Before we explain what Inbound Marketing is… have you ever stopped to think about the power your digital channels have and the impact they can have on your company’s bottom line?
Many businesses have been standing out during this year because, at a certain point, they understood that in order to differentiate and stand out, it is necessary to invest time and money. In the Hotel Industry, it couldn’t be different!
That Digital Marketing has boosted businesses in recent years is nothing new. Instagram, Facebook, Blogs… but what is the reason for all this?
Inbound Marketing came as a way to unify these digital channels with the following purpose: to generate new contacts and possible customers (the so-called “leads”), to increase the loyalty of the customers you already have, and also to transform the followers into “advocates” of your brand.
“Inbound Marketing is a marketing concept focused on attracting, converting and delighting customers. Attraction Marketing, as Inbound is also called, moves away from the traditional concept of advertising and enables the connection with the target audience through the pillars: Content Marketing, SEO and Social Media Strategies.”
Source:RockContent.com
Many hotels look to this strategy to make reservations that would normally come through OTA’s (Online Travel Agencies), to come now through their own channels. In other words, less commissions and greater possibility of loyalty.
But how?
It’s simple. To build an Inbound Marketing strategy, you need to understand a few points. But before that, we need to clarify one important thing: not always those who follow your brand on Social Media will effectively be your buyers.
So let’s get to the points:
- Know who your followers are and what they are looking for in your Social Network;
- Know who your personas and your target audience are;
- Know what their needs are and how your company/product/service can help them.
Having these three points aligned, the development of a Digital Strategy based on the characteristics and needs of your hotel follows.
Inbound is designed within a structure called Sales Funnel. With this tool it is possible to monitor and understand the purchase journey of your guest or future guest in order to set a short, medium and long term goal according to their behavior.
In this strategy, you need to communicate in the right channel, in the right way to the right audience.
But how to start?
- See if your site has active conversion channels that automatically reach some contact software, such as Mailchimp or RD Station (recommended).
These channels can be: contact forms, newsletter forms or pop ups, WhatsApp buttons or Chat Bot, etc. Any channel where the customer enters their email to get a response is considered a conversion channel.
But remember, to communicate with these customers you must ask for consent (GDPR).
- Once you’ve seen the channels and know that these emails arrive automatically on your platform of choice, it’s time to organize your database.
You can import the database from your PMS or ask for the platform to be integrated as well, and then the contacts will automatically go into your database.
- When all your contacts are properly organized and segmented, we move on to content.
Inbound Marketing is driven by content generation. Having your blog, your website, your planning for newsletters, landing pages and social media coordinated and in tune with WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS would like to know is extremely important.
“Inbound Marketing is a set of marketing strategies that is based on the idea of creating and sharing content geared toward a specific target audience to gain permission to communicate with your prospect in a direct way, creating a relationship that can be long-lasting.”
Source: RockContent.com
This strategy will help your hotel delight customers by offering quality content in the right way at the right time. Standing out now is always a good option, but why not focus on customers who are actually interested in your hotel?
Want to learn more how we can help you grow your hotel’s number of prospects through Inbound Marketing?
Contact us by clicking here.
