Hospitality Marketing Ideas: 5 Incredible Ways to Succeed

 

 

Implementing effective hospitality marketing ideas is vital if you want your business to be successful.

Marketing is a foundational pillar of any 21st-century business.

Without establishing a tangible marketing plan, it is next to impossible to run a thriving enterprise, no matter how big or small.

It serves several purposes, including generating public awareness, attracting the target audience’s interest, improving sales, and building brand recognition, to name a few.

Marketing strategies are crucial to the success of a business, more so in the hospitality sector.

According to Statista, the global hospitality industry is estimated to be worth 2 trillion USD and counting.

If hospitality organizations invest the recommended amount of 3% of their annual budgets on business promotional aspects, then these brands alone would spend 60 billion USD annually on hospitality marketing.

 

 

The figures make sense as businesses like restaurants, hotels, and bars would immediately go under without their customers.

The need for hospitality marketing is apparent.

Through properly implemented strategies and plans, a business can create its identity, attract new customers, and build its niche among existing clients. T

herefore, adopting the right hospitality marketing is essential to guarantee long-term success.

However, the hospitality space is among the most dynamic and evolving sectors.

This ever-changing nature demands marketers to keep up with the latest upgrades and constantly remain on their toes, adapting to the new scenarios.

This can be owed to the disruptive modern technology and digitalization of the past few decades.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences on the hospitality industry was another challenge that required incredible hospitality marketing ideas to help businesses remain afloat.

Let’s look at some hospitality marketing ideas and incredible ways to succeed in today’s world.

 

1. What Is Hospitality Marketing?
2. Why Invest in Good Hospitality Marketing Ideas?
3. How To Improve a Hospitality Marketing Plan
4. Hospitality Marketing Ideas: 5 Incredible Ways to Succeed

 

1. What Is Hospitality Marketing?

 

Hospitality marketing is the process of marketing a hospitality business to the public.

Through different platforms, strategies, and methods, it aims to increase the awareness of the brand and product and services and highlight the unique selling points or USPs to attract more customers.

The method varies from company to company, depending upon the exact needs of the product or service.

For example, a hotel and a cafe would want to market themselves in different lights.

 

 

However, the overall hospitality sector is based upon a business offering a particular service.

It centers on customer needs and satisfaction.

So, the priority is usually on selling to the ‘customer experience’ offered by the organization, benefitting the customers, and building customer loyalty.

Just like any other promotional effort, hospitality marketing ideas can be diverse- from offline advertising campaigns to online marketing or a mix of both.

However, the end goal is always the same for any business or strategy, i.e., to convince the audience that this organization can deliver the most memorable moments and experiences.

 

2. Why Invest in Good Hospitality Marketing Ideas?

 

Each year billions of dollars are spent on hospitality marketing activities which naturally creates a huge economic impact.

This industry also makes up for a majority of the total advertising and marketing that the general public is exposed to on a daily basis, and a great marketing strategy paves the way to a strong brand and consumer base.

Customer loyalty becomes the key to success when it comes to the hospitality industry.

 

 

A large portion of revenue for these businesses comes from return customers and brand ambassadors. Loyal customers make up 40% of brand revenue or more.

Since hospitality businesses revolve around creating and maintaining a positive customer experience and relationship, the marketing segment for these brands plays a vital part.

If you own a restaurant, a hotel, or a bar and want to attract more customers, you need to effectively advertise your business and interact with your niche audience.

Three reasons to seriously consider investing in the right hospitality marketing plan are:

 

1. Improve word-of-mouth marketing

 

For the most part, most hospitality businesses will already have a customer base made of previous customers.

But, by implementing an effective marketing strategy, modern enterprises can take full advantage of opportunities and increase their brand awareness.

Take online reviews for a hotel as an example.

 

 

By requesting former guests to leave reviews and share their experiences on the hotel’s social channels, new visitors may be attracted to the location.

Restaurant owners can add customer reviews or testimonials on local directory pages and apps like Yelp.

Hospitality marketers have heavily relied on word-of-mouth marketing and customer proof to drive more sales, even more so since the introduction of digitalization and online marketing.

A good hospitality marketing plan emphasizes word-of-mouth.

 

2. Standing out

 

The hospitality sector is arguably the most competitive market.

The only way to stay ahead of everyone else is by standing out from the crowd.

With the ever-changing industry and continuous advancements in technology, companies need to find new and creative ways to differentiate themselves from other brands and outshine the competition.

Hospitality marketing, when done right, is a great way to achieve this goal.

 

 

Through proper plans set in place and some clever ideas, marketing can highlight the USPs of your business while generating demand for your services.

Some commonly seen examples include online competitions where winners receive a discount or a gift when they visit the establishment or winning a free stay at a hotel.

Restaurants and cafes can host special event nights for the local band or visitors.

Marketing can be an effective way to attract more customers and stay ahead of the competition.

 

3. Adapting to a changing market

 

Marketing the platforms, trends, and methods is a fast-paced element of business that continues to evolve.

The only way for businesses to survive and thrive in this market environment is by keeping updated and staying ahead of the curve rather than following it.

A hospitality marketing strategy needs to be able to focus on the current customer needs and demands and adapt to the changing landscape.

Take the recent pandemic.

 

 

Most hospitality businesses struggled to remain afloat with no customers in the lockdown period.

However, some survived and continued to grow because they channeled all of their energy into their online platforms and kept interacting with their audience.

Not only did this help them keep their previous customers, but it also allowed them to expand their customer base and improve brand awareness and recognition.

Other aspects that are used in hospitality marketing in the wake of COVID-19 include:

– Promotion of safety procedures and hygiene policies
– Instead of focusing on business travelers or the office rush for sales, adjusting the marketing policy to appeal to leisure visitors instead
– A renewed emphasis on local customers (especially for hotels)

 

3. How To Improve a Hospitality Marketing Plan

 

A marketing strategy is unique to every business.

There is no one-fits-all or step-to-step guide to follow in the book.

A feasible and effective marketing plan will be based on the individual needs and the availability of resources for a business.

However, some elements are common to most modern marketing plans. Some of the hospitality marketing basics include the following aspects:-

 

An impressive website

 

You probably already own a website for your company.

Any digital marketing campaign begins with having a website.

When it comes to it, a social media page will probably attract more customers than a website does in today’s marketing landscape.

However, don’t just use your company website as a convenient landing page.

A large portion of the audience will still click on the link to your site and thoroughly browse through the information before deciding whether to visit your location or not.

 

 

This is especially true for businesses that mainly target travelers like hotels.

The idea behind creating an impressive website is to welcome potential customers and give them a glimpse of the products or services your business offers in the best light.

Similar to what is done in a physical store, the appearance and tone of your site will impact the customer’s decision.

Include all the necessary information about your company, like the name, full address, contact details, social handles, etc., in a prominently displayed area of the site layout.

Entice the customers’ curiosity by including photos and videos while providing social proof through past customer reviews and testimonials.

 

A good social presence

 

Besides having an impressive website, a hospitality business needs to have a decent social presence.

Social media is where the target audience exists and has become a necessary part of any online/digital marketing plan.

 

 

Using various social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter is the best way to interact with your audience and attract more customers directly.

Having just a social media business page is not enough.

You also need to actively connect with your target and other channels to create brand awareness.

 

Brand recognition and awareness

 

In today’s market, customers and businesses rely on word-of-mouth and reviews to decide their choice of a hospitality company.

People will want to go to a place where other people that resonate with them have gone and liked.

 

 

While most reviews and comments depend upon individual customer experiences, there are ways to improve brand recognition and awareness.

Replying to negative comments positively, promising to improve and bring new changes, connecting to related businesses to attract more awareness, following a social media plan, listing in local online directories, etc., can be done to increase brand recognition.

 

Optimizing for search engines

 

When we want to eat at a good restaurant, we usually pick up our phones, type in some keywords, and click on the first or second search result that is displayed on our screens.

Optimizing for search engines allows your business to appear on the top section of the search engine result page.

 

 

There are several ways to optimize your website- backlinks from relevant sites, including the right keywords, enhancing the website design and compatibility, etc.

 

4. Hospitality Marketing Ideas: 5 Incredible Ways to Succeed

 

1. Content marketing

 

Content marketing is one of the most valuable strategies that show excellent results in terms of organic traffic generation and visibility.

This is because content can not only highlight the key features and USPs of your business and how you differentiate from your competitors but also engage the audience and improve the search engine result page (SERP) rankings.

 

 

The key to a successful content marketing campaign is creating the right and relevant content according to your target audience.

The best part of content marketing is that it allows creative freedom in terms of the information you choose to share and the method you choose to share it through.

Content can vary from the simplest forms of blog posts and can transform into videos, infographics, interactive elements, etc. However, content marketing requires patience.

 

2. Include chatbots

 

Chatbots are fun and interactive elements that can be included in your business website to improve the overall customer experience.

This, simultaneously, supports customer care services and handles queries as well.

 

 

These bots allow rapid responses to questions, allow round-the-clock service, and help communicate in several languages.

Chatbots are the perfect component to assist in reservation and bookings and up-sell and cross-sell for maximized revenue.

 

3. Voice search

 

The next generation of web users prefer using the voice activation feature of their latest gadgets and devices, so why will their searches be any different?

Voice searches present a great opportunity for technology-forward business owners.

 

Creating voice search compatible platforms and including them in the overall digital marketing strategy can enable customers to book reservations, control a hotel room’s features (temperature control, lights, music), and so much more through voice search.

 

4. Influencer marketing

 

Influencer marketing has been steadily growing its impact in recent years.

This form of hospitality marketing is also responsible for creating a highly competitive industry (at least in terms of online marketing).

 

 

Influencer marketing is the most effective form of word-for-mouth for increasing brand awareness, customer care services, attracting and interacting with the target audience.

 

5. Customer experience marketing

 

In the world of the hospitality industry, customer experience plays a vital role in gaining loyalty.

This is not limited to providing excellent customer service.

Businesses must go two steps further to develop a comprehensive marketing plan, especially for customer experience.

 

 

This generates healthy returns and a steady stream of customers.

Customer experience marketing can include analyzing reviews, working on the negative comments, coming up with ideas to improve the experience, collecting feedback from customers.