HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS
com
Hotel marketing channels help you reach a
wider audience and attract potential guests.
These channels can be online or offline.
This text will focus on online marketing
channels: websites, social media, ads, emails,
and conversational marketing. After all, digital
marketing is a key strategy in any business
since most of the buying decisions are made in
the virtual environment.
To understand the importance of the virtual
environment for the hotel industry, take a look
at these impressive numbers:
●Online hotel bookings are estimated to
exceed $174 million across the globe in 2022;
● 75% of leisure travelers and 65% of
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business travelers use digital resources when
planning their trips. (Source: Google)
●700 million people will make a hotel room
booking online by 2023, making online hotel
bookings 57% of all bookings.
So, yes, digital marketing channels for hotels
matter!
Even though online marketing is not exactly
a new strategy, the best channels and
practices are constantly evolving. What was
good yesterday might not work today, and the
rules of the game keep changing.
There are several ways to promote your hotel,
different strategies, and platforms to convert
more online bookings. And that is great since
travelers are spread across different channels.
HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS asksuite.com

TO HELP YOU
NAVIGATE 1. What digital marketing in
the hospitality industry is

THROUGH 2. Online hotel marketing

channel strategies

HOTEL
2.1 Hotel Website
2.2 Organic Traffic
2.3 Social Media

MARKETING 2.4 Email marketing

2.5 Ads

CHANNELS, WE
2.5.1 Facebook and Instagram Ads
2.5.2 Google Hotel Ads

WILL EXPLAIN: 3. Conversational Marketing: the

new trend you must know about
HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS
1. WHAT DIGITAL MARKETING IN
THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IS
You might have a gorgeous hotel and an
amazing hotel staff, but if no one knows
that you exist, what’s the point? Yes,
word-of-mouth marketing is still very
effective and might be one of the most
trustworthy marketing strategies out
there.
However, your ability to reach a bigger
market is limited if you don’t have another
strategy in place. Especially now, when
choosing a hotel is so easy to do, right?
Not to mention the power of online
reviews. Sometimes, they are more
impactful than what your friend or relative
is saying!
Here is where digital marketing comes in.
Digital marketing is a set of all techniques
and tricks that can be done to attract people
to learn more about your hotel, so you
reach a wider audience and increase brand
awareness.
Since your visibility will improve, chances
are you’ll be able to get more bookings and
boost your revenue. Using digital marketing
influences your audience to prefer your hotel
over your competitors while reaching out to
new potential customers.
Currently, people use digital channels
more than traditional channels to research
their traveling destinations and book a
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hotel. Therefore, it’s important to have a
consistent, active, and impactful image in
the digital world. You have to showcase
the best of your hotel everywhere possible. In this episode of Hotel Cast,
we chat with Sarah Came,
But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that GuestRevu’s Marketing
hotel marketing is only about attracting Manager, about how to get
guests. It’s also about retention, creating the best of your hotel’s online
strong relationships, and loyalty. You reputation. Listen here:
should strive to keep in touch with the
existing guests, interacting with them on
social media or by email.
Now that you understand the importance
of digital hotel marketing, let’s take a look
at the main online marketing channels for
hotels.
HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS
2. ONLINE HOTEL MARKETING
CHANNEL STRATEGIES
As we mentioned before, the modern traveler
likes to find their next travel destination
by searching online. From social media to
Google search, everything plays an important
role in shaping their decision.
But before you decide to invest in any online
channel, there are some fundamentals that
you should keep in mind:
a) Know Your Audience: Match your hotel
with the traveler as well as their channel of
choice. Marketing is all about connection and
you can’t connect if you don’t know who you
are talking to. Since the pandemic started,
your target audience might have changed.
b) Analyze your current requests: what type
of guest is looking for you, where they come
from, and why they are contacting you. All this
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information will help you make a connection
with your audience.
c) People like convenience: Tell your
audience about all the luxury your hotel has
to offer, including facilities and amenities.
Make sure they understand the value of
staying at your hotel, not only the price. Keep
in mind that when we say “convenience”, we
are also referring to “online convenience”.
Booking a room should be easy and hassle-
free. Don’t give your potential guest an
excuse to not book with you.
A popular marketing strategy is storytelling.
By telling a story, the possibility of a
connection with your audience increases
significantly. In this free workshop,
Copywriting Expert Juliana Hahn and I
explain the basics of this successful strategy:
HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS
2.1. HOTEL WEBSITE
Your hotel website must be your best
“salesperson”. It must highlight your best
features and be easy to navigate, especially
when it comes to the booking process.
Your hotel needs to have a mobile-first website
and mobile-friendly interfaces. Many travelers
access hotel websites from their mobile devices.
So you need to be sure that your website
provides an excellent experience regardless of
which device travelers are using.
On top of that, Google has announced its
mobile-first indexation. It means that Google
will be removing all websites that do not have
a mobile-friendly option in their database. So
if you don’t have that yet, your website won’t
appear on Google’s search results, and this is a
big problem!
Often, your website is the first impression you
leave on your potential guests. And you can only
make a good first impression and connect with
your target audience if you know who they are.
Your images, pictures, videos, and every other
piece of content have to be aligned to culminate
in a fantastic user experience.
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Therefore, it is crucial to pay attention to off- pages, everything should create a perfectly
page search engine optimization and local seamless experience for your targeted
SEO. Hotels need to effectively use local SEO audience. This means that the content
so that potential guests can quickly find them should be written in a way that clarifies their
on online maps or by location. understanding and helps them in making
[EBOOK]
quicker decisions.
HOW TO TURN In fact, if you don’t use off-page and local
YOUR HOTEL SEO, you can lose up to 30% of potential
WEBSITE INTO visitors.
A HIGH-CONVERTING If you want to attract those travelers to your
BOOKING MACHINE: hotel, you should start improving the visibility
of your business on these search engines.
THE EXPERT TIPS
Google My Business is one of the main tools
for local promotion and hotel search engine
marketing overall. By using this tool, you
HOTEL
can get targeted traffic to your site for free WEBSITE
and strengthen trust in the brand through COPYWRITING
the publication of news and feedback from A simple guide to
quick improvements
customers, among other benefits.
In this post, Guide To Local and Off-Page
SEO For Your Hotel Website, we explain how
SEO for hotels works and provide a step-by-
2.2 ORGANIC TRAFFIC step strategy of what you need to do to get
Consumer use of metasearch channels, more organic traffic and bookings.
which primarily route bookings to OTA
sites, has also been growing since 2017. One thing that you need to remember is
(Phocuswire) that from your blog posts to your website
HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS
2.3. SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media can be your hotel’s best ally -
or worst enemy! It depends on how you use
it. A lot of travelers use social media as the
main platform to check out hotels when
they travel to a specific country or city.
That means that people don’t start their
booking process by going straight to a
hotel website. They start by exploring their
destination and learning more about the
hotel they are considering on social media
platforms.
Besides being a channel to attract visitors,
social media has become one of the main
channels for customer service.
According to a survey conducted
by Convince and Convert, 54% of
customers prefer customer service
via social media and SMS.
However, most hotels fail to provide
customer service on social media, causing
great frustration for travelers while missing
important revenue opportunities. The
multichannel aspect of customer service
can be a big challenge, especially for hotels
with small sized teams.
Two of the main media used by travelers and
hotels are Facebook and Instagram. Let’s take
a closer look at each and how they can help
your hotel business.
Instagram
Why should your hotel be on Instagram?
● One billion monthly active users
● 83% of Instagram users discover new
products and services on the platform
(Facebook Business)
● 80% of Instagram users say that the
app helps them make buying decisions
(Facebook Business)
In case you haven’t noticed, Instagram has
changed. Once a simple photo-sharing app, it is
now a key business platform full of new features
such as Instagram Guides, IGTV advertising,
Stories, and many others.
With so many tools, you can be very creative
to attract your audience. The important thing
is that your content is genuine and that it
reflects your brand. Being authentic also
means having authentic followers so you can
build a strong customer base.
In other words, there is no point in buying
followers!
You can also attract your target audience
organically or through Ads. Later on in the
text, inside of the section Ads, we will explain
how advertising on Instagram works. For now,
let’s focus on organic posts.
A strategy that many hotels are using is
Influencer Marketing. This strategy can
be very successful if you choose a proper
Influencer to work with - meaning someone
that influences travelers you want to attract.
It’s not about the numbers; it’s about the
quality.
As you can see, Instagram is a great channel
to explore and helps you put your brand
on the radar and the minds of potential
customers. The hotel industry is very visual,
so this platform is perfect to showcase your
hotel, interact and tell stories that appeal to
your audience.
The use of hashtags can also bring visitors to
your profile. Want to learn the best tips on how
to use Instagram to promote your hotel?
Watch this webinar with Global Experts Calvin
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Tilokee, Regitse Rosenvinge-Thürmer, and Paula
Carreirão.
Plus, 40% of people under 30 prioritize the
‘Instagrammable’ potential when choosing their
destinations. Be sure to highlight these spots in
your posts.
Always remember: It’s a social media
platform, which implies interactions between
company and customer. Asksuite can help
you here since we are officially integrated with
Instagram.
With the Asksuite solution, your hotel will be able
to provide quick responses to potential guests
utilizing Instagram Messaging that includes
automated quotes with our AI and booking
engine integration, as well as obtaining leads
from Instagram Messaging Ads.
Facebook
Facebook has over 1.8 billion daily active users,
making it one of the most used social networks
globally. I guess this pretty much explains the
importance of using this platform as an online
marketing channel.
Facebook is an online channel with many
benefits. For instance, it provides more
HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS
opportunities to express your brand’s
message and allows you to give a
personalized experience that is valuable to
hospitality online marketing. So make sure
you post quality content consistently.
If you have a Facebook profile, don’t forget to
mention it on your website and emails.
2.4. EMAIL MARKETING
Even with so many different communication
channels, email still is the major channel
for hotels and should be included in your
marketing strategy to attract guests.
Through email, you can promote offers to
a selected audience, and strengthen your
relationship with frequent guests.
Another advantage of including emails in
your strategy is that you can access a lot of
important data of your potential guests. And
this data is what can help you to strategize
your entire business.
Dealing with your inbox might be a challenge
though. In the hotel world, a new email pops
up every second: a request about some
forgotten item, quotations questions, and
even complaints. Everything goes through
the email.
However, answering emails take time
and productivity of the staff and impacts
significantly the guest experience. Time
response is key for guest satisfaction and to
stand out in the market.
How long is too long? Well, that depends,
but even if the email is not instantaneously
messaging by definition, clients still expect a
quick answer.
A survey by ALICE in 2016 states that hotel
clients would have the right to complain if the
hotel takes more than 26 minutes to answer
an email. Note that this was before messaging
has become popular and we got used to instant
replies.
Answering your emails well and fast may
give you a competitive advantage when
travelers are deciding where to stay.
To help you in this mission, you can easily create
templates that you can use to answer the most
common questions and requests by email. Here
in this post, we share some tips to increase your
productivity:
[How Can You Turn an Endless Email Demand
into Guest Satisfaction?]
You can also rely on tools to help you with
your emails. For instance, Asksuite developed
a “Smart Email” functionality that helps you
answer emails in a matter of seconds! Or
you can work with hotel tech companies like
Revinate Hotel CRM, which is integrated with
Asksuite. Revinate can provide personalized
and automated email communication for
those who are not ready to book directly in
the chat. [Read more about this integration
here]
Last but not least, don’t spam. Provide
relevant emails at relevant time periods and
don’t overdo it by spamming. Otherwise, your
email strategy will backfire on you.
2.5. ADS
Working with Ads might seem very difficult
for non-marketers. Or even a waste of money,
when not done correctly. But the truth is that
Ads can help you achieve amazing results.
Using a well-crafted and carefully targeted ad
campaign in your marketing strategy means
that you can:
● Get more online visitors
● Increase direct traffic
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● Get highly qualified leads to your site
● Increase revenue
The 3 most common platforms hoteliers use to
advertise are Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and
Instagram Ads. One thing you should have in
mind is that Facebook and Instagram are now
jointly owned. In other words: the ads that
run on Facebook will also run on Instagram
providing you a double advantage for single
spend.
2.5.1. FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM ADS
As we mentioned before, your hotel can also take
advantage of Facebook and Instagram Ads.
The good thing about it is that on these
platforms, users won’t get ads on their faces -
something that most of us hate, right?
Instead, they take more of a native advertising
approach. The ads will appear just like posts but
with a small sponsored tag.
These Social Media Ads can be an amazing
tool to attract visitors. You can select a specific
target audience, which increases significantly the
conversion rate. You invest in the right direction
and do not waste money.
HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS
If you want to learn how to use Facebook
Ads for hotels, check out our post:
“Writing Converting Facebook Ad
Campaigns For Hotels”. There you will find
step-by-step and valuable tips to turn
visitors into bookings.
Nevertheless, running a campaign on
Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads won’t
give you the same result. Every audience
is different and ultimately your results are
going to be different.
You always should consider your target
audience, where they are, what kind of
content they prefer to consume when
deciding where to advertise.
The Facebook Ads Manager is where both
Instagram and Facebook Ads are managed.
There you can choose which social media
you want to run your ad. Again, when
choosing one, think about which type of
audience you are trying to reach. Maybe
you need to use both media.
Facebook’s Ads management system for
businesses is pretty simple. This is what you
need to do:
● Create an account - Facebook Page
● Click on the ‘Create Ad’ button
● Define your business’s objectives
● Select a target audience
● Choose the ad budget and duration
● Use ad reports to monitor the progress
How is the consumer experience?
Your targeted customer will be scrolling
down through their feed and will happen to
see your hotel ads on their timeline.
Hotel owners can configure their ad content
to encourage further conversation.
In this Instagram Masterclass together with
Umi Digital, one of London’s leading digital
marketing agencies, we explain in detail
how to set up your Instagram Ads and the
organic and paid strategies.
2.5.2. GOOGLE HOTEL ADS
Google Ads is an opportunity to target
guests at the end of the decision-making
process to convert them to guests. Search
engine advertising makes sure that people
searching for a hotel see your website straight
away.
How does it work?
●Create a Google Ads account based on your
Google Business Account
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●Integrate your hotel system with Google:
You Need to provide live availability and
prices.
●For that, you need to work with a tech
partner (Channel Manager, booking
engine, or PMS), that is connected to
Google Hotel Center
● Create your campaign
● Manage your bids
Experts recommend that you pay only
when travelers select your room rate.
You can set a risk-free commission rate
or manage rates, room types, and
availability you would like to share on
Google.
Recently, Google announced that free
booking links in Google Hotel Ads. Now, a
hotel’s homepage will appear in the Hotel
Ads results, even if they are not bidding.
These free booking links show up just
below the paid ads.
So even if your hotel is not investing
in Google Hotel Ads yet, you can take
advantage of it!
HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS
3. CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING:
THE NEW TREND YOU MUST KNOW
Conversational marketing isn’t new. At least
not its underlying idea. After all, people have
been having conversations since we learned
how to talk.
The new aspect of this type of approach
is that it introduces new technologies to
have these conversations across multiple
channels. By using targeted messaging and
intelligent chatbots to engage with leads in
real-time (while they’re on your website), you
can convert leads faster.
Conversational Marketing is effective
because it builds relationships with customers
through the experience of a conversation,
instead of asking people to go through lead
capture forms and wait for a response. It is
a customer-centric and dialogue-driven
approach to marketing.
One important factor in the success of
conversational marketing is assessing
and understanding what your customers’
preferred channels are and adjusting your
tone of voice accordingly - dialogue with
chatbots and live chat is usually quite
informal and mimics a casual conversation.
At Asksuite we believe that conversational
marketing is the future of customer
experience and that it is the best way to
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engage with your prospective/current guests
and convert more direct bookings through our
chatbot on Facebook, Instagram, website
and WhatsApp.
It allows your messaging channels to work
for you and do more than just sell your brand.
You can directly connect with each customer
and in some cases even make a sale by
providing personalized information and
guiding them around your site.
Did you know that Asksuite won the Hotel
TechAwards for the second time in a row as
Best Website LiveChat and Chatbot? Learn
more: [Best Hotel Chabot 2021]
HOW HOTEL MARKETING CHANNELS CAN HELP YOU WIN ONLINE DIRECT BOOKINGS
DIGITAL MARKETING
FOR HOTELS
Online marketing channels for hotels
are very important to any hotel business’s
success. Therefore, they should be studied
and taken as an important part of your
strategy. There are many channels to explore
and several ways to attract and engage your
target audience, bringing more revenue to
your hotel.
It all comes down to good planning,
which, unfortunately, is a stage much
underestimated by hoteliers, especially
the ones without a marketing background.
Knowing who you want to target and their
preferences seem obvious, yet frequently is
forgotten when creating marketing material.
Once you have these two factors figured
out, you can create effective posts and
campaigns, that will connect with your
audience and push them to click on the
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“book now” button.
Without a good strategy, your marketing
efforts will fall flat.
Finally, have you thought about what will
happen if your marketing strategies work?
If you successfully attract all those online
visitors to your website or social media, get
their attention, and tease them to learn more
about your hotel, are you prepared to assist
them? Answer their questions before actually
booking with you?
Keep in mind that if they are not assisted
properly, your strategy can backfire. They
will get a terrible first impression, and that is
exactly what we didn’t want. Your customer
service must be prepared for your marketing
success. But that I can explain in another
post!
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