Given the mandate of possessing a smartphone, almost every citizen in the current world owns the much-coveted gadget. What follows is an incorrigible addiction that is unanimously indulged in much to the delight of Indian businesses who earlier shelled a fortune for per-column centimeter ads. The relatively inexpensive and result-oriented social media promotions like google hotel search do their job without any fuss. The interesting attributes of social media which makes an incredible change in hotel revenues are discussed in the lines that follow.
Brand Exposure Through Social Media
Social media is an unrivaled tool for expanding the hotel’s visibility beyond the bounds of geography, especially so when competitors fail to realize such marketing potential. Hotels employ prediction or pattern-based data such as guest visits from specific states during specific months and age group patterns (useful for Facebook promotions). The nature of social media promotes a brand’s reputation, retains old customers and attracts new ones apart from fostering business partnerships. When the hotel’s name suffers, social media comes to the rescue by explaining the issues and the hotel’s stand in the controversy which saves business at the end of the day.
Benefits Of Customer Engagement
For a business like that of the hospitality industry where the guest is the keyword and service is the tool, none can beat social media in mingling with customers. Social media pages of discount travel sites for hotels boost customer prominence by soliciting feedback and making room for improvement, a very flattering move indeed.
The experience factor is highlighted when either the customers or hotels post pictures of people dining which in turn influences the decisions of future guests. Such customer listening through all social media platforms without sparing the mildest comments proves truly useful while drafting the most successful marketing or operational strategies.
Targeted Campaigns For Better Leads
When guests may be explorers or those seeking to indulge, targeted campaigns must adapt the flow. Destinations are promoted through visual messages on social media platforms like Instagram or video tours through YouTube which are lauded by customers as the best way to find hotels.
These targeted promotions showcase the luxury that a property boasts of. Ignorance is the costliest mistake that a hotel or for that matter any industry can make, especially failing to track what the competitor is up to. Customer engagement through social pages plays an important role in chalking precisely targeted campaigns.
Role Of Influencer Partnerships In Generating Business
The hotel industry is one of the important domains which use influencers to promote their property and services. The scribe here recalls a TV show where a duo, one vegetarian and another non-vegetarian, explores hotels on terms like taste, service, ambience and value for money. ‘Highway On My Plate’, if the name can be mentioned, was popular in the lifestyle TV channel, on which many depended on gauge food outlets. Such influencers are sought after by the marketing team and their audience for their expertise and authentic comments about hotels at best price and follower volume. While few influencers’ followers are given discount privileges, some influencers are sought after for their followers’ buyer persona that matches the hotel’s niche.
Increased Website Traffic And Direct Bookings
Direct bookings through the best hotel sites for deals are important since it curbs the commission charges and is more transparent to customers than Online Travel Agents. Search Engine Marketing and Pay Per Click are a few of the powerful social media tools with which hotels increase website traffic. The tone and style of the hotel profile which resonates with the customer persona, social proof incited through testimonials, share buttons as a tool, high-quality blogs, encouraging engagement and being responsive to the same, are methods adopted to promote website traffic through social media.
Impact Of Market Research And Insights
Market research enables a hotel to evaluate its capacity, reduce risks, gather details about the industry situation, perceive customer expectations, analyze demand for specific hotel property and gauge competition. Social media is also effective in studying trends and their velocity in the hotel industry. Allegedly while LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram help to gain industry insights, hashtags and the search for a hotel functions reveal how a brand is being discussed. Market research plays an important role in decisions about brand positioning.
Role Of Feedback On Bookings
Feedback in general and especially through social media are capable of being a game-changer for a specific hotel, with immense potential to generate leads and convert them to bookings. Since social media users depend on reviews to find places to stay, the tool enables a hotel to identify opportunities and make changes in the inventory and services accordingly. Owing to the inevitable reliability of online reputation, hotels designate Online Reputation Management which deals with reviews and tries to keep them positive and trusted besides boosting search engine rankings.
Live Chat As A Tool To Upsell And Cross-Sell
If you wish to find best hotel deals none can equal live chat, a digital form of concierge services and a mode of upselling or cross-selling hotel infrastructure. What starts with a ‘May I help you?’ persuades to enthusiastically impart hotel discounts, room upgrades, recreational provisions and other important updates.
The live chat uses the customers' chat history to navigate upselling and cross-selling hotel rooms and amenities. Since it is reported that customers are more interested in customer service than the product itself, a diligently designed chatbot executes the plan effortlessly.
Effect Of Blogs On Hotel Industry Marketing
Hotel blogging is an important part of the relevant marketing strategies and unlike paid advertising which buys attention, blogging commands attention while something interesting and useful is provided. Besides boosting good booking sites and visibility, hotel blogs create new relationships and preserve existing ones.
It is observed that people depend on blogs to find hotel deals and that such write-ups are more convincing. Blogs have generated more leads and enabled better conversions besides identifying the target audience and doing more promotions than traditional advertising.
Conclusion
In this competition-based world where the rat race gets intense by the day, more hoteliers depend on social media for result-oriented marketing and competitive cost of customer acquisition. Though marketing algorithms keep changing and evolving, a watchful eye coupled with spontaneous actions procure immense profits for hotel businesses.
