind. I considered a clever nod to The Eagles’ iconic 1976 hit “Hotel California.” I contemplated a lighthearted reference to avoiding Room 217, a playful allusion to Stephen King’s chilling 1977 masterpiece The Shining (though certainly not the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation, which, while entertaining, pales in comparison to King’s literary triumph). I even entertained the notion of discussing the challenges of managing a remote motel under the watchful eye of an overbearing mother.
Fortunately for you, I opted for a more direct approach. This post will present five digital marketing strategies tailored for hoteliers navigating today’s fiercely competitive market. We’ll delve into tactics for PPC, paid social media, and broader techniques to help hospitality professionals stand out – without resorting to tired bellhop jokes.
Hotel Marketing Strategy #1. Leverage AdWords’ Hotel Ads
This might seem incredibly obvious, but it’s paramount for those in the hospitality industry. AdWords’ Hotel Ads is the go-to ad format for hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts, and essentially any type of lodging business. These ads position your establishment within a dedicated SERP section alongside similar businesses, offering exceptional visibility and prominence to reach potential guests.
As you can see, hotel ads provide users with a wealth of information at a glance, including star ratings, review summaries, average nightly rates, and enticing hotel images. This empowers potential guests to quickly compare and filter lodging options, simplifying their decision-making process (more on this later). Needless to say, utilizing hotel ads is non-negotiable for hospitality businesses. If you haven’t already incorporated this ad format into your promotional strategy, the time is now. Seriously, don’t delay.
Hotel Marketing Strategy #2: Uncover Your Ideal Customer’s True Desires
Just like any business, hotels have their perfect clientele. Yet, while every business envisions an ideal customer, the reality is a diverse customer base. This makes pinpointing your ideal customer’s true wants and needs absolutely crucial. Many hotels primarily emphasize amenities in an attempt to cast a wide net and attract a broad spectrum of guests. On the surface, this seems logical – most people seek a certain level of comfort while traveling, regardless of their reason for being there. However, counterintuitive as it may seem, focusing on a specific subset of customers and their unique desires could prove more effective.
For instance, if business travelers make up a significant portion of your most valued guests, it’s wise to tailor your messaging accordingly. Advertise the amenities that resonate most with this demographic, such as on-site dry cleaning, complimentary transportation services, or well-equipped conference facilities. Conversely, if you manage a quaint bed and breakfast catering to honeymooners and autumn leaf enthusiasts, consider emphasizing the breathtaking countryside views, the tranquility of your location, or the historical charm of your establishment. Of course, this doesn’t mean business travelers wouldn’t appreciate a peaceful countryside retreat, or that honeymooners wouldn’t be enticed by the luxurious amenities of a city hotel. However, by attempting to cater to everyone, your marketing message risks becoming diluted and losing its impact. Identify your ideal customers, understand their specific needs, and make those needs the central focus of your marketing campaigns.
Hotel Marketing Strategy #3: Infuse Your Ads with Aspirational Language
Regardless of their destination or travel purpose, most individuals associate travel with a sense of aspiration. Often, disappointment stems from the disconnect between imagined travel experiences and the sometimes-harsh reality. If you’ve ever been lured by captivating images of a destination only to arrive at a rundown, roach-infested hotel, you understand the sentiment. Tapping into this aspirational quality of travel is one of the most potent tools in a marketer’s arsenal. If you can successfully paint a picture for potential guests – one that aligns with their travel aspirations – and deliver on that promise, you’re well on your way to cultivating happy, loyal customers. When crafting ad copy, step into your customer’s shoes. What are their objectives? How do they envision their trip and themselves on that trip? Once you adopt your customer’s perspective, composing compelling ad copy that resonates with their desires becomes significantly easier. Consider this advertisement for Princess Cruises as a prime example:
While not specifically a hotel ad, it masterfully demonstrates the power of appealing to desires through carefully chosen words. Recognizing that married couples with children constitute a significant portion of their target market, Princess Cruises skillfully employs the promise of “alone time” as a motivator in their copy. Not only does leveraging aspirational language create a strong selling point for potential guests, but it also provides a significant competitive advantage. Conduct a hotel search and analyze the types of ads that dominate the results:
You’ll likely notice that price is the dominant selling point in most of these ads. While securing a good deal is undoubtedly important for many travelers, these ads lack any mention of the overall experience guests can anticipate. This holds true for the vast majority of hotel advertisements – try it yourself and see. By shifting the focus to the quality of the experience and aligning it with customer desires and expectations, you can create powerfully differentiated ads that are guaranteed to stand out from the crowd.
A Word of Caution: Avoid Clichés and Empty Promises
While aspirational and evocative language can significantly enhance the allure of your ads, it’s crucial to avoid overused clichés. Clichés not only diminish the impact of your copy but also risk setting unrealistic expectations for potential guests. Similarly, making empty promises in your copy is a surefire way to erode trust. Take this ad, for instance:
Not only does this ad fail to utilize any extensions or unique features offered by AdWords, but the copy itself is weak and lacks any truly compelling information. It raises more questions than it answers. Where exactly is this couple’s retreat located? How, specifically, will staying at this retreat “rejuvenate my relationship,” and what makes it “fun and exciting”? While the advertiser has the right idea, and space is limited, the execution falls short. Invest time in crafting your ad copy. Make it engaging and exciting, but choose your words meticulously.
Hotel Marketing Strategy #4: Engage Actively with Guests on Social Media
This might seem like a given, yet a surprising number of brands – particularly in the hospitality sector – neglect to actively engage with their customers on social media. People, regardless of their travel purpose or accommodation choice, want to feel valued as customers. No one enjoys feeling like just another number. Taking the time to engage with individuals on social media not only humanizes your brand but also portrays your business as responsive and approachable – qualities highly sought after in the hospitality industry. Be proactive and focus on the positive aspects of your guests’ experiences and trips. By tapping into their enthusiasm and demonstrating genuine care, you’ll quickly cultivate a stellar reputation that money simply can’t buy.
Highlighting local happenings, seasonal festivities, and other events in and around your establishment is an excellent way to engage with your audience on social media. Even if someone isn’t actively seeking accommodation at that moment, such posts create a positive brand impression and offer valuable exposure for your business.
Hotel Marketing Strategy #5: Invest in Social Media Advertising
While you’re likely aware of the importance of marketing your hotel or guesthouse through PPC, paid social media advertising presents a significant opportunity to reach potential guests when they’re most receptive to marketing messages – while browsing platforms like Twitter or Facebook. One of the most compelling advantages of paid social media advertising is its relative affordability (contrary to common misconceptions) and its unparalleled targeting capabilities. This means you can reach highly specific audiences with remarkable precision, maximizing your return on investment without breaking the bank. Many hotels find Facebook to be the most effective social media advertising platform due to its larger, more visually appealing ad formats and diverse interaction options for users. Let’s examine an example of a hotel ad on Facebook:
This ad effectively incorporates several key elements. First, it utilizes a captivating image that resonates strongly with its intended audience. Given that weddings are a significant source of revenue for many inns and guesthouses throughout New England, it’s strategic for this establishment to center one of its ads around this theme. Second, the copy employs inspirational language to enhance the visual experience created by the image. While the image already showcases the venue’s beauty, the copy reinforces this and entices viewers with additional details, subtly encouraging them to click through for more information. Third, the call to action is carefully chosen to appeal to couples in the midst of planning their weddings. A more aggressive CTA like “Book Now” would likely be ineffective at this stage, as very few couples would commit after seeing just one ad. “Learn More” aligns perfectly with the mindset of couples researching potential venues, making it a much more effective CTA at this point in the buyer journey. Finally, while undeniably an ad, it avoids being intrusive or overwhelming, seamlessly blending into the user’s feed. Regardless of your chosen social media advertising approach, remember to consider how your target audience uses each platform and their potential stage in the buyer journey when encountering your paid content. The Hilton Hotels group’s Twitter feed exemplifies how Twitter can be used effectively to build brand awareness and leverage inspirational imagery. If you’re unsure about marketing your hotel on social media, it’s an excellent resource to explore.
Hotel Marketing Strategy #6: Implement Remarketing
While this might seem like a recurring theme in our advice to businesses across various industries, it’s because the number of advertisers neglecting remarketing is astounding. Think about it – you invest significant time, money, and effort marketing to potential customers. Without remarketing, you’re essentially giving up after a single attempt. Remarketing is crucial for lifestyle- and service-oriented businesses, and hotels are no exception. The hospitality industry is not only highly competitive, but also heavily reliant on strong brand awareness – an area where remarketing excels. For those unfamiliar with remarketing, it’s a marketing technique that allows you to target website visitors and track them using cookies, enabling you to display your ads to them multiple times even after they’ve left your site. If you’ve ever noticed ads seemingly following you across the web after visiting a particular website, you’ve likely been targeted by a remarketing campaign. While remarketing can, and often does, lead to conversions, it’s generally a longer-term strategy. Many companies utilize remarketing to bolster brand awareness, but that doesn’t mean it can’t serve as a valuable extension of your existing marketing funnel.
Regardless of your approach, ignoring remarketing is a mistake. The more familiar potential guests are with your brand, the better – especially when they’re finally ready to book that long-awaited vacation they’ve been dreaming of.
Hotel Marketing Strategy #7: Explore Bing Ads
Microsoft has made significant strides with its Bing Ads platform, making it a highly suitable option for hoteliers and other hospitality businesses. Advertising on Bing Ads isn’t just about acknowledging Microsoft’s efforts to establish a formidable competitor to Google AdWords. Bing Ads boasts a vast market of consumers who rely solely on Bing, not Google, for their travel-related searches. In fact, according to data from Bing Ads and ComScore highlighted in our interview with Bing Ads’ John Gagnon last year, an estimated 17 million people exclusively use Bing to seek travel information and products!
This means that neglecting Bing Ads translates to missing out on a massive pool of potential guests actively seeking accommodation. If you haven’t already, strongly consider incorporating Bing Ads into your hotel marketing strategy. What other valuable insights do you have for fellow hotel marketers? Feel free to share your expertise in the comments below!
Fun fact: Before establishing nexus-security, Larry served as the caretaker at a certain hotel…