It sounds easy, but hotel marketing is hard. Travelers buy differently: social networks influence their decision and smartphone reservations are increasing. With so much choice, it becomes difficult to get and hold attention, manage your reservations and delight your customers. Developing a marketing strategy will help you.
A man and a woman in a business meeting
A hotel’s marketing strategy is an overall plan of action for how marketing activities will help your property attract guests, sell rooms, and achieve profitable growth. A good marketing strategy is aligned with specific business goals, identifies high value customers, explains why your property is the perfect place for their next vacation, and defines the best channels to reach them.
Your strategy defines the why and how of the actions to be taken. The accompanying marketing plan takes into account the budget and available resources and details when and where to act.
Is it worth it? Yes ; here’s why. It’s easy to get busy — buying an online ad, posting on Instagram, creating a promotion — and not hitting your business goals. Having a hotel marketing strategy can help you align the time and money you spend with a clear goal and reach the right kind of travelers.
Especially if you have a lot to do, taking the time to define your strategy will help you make the right decisions and ultimately grow your business.
How to set hotel marketing objectives?
Illustration of a diagram
Your business growth goals give purpose to your marketing strategy. This often means generating revenue, but sometimes the goal is to retain more customers or improve customer satisfaction.
Can you list your main business goals for the year? If not, let’s take a minute to describe them. Start by thinking about your performance over the past 12 months and the key metrics you use to measure your success. Here are some areas for improvement:
Increase your income by increasing the occupancy rate (at certain times of the year or at the last minute)
Increase your revenue by increasing your average price per day or your revenue per available room (RevPAR)
Reduce operating costs more profitably, increasing your gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR)
An accurate understanding of the desired growth will allow marketers to craft a suitable strategy and implement goals in line with it.
By June, reduce the number of vacant rooms by 15% through a “spot booking” program targeting last-minute leisure travelers who typically book on their mobile phone.
What is a target audience?
A target audience is a group of consumers with similar characteristics that are important to a business because they represent greater potential value than the population as a whole.
For your hotel, the target audience or “good customer” may be a group that expects the experience to be a perfect match for what your hotel has to offer; the possibility of satisfying them and obtaining positive reviews is therefore high. Another possibility is a group whose travel plans closely match your business goals: last-minute trips, longer stays, reduced risk of cancellation, etc.