Discover the best marketing strategies for hotels in 2024. Attract more customers and improve your hotel occupancy with digital marketing.
Hotel marketing is essential to the success of any establishment in the hospitality industry. It is a highly competitive market in which a well-designed digital marketing strategy can help improve occupancy, increase visibility and build customer loyalty.
From web optimization and SEO to the use of social media and email marketing, today’s tools and techniques will allow hotels to reach their target audiences more effectively, providing a personalized and memorable experience to their guests.
Do you need to improve your hotel marketing or are you interested in implementing it? Then this is a must-read!
Introduction to Marketing for Hotels
Hotel marketing refers to the set of strategies and actions designed to promote a hotel, attract guests and maintain its competitiveness in the market. It is essential for the success of any hotel chain, regardless of its size or popularity, as it helps to establish a strong presence, attract customers and increase reservations.
Obviously, with the arrival of digitalization, hotel marketing has evolved into strategies such as:
- Web optimization
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Social networks
- Email Marketing
These tools allow hotels to reach a target audience more effectively, improving online visibility and providing a more personalized experience to customers, which contributes significantly to the success of the hotel business.
Basic Marketing Strategies for Hotels
Hotel marketing is made up of certain basic strategies, among which it is worth highlighting:
Creating an Attractive Website
An attractive and well-designed website is not only a platform to present the hotel, but also a tool to attract and retain potential customers. Think about it: Would you go to a hotel that has a horrible website design? Website design says more about the hotel than the photos themselves, and this can only be surpassed by customer reviews.
First impressions are crucial, and an attractive website design, combined with intuitive navigation and relevant content, can influence guests’ booking decisions. Add to this an easy and transparent booking process, which can improve user experience and increase conversions.
SEO for Hotels
SEO is an integral part of digital marketing for hotels. By working on and optimizing the website with relevant keywords, creating valuable content, and improving the site structure, hotels noticeably improve their visibility in search engines and attract more qualified traffic .
A good SEO strategy can increase the domain authority of the hotel and improve its position in search results, which translates into more reservations. In addition, it is a great idea to create a Google business profile so that people can find out the most relevant information about the site (number, email, address, hours) and read the comments of people who have already visited the place.
Social media is essential for all types of digital marketing strategies, but especially for hotels. Visitors may trust a service more if they see social media with many followers and/or positive reviews.
By sharing relevant and engaging content, such as photos and videos of facilities, special events and promotions, hotels can stay connected with their audience and strengthen their brand.
In addition, social media is a much-needed tool for managing online reputation and responding quickly to customer queries and comments.
Advanced Digital Marketing Strategies for Hotels
For hotels to stand out in a saturated market, advanced digital marketing techniques need to be implemented. These strategies help attract new guests, retain existing customers, and improve online visibility. The most important and vital ones are as follows:
Content Marketing
Without content, it is difficult for a website to go far. Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to attract and retain a defined audience. Some keys to an effective content marketing strategy are as follows:
- Blog: It’s ideal if you can keep an updated blog with articles about local destinations, events, and travel tips, as this can attract potential guests and improve your website’s SEO.
- Guides and Resources: Creating travel guides and downloadable resources can provide value to visitors and establish your hotel as one of the most influential in the industry.
- Visual content: High-quality photos and videos are a must and can be used to showcase your hotel’s facilities, rooms, and local attractions to capture visitors’ attention and drive more bookings.
Advertising campaigns on Google and social media are essential to reach a broader but, above all, specific audience. Here are some best practices:
- Google Ads: You can use Google Ads to appear at the top of search results and attract potential customers when they search for terms related to your location or hotel type. PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns must be continuously segmented and optimized to achieve the best performance.
- Social media advertising: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram (Meta) and X (formerly Twitter) allow you to target specific audiences based on interests, behaviors, and demographics. Engaging ads and special promotions can increase visibility and bookings.
- Remarketing: This practice involves implementing campaigns to re-engage users who have visited the hotel website but have not made a reservation. This can increase conversions and reduce the cost per acquisition.
Email Marketing
As the years go by, email marketing continues to be a powerful tool for maintaining communication with customers and fostering brand loyalty. The most effective strategies are usually:
- Audience segmentation: you can divide your mailing list into specific segments (frequent customers, new subscribers, etc.) and send personalized emails to each group. This increases the relevance and open rate of your emails.
- Offers and promotions: Sending emails with exclusive offers, discounts and promotional packages can incentivize and stimulate reservations to increase occupancy during low seasons.
- Informative newsletters: Another of the best strategies is to keep guests informed about hotel news, such as local events and travel tips, through regular newsletters. This helps keep the hotel in the minds of guests and encourage future bookings.
Examples of Marketing Strategies for a Hotel
In order for a hotel to stand out in this highly competitive market, it is necessary to implement effective strategies. Now, we will share with you examples of successful strategies in the hotel sector:
Loyalty Programs
Some of the most famous and well-known hotels, such as Hilton, have implemented loyalty programs that offer points per stay, which can be redeemed for free nights, room upgrades, and other benefits. These programs help retain customers and encourage repeat bookings.
Content Marketing
The content you create should be engaging, but above all relevant and useful to the user. Examples of this could be travel guides (with the hotel’s main destinations), blogs about local destinations with photos and videos about the facilities. This will attract interested audiences and potential guests.
It is essential to have knowledge and skills in social networks and platforms such as Facebook and Instagram (Meta) and X in order to create good and effective advertising campaigns that are segmented to increase brand visibility. For example, the Accor Hotels company has carried out a successful campaign on its social networks, offering special promotions to achieve a significant increase in its reservations.
SEO and Web Optimization
In the case of SEO and web optimization, the central topic that gives meaning to this article, it is worth highlighting that you have to make sure that the website is optimized for mobile devices, this being crucial to appear in the first search results, given that the new Google updates prioritize this a lot.
In addition, it is essential to highlight the need to use relevant keywords, create quality content and improve site loading speed with documents and files made in more modern formats that are not heavy.
Mailing (Email Marketing)
Email marketing (also known as mailing ) is an old acquaintance that, as we explained before, works very well for this type of client. For example, it is possible to send exclusive offers, recommendations for activities and news about the hotel itself.
Using Influencers
There are quite a few brands and companies that in recent years have hired influencers (people who are well-known on social media and have a large number of followers) to advertise their brands, either through videos in their feed, images or stories.
Collaborating with travel influencers to promote your hotel through their social media channels can reach a wider and more diverse audience. This has been an effective strategy for many hotel chains looking to increase their visibility and attract new market segments.
Tools and Resources for Hotel Marketing
Just like marketing strategies that can be applied in the hotel sector, there are several tools and resources that need to be learned and controlled in order to successfully develop your campaigns. That is why we have asked several of our experts in the Enjoy minder team for their collaboration in order to provide them with a professional and specialized point of view in the area.
Social media management is essential for hotels to reach new audiences and, above all, to remain active in the new digital world that surrounds us, since probably more than 80% (being really generous with the figure) rent and use social media to learn more about the hotel and its facilities. Some of the most recognized and used social media management tools are:
Metricool
Metricool is a versatile tool for social media management and analysis, available in both free and subscription versions. From its platform, users can track their posts, audience, and competitors in detail. In addition to offering automated reports, Metricool supports scheduling posts on various social networks such as Meta, X, Linkedin, Pinterest, Youtube, Tiktok, and Twitch.
It also provides additional features such as an image bank, hashtag suggestion, AI text generator and templates. In addition, it allows connection with advertising accounts on Facebook, TikTok and Google, facilitating comprehensive management of the digital presence.
SemrushSocial
SemrushSocial presents itself as a comprehensive tool for social media competitive analysis , with subscription options and a 7-day free trial. This platform allows users to track their competitors in detail and compare their own company’s performance.
It offers automated reporting and supports scheduling posts on Meta, X and LinkedIn. It also includes a built-in image editor and message management tools, facilitating effective social media presence management with a focus on competitors and analytics.
Hootsuite
It is known for its wide variety of social media management and analysis tools, available on a subscription basis with a 30-day free trial. This platform offers detailed metrics for social account analysis, as well as advanced features such as social listening to monitor brand mentions in real time.
It allows for scheduling posts across a variety of platforms, including Meta, TikTok, X, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Hootsuite also offers advanced tools like a hashtag generator, AI for copy creation, and integrates with Canva templates, making it easy to create and manage visually appealing and effective content. Additionally, it provides tools for ad management, allowing for complete management of a brand’s digital presence.
SocialPilot
This is another robust option for social media management, available on a subscription basis with a 14-day free trial. This platform allows users to schedule content and plan campaigns efficiently. It supports post scheduling on Meta, X, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest, and Tiktok, offering a content library and an AI assistant to analyze trends.
SocialPilot can be integrated with Canva for the creation of visually appealing content and offers hashtag suggestions, making social media management easier and more efficient for businesses and brands.
Email Marketing Software
Email marketing is a vital strategy for all types of campaigns, especially those for hotel marketing. Now, pay attention and take note of the following tools:
- MailtrackPro: Provides accurate metrics on contact health status when loading your lists, automatically discriminating between valid, invalid, inactive, unsubscribed, opted-in, and duplicate emails. It features a responsive editor that will allow you to create layouts for your emails and generates a detailed report on email activity and opens. It also allows you to measure the effectiveness of emails in terms of opens and clicks, helping to optimize email marketing strategies.
- Mailchimp: This software is characterized by having a wide variety of customizable templates with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. Its integrations with platforms, such as Shopify and WordPress, allow data to be synchronized between Mailchimp and these platforms. It provides detailed reports on email opens, clicks, and conversions.
- Constant Contact: Allows for easy import and management of contact lists. Provides detailed campaign reporting. Offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface. Has excellent customer service and offers the ability to import, manage, and segment contact lists easily and efficiently.
Digital Advertising Platforms
It is no surprise that growing competition between hotels and online travel agencies is driving a profound review of hotel digital strategies.
According to Google’s latest report for Latin America, 51% of travelers continue to research after booking and 28% have not yet started planning their next trip. This highlights the importance of being present at every stage of travel planning, which can extend up to a month. This is because 48% of travelers book accommodation and activities between 2 and 7 days before departure. In addition, after-sales service is crucial, as 1 in 10 people cancel and rebook their trip.
Despite these challenges for the hotel community, direct bookings have remained steady, highlighting travelers’ growing preference for personalized offers and direct connections with hotels. The integration of artificial intelligence into digital marketing strategies has proven crucial, increasing hotels’ direct revenues through platforms such as Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+, which have significantly optimized the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
This adaptation not only benefits large chains, but also enables independent hotels to compete more effectively in today’s digital market. Now, once this context has been explained, I will share with you the most frequented platforms in digital advertising:
Google Ads
This platform is essential for hotels that want to attract direct traffic through online advertising campaigns. Google Ads allows hotels to appear in relevant search results for terms such as “hotels in [city],” “accommodation in [destination],” and more.
With advanced tools like Performance Max, Google will allow you to maximize ad visibility across different networks and formats, optimized by artificial intelligence models. Not only will this help you increase and drive direct bookings, but it also improves the return on advertising investment by driving high-intent traffic to hotel websites.
Meta (formerly Facebook Ads)
With its Advantage+ platform, Meta has become a key player in digital advertising for hotels, but why? Basically, it allows advertisers to create highly targeted campaigns based on user demographics, interests, and behaviors. This is crucial for reaching specific audiences who are planning trips or looking for accommodation in specific destinations.
In addition to the above, Meta offers advanced analytics tools that allow hotels to measure the performance of their campaigns and adjust strategies to maximize results.
Bing Ads and Yahoo! Ads
These platforms are also important, especially for reaching audiences that use search engines other than Google, even if they are not in massive numbers. Bing Ads, in particular, proves to be especially effective at capturing an audience that prefers this search engine and may not be as saturated as Google Ads.
AI integration in campaigns
Beyond the specific platforms I mentioned, the integration of artificial intelligence is transforming digital advertising for hotels. By using AI models in campaign management, hotels can optimize their advertising budgets and improve the effectiveness of their strategies.
This, therefore, includes the automation of processes such as bid optimization, audience segmentation and personalization of ad content, all of which contribute to increasing direct bookings and improving the user experience.
Common mistakes in hotel marketing and how to avoid them
Digital marketing strategies focused on the hotel sector are not always a complete success, as mistakes can often be made. Some of the most common mistakes are the following:
Lack of personalization
It is very common to find examples of hotels that do not personalize or innovate much in the offers and communications they provide to their guests. The lack of creativity consequently makes customers feel neglected, which is the perfect recipe for not returning.
Now, how can you avoid this? The main thing is that you can collect data on guest preferences and build a database so that you can personalize your offers.
Do not respond to reviews
Reviews and comments are probably the top 3 things that users check to confirm the reliability of the services and/or products they want to purchase. In the case of a hotel, this is not a minor detail at all, since coming across a negative comment is not something encouraging. If a hotel allows these comments to accumulate and gather dust on its business profiles or social networks, they are the breeding ground for disaster.
To achieve this, the hotel marketing strategy must focus on providing valuable information to users and demonstrating that customer opinions matter and are taken into account. All (yes, all) reviews must be responded to in a professional, friendly and timely manner.
Inconsistent Marketing Strategy
A common occurrence in the digital marketing world is constantly changing strategies due to a lack of immediate results. This usually causes confusion among customers and, consequently, wastes resources and budget.
To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to establish a clear and, above all, coherent strategy from the start, which is based and supported by data and metrics. It is necessary to constantly review and adjust the strategy to ensure that it is effective.
Neglecting Digital Marketing
In these digital times, where certainly 70% or 80% of conversions are online, it is necessary not to neglect the presence of companies in digital environments, such as social networks, the website or Google business profiles.
In fact, there are hotel chains that don’t even make this mistake, because they have virtually no online presence, relying purely and exclusively on the traditional methods of yesteryear. For this reason, today’s hotels must have a well-developed marketing strategy that includes social media, content and SEO.
Underestimating the Importance of an Optimized Website
Many hotels have outdated and unmaintained websites. This means that they are slow and difficult to understand or navigate, which drives away potential customers. That is why, if you are the SEO manager for a hotel website, you must optimize it for all devices (particularly mobile devices), so that everything loads correctly and offers a much more pleasant and intuitive user experience.
Marketing Strategies for Small Hotels
Although hotel marketing is known as a rather global concept, it is important to note that it can vary depending on whether the hotel chain is smaller or if the budget is not high enough. Some of the most commonly used strategies are:
Focus on personalized service
It is quite clear that a small hotel chain cannot compete in terms of infrastructure with a renowned hotel, so in many cases what remains is to focus the service on user personalization. But… What does this mean?
By offering unique experiences tailored to each guest’s individual preferences, you can create an emotional connection that fosters loyalty and positive word of mouth.
To achieve this, I recommend that you collect information about your guests’ preferences during the booking process and use that database to surprise them with personalized details during their stay. This can include anything from a personalized welcome note to additional services tailored to their interests.
Local collaborations
Another great way to get customers that can be applied to small hotels is local collaborations. These can include agreements with restaurants, shops, tour guides and other local services to offer special packages and promotions. Additionally, working with influencers (as we explained earlier) and local bloggers can increase the visibility of the hotel among potential guests in the region.
Do you need to develop a digital marketing campaign for hotels and have no idea how to do it? At EM we are at your service!
In short, hotel marketing encompasses a variety of strategies ranging from creating an attractive and optimized website to the advanced use of SEO, social media, and email marketing campaigns. Implementing these techniques can significantly improve a hotel’s online visibility, attract more bookings, and build customer loyalty.
It is vital for hotels, large and small, to stay up to date with digital marketing trends and adapt to the changing needs of travelers and guests.
Are you interested in improving your hotel’s marketing, but have no idea how to do it? At Enjoy Minder we will provide you with all the necessary tools to reach your audience and provide you with a quality service that lives up to your expectations. This is possible thanks to the great team of professionals in the areas of SEO, SEM, PPC and other areas of the company.
What are you waiting for to start working together and grow by leaps and bounds? Contact us!
