How to Make the Most out of Your Hospitality Marketing

The hospitality industry thrives year after year and when it comes to getting a slice of that financial pie, it’s important to get your business out there for everyone to see. The industry itself can see a diverse range of customers. When it comes to your particular business in question, it’s valuable to consider different ways of hospitality marketing. For instance, this approach has the potential to help you drive new customers through your doors.

With that being said, here are five effective ways to make the most of your hospitality marketing.

1. Make yourself easy to find online

The online world is a hive of activity and it can be hard sometimes to stand out of the crowd and into that spotlight. Many hospitality businesses are looking towards the online world as an opportunity to advertise and produce sales.

Whether your business has products it can sell to customers beyond your local area or you provide a takeaway service, it’s definitely good to pay attention to what you could do when it comes to enhanced searchibality online.

Firstly, Google is a search engine you want to take full advantage of. Most businesses will set themselves up on the ‘Google My Business’ option. This allows you to create a little profile on the side of the search results once someone has inputted your business. It’s also useful for Google Maps and provides useful information for anyone interested in you.

Things like your website, social media handles and contact details are all available to add in as well as any imagery. Finding more avenues for customers to find you online can open up a whole new avenue of income for the business. Try Google Reserve and get booked right on on Google.

Utilize Google and other search engines like Bing. You should update your information as often as possible, ensuring that potential customers can see reviews that promote your company.

2. Target the right audience

It’s essential that you reach the right people when it comes to your marketing. Otherwise, it is money wasted. All hospitality marketing campaigns are beneficial, but ultimately, you want to enable more potential leads to purchase and have healthy customer retention rates.

So when it comes to targeting the right audience, the first thing to think about is your marketing. If it’s a hotel, your primary plans should be focused on the type of guests that would travel to your vicinity. For restaurants and cafes’, the service, food and pricing would determine your audience demographic.

Different audience types will book in various ways too. Some may choose to call, whilst others may find it easier to go through your social media channels and book via the booking link you’ve provided.

If a lot of your booking is made directly through your website, it’s better to focus your budget mainly on website marketing. Ensure your website’s link is distributed everywhere. According to PWC, 25% of millennials find their holiday accommodation through social media platforms.

The more due diligence you gather towards your customers, the better you can target them. The good news is there are plenty of market research organizations that will do the due diligence for you if you got the funds.

For instance, if you are in the hospitality industry, this hotel marketing guide explains what you need when it comes to marketing your hotel effectively.

3. Boost your marketing budget during peak seasons 

There are many peaks seasonally and throughout the year. Summer, school holidays, Halloween, Valentine and a plethora more.

Assess your peak seasons. It is effective to focus some of your marketing budgets on boost during the off-season to test and see how it affects occupancy rates.

You want to take advantage of peak times and slowly build up promotions for slower times of the year. Ultimately, you want a healthy cash flow all year round.

Keep a sharp eye on your budget but more importantly, focus on conversion rates and adjust your strategy accordingly.

The time of day your customers are booking is prominent to scheduling and promoting your marketing campaigns.

There are plenty of paid advertising posts that can be made in advance and scheduled at the right time and day of the week. Platforms like MailChimp and Hootsuite are two examples of automation platforms for marketing campaigns.

4. Get yourself on social media

Social media is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? It’s something you want to take full advantage of when it comes to getting your business out there. Without the internet, it was a lot harder to get notoriety beyond just your local area or perhaps the country you reside in. However, due to social media, businesses that go viral really experience globalization.

Choosing a platform can be overwhelming. It’s worth thinking about the platforms that will benefit your business specifically, as they are all diverse and may benefit your business in different ways.

For example, Instagram is a very visual-based platform. So when it comes to hospitality, there’s plenty of opportunity to show off your premises. People love to experience visuals and adore watching videos even more. Which is why Tiktok has become very popular (very fast) amongst businesses.

It’s unusual in this day and age for a business to neglect social media. It’s an essential part of marketing activities to create viral-worthy content and gain followers on a global scale as a result.

5. Impress your customers so they come back for more

Customers like being treated properly, and a big part of the hospitality industry is customer service. The quality of service and attention to detail is always important to be chosen above anyone else. Make every effort to go above and beyond the call of duty for them.

By taking their expectations and exceeding them, you’re more likely to inspire positive word of mouth. Word of mouth advertising is the best type of marketing as it’s free advertising!

Find creative tactics to impress your customers and create client retention rates. Try a scheduling software that has built-in recurring appointments. Also, look for convenient ways to process reservations, while securing a smooth guest experience, by choosing an online booking system.

Aside from delivering exceptional service, offer incentives and promotions to customers to promote recurring business. Incentives are a great way to encourage those leads in your sales funnel.

Always be on the lookout for unique hospitality marketing opportunities

A competitive analysis is vital in understanding successful tactics implemented by your competitors and incorporate them within your own strategy.