Your Top Questions About Hotel Digital Marketing, Answered
What do you want to know about hotel digital marketing? I recently asked my newsletter subscribers this very question, and let’s just say, there were a lot of responses!
Many of you had similar questions about digital marketing for hotels. (TikTok came up a lot, for example.) As a result, this post covers a lot of ground, so I won’t be offended if you choose to skim!
Here’s what you can expect:
General questions about hotel digital marketing
Questions about your hotel marketing plan
Questions about social media for hotels
Questions about SEO for hotels
Some quick facts and statistics
By the way, I really do love hearing from readers and subscribers!
So please feel free to ask more questions in the comment section at the end of this post, or on any of the tutorial videos I share on YouTube.
Hotel digital marketing strategies: What matters most
Jamie asked…
What is hotel digital marketing?
Basically, hotel digital marketing is how you promote your hotel online.
In 2023 and beyond, a great deal of your advertising and promotional activities take place online, powered by different digital platforms like email, search engines, social media, hotel ads, and so on.
You’ll use these online platforms to drive traffic to your hotel website, and ideally, drive direct bookings as well.
Your digital marketing efforts are also key to getting your name out there — aka building “brand awareness — which, in turn, helps increase bookings and group business via your Sales or Reservations team, be it by phone or email.
Jamie also asked…
Why is digital marketing important in hotels?
An effective hotel digital marketing strategy is the best way to reach potential guests and build a loyal base of repeat customers.
Digital marketing is also important because studies show the majority of hotel bookings begin with a web search.
Research by Cornell University suggests this trend has not gone away.
Again, hotel digital marketing includes really any promotional or brand building activity taking place online. That includes social media, search engine optimization, email marketing, influencer campaigns… it all kind of rolls up under this wider “digital marketing” umbrella.
That’s not to say your offline activities aren’t important, too. But in this day and age, hotels need to think online first.
Chris asked…
Do hotels need digital marketing?
Yes, hotels need digital marketing because it’s the most effective way to drive direct bookings.
Without digital marketing, hotel guests might still find you — but they are more likely to find and book your hotel using a third-party, like through online travel agencies (OTAs).
Don’t get me wrong, OTAs are important hotel distribution channels and should be part of your overall revenue management strategy. But in most cases, your top priority should be getting guests to book direct.
Sammie asked…
What is a hotel booking funnel?
The booking funnel is a way of referring to the different steps taken by a customer, from finding your hotel website to booking a room. The hotel booking funnel is often visualized as a cone, with the largest pool of potential customers at the top and the smallest number, the ones who actually book, at the bottom.
Here’s that visualization of a basic hotel website booking funnel with four key steps:
Your questions about building a hotel marketing plan, answered
Marisa asked…
How do you make a marketing plan for a hotel?
There are a few basic elements every hotel marketing plan must include:
Executive Summary
Vision & Mission Statements
Market Analysis
Pricing Strategy
SWOT Analysis
Historical Data
Guest Profile
Market Segmentation
Marketing Objectives
Marketing Channels
Marketing Metrics & S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Marketing Tactics by Channel
Marketing Budget
If some of these sound unfamiliar, don’t worry: I’ve got you covered.
Check out my more detailed guide to the hotel marketing plan process, which includes a step-by-step video tutorial AND a free hotel marketing plan presentation template.
Marisa also asked…
Which is the first step in marketing plan of the hotel?
The first step in creating your hotel marketing plan is reviewing the key variables impacting your business. Start by reviewing the 5 C’s: your company, competitors, customers, collaborators, and climate — and put together a brief analysis of each.
The best place to start is simply knowing where you are now, today, so you can look ahead and plan for the future.
Keep these 5 C’s in mind and conduct a top-level market analysis:
Company: What’s happening at your hotel company which could impact your business? Are you changing up your product or service offering? Have you decided to refresh your hotel branding?
Competitors: Who are the key players and what are they up to? Opening a buzzy new restaurant? Starting or finishing a major renovation?
Customers: What is your guests’ perception of your hotel? Are you seeing less interest from certain groups or more from an emerging niche? Are they communicating with you in a new way?
Collaborators: Who are your partners and what’s going on with them? This could be your local Convention & Visitors Bureau, your PR firm, a top-producing travel agency, or other service provider.
Climate: How is the economy doing? Are there any new laws or regulations that impact your business or the hospitality industry where you are? (If you’re working on your 2022 marketing plan right now, it’s likely COVID-19 is still going to be mentioned here…)
Read Next: How to build your hotel marketing plan, step-by-step (+ Free Template)
Michael asked…
What is the SWOT analysis of a hotel?
A SWOT Analysis is how your hotel can evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats impacting your business.
Here’s a quick look at a few hotel SWOT analysis examples in action:
What are the strengths of a hotel? Hotel strengths could be anything from an excellent location, wonderful employees and service, to strong brand-name recognition. Think unique selling points or USPs.
What are the weaknesses of a hotel? Maybe your location isn’t so great, after all. Maybe you need to fix your hotel website? Be honest about what could be hindering your hotel’s growth, whether its poor online reviews, lack of F&B or gym facilities, or budget.
What are the opportunities in a hotel? Two areas to look for opportunities are market trends and guest feedback. Do a little research to get ideas for new markets to engage or revenue-driving products to launch.
What are the threats to your hotel business? Anticipating potential threats early gives you more time to take action! Think: external factors with a negative impact. This could mean changes to OTAs or a sudden boom in Airbnb listings nearby. Other potential threats include new hotel openings, negative press coverage, even a recruitment or staffing shortage.
Michael also asked…
What is marketing mix in hotels? What’s the right mix?
Your hotel marketing mix is the set of tools or variables you use to pursue your marketing objectives. For most businesses, this includes the 4Ps: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place.
For hotels, this could look like:
Product — your rooms, dining outlets, spa, or other services
Price — how you price your offer to specific audiences or in different market conditions
Promotion — creative offers or marketing communications through social media, PR, digital marketing, etc.
Place — not only your physical location, but also distribution, or the channels you use to reach potential customers (eg. Direct, wholesale, OTAs, tour operators, etc.)
As for “what’s the right marketing mix for a hotel,” this one is impossible to answer, I’m afraid. It truly depends on so many factors that are unique to your property, your market, your competition, etc.
Emily asked…
How much does a hotel spend on marketing?
Survey says: Less than pre-COVID. Statista reports that in a survey of representatives from the U.S. hotel industry. the sector spent roughly 1.36 billion U.S. dollars on advertising – down from 2.72 billion the year prior.
What does that mean for you? Well, “it depends.”
It’s not surprising that hotels spent less on advertising in 2020. We don’t know yet how 2021 budgets fared overall.
With demand starting to pick up again, though, hotels will need to spend more on advertising and marketing to reach the customers who are ready to travel.
Some considerations for your hotel budget include ad spend on Google or Facebook, new photography, upgrading your hotel website, and outsourcing certain tasks to specialist contractors or agencies.
Your top questions about social media for hotels
Marisa asked…
How can social media help hotels?
Social media can help hotels build brand name recognition, reach potential customers early in their travel booking journey, and nurture long-term loyalty with repeat guests.
The best place to start developing your hotel social media strategy is your audience. Find out which platforms they use most and focus your efforts on showing up there.
Each platform has its quirks, though.
Get familiar with the most popular social media marketing platforms to understand how your hotel can approach that social media channel most effectively.
Marisa also asked…
How to use TikTok for hotels? And should we?
You might not have the resources right now to go all-in on creating TikTok content for your hotel…
And that’s OK.
To be honest, I wasn’t convinced the app would ever amount to more than teenagers dancing and pointing – but even I’m wrong sometimes! Ahem…
TikTok reached 1 billion monthly active users in September 2021.
And yes, 28% of TikTok’s global audience is under 18. But 35% is between the ages of 19 and 29, and its usage among millennials in particular is on the rise. (Source)
So my friend, it IS time to take TikTok seriously. If you do nothing else, get familiar with the platform as a user so you learn the quirks and start picking up on trends. Things move fast, so I recommend starting with trending sounds to find the best TikTok ideas for hotels.
As I always recommend for social media, go in with a plan.
Pick out just a few key themes — ahem, content pillars — and create content with those in mind. Test, learn what works, and do more of that.
Keep in mind that your end goal doesn’t need to be a direct, linear journey of user watches my hotel TikTok > user immediately clicks my link and books a room. As with most social media platforms, that’s um, not really how it works.
It’s up to you to decide whether investing time and resources into TikTok is worth it for your hotel.
Your top questions about SEO for hotels
Jim asked…
How can I improve my hotel SEO?
The best place to start improving your hotel SEO is a thorough audit of your current positioning.
Review your analytics. How much traffic do you get from organic search each month? How much of that traffic converts to new leads (email signups, RFP submissions, etc.)? How much of that traffic converts to a booking?
Review your rankings. What keywords do you currently rank on page 1 for? What improvements can you make to that content to take over the top 1-3 spots?
Look for opportunities. What keywords do you currently rank on pages 2-3 for? Do those keywords have a good amount of volume each month? It could be worth improving that content to nudge yourself up to page 1.
If you’re not sure how to the answer those questions above, we need to take a BIG step back.
First, a reminder: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. If you’re unfamiliar, watch the explainer video below.
Next, ask yourself the following:
Who is responsible for the commercial success of your property? Who at your hotel oversees marketing? How is their SEO knowledge? If no one at your hotel is actively engaged in SEO, have you hired an outside agency? How often do you meet with them? What information do they give you? How do you, in turn, challenge them to drive results?
I do realize I just answered a question with MORE questions, so uhh… apologies!
Making real, tangible improvements will be dang near impossible without a foundational understanding of hotel SEO.
The “Simplifying SEO For Hotels” playlist from my YouTube channel is another good resource. The playlist includes a few step-by-step tutorials to help get you started. Watch it below or click here to open YouTube in a new window.
Jim also asked…
Do I have to blog to get traffic from search engines?
Blogging is an effective way to create content around certain topics or keywords, but you do not need to have a blog to get traffic from search engines.
Remember that Google wants to give users the best possible answer to their question. To answer a query like “things to do with kids in ____” requires detail and depth. One paragraph of text isn’t going to do it justice.
The flip side of that? Sometimes getting straight to the point is all you need. Google “how long til Christmas” to see what I mean.
Consider your target audience. Think about what those people search for when they’re deciding where/when to travel, what to do when they arrive, and where they’ll stay.
The number of hotel related keywords you may want to target is, quite literally, endless.
Writing a hotel blog could be very well worth your time — but ONLY if you have a plan, the resources to execute it, and a website that’s positioned to be competitive against others.
Read Next: Does Your Hotel Need A Blog? Answered (+Free SEO Checklist)
Digital marketing questions and stats, rapid-fire style!
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Industry standard is between 1 and 2.5%, but I urge you to look more closely at your Look-To-Book ratio instead. That’s the % of users who showed intent by checking availability (Looked) vs how many actually converted (Booked).
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Google. Like, it’s not even a competition. Google’s search engine market share is over 90% worldwide. It’s closest competitor, Bing, trails behind with less than 3%. That said, the second-largest search engine in the world is actually YouTube.
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You cannot set sitelinks manually, unless you’re setting up a specific Google PPC campaign. On an organic search results page, Google generally seems to select the most popular pages to display as sitelinks. Good website structure can help influence this, however.
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For small businesses spending less than $3,000 a month on Google Ads, the average Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) is just 1.5 to 1. As in, barely breaking even. Yikes. (Source)
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The 4Ps in hotel marketing are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. This is a common marketing principle that applies to most businesses, including the hotel industry.
More hotel digital marketing statistics for you:
85% of B2B marketers say “lead generation” is their most important content marketing goal. (Source)
The top result on Page 1 of a Google search gets 31.7% of the clicks. (Source)
74% of roughly 2.45 billion monthly active Facebook users in the U.S. use the site every single day. (Source)
6 in every 10 Instagram users log in at least once a day, and 21% log in at least once a week. (Source)
Final Thoughts
Well this was a fun one to put together — I hope you found my answering these questions “grab bag” style was useful.
Did I miss anything? Still have a burning question about hotel marketing?
Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading!