Hotels around the world have to be prepared for what’s coming this year in the field of digital marketing trends, so they can be strong and stay relevant in marketing online area. They need to be able to be in tune with next trends, as past year has seen changes in digital marketing area but the growth is not over. Mobile technology is exploding and with it other game changing trends that will impact hotels and create opportunities in your hotels strategy as well. Only mobile has produced over 94% of growth in the field of e-commerce traffic. What’s even more, 21% of bookings for hotel are taking place through smartphones, so make sure to be ready. There was huge traffic from smartphones last year and I think it will continue to expand in this year too. According to one study, more then 65% travelers are making hotel reservations the same day they travel, but on their smartphones.
The new SEO is all about the content. An average of 30 to 40% of revenues from hotels is derived from traffic that’s organic, so it’s very important to have some kind of strategy that goes beyond just usual hotel information. It’s time for you to get creative whether it’s just a blog talking about events or some new form of social presence.Video is practically everywhere taking over online world. There are auto play clips appearing on Instagram, Facebook and everywhere else. So this year you have really big choice of channels to choose where you want to promote your hotel. Social e-commerce is also on the rise. So the logical move is taking over Pinterest, Facebook and other social media platforms. This will become standard line between e-commerce pages and social media.
You have to be in the moment as it really matters for hotels. That means you have to show up at the right time and place having presence that’s strong on every channel where your hotel is. There are also new methods of payments like mobile payments, fingerprint payment and simplified flows of checkouts. Get much more personal with email campaigns. If you didn’t know, personalized emails can lift your rates of conversion by 12%. Your reputation online is is crucial if you want to succeed.
There are so many tools that you can use and take advantage this year. Try to run contests on Instagram or Twitter and be responsive to reviews. Traditional way of marketing is no longer effective as today it’s all about performance. As this year is going by, you need to be prepared to implement all these trends into your strategy and be one step ahead of your competition, so act now, before 2017 arrives.
