Digital MarketingHotel ManagementEnvironmental Sustainability
How and When to Put Hotel Marketing at the Heart of the Business
Marketing is essential for any hotel or hotel group. It builds demand, strengthens the brand and improves long-term guest relationships. Here I look at how to justify the marketing budget and improve the effectiveness of sales channels. The second part continues the discussion.
Albert BarraSeptember 8, 2021 · 2 min read
I am not going to dwell on the possibilities and benefits of Marketing or on its effect on the results of our hotel or hotel group. We all know the difference between a hotel supported by strong marketing work and what happens when marketing is poor or nonexistent and, at times, even works against the hotel’s own interests.
If we want to build brand value, increase guest loyalty, grow demand, reduce dependence on OTAs and ultimately prosper, we need to invest in marketing and sales. Those investments are not always easy to accommodate within the annual budget. Yet strengthening the marketing function inside the hotel and giving it the importance it deserves is precisely how we build deeper relationships with guests over the medium and long term, creating greater sustainability for the business.
All of this can significantly improve the position of companies and hotels and help reduce the financial pressure that, particularly in difficult periods, weighs on almost every business.
I am referring, of course, to Marketing that goes far beyond posting something on Facebook or Instagram from time to time. I mean marketing understood as one of the most strategic and important disciplines in the hotel business. After all, ours is an industry built around experiences.
We are all aware of how challenging certain periods can be for Hospitality, particularly in some destinations. That makes it essential to identify and implement specific actions that allow us to overcome those challenges.
To do so, hoteliers should ask themselves the following questions:
How can I justify my marketing, advertising, promotion and sales budget?
Which actions can help me improve sales and the effectiveness of my distribution channels?
How can I rediscover my best guest segment as customer attitudes, tastes and expectations continue to change?
How can I create greater brand value and loyalty?
Answering these questions is a first step towards building guest loyalty, growing and prospering. It requires a shared awareness among management teams that places the customer firmly at the centre of priorities.
These are times of intense competition, but also of significant opportunity. That is why brand value, and consequently guest loyalty towards that brand, becomes more important every day.
Tourism continues to offer opportunities that many other industries do not enjoy, and we should take advantage of them. Marketing, with all its components, may not determine everything, but it certainly plays a major role in the future of our hotels.
You can read the second part of this article through this link
