What matters most in digital hotel marketing?
Successful online marketing for hotels requires sufficient (guest) data. This includes demographic information as well as booking and user behavior on the Internet. Based on this data, (potential) guests can be targeted in online marketing. This allows the hotel to build a relationship with the guest and be there when they decide to book their next vacation.3 Best Practices for Collecting Guest Data
- Advertising
Promoting your hotel on social networks and search engines attracts (potential) guests who can be used for further marketing efforts. For example, users who have clicked on an ad and visited the landing page, showing interest, will continue to receive relevant marketing messages. - Social media posts
Reactions to shared social media posts, such as likes, comments, and clicks, also serve as the basis for further marketing efforts. - Newsletter Subscriptions
Subscriptions to the hotel's own newsletter are the most valuable in terms of data quality for the hotel. It is not only user behavior on the Internet that is collected, but also the personal email addresses of (potential) guests (lead generation). This allows the hotel to address them directly and personally in the future, significantly increasing the likelihood of a booking.
Generating more leads on the hotel's own website
There is another way to collect high quality data in addition to the three methods described and already used by most hotels. This is to proactively ask visitors to the hotel's own website and landing pages to provide their email address (onpage lead generation).HOW DOES ONPAGE LEAD GENERATION WORK?
The hotel implements a so-called pop-up, which is a small window that opens on the website. The pop-up can be customized with different messages and graphics. The position on the website is also variable.The important thing is that the visitor is asked to enter his email address in a simple form. In return, the benefit for the visitor must be clear. For example, they may receive interesting content or an incentive voucher for their next booking. The latter in particular is a strong incentive not only to register but also to make a booking.
A trigger is needed for the pop-up to appear. For example, if the visitor
- spent a certain amount of time on the site
- has seen a certain percentage of the page (scroll depth)
- is redirected to the page by a specific link, or
- is about to leave the page (exit intent).
With this feature in ADDITIVE+ MARKETING AUTOMATION, ADDITIVE supports hotels in filling the guest database with high quality contacts in an automated, continuous and effortless way. This improves digital hotel marketing and leads to more reservations.
How do hotels use the new data?
In the best case, hotels create a series of welcome emails that are automatically sent when a visitor registers via the pop-up. In this way, the hotel is immediately in contact with the (potential) guest, picking up on the interest he or she has just expressed in the hotel, and is very likely to generate an inquiry or reservation.In addition to this direct way of acquiring a new guest, the new contact is suitable for further marketing activities. For example, he or she can be added to the hotel's newsletter list and receive relevant information and news about the hotel on an ongoing basis. Advertising can also be targeted to these new contacts. This is particularly effective because the contacts have already expressed their interest in the hotel. In addition, lookalike audiences are created for the advertisements. In this way, the potential guests registered through the pop-ups become multipliers for the advertising efforts, resulting in more reservations at the hotel.
