Your hotel needs a new website and you have made the decision to different make the investment in developing a new, all singing, all dancing website to impress your customers and deliver the business you need.
So, who is the right person to lead and manage the development of the new website? Is it the web developer, a sales & marketing/PR company or perhaps your own management team?
The truth is it could be any of the above but the end result could be very different depending on who you choose.
Before deciding ask yourself these questions:
1) Who understands our business, our brand and what we stand for?
2) Who are our customers?
3) Why do customers come to our hotel?
4) Where do our customers come from?
5) How do our customers find us?
You and your team have the ability, knowledge and are without doubt in the best position to answer these questions and that is why YOU should manage the development of the new website. Not an outside agent who knows very little about your core business.
I don’t mean you need to do the programming or create the design but you need to make sure that the designer and web developer you choose work to your plan that will result in a website that your customers will find informative, easy to navigate, attractive and easy on the eye, encourage sales and be optimised from day one.
The first point is to identify the keywords or keyword phrases that customers would use to find your hotel and the services it provides such as wedding receptions, conferences, restaurants etc.
This is a critical step because these keywords or keyword phrases are what will identify you to potential customers.
When identifying keywords or keyword phrases it's important to be as specific as possible. Analyze every possible service or product you provide to potential customers, and think of all the ways someone could do a search for those services and think about your location.
For instance, someone searching for a hotel in your town who has never been there before or is visiting a local attraction is unlikely to know the name of your hotel so they are more likely to use a search phrase such as “hotels in Town name” or “ hotel near attraction name”.
The same applies to your business. Think to yourself, who am I marketing to? Ask friends and family how they would look for a hotel in another town on the web. Then take into account variations of those keywords. What if I make them plural, can I abbreviate them, and are they frequently misspelled? Also, think in two and three word phrases, too few words and you might not be specific enough, too many words and it's overkill.
After you've identified and exhausted all the possible keywords start planning which pages on your website you will target with specific key words, don’t target more than two or three per page, and start to write the text including the keywords in the content. When you pass the content onto the web developer make sure you tell them which keyword phrases you have targeted for each page and get them to include this in the page title, meta keywords and headers on the page.
Well done, you have now started the process of optimising your website from the beginning and you will see the benefits. For more tips about website building and how to improve your website download this PDF from my website.
Robert Smith
Director
Complete Hotels Services
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Monday, 12 October 2009
10 ways to attract your local media & improve your Hotel Public Relations
10 ways to attract your local media and improve your hotels public relations
Obtaining free coverage in your local paper, magazines and on local radio can be a challenge however, the potential benefits of being seen in editorial sections, rather than as a paid advert, can be significant and, better still, completely free. Consider following the following steps to help you make the local news.
1) Get to know your local media – Find out who’s who in your local papers, magazines, radio stations and community websites. Keep a note of the names of the decision makers such as editors, feature writers and broadcasters and note their target audience, publishing dates and deadlines.
2) Networking – Get yourself or a hotel representative involved in local networking opportunities including the Chamber of Commerce, Hoteliers Association or Council advisory committee. Offer to host events and meetings and be prepared to provide suitable quotes to local media representatives.
3) Approach Journalists – when you see journalists, editors or the like at local events make an effort to introduce yourself, be friendly and develop relationships. Make it known, although not pushily, that you are available for commenting and could introduce them to other prominent local business people.
4) Provide stories – Don’t wait to be asked for a story. Write brief, informative pieces about your opinions on business matters, local events, human interest stories and the like and submit them to the contacts you have made.
5) Write Press Releases – write press release about your business and submit to your contacts list. Always start with a clear headline that sums up the story and write the release in plain, easy to understand language. If possible supply, a quote, background information or images to support your story and finally provide your contact details.
6) Exploit PR Opportunities – Everyone loves a success story so exploit this by telling the local media about everything from a 10th trading anniversary to the fact that you have just served your 10000th customer or created a number of new jobs by expanding your business.
7) Create PR opportunities – proactively create PR opportunities such as teaming up with the local paper or radio station at Christmas or Valentines Day by providing a prize for a competition.
8) Get involved in the local community – Sponsorship of a local sports team, charity or event can generate plenty of PR opportunities. Back this up with a press release or story submitted to your contacts.
9) Fundraising – adopt a local charity and organise an annual fundraising event. Not only will it create income for your hotel on a potentially quite night the publicity gained could be significant. Invite local dignitaries and if the local paper won’t send a photographer then take some high resolution photo’s yourself and submit with a press release.
10) Review your success – successful PR takes effort and time, but can be very rewarding. Take the time to review local press to establish how successful you have been and perhaps even cost the coverage at the advertising rates.
Have a go – PR is not a dark art, it just takes effort, time and imagination.
Robert Smith
Director
http://www.completehotelsservices.co.uk/
Obtaining free coverage in your local paper, magazines and on local radio can be a challenge however, the potential benefits of being seen in editorial sections, rather than as a paid advert, can be significant and, better still, completely free. Consider following the following steps to help you make the local news.
1) Get to know your local media – Find out who’s who in your local papers, magazines, radio stations and community websites. Keep a note of the names of the decision makers such as editors, feature writers and broadcasters and note their target audience, publishing dates and deadlines.
2) Networking – Get yourself or a hotel representative involved in local networking opportunities including the Chamber of Commerce, Hoteliers Association or Council advisory committee. Offer to host events and meetings and be prepared to provide suitable quotes to local media representatives.
3) Approach Journalists – when you see journalists, editors or the like at local events make an effort to introduce yourself, be friendly and develop relationships. Make it known, although not pushily, that you are available for commenting and could introduce them to other prominent local business people.
4) Provide stories – Don’t wait to be asked for a story. Write brief, informative pieces about your opinions on business matters, local events, human interest stories and the like and submit them to the contacts you have made.
5) Write Press Releases – write press release about your business and submit to your contacts list. Always start with a clear headline that sums up the story and write the release in plain, easy to understand language. If possible supply, a quote, background information or images to support your story and finally provide your contact details.
6) Exploit PR Opportunities – Everyone loves a success story so exploit this by telling the local media about everything from a 10th trading anniversary to the fact that you have just served your 10000th customer or created a number of new jobs by expanding your business.
7) Create PR opportunities – proactively create PR opportunities such as teaming up with the local paper or radio station at Christmas or Valentines Day by providing a prize for a competition.
8) Get involved in the local community – Sponsorship of a local sports team, charity or event can generate plenty of PR opportunities. Back this up with a press release or story submitted to your contacts.
9) Fundraising – adopt a local charity and organise an annual fundraising event. Not only will it create income for your hotel on a potentially quite night the publicity gained could be significant. Invite local dignitaries and if the local paper won’t send a photographer then take some high resolution photo’s yourself and submit with a press release.
10) Review your success – successful PR takes effort and time, but can be very rewarding. Take the time to review local press to establish how successful you have been and perhaps even cost the coverage at the advertising rates.
Have a go – PR is not a dark art, it just takes effort, time and imagination.
Robert Smith
Director
http://www.completehotelsservices.co.uk/
Monday, 5 October 2009
Ways to improve your hotel website visibility in local search results
Ways to improve your hotel website visibility in local search results
Increase your websites popularity by linking your website to other local websites
• Exposes the property website to incremental traffic and highly qualified potential bookers
• Builds your website's Link Popularity, a crucial criteria used by the search engines to determine how to rank the website in the search engine results (e.g., Google and its PageRank). Link popularity refers to the number and quality of incoming links that are pointing to your website.
Here are a few suggestions of the types of local sites and directories that should be considered by independent hotels. These locally-based sites can boost the Link Popularity of the property website and generate highly relevant traffic and incremental leads and revenues:
• Local content portals and radio station sites
• Local destination & town/city directories
• Regional, County and town/city tourism websites
• Chamber of Commerce sites
• Local events
• Wedding / event venues without accommodation
• Local sports clubs – golf, rugby, football etc
• Area attractions and theme park sites
• Sporting event and venue sites (stadiums, race tracks etc)
• Local museums
Local Email Marketing to the Hotel’s database
Email marketing to the hotel’s own opt-in list is one of the most popular Internet marketing formats used by hoteliers today. Today’s online travellers subscribe to multiple travel email Newsletters and love receiving relevant email promotions, events and happenings – as long as they relevant to what they subscribed to.
Why is email marketing important and why should it be considered by independent hotels?
• Email marketing to the hotel’s own email list is the most cost-effective online advertising format; it costs pennies per email delivered vs. expensive print and display ads
• Your emails “speak” to an audience that already knows your hotel, amenities and services, or is at least familiar with your website
• Creates personalized interactive relationships with locally based customers
• Instantaneous message delivery; thousands of potential customers may be reached within seconds
• Serves as a tool to move distressed inventory
• Serves both as a direct-response vehicle and recognition tool
• Plants seed in the minds of recipients regarding future purchasing plans
• Keeps you in touch with your customers; recruits and retains customers, new and old
Invest in branded emails
Every time an email is sent out by anyone at the hotel it is an opportunity to put your website in front of the recipient. Invest in a branded email solution which will allow you to feature interactive sales and marketing banners in the body text of every email that you send, putting your brand and products in front of your target audience using your everyday business email communications. This allows the every recipient to view your outline website content and an easy way to click through. Look at http://www.onletterhead.com/ or http://www.verticalresponse.com/ or http://www.rocketseed.com/.
I hope these ideas will help you to think about your hotel websites local search results.
Thanks for reading my blog and please do post some comments and follow my blog to receive updates when new postings occur. Simply click on the follow this blog link at the top right.
Robert Smith
Director - CHS - http://www.completehotelsservices.co.uk/
Increase your websites popularity by linking your website to other local websites
• Exposes the property website to incremental traffic and highly qualified potential bookers
• Builds your website's Link Popularity, a crucial criteria used by the search engines to determine how to rank the website in the search engine results (e.g., Google and its PageRank). Link popularity refers to the number and quality of incoming links that are pointing to your website.
Here are a few suggestions of the types of local sites and directories that should be considered by independent hotels. These locally-based sites can boost the Link Popularity of the property website and generate highly relevant traffic and incremental leads and revenues:
• Local content portals and radio station sites
• Local destination & town/city directories
• Regional, County and town/city tourism websites
• Chamber of Commerce sites
• Local events
• Wedding / event venues without accommodation
• Local sports clubs – golf, rugby, football etc
• Area attractions and theme park sites
• Sporting event and venue sites (stadiums, race tracks etc)
• Local museums
Local Email Marketing to the Hotel’s database
Email marketing to the hotel’s own opt-in list is one of the most popular Internet marketing formats used by hoteliers today. Today’s online travellers subscribe to multiple travel email Newsletters and love receiving relevant email promotions, events and happenings – as long as they relevant to what they subscribed to.
Why is email marketing important and why should it be considered by independent hotels?
• Email marketing to the hotel’s own email list is the most cost-effective online advertising format; it costs pennies per email delivered vs. expensive print and display ads
• Your emails “speak” to an audience that already knows your hotel, amenities and services, or is at least familiar with your website
• Creates personalized interactive relationships with locally based customers
• Instantaneous message delivery; thousands of potential customers may be reached within seconds
• Serves as a tool to move distressed inventory
• Serves both as a direct-response vehicle and recognition tool
• Plants seed in the minds of recipients regarding future purchasing plans
• Keeps you in touch with your customers; recruits and retains customers, new and old
Invest in branded emails
Every time an email is sent out by anyone at the hotel it is an opportunity to put your website in front of the recipient. Invest in a branded email solution which will allow you to feature interactive sales and marketing banners in the body text of every email that you send, putting your brand and products in front of your target audience using your everyday business email communications. This allows the every recipient to view your outline website content and an easy way to click through. Look at http://www.onletterhead.com/ or http://www.verticalresponse.com/ or http://www.rocketseed.com/.
I hope these ideas will help you to think about your hotel websites local search results.
Thanks for reading my blog and please do post some comments and follow my blog to receive updates when new postings occur. Simply click on the follow this blog link at the top right.
Robert Smith
Director - CHS - http://www.completehotelsservices.co.uk/
Monday, 28 September 2009
Independent Hotels need to consider Local Search Marketing
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
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
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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