Hotel Marketing Strategy

The Most Affordable, Effective Marketing Strategies for Hotels

Now that the Internet has become such an integral part of our daily lives, hotel marketing has primarily moved online. And that’s a very good thing for hotel owners. While print and television marketing require a sizable financial investment for a short marketing cycle, online hotel marketing strategies are much less expensive to create and the returns are far longer lasting. Television advertising costs range from thousands of dollars to more than $1 million and they only market your hotel for the 15 or 30 seconds they are on-screen. Print marketing is a bit more affordable, but the longest most consumers keep a magazine around is a month or two. Online hotel marketing strategies, however, cost significantly less than other marketing channels and promote your hotel for much, much longer – the online hotel marketing strategy you invest in today may still be promoting your hotel for years to come! Let’s take a closer look at the online hotel marketing strategies – we’ll compare their costs and life cycles to see which are the most affordable and effective options for you.

Hotel Website

Establishing a hotel website requires the largest initial investment of all of the online hotel marketing strategies, but it’s definitely worth it – your website accomplishes a wide range of marketing chores, and will serve as the heart of your hotel online marketing strategies. Your hotel website is a true multi-tasker: it will introduce travelers to your brand, serve as a booking portal to take reservations, and showcase everything your establishment has to offer.

A responsive hotel website design is the most cost-effective and efficient marketing strategy, as this versatile marketing tool automatically adjusts to whatever device your guests use to access the Internet.  It can effortlessly accommodate all the smartphones, tablets, laptops, and PC desktops currently on the market, as well as the ones that haven’t even been invented yet.

While you will still want to freshen up your hotel’s responsive website design periodically, you won’t face the expense of updating your website every time a new Internet-capable device appears on the market.

Blogging Strategy for Hotels

A hotel blog is a highly affordable internet hotel marketing strategy that gives an immediate boost to your online profile now, and then continues to promote your hotel for the foreseeable future.

A well-written hotel blog is a great way to introduce travelers to the amenities you offer. It can build authority for your hotel brand, and is an effective way to attract travelers to your website (where you can convert them from visitors to paying guests).

With the careful use of keywords and SEO strategies, you can keep blogs about evergreen topics such as traveling tips, area information, etc. on the top of search engine results for years to come. When guests go looking for information on that topic in the future, the blog you write today can still be there, waiting to direct them to your website … even if they’re looking three years from now.

Just think about that for a minute – the online marketing strategy that you spend a few hours a week to develop now could still be bringing guests to your hotel for years to come.

If you choose to write, optimize, and post your own blogs, the cost of this highly effective hotel marketing strategy is absolutely nothing. If you decide to hire a marketing agency to handle your blog writing chores, blogging is still an extremely cost-effective hotel marketing strategy. In comparison, the expense of paying for print promotion for a similar amount of exposure would be astronomical.

Video Marketing Strategies for Hotels

Hotel video marketing is a highly affordable and effective way to reach travelers, especially Millennials. Unlike television ads, where you face exorbitant fees for just 15 or 30-seconds worth of video, there is no ongoing fee to create and maintain a dedicated YouTube channel.

Once your hotel’s YouTube channel is established, you can entice travelers with as many glorious, full-color videos as you care to shoot. There is no limit to what you can do – you can showcase the beauty of your lodgings and the surrounding environs; give guests an up-close and personal tour of local attractions; even turn your hotel into a happening hotspot by creating your own versions of popular travel shows.

You can create your hotel videos yourself, with your smartphone or one of the many reasonably-priced digital video cameras currently on the market. Post videos and maintain your YouTube channel on your own, and this highly effective hotel marketing strategy is free.

If you choose to hire a professional videographer, hotel video marketing on YouTube still remains highly affordable when you consider the additional marketing mileage you can get by adding professional quality videography to your YouTube offerings.

Adopting a video marketing strategy will increase your hotel’s online presence, help you to market to a difficult-to-engage demographic, and gain you a foothold on video searches. When you add in the fact that your videos will remain up and marketing for as long as you choose, video hotel marketing has the potential to be one of the most hotel marketing plan available online.

Social Media Marketing Strategies for Hotels

Social marketing strategies have the shortest life span of online hotel marketing strategies, but they are a fabulous way to engage with travelers.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Instagram all present the opportunity to interact with your guests with no fees. All they require is an investment of time, and an ongoing commitment to consistently post.

Set aside an hour a day to write your posts, use a social media management system to schedule your posts throughout the day, and you can build brand awareness and promote your hotel for free.

If you are ready to put these affordable, effective online marketing strategies to work for your hotel, Travel Tech Strategies is here to help. Our dedicated marketers can provide comprehensive support for your online hotel marketing goals, including a responsive hotel website design, hotel blogging services, professional video marketing services, monthly SEO and social marketing packages, and much more.

Contact us at Travel Tech Strategies today at 954-779-2801 for help developing an effective, affordable marketing strategy to ensure your hotel’s success!              

Tags: hotel marketing strategy, effective hotel marketing strategies, marketing strategies for hotels, online marketing strategy for hotels