Digital marketing has defeated traditional marketing by enabling businesses, from varied industry domains, with increased brand awareness, improved customer engagement, and enhanced sales.

Organizations can achieve more benefits with the help of digital platforms instead of continuing with conventional marketing tactics. But, designing the right digital marketing strategy is the key crux of success. 

To stay ahead in the competition, hotel companies have started considering digital marketing a serious business for the last few years. Not just that, they are identifying innovative ways to surprise and delight the clients by implementing out-of-the-box initiatives.

Adopting digital marketing for hotels, the leading hotel chains are reshaping their business by understanding customers’ preferences and enabling them with personalized services. Customization is one of the must-have elements that buyers look for in the products and services they avail. Moreover, it proves you better than your competitor too. 

Would you like to explore the digital marketing strategies of top hotel companies? Here we are going to share a few proven tactics that are successfully executed by the popular hotel brands. Let’s delve into it.

Provide convenience to the customers 

According to Statista, mobile phone users will reach 3.5 billion worldwide by the end of 2021. With this number, mobile app for travelers offers a huge opportunity in digital marketing. It helps them to connect, engage and provide personalized service to their target audience and update their promotions, tours, and events on the go.

Keep in mind that downloading an app is just the beginning of a guest’s journey. Consumers take 5x longer to consider booking after downloading an app, so hotel companies must create compelling content to engage the target audience throughout their entire journey.

Today, mobile phones enable users with a great level of convenience by allowing them to take required actions on the spot. Hotel businesses can utilize the mobile platform to reach out to a larger target audience and offer them a wide range of services.

When it comes to digital marking strategy, hotels can design a loyalty program to attract customers. Digital marketers of the hotel can design a custom strategy by considering the target audience and using the right digital media. 

Hilton is one of the leading hotels & resorts chains that offer digital convenience to customers. They have successfully combined the digital platform and digital marketing strategy to gain a competitive edge.

The hotel company rolled out an informational campaign named “Top Clicking Around.” Through the campaign, they wanted to communicate “what is good for us is good for you” message to the target audience.  

The brand was receiving an enrollee every three seconds. Well, the objective of the campaign was limited to promote a smoother customer experience and increase the number of enrolled customers. 

Along with the campaign, HHonors allowed enrolled customers to download an associated mobile app. The app allows for hotel booking services to enable customers with convenience and ease. The customers can select specific rooms, check-in time, checkout time, and more from the mobile app. The most unique feature of the app was it allowed customers to open the room with the help of a digital key. 

Leveraging the right mixture of digital platforms and digital marketing strategies, HHonors delivers a great customer experience and makes an impression on the discriminating digital age travellers.

Harnessing the power of digital media 

There are a lot of digital platforms from where the hotels can influence the audience such as website, social media, email marketing, digital magazines, and more. Considering digital signage for hotels, hotel businesses can drive tremendous customer engagement. 

If we understand this with the help of an example, then Marriott is the best suited. Marriott is a popular hotel chain having a global presence. They started a website named Travel Brilliancy that specifically targets the millennial. 

Recently, they have started a digital magazine to address the expectations of travellers who are excited to explore new vistas, new adventures, and new perspectives of travelling. Using the potential of digital media, Marriott repositions itself as a “smart travel” resource provider by launching a digital magazine.

To maintain the customers’ interests in the digital publication, Marriott digital marketing experts take interviews of prominent thinkers on a quarterly basis. In the interview, they cover emerging travel trends, launch specific hotel innovations, and provide the contributions for partner companies.  

The market experts talk about the different issues related to a single aspect. It allows travellers to unveil the new perspectives, rethink their old assumptions, and re-imagine what is possible. Thus, the digital magazine offers travellers a new experience that is beyond their expectations.

With the help of the Travel Brilliancy website and digital magazine, Marriott is marketing an entire travel experience to the younger generation who are eager to explore the untouched territories.

By offering their next level expertise, they encourage potential customers to visit their website, explore exciting travel packages, and book their hotels for their preferred destination.

Keep in mind travellers choose destination over accommodation

Travellers are more interested in exploring the destinations rather than accommodations. They are definitely looking for comfortless but not luxury if they are adventurous in real sense. Choice Hotel learned about this mindset of the travellers and allows them to visit the Choice Hotel’s “Travel Top 6” website. 

Visitors can click on a photograph of different places such as Vienna, Frankfurt, Budapest, London, Cannes, Rome, or many more well-known tourist places to learn about the popular travel spots of the respective location. The visitors can see many options in front of their eyes that present their preferred locations with spectacular sound, sight, smells, taste, and overall ambience.

Choice Hotel’s menu has a direct booking option and this option is available on each page of the travel destination. The hotel chain offers its facilities and services in each village, region, and city across Europe that are renowned as travel places. The hotel allows smart marketers to promote their locations along with the services and facilities by offering them an ideal platform.

Additionally, to stay apart from the competitors, Choice Hotel has created the brand loyalty program by analyzing the customers’ travelling preferences and addressing them. Other hotels can also implement such strategies for their hotel business to keep travellers engaged and connected.

Takeaway

Here, I have considered a few popular examples. But, there are many ways that you as a hotel business can implement customized digital marketing strategies as per their target audience and business goals. I would like to suggest, hotels should apply some creative and unique market ideas along with the proven strategies to enable the customers with a different experience than other hotel chains. Utilize the power of social media, email marketing, personalization, and other elements of digital marketing that dove customers for your business from different channels.