a hotel software...creating various short term and long terms ppc strategies targeting the websites...
TRANSCRIPT
A Hotel Software Digital Marketing Strategy for American Market
By Supratim Chakraborty
Agenda
¤ Hotel Software & US Market
¤ Digital Marketing Trends
¤ SEO Strategy
¤ SEM Strategy
¤ Social Media Strategy
¤ Digital Marketing Metrics
Hotel Software & US Market
¤ Channel Partner present in 15 American countries selling and marketing Hotel software
¤ Four year boom expected for the US hotel industry
¤ New segments such as design hotels emerging in the US hotel industry
¤ Making right conversation with the right people from the start
¤ Defining the demographics ,job functions and industry of target audience
¤ Identifying your buyer: hotel and property owners
¤ Identify your influencer: Bloggers, Channel/Business Partners, Industry thought leaders
¤ Defining the target market and target verticals:
¤ Target Market: American Markets
¤ Target verticals: Hospitality Industry
¤ Hotels, lodges, guesthouses, apartments, resorts etc
Digital Marketing Trends
¤ Digital Marketing Budget increasing by 10 % from 2014
¤ 22% of marketers adjusting traditional sales support budget to make room for digital
¤ Digital Marketing as a % of revenue increased by 20 % from 2012 to 2013
¤ Harnessing the power of mobile marketing, gamification and email marketing
SEO Strategy
¤ Content creation strategy, link building and keyword strategy to increase the page rankings on all major search networks
¤ Listing of Hotel Software in the top ten hospitality websites of the American market
¤ Websites of hotels
¤ Property listing portals
¤ Ad banners and ad popups for leading websites in the US Market such as economic times,yahoo news, Huffingtonpost,cnn, google news, newyork times,USA Today, LA Times,The Guardina, abc news etc
¤ Integrated Marketing Campaign: Advetorials,Display ads, email, direct mail, campaign website
¤ Implementing effective paid search, organic search and landing page for Hotel Software
Effective SEO Implementation
Strategy Situa+on Ac+on Item
SEO up to par by crea/ng high-‐quality, helpful, engaging and relevant website content
In September of 2013, Google introduced a new, drama/cally different search algorithm dubbed “Hummingbird,” intended to gather beDer, more intui/ve results for users via conversa/onal search.
Crea/ng high-‐quality content that engages users. With each update to its algorithm, Google further emphasizes the importance of deep, relevant, unique and engaging content, so crea/ng a content-‐centric SEO strategy is a top priority .
In Google’s own statement, the Hummingbird is the company’s largest search algorithm change since 2001 – a staggering period of /me in the ever-‐evolving world of SEO.
Minimum of 35-‐50 pages of content for a full-‐service soQware website. U/lizing website’s CMS plaSorm, create landing pages ,events and happenings at Hotel Software .Consider using a professional copywri/ng & SEO team that will know what type of content to write about while also targe/ng long-‐tail keywords (i.e. Chicago hotel with free WiFi). Google Hummingbird algorithm update simply underscores the copywri/ng strategy we have u/lized for many years .Genera/ng high-‐quality content that engages and informs users. By crea/ng quality content that accurately represents your soQware and its des/na/on, and Google will reward you.
SEM Strategy
¤ Implementing paid search online marketing campaign
¤ Creating various short term and long terms PPC strategies targeting the websites visited most by hoteliers and SME in the hospitality industry
¤ Targeting websites related to hospitality industry, property and real estate, travel and leisure sectors such as hotelinc.net,hotels.com
¤ B2B hospitality websites visited the most in US market
¤ Asian Media and Marketing Group : Asian hospitality North America’s biggest selling bilingual magazine with worldwide digital presence
¤ Participating in various webinars and b2b conferences such as Boutique hotel summit
¤ Optimizing Content Assets such as images, inforgraphics, videos, pdfs etc
SEM Strategy Implementation
Strategy Situa+on Ac+on Item Increase SEM campaign management, budget and campaign monitoring efforts
Refocused paid search: Addi/onal coordina/on of SEM campaigns with every other digital marke/ng effort (online media, retarge/ng, meta search, email, social media, etc.)
Understanding these complexi/es allows hoteliers to jus/fy increased /me and resources needed to manage SEM campaigns.
Improved AdWords Extensions: Google has recently introduced improvements that allow marketers to consistently show more relevant ad extensions and formats. For example, sitelinks now require extra descrip/on lines and can be scheduled around events and promo/ons, and call extensions now have enhanced tracking, which means more /me spent analyzing campaigns.
Dedicate a significant por/on of your budget in 2014 to SEM. Work with a partner, make sure they are a Google Adwords
Feeder Market Targe+ng: Based on your property’s feeder markets, which could vary according to seasonality, SEM campaigns target specific geo-‐loca/ons. Google Algorithm Changes: Google Panda and Hummingbird updates, which directly affected how Google indexes and values the underlying website landing pages and SEO Constant tweaking of campaigns to adhere to Google’s new rules and SEM best prac/ces.The higher the Quality Index, the lower the cost and the more effec/ve SEM campaigns are. New Search-‐Related Adver+sing Opportuni+es such as Search Companion, Affinity Categories, etc. require addi/onal campaign management aDen/on and efforts. For example, the expansion of Google Display Network’s targe/ng methods with affinity categories allow hoteliers to target more qualified travel markets based on their property’s offerings and loca/on.
Social Media Strategy
¤ Updated and engaging content on Facebook and sharing the same on various American hotel groups
¤ Implementing re-marketing tool such as Adroll
¤ Focusing on various social media channels apart from Facebook such as Pintrest,Google+,Linkedin
¤ Case studies of hotels using Hotel Software could be shared on social medial platforms highlighting the benefits and features of the software
¤ Targeting and tie-ups with the social medial platforms used by companies like expedia.com, various travel agents sites
¤ Videos and client testimonials to be shared on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter
¤ Paid advertisement on Linkedin: Targeting various linked groups of American hoteliers and hospital industry and sharing details on Hotel Software
Targeting Groups and forums on social media
¤ Objective: Showcasing Hotel Software products and posts on a regular basis on social media platforms related to hospitality, real estate, to attract more traffic to the website and marketing the product in a cost effective way ¤ Facebook:
¤ Florida Hospitality Industry Interface (HIA)
¤ American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA)
¤ American Resort Development Association
¤ Hospitality colleges and university (Eg.Niagra Hospitality)
¤ USA Real estate group, real estate professional groups
¤ Housekeeping Associates, Michigan
¤ American Belle Apartments, Rexburg
¤ Market America
¤ LinkedIn:
¤ American Hospitality Academy
¤ American Hospitality Management Inc
¤ Active Resort Users Group
¤ American Real Estate Partners
Implementing Loyalty Program
¤ Launching loyalty program on Facebook page of Hotel Software called “Hoteloyal”
¤ Business partners and clients using the software can refer other hoteliers and gain special benefits such as:
¤ Extended trial period
¤ Higher level of customization
¤ Certain free for service in post sales
¤ Loyalty points for both the referee and referrals and utilize the points to redeem later
Email Marketing B2B
¤ Hotel Software can get databases of hoteliers and email contact of CXO level people for email marketing and following strategy could be followed:
Email Campaigns as Dialogue
• Extend conversation by listening, add relevant value and engage prospects with meaningful communication
Evolve Past Click Through Rates • Tracking no of visits, frequency, segmenting based on behaviour
Segmentation • Segmenting clients based on who opened the email, downloaded the offer, visited the
website
Focus on the message • Customized message to attract clients
Automate wherever needed • Marketing automation based on behavioral triggers
Create a mix of styles and methods
Analyze and test
Keep in touch with all prospects
Cross Channel Digital Marketing Strategy for Hotel Software
¤ Integrate and display advertising: Hotel Software can integrate product images, videos in emailers and send across to business partners and channels. Industry supply chain company Grainger saw a 20 to 40 % increase in conversion rate after implementing this.
¤ Utilize Mobile: Hotel Software can implement what major brand like John Derre has done. The agricultural manufacturing company is known for sending exclusive texts to its best customers before new tractors are coming out)
¤ Creating a digital sales rep: Cloning the best account manager digitally for all online sales
¤ Focus on mobile and tablet channels, fall of keyword centric search due to rise of Penguin 2.0 and HummingBird
Tie ups
¤ Tie-ups with leading software used by western properties such as Visual Matric, Choice Hotels,Micros Opera Bundling and endorsing Hotel Software with the existing software with custom tailored modification
¤ Featuring in American Hotel Register Catalog, softwareadvice.com
¤ Investing the advertising budget for websites such as hotelnewsnow.com and hospitalitynet.org
Strategy Situa+on Ac+on Item Dynamic Price Marke+ng and full integra/on of customer purchasing preferences and behavior with content management and online distribu+on and marke+ng.
Online adver/sing u/lizing dynamic price marke/ng technology such as MetaSearch Gateway, enabling real-‐/me availability and pricing across various adver/sing formats: banners, CPC, email, etc.
Begin by par/cipa/ng in meta search marke+ng that u+lizes real-‐+me hotel inventory availability and pricing, star/ng with TripAdvisor Meta Search, Google Hotel Finder, Trivago (if targe/ng European feeder markets), Kayak.com, etc.
Meta search marke+ng, including TripAdvisor Meta, Google Hotel Finder, Trivago, Kayak.com, etc.
Consider launching business-‐need campaigns u/lizing dynamic price banner adver+sing, such as on travel ad networks like Adara Media, Sojourn and Criteo.
Dynamic price banner adver+sing, including several travel ad networks,. Dynamic price email marke/ng to improve
email conversions and improve the credibility of the campaigns.
Personalized pricing based on known guest booking history, preferences, user and pathing behavior, demographics and affilia/on to customer segments or a loyalty program.
“Game-‐changing” ini/a/ves that are already in Beta, including Google Dynamic Text Retarge+ng Ads, Dynamic Price Google AdWords, etc.
Dynamic Digital Marketing Plan
Digital Marketing Metrics