If you are not focussing sufficient time on your hotel marketing you are at risk of losing money and being stuck with empty rooms. Bookings are only made by people who can find your accommodation, love what they see and book!
Promoting your hotel accommodation properly requires time, money and expertise. Marketing is a really effective way to attract paying customers but it’s not easy, especially if you don’t have the appropriate skills.
Most travel accommodation business owners can benefit enormously from expert assistance to create and implement an effective hotel marketing strategy. Marketing is not about sending emails to past customers, having a website or promoting specials in an electronic newsletter. It has many aspects that need constant maintenance, refreshing and updating. These work in unison and include, but are not limited to:
- over-arching marketing strategies
- accommodation specific websites
- brand management
- social media marketing + management
- blogging
- destination marketing
- copywriting + content marketing
- online reputation management
- email campaigns
- partnering with OTAs
- photography
- electronic newsletters
- digital advertising and
- SEO (search engine optimisation).
Good marketing is about getting your message to the right person, at just the right time whilst increasing your brand profile. But as you can see, there are a lot of aspects to marketing. The key is to invest your money wisely ensuring that you get amazing results – and bookings!
Outsourcing can save you money … in the long run
If you manage and run your own boutique accommodation or hotel, it’s important to delineate between those things that only you and your key staff can do and what operations could be outsourced. If you find yourself over-stretched and with very little time to grow and improve your business, then outsourcing your marketing can provide you with more time to focus on running your business, and in the long run save you money.
Another way of looking at it is by determining what areas of your business are critical for customer relations and business management, and what areas would be suited to outsourcing. More often than not marketing is the obvious choice. That’s of course, unless you have an in-house team who have all the necessary marketing skills. But few accommodation providers are in this position.
Still not convinced?
We’ve compiled a list of reasons why outsourcing your hotel marketing can cost you less in the long run and is likely to be more successful. This isn’t by any means a comprehensive list of reasons but it does emphasis the need to take marketing seriously. With so much competition around can you afford not to?
1. Marketing doesn’t come cheap … so you can’t afford to make the wrong decision about how or where to market your accommodation. Unless you can afford the luxury of in-house digital marketing experts with experience in all the fields we listed, it’s more cost effective to engage a marketing consultancy and their collective expertise and knowledge.
2. Engaging a firm with expertise in hotel marketing enables you to budget effectively, in the short and longer term. Depending on the contractual arrangement or marketing package you negotiate, you always know what your outgoings are giving you greater control over your budget.
3. Few companies can afford to find and hire a dedicated expert marketing resource to do the same volume of quality effective work that a marketing consultancy team can. Outsourcing negates the risks and costs associated with in-house marketing staff.
4. Unless you were a marketing guru in a previous life most hotel business owners just don’t have the expertise to dedicate hours to marketing their business. Outsourcing frees you up to focus on building your business, and looking after your staff and clients. It makes better economic sense to engage a consultancy whose focus is 100% on delivering a fantastic product to you.
5. Accommodation marketing consultancies are made up of teams of people who are experts in their field all under the ‘one roof’. Their job is to position you ahead of your competitors and increase your visibility as the ‘accommodation of choice’. A consultancy specialising in the tourism and accommodation sector will be able to work with you to create ways to market your business in new and innovative ways, including ways you may not have thought of.
6. Effective digital marketing requires the latest software, which yes, costs more money! Unless you are a software guru with an unlimited budget it makes better economic sense to outsource to a company that has the latest software and knows how to use it to its full potential.
7, Statistics can make your head hurt with all those percentages and numbers BUT they can be used by marketing experts to improve and target your marketing strategy. In this digital age, it’s vital to understand how and when your potential customers are interacting with your website, social media platforms and other digital marketing mechanisms.
Where to from here?
Our one take-home message is that hotel marketing is essential if you want to attract bookings, remain competitive and stand out from other accommodation providers.
At Koncept Konnect we’re in the business of providing customised support solutions across all aspects of sales and marketing. Yes, this is an unabashed sales pitch … but … since 2013 we have provided tailored and customised online marketing and sales solutions to businesses around Australia and overseas; everything from luxury accommodation houses and strata title apartments through to resorts and 200+ room hotels.
We have a proven track record in the accommodation industry and can work with you to develop a package that meets your needs, is flexible and suits your budget.
Why not give us a call to discuss what you have in mind? We’d love to hear from you – call Kim on 0429 969 581 or Email Us.