The growing adoption of digital marketing tools and platforms by the global hotel industry is key to attracting new customers and increasing revenues. As we approach mid-2020, every hotel business is investing in digital marketing tools and techniques to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. Specially during this post pandemic time, you must have a sound online marketing strategy in place.

Let’s look at five marketing trends that hotels can adopt to drive the use of digital technologies in 2020.

1. Invest in digital marketing

We cannot talk about leading digital marketing trends for hotels without first establishing a strong online presence. This implies that your hotel must be both reachable and searchable through online mediums.  And the best way to do that is to use marketing tools such as email and social media marketing.  Send out emails to connect with guests as email marketing is known to be one of the best channels for communication. And it’s effective too, over 50% of users prefer to receive brand-related updates on their email address.  Besides emails, you can grow your hotel marketing through mediums like social networking platforms (to build brand connection and identity), and business SMS to boost customer communication and satisfaction.

2. Focus on local marketing

With the global lockdown on international travel, hotels need to target their marketing on local travelers or tourists in nearby regions.  For instance, you can maximize your local SEO for Google users looking for hotels in your locality because the local SEO can positively impact your hotel.  According to these 2019 SEO statistics, 72% of Google users visit a local place – within 8 kilometres of their location – after searching for them on the web.  Research for common keyword patterns (like “budget hotel in <your hotel location>) that matches your hotel – making it easier for guests to find your hotel. Start using tools like Google My Business that can help you create a free listing of your hotel and connect with local customers.

3. Engage your customers through content marketing

In this age of digital competition, content marketing is an effective way of engaging with new and existing customers.  Content marketing is a critical factor for growing your popularity online through written content, images, business videos, social media posts, or even user-generated content. User-generated content is also a great way of word-of-mouth marketing as it helps 93% of online users to make the right decision. Create travel blogs or articles on the “best places to visit” in your hotel location or the “10 most popular restaurants” at a particular travel destination that can enable consumers to engage with your hotel brand.

4. Automate your hotel marketing

Whether in the form of voice-based searches, artificial intelligence, or CRM, technology is now an integral part of hotel marketing.  According to an Oracle study, 82% of the hotels can now capture guest data at various touch points. This data can be used to derive valuable insights about the overall customer experience. Apart from using guest data, hotels can also use CRM tools for personalized marketing that can engage with each consumer based on their individual needs or interests.  Start using CRM tools such as Instio to leverage technology and provide better business engagement with customers and improve their stay experience.

5. Devise a mobile-first strategy for your hotel

Recent studies show that over 40% of online users book a hotel room on their mobile phones, while another 70% make their last-minute room bookings using their mobile phone. With Google announcing its mobile-first indexing technology, more businesses are investing in optimizing their digital presence on mobile phones.  Similarly, for the hotel industry, consumers are expecting an optimized mobile experience while interacting with hotel brands on their smartphones. Among the leading industry trends, hotels can now market their offerings to mobile phone users using in-app notifications and geo-specific digital ads.

With more players entering the global hospitality industry, existing hotels must plan and implement a digital marketing strategy that can reap good returns in the long run.Digital marketing is no longer just a buzzword, but an efficient marketing tool for hotels to grow their business over the next decade – and beyond.

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