Digital marketing trends in 2019 no hotelier must ignore

"In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy
devoted to patching leaks." -Warren Buffet

The above quote by Warren Buffet perfectly synopsizes the fact that sticking to old and absolute trends
and missing on recent and effective digital marketing trends can sabotage the value of the property.
Continuous adaptation of the latest digital marketing trends is crucial for hotels to stay competitive with
the market as what might have worked previously may not work now.

Trends in digital marketing landscape are constantly evolving and no hotelier can afford to ignore these
digital marketing trends in order to stay in the competition.

1. Artificial intelligence
Evolution in AI has taken a giant leap in the marketing landscape of the hotel industry. Making
the work of customer segmentation, retargeting, push notification, and click tracking million
times easier, AI is something that can't be ignored.
AI uses big data and machine learning to study the behaviour of prospective guests and analyses
their search patterns to strategically publicize your hotel. It utilizes data from social media
platforms and helps hoteliers understand the behaviour patterns of their prospects. AI chatbots,
that also plays a vital role in digital marketing, and will be explained further, interacts directly
with the potential guests and gathers information, thus allowing you to personalize your
services.
Furthermore, AI streamlines the task of audience expansion, audience targeting, and campaign
optimization by preparing a propensity model. Propensity model is a statistical scorecard that
anticipates the behaviour of the prospect base and identifies those most likely to respond.

2. Personalization
When it comes to guest persuasion, hotels that don't aim for targeted personalization falls
behind in earning the trust of the prospects. In the prevailing competition, it is important for
hotels to vitalize personalization in every aspect of customer service. According to research,
Personalized emails deliver 6X higher transaction rates. Where guest relationship management
is regarded, personalization is the most important key factor. It is imperative for hotels to
deliver content that is targeted and personalized as irrelevant content will only hinder the
credibility of the hotel.
Relied on artificial intelligence, when done smartly, personalization is proved to enhance the
response on campaigns and increase the overall engagement rate.

3. Chatbots and messengers

Chatbots are computer programs designed to stimulate conversions by analyzing guest
behaviour. Chatbots uses artificial intelligence to enhance the guest interaction with the hotel
thereby optimizing the overall guest experience.
 It is imperative for hotels to provide on-demand and custom tailored information in a natural
and interactive manner as 79% of customers prefer real-time engagement and don't wish to
hold for a customer support team to respond. Providing instant resolution to guest queries and
connecting to qualified leads with AI, chatbots excel in offering value-added services to potential
guests, thereby saving the time of your employees for more complex tasks. Social media
messengers like Facebook messenger also allows the hotel to stimulate direct bookings through
chatbots.
Research by Business Insider estimates that over 80% of businesses are expected to have
chatbot implementation by the year 2020. Hotels that interact with guests through chatbots not
only levitate their CRM but also allows its staff to focus on more productive tasks.

4. Accelerated mobile pages and Progressive web apps

Almost 60% of web traffic is from mobile devices, so it is crucial for your hotel to possess a
website that is mobile-friendly. If your hotel website is taking ages to load, the bounce rate
would increase and would only drive away the potential guests. Accelerated mobile pages is an
open-source initiative that aims at enhancing the customer experience on mobile devices by
reducing the loading time of the website. AMP pages on average load 30 times faster than non-
AMP pages, so it is essential for hotels to work on AMP pages to increase the conversion rate.
Progressive Web apps offer an app like experience to users on mobile devices. Providing better
website experience and faster loading time, PWA optimizes the search engine visibility of your
website and allows you to rank higher in search engines. PWA enhances the guest experience
with your website and allows potential guests to access your website easily by offering your
guests with a native app like experience.

5. Voice search and personal assistant search optimization

Voice search is redefining how people browse and book hotels. Google reported that 20% of its
mobile queries are activated through voice and overall use of digital assistants and voice search
has risen over 40% in the past year. With people getting more swamped in their daily routines,
voice search has expanded the potential of making user booking experience much easier and
faster, thus allowing hotels to drive more and more direct bookings.
When it comes to making lives easier, 54% of people agreed that digital personal assistants are
ideal for making daily tasks simple and 31% has already made these systems as a part of their
daily lives. By posting engaging an interacting content, a hotel can reach a massive clientele as
your potential guests interact with digital assistants in a conversational manner.

6. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing offers a landscape to target potential guests and build a healthy guest
relationship. With increasing reliance of people on social media, a hotelier must creatively use
social media to influence and engage with the potential guests. In an industry where trust of
clients is hard to acquire, Influencer marketing has proved to be prolific for hotels.
 Influencer marketing creates a sense of security among the guests as 90% of the people rely on
the experience of their peers. Content delivered by social media influencers is considered more
authentic than self-praise advertisements.
According to research, influencer marketing delivers 11x higher ROI than traditional forms of
digital marketing. Showcasing your property through the eyes of an influencer not only earns
the trust of potential guests but also increases direct bookings, and enhances the reputation of
your hotel.

7. Social media stories

With the introduction of ephemeral content on almost every social media platform, the content
marketing strategy has seen a major shift. Ephemeral content refers to content that lasts for a
very short time. Social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook allow their users
to post ephemeral content to promote their brand. Hoteliers, at the same time, must use
ephemeral content to promote their hotel on social media platforms as stories keep the
potential guests hooked to the hotel's social media page. Regularly posting short videos of the
operations of the property and events can create a great impact on the potential guests.