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(Ad) As we enter the third year of the pandemic, people are itching to get out of their homes to travel the world again.
However, many travelers are concerned about their safety when traveling, weighed down by all of the COVID-19 protocols, and uninformed about the safety protocols many hotels and resorts put in place.
There are many more concerns that travelers face that are preventing them from traveling, but you can use these concerns to your advantage in your hotel marketing plan.
Having safety standards to follow allows you to incorporate customer education into your hospitality marketing plan to overcome customers’ objections. Your insider knowledge of these protocols can smash your customer’s objections, alleviate their fears, and encourage them to take the step to start traveling again.
Your messaging, language, and tone in your hotel marketing plan will lure travelers into wanting to book a stay with you.
This article will outline the digital marketing trends in the hospitality industry in 2022 during and post-COVID-19. Some of these strategies are used by the best hotel marketing campaigns. Grab a pen and notebook to take notes on the best hospitality marketing trends you can start implementing today.
Touchless Tech and Customer Expectations
Safety, cleanliness, and COVID precautions are at the top of your customer’s minds. Customers are looking for ways to avoid multiple touchpoints with staff, other guests, and unnecessary objects. Highlighting technology such as self–check-in, keyless entry, and smart room technology squander the fears and objections your customers may have.
Weave in footage of customers using these technologies into your digital marketing trend for hospitality to build know-like– and trust with your audience.
Hotel Sustainability and Cause Marketing
Your customers want to know that they are not harming the environment when visiting your hotel. Encourage customers to participate in practices that keep the hotel and environment sustainable. A great way to incentivize people to participate is by letting them know that your company will donate a small amount of money to organizations working to preserve the environment.
People like to know that they are contributing to work that is a part of a greater cause, and even more so, guests want to stay at hotels with good ideals.
Providing unique experiences and Promoting Niche-Based Travel
With the rise of travelers looking for unique experiences, now is the time for you to shine by highlighting the unique experiences and features your hotel offers. You can double down on creating experiences that speak to an ideal customer persona.
People have become hyper-aware of their health since the pandemic, so this would be a great chance to market their direct desire to want a healthier life. Some ideas you tap into would be providing more nutritious food options for your room service menu, including gluten-free, vegetarian, Non-GMO, and vegan options.
Following the trend of people becoming hyperaware of their health means people are also looking for indulgent opportunities when they travel to help them de-stress. Providing snippets of the luxury, self-care, and relaxation people will experience when staying with you sets you apart from the crowd.
If your hotel has weighted blankets, massage chairs, or even dog beds and dog bowls, you can use this to appeal to multiple customers demographics.
The Future: Metaverse, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality
The internet has been buzzing lately with the genesis of Web 3, the metaverse, and augmented reality. While the metaverse isn’t openly available to the public, now is the time to brainstorm how you can use virtual reality elements in your hotel marketing strategy.
An example of using augmented reality in your hotel marketing plan would be creating a demo video of what it would be like for businesses to host conferences virtually at your hotel. Future guests can sneak peek into seeing how your hotel can fit their business needs for upcoming events.
On the B2C side, users would be able to experience the ambiance of your hotel virtually before stepping foot on site. Imagine having influencers sharing their augmented reality with their followers! This strategy would more than double your organic reach.
The Power of Local Marketing
In the age of digital marketing, local marketing can be something that is often overlooked, but it is still mighty.
Take the remaining downtime we have left during the pandemic to partner with a local business. The best hotel marketing campaigns include ways in which cross-promotion can happen with other companies. These businesses can help you convert foot traffic, but they can also share your business on their social media accounts.
Don’t be afraid to sit down with local business owners to figure out how you can collaborate on your digital marketing efforts to pull local traffic and online traffic.
Another aspect of local marketing that cannot be overlooked is optimizing your local business listings on search engines like Google. By optimizing your property or your portfolio of properties on Google My Business, you can rest assured that potential hotel guests can find you when searching in places like Google Maps.
Utilize Video content on Emerging Social Media Platforms
Video marketing is the dominant marketing trend in 2022.
TikTok and Instagram are the go-to social media platforms currently holding viewers’ attention the longest. TikTok has a whopping 1 billion users coming close to Instagram’s 1.3 billion users.
The dominant forms of video content on TikTok and Instagram are 30-60 short-form videos. You may have seen this pop up on Instagram as reels.
Use this an opportunity to create short videos showcasing your hotel’s food, decor, available experiences, and rooms. Creating memorable experiences for guests will also encourage them to showcase their satisfaction in real-time through user-generated content.
Invest in Guest Centered Web Design
With all of your work to get your customers to your website to book a stay with you, you want to make sure your website user experience is seamless!
Guests should get a glimpse of what they can expect when they stay with you through your website. A well-designed website makes it easy for your user to navigate (no unnecessary steps/clicks to book with you), contains crisp copy, and encapsulates your tone and voice found on your other digital channels.
To give your customers an even more engaging experience when they visit your website, place a popup chatbox where they can get answers to their questions quickly. Be sure that the chatbox responds using the tone and language that represents your brand.
Push onsite bookings (over OTAs)
Online travel agents (OTAs) help your hotel gain visibility, but we want your customers to interact with your brand from the first touchpoint. Focus on driving customers directly to your website, email list, and social media pages.
These touchpoints help you retarget your customers without using a third party and help you understand and learn about your audience more.
Customers will have incentives to book directly through your site when you offer promotions and deals that aren’t offered on the OTA sites. The benefit of having customers in your company’s ecosystem is that you’ll be able to send them customized marketing materials through segmented email lists, personality-filled social media videos, and more.
Whatever you do, always direct your clients to your company site and not the OTAs.
Hyper-Targeted Advertising
Companies will have to stop relying on third parties like Facebook and Google to collect customer demographics and instead tap into utilizing first-party data.
Some examples of first-party data are demographics, customer feedback on surveys, engagement on emails and social posts, purchase history, interests, hobbies, and more. You can collect this information by tracking the IP activity of your customers, collecting their contact information such as email addresses, sending out polls and surveys, and keeping tabs on the content that resonates the most with your audience on your socials.
With all of this data in hand, you can craft customized ad campaigns for different segments of your audience. For example, a hotel can run an ad campaign for a college-educated, 30-year-old single woman living in New York and a college-educated, 30-year-old single woman living in Hawaii.
These women have the same demographics, but they most likely have different psychographics (interests, hobbies, mindsets/beliefs).
This is an example of where your hotel marketing plan comes in. You can create compelling campaigns that speak to both of these women, getting them to take action.
The key to hyper-targeted advertising is to use the data from your existing audience to create campaigns that resonate with your audience.
Marketing trends that appeal to digital nomads, remote workers, and travelers
COVID-19 introduced remote work to millions of people across the world. Now that we are three years into the pandemic, some companies may choose to keep their workers remote, while others prefer a hybrid model. You can include these factors in your hotel marketing strategy to target people who may want to do staycations.
Campaigns that boast about your Wi-Fi speed and open working spaces can be very appealing to remote workers, digital nomads, and travelers. Try partnering with a well-known digital nomad to create user-generated content and see how this resonates with your audience.
Hospitality Marketing Trends for 2022: Key Takeaways
Creating the best hotel marketing campaigns has many moving parts in 2022 but can be done with the right people on your team or with help from an agency. Here’s a recap of some ways you can execute an effective marketing plan:
- Focus on hyper-targeted advertising by utilizing first-party data to create targeted campaigns based on specific buyer personas
- Highlight the unique experiences customers can have by using short-form videos in the form of Instagram reels or Tiktok videos
- Ensure your website is user-friendly, which allows your customers to move through the sales funnel easily
- Address people’s concerns and fears around COVID, hygiene, and safety by showcasing touchless technology and updated cleaning standards in action
Using these marketing tips will have many customers booking with you now and in the future.
If you need help developing a successful hotel marketing campaign or need help with other marketing services, contact our team to get started.
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