101 Online Hotel Marketing Strategies
Here is my next addition to the online hotel promotion series. In my last article I gave you tips to gain more room bookings using Facebook. In this article I will give you 101 online hotel marketing tips that you can incorporate in your marketing plan for increased room bookings and higher ROI.
Hotel Industry is highly competitive. Internet is the new medium you can utilize to reach out your target audience. And if, you are able to use online resources effectively then you will certainly have an edge over your competitors. Following a comprehensive online hotel marketing strategy is an inexpensive way to increase direct online bookings and generate higher revenue. A well laid out hotel marketing strategy can help you with the following:
● More Room Bookings
● Cut Costs
● Generate More Revenue
● Brand Your Hotel
● Get Global Exposure
● Outsmart Your Competition
101 online hotel marketing strategies that guarantee success are as follows.
1. Search engine submissions. Submit your hotel website to different search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing Ask and Dmoz.
2. Use website optimization techniques for effective online hotel marketing.
3. Get comprehensive website analysis done from a professional hotel marketing company.
4. Get in place strong link structure and strategy for your hotel website.
5. You should include a link to your website in your email signatures. Make sure that your hotel staff also includes your hotel website link in their signatures.
6. Also include your hotel website link in your forum signature.
7. Join and participate in niche forums. These may include forums that relate to hotels, hospitality and travel & tourism.
Social Media should be an Integral Part of your Hotel Marketing Strategies
8. Be active in relevant hotel communities.
9. You should convert your hotel blog posts into PDF and submit them to Scribd. Include your hotel website URL in the description.
10. Make sure you add your Scribd documents to relevant hotel groups.
11. You should join and actively participate in different hotel discussion groups.
12. Join as many social networks as many you can.
13. Or, join couple of popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and be really active.
14. Create Facebook profile.
15. Integrate hotel blog on to your Facebook profile.
16. Place a Facebook button on your hotel website.
17. Include a customized booking widget.
18. Give options to subscribe to hotel newsletter.
19. Choose a URL that correlates to your hotel brand.
20. Post regular hotel updates on your wall.
21. Combine your Facebook profile with your other social media profiles.
22. Make effective use of Facebook Friend Finder application to find people you want to connect with.
23. Invite past hotel guests to write reviews on your wall.
24. Offer special discounts and packages on your Facebook page.
25. Purchase Facebook advertisements.
26. Get your hotel a Twitter profile.
27. Post regular Tweets.
28. You must include hash tags (# tagname) in your tweets.
29. You should search for your niche and answer any questions or doubts people may have.
30. Tweets must include links to different pages of your hotel website.
31. Place a Twitter button on your hotel website.
32. Include a Retweet button in your hotel’s blog posts.
33. Promote local events. Guests would love to know about things to do in your city.
34. Publicize special offers and discounts.
35. Post hotel photos and videos.
36. Talk about hotel special events like Christmas Party, etc.
37. Offer exclusive online discounts and packages.
38. Write hotel updates. Customers like being updated about latest happenings at your hotel.
39. Motivate customers to give feedback.
40. Mention your hotel’s achievements or good things about your hotel.
41. Write about hotel expansion.
More online hotel marketing strategies
Online Hotel Videos
42. Create your hotel videos and distribute them online.
43. Consider creating a video sitemap on your hotel website.
44. Add your hotel videos to your website and blogs.
45. Upload your hotel videos on YouTube.
46. Make sure to respond to your hotel videos on YouTube with quality content.
47. Include your Hotel URL at the top of the video descriptions.
48. Devise unique video titles and tags.
49. Make sure your hotel videos are available in multiple formats.
50. Try using keywords and descriptions in your video files and submissions.
51. Upload your videos to different sites multiple times. Target different keywords each time.
52. Popular video sites other than YouTube which you can use to market your hotel website include Metacafe, MySpace, Digg Videos, blip.tv, AOL Video, Google Video, GoFish, Vimeo, Yahoo Video and more.
Use Your Hotel Blog as a Hotel Marketing Tool
53. Start writing your hotel blog, if you have been not writing it yet.
54. You should ensure that the content posted on your hotel blog is fresh.
55. Include latest local travel information of your city in your hotel blog articles.
56. Write articles about latest hotel events and activities.
57. Talk about latest promotions and packages of your hotel in your hotel blog.
58. Get services of professional bloggers. Ask them to write about your hotel.
59. Blogs are great marketing tools. Use them effectively.
60. Your blog titles must be interesting.
61. Make sure your blog titles include hotel industry keywords.
62. Or, try including those keywords which they search to locate your or competitor hotels.
63. Include in your hotel blog RSS/Social bookmarking option.
64. Bookmark your hotel website and hotel blogs on delicio.us and others.
65. You should submit your hotel blog to popular niche blog directories.
66. Keep a regular check on the content of popular hotel websites and their blogs that witness high traffic. Try creating similar content but not the same.
Paid Hotel Marketing
67. Start paid online advertisements using Google Adwords and others.
68. Run PPC Advertising or Pay Per Click ad campaigns for your hotel website.
69. Get your hotel website and hotel products reviewed.
70. Consider buying some ad space.
71. Write and submit regular articles and press release.
72. Use StumbleUpon for online marketing your hotel website and blog.
73. You should exchange links with your competitor hotel websites.
74. Hold regular online contests. Give discounts and packages to winners.
75. Join different affiliate programs and get affiliates to sell your hotel products.
76. Design numerous banners in all possible sizes. This will give your affiliates ample opportunity to market your hotel products.
77. Email your affiliates on a regular basis. Your emails must include latest hotel promotions and discount coupons.
78. Add Polls to your hotel website and hotel blog.
79. Keep an archive of older Polls on a dedicated page on your hotel website.
80. Your hotel should be an regular contributor on Yahoo Answers, Answers.com and others.
81. Create some interactive software that upsells your hotel products, services and packages on your hotel website and blog.
82. Create some interesting application that advertises your hotel on your hotel website. Distribute the application for free through different online channels.
83. You should run an online forum/bulletin board.
84. Offer your guests discounts on their next purchase with the property.
85. Include interviews of your satisfied hotel customers. It serves as a great testimonial.
86. Start submitting articles about your hotel on popular article directories in travel categories.
Newsletter
87. Create good hospitality newsletters for your hotel website.
88. Post your hotel newsletters on different online marketing channels.
89. Offer your hotel newsletter subscribers some discounts and holiday packages.
90. You should include in your newsletter sales and promotion information, latest packages, what is new with your hotel and other travel information.
91. Do remember to include your hotel’s physical address and a navigational map to your hotel from the nearest public transport in your newsletter.
92. Your website should include archives of your hotel newsletter.
93. Assure your hotel newsletter subscribers that you will not spam them, share or sell their email address with third parties.
94. Submit your hotel advertisements on different online classifieds. Put your hotel classifieds on websites from where most of your customers came from.
95. Look for niche classifieds for your hotel. Submit to them. Many of them are free to use.
96. You should submit your product feed to Google Base. You can add descriptions about your hotel, hotel services and products.
97. You should upload your hotel photos to websites such as Flickr, Bubbleshare, Fotolog and others.
98. Tag your hotel photos on Flickr.
99. Participate in hotel conferences and events. This builds credibility and establishes expertise.
The Bottom Line
100. Formulate a well calculated hotel internet marketing strategy. Utilize 101 ways to promote your hotel online to generate more direct room bookings.
101. Be patient. Once you have implemented the hotel internet marketing strategy it takes a while for the traffic to arrive and bookings to confirm.
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