Believe it or not, social media marketing is something every hotel has to get serious about because it can bring a huge difference to your hotel bookings.
If you are a Hotel owner that does not believe what Social Media Marketing does or could have an impact on your Hotel this might add a few nuggets of value that will give you a different perspective. Hotel marketing coach Are Morch shares his tips below:
Social Media Management starts with Value Innovation
Many Hotels bring with them traditional selling techniques when they enter the Social Media arena.
They then tend to talk more about their Hotel services and products. This is not very effective in a Social Media Marketing set.
With Social Media Marketing your Hotel has to be genuinely interested in serving your social community.
You have to lead with value and shift towards talking about your community.
What will it take for your Hotel to win over new uncontested markets with the help of new innovative Social Media Marketing Frameworks?
The answer is to create such a compelling story that anyone who sees it can relate to it and can’t help raving about it.
Increased Brand Awareness
Social Media Management is the key to boosting your Hotels brand awareness.
If value innovation is going to make sense with Social Media Marketing you have to provide proper content in a context on a Social Media channel that reaches the current market, and new uncontested market that will take action.
With effective and creative Social Media Management your Hotel will provide valuable and relevant to the content that is familiar to your audience. It will help craft powerful information depending on important demographic data that allows you to geo-target the information.
Take control of your Reputation Management
Reputation management should form an important part of any Hotel. After all, it would allow them to perceive the way customers see them or think about the Hotel.
It can be stated that reputation management is very important for Hotels that obtain and manage their online reviews.
Looking over all of your reviews will also give insight into what is working and not working with your Hotel.
Customers will surely point out the things that they can’t get enough of, as well as the things that they could do without.
Refine your Hotel by recognizing these concerns and track the ones that appear consistently.
Effective Social Media Management will not only help you but will also show that your Hotel is innovative and knows how to adapt to current times.
Creating compelling Customer Experiences
To succeed in today’s hyper-competitive world, Hotel brands need to solve increasingly complex problems and seize new and exciting opportunities faster than their competitors.
We have for many years seen that Hotel brands focused on service excellence as a critical enabler of their growth strategies.
After studying research, reports, and trends several brands today are now starting to focus on creating compelling customer experiences.
The customer experience, that is, making each of its customers feel special, is increasingly the key factor for a Hotel to stand out from its competitors.
One important factor here to really understand is not confusing the concept of customer experience and customer service.
The reality is that the scope of customer experience extends far beyond the traditional definition of customer service that is, the transactional moments when Hotel team members are providing direct service to customers.
Customers believe that Hotel brands have access to their data, the power has shifted to the customer. They expect brands to give them relevant and timely promotions, products, or services based on their personalized data. In other words, customers expect Hotel brands to know them.
Because of mobile technology customers, today want easy access to Hotel Experience Ambassadors 24/7.
It is critical for Hotels that invest in new technologies to look at the big picture. Don’t jump into hypes that don’t add any value either to the Hotel or the customers.
A dedicated Social Media Management team with the right talent and skillset for your Hotel will help your Hotel map out a new customer journey.
If you don’t have the right talent and skillset for your Hotels investment in new technology, you are on a fast track having some unpleasant experiences.
Redefine your Hotel Culture and build a community of Brand Advocates
Effective Social Media Management will help Hotels redirect their resources back to the customers by providing a new value-cost frontier of affordable solutions for modern travelers.
Introduce travelers to your Hotel Social community, and together build and share a unique experience.
With an effective Social Media Marketing Framework, your Social Media Management team aims to raise the industry bar and reset traveler expectations around what a Hotel experience should be: experience-driven, inexpensive, for everyone.
In addition to a global network of travelers, the Social Media Management team will focus on an inspired community of travelers connected to your Hotels ethos and to each other.
To succeed Hotels must either build a team’s force or work with a Social Media Management team that is change-ready and a culture where learning is valued, and setbacks are viewed as opportunities to grow.
A Social Media Management team will build a Social Community of brand advocates that broadcast stories and case studies that will take value innovation to a new level.
Turning Social Media lurkers into Direct Bookings
Most Director of Marketing and Sales in any Hotel is under pressure from owners or management team to provide reports and insight that reflects effective solutions for the bottom line.
If your Hotel focus on leading with a solution on Social Media, you are pitching the audience. And this leads to a load of problems and trouble that many Hotels struggle with handling.
Social Media Management will help Hotels with Social Selling techniques that go beyond traditional selling. They inspire buyers with new ideas and perspectives. They question the status quo and don’t let customers accept it, thus redefining their reality and widening the possibilities by creating a new effective alternative.
With an effective Social Media Marketing Framework, your Hotels are leading to the solution. This represents a shift from ‘Talking about your Hotel’ to ‘Talking about your prospect’.
Hotels focusing on leading with a solution can experience that 80% of the efforts on Social Media Marketing generate 20% of the returns.
Hotels that shift towards leading to the solution can experience that 20% of the efforts on Social Media Marketing generate 80% of the returns.
Are Morch is a Hotel Marketing Coach driven by his passion and love for Hotels. He provides dedicated high-value Social Media marketing services for the Hotel Industry. Together with his Social Media management team, his mission is to help Hotel brands achieve rapid growth and dominant presence in the ever-changing digital landscape.