DIGITAL MARKETING FOR HOTELS
Digital marketing is essential for hotels, and hospitality is also one of the most competitive fields for digital marketing. You have a solid online competition coming from other hotels, OTA's, and travel journalist websites.
Honest Marketing has a small team of top experts in digital marketing for hotels designed to increase your direct bookings!
Why us?
Given our experience and passion for hospitality, we are confident that Honest Marketing is the best choice for your hotel's digital marketing. We combine experience working with (and in) some of the top hotels in Ireland and Europe, allocating a lot of time to your account. Covid19 has destabilized the hotel industry so that you can work with us as hourly consultants/freelancers or as ongoing monthly digital marketing specialists.
Explore our hospitality section page and guide, and contact us to arrange a free call!
Check some of our services tailored for hotels to grow direct bookings!
(scroll down for more info on our guide for hotel digital marketing in 2023)
Social media has become one of the best online marketing channels for hotels. That is because of its storytelling aspect. Often a well optimised Instagram account can tell more about the hotel than the website!
SEO for hotels is challenging, and hotels are seeing decreases in their organic traffic in the last five years. It would help if you had an expert in this field and someone honest. We worked on over 20 different hotels' SEO.
Paid advertising is getting more and more important for hotels. We try to make ads as much segmented as possible.
Let's communicate your unique offers through ads.
Data segmentation is critical. We spend a lot of time analyzing and interpreting data. This information also helps you make better business decisions and update your site.
Our trusted expert, Matea, works with us on Sales and Revenue consultancy. We offer Revenue Management as an extra service. Other services are included in our package.
Our Hotel Digital Marketing Guide for 2023
We view a hotel as a living entity - a place made for people to enjoy themselves and create memories and experiences. That's what differentiates hotels from Airbnb. Your digital marketing should reflect that. There is no better medium to convey a feeling of being in a hotel better than video, audio, and images.
Digital marketing for hotels consists of traditional channels like SEO, PPC, Social media, email marketing. Every other business uses these channels in their digital marketing, so what's different for hotels?
The difference is in choosing which online channels to prioritize and what content to show to potential guests.
We have listed the top digital marketing channels for hotels in 2023 below:
What to focus on
Social media consists of organic and paid content. Posting often and posting interactive content is essential for organic reach, but we all know paid ads on social media often get you even more.
To be successful with social media for hotels, you need to make a strategy – a content calendar for the next six months, one year.
What to focus on
Google my business has 2 substantial benefits:
1. SEO can rank high and get you traffic and bookings. A listing with all images, updated info, and an increased number of good reviews will rank better for hotels in your area.
2. It's a window into your hotel so use it to present your hotel. Business listings get A LOT of views from potential guests.
We might also mention rates on hotel ads show up here, so make sure you have the cheapest rate showing.
What to focus on in SEO
SEO can be different for each hotel website.
Success is determined by how good is your website, content, backlinks, and the level of competition.
It is easier to rank in the top 3 results in a smaller place than in a city. Once you get the technical site (speed, crawl errors, redirects, 404) and on the page (metadata, internal links), focus on the more demanding part: getting links and making better content. Keep your Google my business updated, as explained above.
You want to have content about the keyword you want to rank. E.g., you want to rank for hotels in X location, you need to have content about "your hotel in location X. " Now, this is a problem. You don't want "ugly" SEO keyword text.
You want to excite visitors, not to bore them. An SEO person should work on content, which is both intriguing and SEO-friendly. Content placement also plays a factor. Putting your text on the bottom or top of the page affects rankings.
We suggest scattering the text content on a hotel page, so there's not much text in one place, making it more readable.
It would help if you had links from other sites to your sites, like online mentions in articles and news sites. Social media links don't count here. This action requires creative thinking, and it is a challenge.
Digital PR is the best way to go. You might hire an online PR agency that could land some links from reputable sites. This is a continuous process as a steady number of new links to the site helps you increase rankings. It's a signal to Google that your hotel is mentioned and relevant.
What to focus on in Hotel PPC
Brand Search (appearing in search results) ads are often a must with hotels to increase direct bookings.
Non-Brand Search Campaigns cover keywords for: "hotels in X," "hotel offers in X", "spa" or even competitor brand searches.
Retargeting is showing you are (as banner ads on other sites or your video on youtube) to people that visited your site. Hotels often use this to incentivize to book direct or an offer.
Hotel Awareness Display/videos are banner or video ads showing on other sites or youtube about your hotel. People who searched for your location are often targeted, as they might be interested in going there.
"Google Hotel Ads" appear on your Google my business. It's essential to list your site there at the cheapest rate. Make sure your rate is visible in the top 3 results.
Our Skills & Expertise
We have a super team for getting you more direct bookings and visitors.
Filip worked on digital marketing for over 30 hotels, the most prominent properties in Ireland, the UK, and Europe.
Matea knows the hotel business in and out with 10+ years of hotel experience. She worked in one of the most successful hotels regarding direct bookings in Ireland!
(Contact for more details whether you are looking for consultancy or an ongoing digital marketing service.)
Filip Silobod
Filip is the founder of Honest Marketing. He has years of experience working in and with the top digital marketing agencies (Aro, Avvio, Netaffinity) for hotels in Ireland. His experience led him to create Honest Marketing; a new service focused on top quality, transparency, and direct hotel communication.
Matea Sragalj
Matea is one of the most passionate hospitality professionals out there. With ten years of hospitality experience, she worked from housekeeping to Sales and Marketing manager. She is a social media and sales/revenue management consultant and a regular team member. We are lucky to have her!
13 years of real life hotel experience
(we don't just know the digital side of hotels, we know what's it like working in a hotel)
CONTACT US NOW
Read the hotel case study
(Social media and digital marketing for a hotel during Covid19)