When travelers are searching for a place to stay, does your hotel show up in Google Searches? Is your hotel one of the first listed on Google, Trip Advisor, or other hotel booking websites? Is your hotel on social media?
Many independent motels/hotels don’t have the resources or the time to dedicate to a high level of brand development or marketing plan but here are some helpful tips to help get your hotel on top.
Marketing Strategies for Hotels
Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, etc., is important for hotels to continue to build and maintain their brands. Focusing on your website, optimizing your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and interacting on social media are key to successful internet marketing. This is all still based on traditional marketing. Businesses need to implement a marketing strategy and 12-month marketing calendar to be organized and successful.
As we know with any good marketing, consistency and frequency is key. Building a website and adding content consistently will help with your hotels Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which ensures that your hotel website will rank higher on search engines. Like Google, the goal is to improve the likelihood of your hotel to show up when someone searches phrases such as “hotels in [your city].” Social media is a great marketing tool to get your hotel noticed by a bigger audience. Having a Facebook and Instagram allows travelers to check-in at your hotel on their status updates, driving more traffic to your pages. Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, allow hotels to give instant updates with pictures and videos showcasing your location, venue, and amenities.
Other traditional marketing tools include press releases, newsletters, and ads which also help to strengthen brand awareness. Press release are great for when there is something new to introduce at the hotel such as a brand new menu at the restaurant, renovations, or a new attraction opening nearby. Newsletters are useful in keeping your previous travelers up to date on hotel offers and reminding them that they have a place to stay when they are in town.
Marketing Resource
Since a lot of independent hotels lack the resources to be marketed on the same level as bigger hotels, there are platforms willing to help. Innsight (https://www.innsight.com) is a marketplace of places to stay and is a special travel tool that not only helps travelers, but hotels as well. Innsight offers services to independent hotels of all types by enabling inexpensive cloud based technologies to help them market and manage their hotel as well as sell their rooms cheaper.
For travelers, Innsight provides over 328k+ places to stay at a variety of locations, giving them multiple options to compare and choose from. Innsight works hand in hand with their hotel clients to provide the best travel management experience for their travelers. The difference between Innsight and other platforms, like Expedia and Kayak, is that Innsight works directly with hotels to improve their social media presence and build their brand.