Hotel Digital Marketing Strategy | Top Tips for Online Advertising

In today’s digital age, individuals are relying on the internet for almost everything. Whether they’re searching for product reviews or vacation accommodations, the answers are online. With effective hotel digital marketing strategies, you can leverage this and convert potential guests into loyal customers.

A major driving force in individuals’ behaviours is convenience and experiences. So, it’s essential to have an innovative and dynamic online strategy for your hotel business.

There are also constant changes in the environment. As such, you’ll need flexible tactics to increase your brand equity and position in the hotel industry.

So, how do you go about optimising your digital marketing efforts in a rapidly changing environment? In this guide, you’ll find some of the most effective ways to get ahead of the game, from increasing website traffic to online ads.

What is a Hotel Online Marketing Strategy?

Simply put, hotel digital marketing relates to building and maintaining a hotel’s online presence. It results in improved visibility, increased brand awareness, and of course, more bookings.

Your hotel or resort internet marketing efforts should be aimed at gaining a strong position in the market. It’s not just about a few Facebook ads every month, but rather about having successful integrated marketing communication and generating relevant web traffic, bookings and reviews (online and offline).

The Importance of Hospitality Digital Marketing

Before making an accommodation booking, individuals are likely to search the internet for hotels, prices, and guest reviews. As such, hotel digital marketing helps you to influence and be proactive in the customer journey.

In the hospitality industry, hotel digital marketing is extremely effective in reaching your target audience. It also encourages an immediate response through the right call to action and allows you to take advantage of evolving trends.

By focusing on your hotel internet advertising, it helps to gain a competitive advantage. As many other hotel marketers focus on digital efforts, you’ll want to use your website strategically to get ahead in the industry.

A good strategy will help you understand the behaviour of your competitors and target audience. It’s an essential element in your business growth. And if you use it correctly, you’ll effectively attract, engage, and retain more customers.

14 Best Hotel Digital Marketing Strategies

Are you ready to excel in the digital space? Here’s how you can use the internet to your advantage with successful digital marketing strategies.

Have a User-Friendly Hotel Website

An effective hotel website offers benefits for both your business and visitors. It’s an excellent way to showcase your hotel and provides increased brand awareness and information.

Often a booking engine like hotels.com uses generic descriptions, whereas a hotel website allows you to use your own voice. You can also showcase your brand personality and establish a more personal relationship with potential customers.

Your website should captivate viewers with the best hotel website designs. It should also include information such as services and location.

Mobile Website Optimisation

There has been a significant increase in the number of mobile searches for hotel bookings in recent years. As such, it is crucial to optimise your website for smartphone users.

If an individual has a bad experience on your mobile site, they will likely find accommodation elsewhere. So, it’s important to have a mobile-friendly website with a hassle-free booking system to maximise your revenue.

Direct Bookings

Direct bookings are transactions between the hotel and bookers without using an online travel agency or third-party intermediary. An effective direct booking strategy will help reduce commission costs and increase profits.

This booking process also helps to establish one-on-one relationships with potential guests. Here are a few things to keep in mind for a winning direct booking strategy:

• Invest in a strong digital marketing strategy to attract potential customers
• Keep costs low to remain competitive
• Use a commission-free booking engine
• Have a user-friendly website
• Be responsive online and engage on social media
• Provide personalised experiences using email marketing

Prioritise Content Marketing

If you want to drive sustainable web traffic to your site, content is the best way to do it. Hotel content marketing helps to define your target audience and provide them with helpful information.

Whether you offer family-friendly guest rooms or romantic secluded accommodation, prospective guests typically wouldn’t know this unless you inform them. The descriptions should emphasise the outstanding features of the hotel, from luxury bedding to picturesque views.

Additionally, you should use high-quality website images that capture your brand’s story. It should entice the viewer into booking a stay at your hotel.

Enable Digital

Have great wifi on your premises. User generated content is going to be one of your main advertising avenues. So, ensuring that people can easily upload their videos, images or information to their friends on social media is a simple way to enable organic digital marketing.

Some brands have special places to take images in picturesque environments. By taking advantage of the user generated content opportunities around you, it allows for epic creations, hashtags, campaigns, and increased exposure.

​​It is inevitable that your premises will go online, so try to make it easy and accessible for people to do this at all times. And to show your good side.

Have a Blog

Blogging is an excellent way to expand on relevant topics and attract potential guests. Many hotels create a brochure with information like local attractions. However, the best way to provide easily accessible information is by digitising it on an engaging blog post.

Another reason to leave those pamphlets in the past is that new posts signal to search engines that your website isn’t outdated and ignored. You can also use your blog as a link between your hotel website and social media accounts.

When writing your blog post, keep in mind the customer journey and potential questions that they may have. In addition to answering those questions, your content should include search engine optimisation (SEO) best practices to increase traffic to your blog.

Focus on Search Engine Optimisation

The success of your hotel digital marketing strategy is largely dependent on SEO. This process focuses on enhancing the quality and quantity of unpaid web traffic from search engines.

Good SEO practices help your hotel rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). As many individuals don’t go past the first page of results on search engines, it’s important to have optimised content to get a top spot.

Here are a few ways that you can improve your SEO process to increase visibility and maximise web traffic:

• Have high-quality, relevant content
• Include keywords to increase your discoverability
• Obtain backlinks from other trusted websites

Local SEO

Local SEO focuses on your hotel’s visibility in local search results. It can help increase your website’s relevance for search queries. Local SEO also aids your authority and is essential for your hotel internet marketing strategy.

Here are some ways that you can improve your local SEO efforts:

• Optimise and improve your hotel details on listing websites like Tripadvisor
• List your hotel on Google My Business
• Focus on local content such as famous landmarks and local events

Engage With Social Media Marketing

Social media is a powerful tool that allows you to improve your hotel internet advertising efforts with relatively low marketing spend. It is one of the most effective approaches to increase engagement, awareness, and user-generated content.

Social media platforms provide you with access to around 4.48 billion active users. With an effective social media marketing strategy, you can generate relevant web traffic and convert these users to hotel guests.

Facebook is the most popular social media platform worldwide. It offers several features that can aid your hotel digital marketing strategies, from Facebook Ads to the online reviews section. Other social media platforms that make engaging with existing and potential customers easy include Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok.

These platforms also allow you to provide users with regular updates. Additionally, you can use it to sell your photos online and showcase the inviting experiences at your hotel.

Connect With Social Listening

Social listening refers to monitoring your social media accounts for mentions, user-generated content, promotions, and lead generation. It provides opportunities to promote your hotel brand through engagement in social media posts.

For instance, a Facebook user may mention your business in their post. You can then acknowledge it and promote it on your Facebook page. This will help to improve your engagement level and create favourable perceptions and attitudes towards your brand.

Here are some tools that you can use to monitor social media content relating to your hotel:

• Hootsuite
• Buzzsumo
• Sprout Social
• Curalate

Use Influencer Marketing to Aid Hotel Online Advertising Efforts

Influencer marketing is one of the best tools for successful hotel marketing. It provides you with access to an influencers’ loyal audience and can help increase brand awareness.

For instance, you can offer an influencer a paid stay at your hotel in exchange for posting about it on their social media platforms. This will increase individuals’ knowledge about your services and display the exhilarating hotel experiences to a large audience.

Additionally, many younger individuals aspire to be like the influencers that they follow. As such, influencers would have the ability to affect their purchase decisions.

Tell a Story With Video Marketing

Video-based content provides individuals with a sneak peek into your hotel. You can use it to show your services and create a more personalised experience. You can share the videos on your website, emails, or social media platforms.

One of the best platforms to share your videos is YouTube. When posting on YouTube, it’s best to implement YouTube SEO. This process refers to optimising your videos and channel to rank higher in relevant search results.

You can optimise YouTube videos by using keywords in titles, meta descriptions, and hashtags. Additionally, you can include keywords in the video transcript, closed captions, and subtitles.

For effective hotel digital marketing, you should create eye-catching video content. Your content should entertain, educate, convince, and inspire individuals. Below is an example of an enticing video that promotes the luxurious experiences at the hotel.

Use Google Hotel Ads

Google Hotel Ads is an excellent hotel web advertising tool. By listing your property on this meta-search engine, you’ll increase visibility and brand value. Google Hotel Ads also reduces dependency on online travel agencies.

The benefits of Google Hotel Ads include increased direct bookings, control over the brand experience, and increased revenue. It’s best to provide Google with up-to-date information on your hotel room types, rates, and availability.

Relevant hotel ads will then be displayed to future guests looking for accommodation on Google Search or Google Maps. It’s important to manage and optimise your ads for successful hotel digital marketing.

Inform and Engage Through Personalised Email Marketing

Email marketing is essential for successful hospitality internet marketing strategies. It provides an affordable way to reach individuals and build sustainable relationships.

For instance, you can send personalised pre-arrival emails to new guests that offer guidance relating to budget-friendly amenities. Additionally, sending individuals emails after their stay will help to maintain your relationship and gain feedback.

Email marketing campaigns also allow for batch processing. Additionally, you can segment your audience and provide targeted offers. When creating engaging and informative emails, don’t forget to add a personal touch to them, such as relevant package deals.

Email marketing is great for interactivity, but remember to keep your emails clear and to the point with a captivating subject line. You should also have an embedded link to your website and social media accounts on the emails.

Take Advantage of Emerging Technologies – Chatbots

New technologies are beneficial for hotel digital marketing strategies. Chatbots, in particular, have a significant impact on the hotel industry. It offers an enhanced user experience on your hotel website.

Chatbots offer 24/7 assistance along the customer journey, which improves engagement and brand reputation. Having chatbots on your website helps you to react faster to inquiries and get more bookings.

There are numerous benefits associated with chatbots, such as efficiency, improved booking processes, and reduced language barriers. You can also use chatbots to collect critical data that can be followed up later by the hotel.

Manage Your Online Reviews & Reputation

Online reviews play an important role in your hotel digital marketing efforts. It’s vital to know what previous guests are saying about their experience with your hotel. Additionally, you should respond appropriately to maintain your brand reputation.

Online reviews have a significant impact on individuals’ motivation and behaviour towards your business. As such, positive reviews will help you get more bookings. You can encourage guests to provide positive reviews through thank you emails.

Although negative reviews are not favourable, it’s just as valuable as positive reviews. Negative feedback provides you with insights for necessary improvements.

When responding to negative feedback, you should be sincere, apologise, and ease concerns that future guests may have due to the review. In our experience, keeping track of your online reviews is essential for online reputation management.

A Footnote on Digital Marketing for Hotels

As individuals become more tech-savvy, it’s essential to focus on online experiences and customer satisfaction. The various practical marketing efforts that were discussed in this guide will help your hotel business improve its web traffic, customer base, and reputation.

Each of these strategies support each other – like an ecosystem in the digital space. Sticking to the hotel digital marketing strategies outlined above will help you stay ahead in the hotel industry. So, get ready for more bookings.