Independent Hotels need to consider Local Search Marketing
Hotel chains are spending a great deal on paid search marketing with all of the major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. These campaigns play an important role in achieving brand recognition and capturing brand name-related searches, but they leave out tremendous revenue opportunities from local search initiatives. This presents an opportunity for a non branded local hotel to compete with the large brands in a cost effective way by simply using their local knowledge of the area, its events and attractions.
Why should independent hotels pay attention to Local Search Marketing?
• Online consumers conduct 2 billion local searches per month; 8 out of 10 local searchers follow a search with a phone call (ComScore).
• Over one-third of all searches on the major search engines are local in character (i.e., searches by Internet users for businesses in their immediate area).
• Online Directories such as Yell.com, Thomson Local, Free Index, Brownbook and others such as “The Best Of” are becoming viable online competitors for local search market share - they are often perceived to be “more local” than the major search engines.
Local search has gained strong momentum as more savvy online consumers are seeking highly relevant local business listings. All of the major search engines have introduced Local Search functionality.
Online travel consumers search for hotel services within the context of a particular destination. ‘Destination + hotels’ or ‘destination + accommodations’ are popular keyword searches for any location and are used for international, national, regional and local searches.
Local search marketing enables independent hoteliers to increase online sales by precisely targeting potential customers:
• Traveling on business or leisure
• Looking for a hotel near local attractions, e.g., a theme park
• Searching for a hotel room in conjunction with a local event (fair, festival, concert, sporting event)
• Interested in a hotel or venue for a group for family celebrations, wedding receptions, local corporate events, conferences etc
• Looking for a restaurant, leisure club or spa.
Branded hotel chains do not adequately address and capture these local business opportunities via the national marketing campaigns. Switched on independent hoteliers can definitely take advantage of this marketing gap to generate incremental revenues and stay ahead of the competition.
Local Search Marketing can be improved by:
• Local Search Marketing on Major Search Engines (Google maps)
• Paid Search Marketing on Major Search Engines (Google PPC)
• Online Directory Listings (Free and Paid)
• By creating individual pages about local events, attractions etc on your website and optimising them for specific search terms.
I hope these thoughts encourage you to think about your local search strategy and would welcome any comments or additional ideas.
Kind regards
Robert Smith
Director
Complete Hotels Services
Monday 28 September 2009
Tuesday 22 September 2009
Is your hotel website working for you?
Is your hotel website working for you?
This is a question which I find myself asking hoteliers on many occassions and the answers vary from yes it is , but we can't quantify it, to no idea at all.
What amazes me is that most hoteliers make a marketing investment of many thouosands of pounds in a website and then seemingly think it will just produce future sales without any further resources & investment or that once the website is launched they leave the promotion of it to a slick web marketing company who speak a different (technical) language, produce reports and assure them that they are top of the listings for certain keyword phrases. Most of which include the hotel name, and ignore the fact that people searching for hotels in a location usually do not know the hotel name and therfore would not use it as a search phrase!
Nowadays its not good enough to just have a website designed, launch it and expect sales to flow. Hoteliers need to have an internet strategy, preferably one for local search and one for regional/national search, and recognise that as the singularly most important communication tool websites need to be kept up to date a managed.
Some points for hoteliers to consider include:
1) Appoint someone in your organisation to be the website champion and accept responsibility for keeping it up to date.
2) Aim to update offers/information/content/ images/ banners on the home page regularly - perhaps every two to three weeks.
3) Consider the customers perspective when viewing your website. Can the the corporate guest see a clear navigational journey to find his information and likewise the leisure guest who has different requirements.
4) Use offers to attract customers. Try selling upgrades, restaurant meals, leisure, themed weekends etc.
5) Plan to expand the content on your website over the years. Seach engines love original and new content and this will help your rankings.
6) Always have a newsletter subscription service and collect the customer details, with segmentation by interest, into a database.
7) Use the database to send out regular newsletters and relevant offers to customers.
8) Use pay per click to support marketing initiatives.
9) Submit your website to free directories to obtain free one way links to your website.
10) Finally, measure the sales that are generated by your website and invest further resources.
These are just a few points which I hope will prove useful, but there are many, many more. I would be happy to receive comments or if anyone is thinking of investing in a new website or revamping their existing one and need some help then drop me a line.
Finaly, please follow my blog by clicking on the follow this blog link at the top right and pass it along to colleagues or friends.
Many thanks
Robert Smith
Director
Complete Hotels Services
http://www.completehotelsservices.co.uk/
This is a question which I find myself asking hoteliers on many occassions and the answers vary from yes it is , but we can't quantify it, to no idea at all.
What amazes me is that most hoteliers make a marketing investment of many thouosands of pounds in a website and then seemingly think it will just produce future sales without any further resources & investment or that once the website is launched they leave the promotion of it to a slick web marketing company who speak a different (technical) language, produce reports and assure them that they are top of the listings for certain keyword phrases. Most of which include the hotel name, and ignore the fact that people searching for hotels in a location usually do not know the hotel name and therfore would not use it as a search phrase!
Nowadays its not good enough to just have a website designed, launch it and expect sales to flow. Hoteliers need to have an internet strategy, preferably one for local search and one for regional/national search, and recognise that as the singularly most important communication tool websites need to be kept up to date a managed.
Some points for hoteliers to consider include:
1) Appoint someone in your organisation to be the website champion and accept responsibility for keeping it up to date.
2) Aim to update offers/information/content/ images/ banners on the home page regularly - perhaps every two to three weeks.
3) Consider the customers perspective when viewing your website. Can the the corporate guest see a clear navigational journey to find his information and likewise the leisure guest who has different requirements.
4) Use offers to attract customers. Try selling upgrades, restaurant meals, leisure, themed weekends etc.
5) Plan to expand the content on your website over the years. Seach engines love original and new content and this will help your rankings.
6) Always have a newsletter subscription service and collect the customer details, with segmentation by interest, into a database.
7) Use the database to send out regular newsletters and relevant offers to customers.
8) Use pay per click to support marketing initiatives.
9) Submit your website to free directories to obtain free one way links to your website.
10) Finally, measure the sales that are generated by your website and invest further resources.
These are just a few points which I hope will prove useful, but there are many, many more. I would be happy to receive comments or if anyone is thinking of investing in a new website or revamping their existing one and need some help then drop me a line.
Finaly, please follow my blog by clicking on the follow this blog link at the top right and pass it along to colleagues or friends.
Many thanks
Robert Smith
Director
Complete Hotels Services
http://www.completehotelsservices.co.uk/
Wednesday 9 September 2009
How can I improve my hotel website?
How can I improve my hotel website?
This is a question which comes up time and time again in discussions so I thought it may be helpful to share some of my ideas and experience by creating a list and making it available on my website. The list is written in my own words rather than techincal jargon and includes points for you to consider whether you are building a new website or planning an update of your current website.
I hope you will take a few moments to downlaod and read the list - it may just help you when you are talking to your web designer or web marketing company.
If any has any additions or comments then I would be delighted to hear from you.
Download a copy of the list in PDF format here.
This is a question which comes up time and time again in discussions so I thought it may be helpful to share some of my ideas and experience by creating a list and making it available on my website. The list is written in my own words rather than techincal jargon and includes points for you to consider whether you are building a new website or planning an update of your current website.
I hope you will take a few moments to downlaod and read the list - it may just help you when you are talking to your web designer or web marketing company.
If any has any additions or comments then I would be delighted to hear from you.
Download a copy of the list in PDF format here.
Tuesday 1 September 2009
Why do you use "why not" as a marketing strapline?
Why not enjoy a meal in the restuarant? Why not stay this summer? Why not join us for Christmas Day Lunch? Why not, Why not, Why not?
Because I don't want to!
Do you see marketing material in your hotel or business with the phrase "why not" at the top? If so then I suggest that whoever creates your marketing straplines is being utterly uncreative.
By using the phrase "why not" they are asking the reader to come up with any number of reasons why they don't want to take up the offer rather than using a positive marketing message extolling all the reasons why the reader would be interested in making a purchase.
The simple truth is that using "why not" is the easiest option open to the "marketer" and hotel managers and owners should do more to question the effort put into the creation of marketing messages. In fact, just ban the use of the phrase and you'll notice the more positive nature of your marketing within weeks. It worked for me.
Try it.
Robert Smith
http://www.completehotelsservices.co.uk/
Because I don't want to!
Do you see marketing material in your hotel or business with the phrase "why not" at the top? If so then I suggest that whoever creates your marketing straplines is being utterly uncreative.
By using the phrase "why not" they are asking the reader to come up with any number of reasons why they don't want to take up the offer rather than using a positive marketing message extolling all the reasons why the reader would be interested in making a purchase.
The simple truth is that using "why not" is the easiest option open to the "marketer" and hotel managers and owners should do more to question the effort put into the creation of marketing messages. In fact, just ban the use of the phrase and you'll notice the more positive nature of your marketing within weeks. It worked for me.
Try it.
Robert Smith
http://www.completehotelsservices.co.uk/
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