Hotel Marketing Strategy Consulting

A smart marketing strategy is a fundamental requirement for every successful hotel. Marketing strategies are what convert first time guests into repeat and returning guests

As no two properties, markets or brands are the same, the marketing strategy developed by the hotel must be highly customized based on its competitive positioning, market environment and business fundamentals.

Marketing Strategy Photo Credit: nattu | Flickr

RockCheetah applies a holistic approach to helping its clients develop effective hotel marketing strategies. First, marketing goals must be tightly aligned with the hotel’s core business objectives. Marketing goals must be measurable and be easily communicated using specific performance benchmarks. Finally, various scenarios should be considered to identify various end-states, including the capability to actively test alternative executions to identify superior performance opportunities.

The birth of digital marketing has changed everything – there are now two worlds that must be addressed: The physical world where product quality, service delivery and relative value drive customer satisfaction; and the virtual world where relevance, structure and user engagement drive conversion.

RockCheetah focuses on three core disciplines within digital marketing – Content, Messaging and Search.

Content not only reflects product composition, but also how that product is described in text, images and multimedia. By evaluating website visitor goals, various designs and navigation schemes may be established that allow the user to to gain complete access to all necessary information. That content must also be accessible to a global audience – with terminology and formats adjusted to adapt to localized market needs.

RockCheetah sees content development and management as a principal tool to differentiate a brand from its competition. Strategies to express superior speed, quality or ease of use tie in logically with a comprehensive content strategy. If a niche strategy is employed to differentiate the product, site design, navigation and content may be organized to provide unique user experiences that support a common objective, yet leverage different themes.

Messaging strategy is critically important for every brand. Brand personality, encompassed by tone, sensibility and authority must be associated with relevant information to provide value for the traveler. A brand may be presented as an expert, peer or even a fan relative to its relationship with its user base. These messages must be highly integrated with brand / Integrated |

The key to effective messaging strategy is identifying the core message for each interaction and to capture measurable outcomes to benchmark the effectiveness of each message/interaction. This repeated testing of this process leads to optimized conversion management.

Once relevant content and effective messaging has been implemented, the next challenge is being discovered. RockCheetah relies on a deep understanding of the seven-step travel process to frame search-related initiatives. Search Engine Optimization initiatives to support fundamental keywords are strongly related to the site structure and content, reducing the need to rely on extensive paid search campaigns. This is augmented by highly-aligned social network support

By leveraging site structure and social media with the seven-step travel process, RockCheetah improves the prospect of search-assisted discovery providing site traffic improvements, together with greater traveler engagement to improve search rankings. Higher rankings result in further site traffic increases, without the need to embrace black-hat methods or fall into the trap of buying traffic with PPC campaigns.

Featured Services

Strategy

  • Branding
  • Digital Marketing
  • Marketing Planning

Content

  • Development
  • Rich Media
  • Structure

Media

  • Ad Networks
  • Ad Serving
  • Retareting

Messaging

  • Identity
  • Service Commitment
  • Tone

Metrics

  • Analytics
  • Campaign Tracking
  • ROI

Product Development

  • Differentiation
  • Life Cycle (Modularity / Combinability)
  • Value Proposition

Promotion

  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Public Relations

Search

  • Link Development
  • Search Engine Marketing
  • Search Engine Optimization

SoLoMo

  • Social Marketing
  • Local Marketing
  • Mobile Marketing
About Robert Cole

Robert Cole is the founder of RockCheetah, a hotel marketing strategy and travel technology consulting practice. He also authors the Views from a Corner Suite Blog and publishes the Travel Quote of the Day. Robert speaks regularly at major travel industry conferences, authors articles for leading travel industry publications, advises travel-related startups and the equity investment community. He is an evangelist for the global travel industry.