10 LocaL aND MoBiLE MaRkETiNg STRaTEgiES To PuT YouR … · / 10 LocaL aND MoBiLE MaRkETiNg...

PRESENTED BY :

10 LocaL aND MoBiLE MaRkETiNg STRaTEgiES To PuT YouR HoTEL oN THE MaP

consumers initiate more than 3 billion local searches each month, with nearly 40% of mobile queries related to location.

-googLE“

“

1 / 10 MoBiLE aND LocaL

10 LocaL aND MoBiLE MaRkETiNg STRaTEgiES To PuT YouR HoTEL oN THE MaP

Empowered by speedy, sophisticated tablets and

smartphones, travel consumers are becoming increasingly

mobile, just as the information they seek becomes ever

more location-focused.

This demand for information that’s fresh, engaging, and

geo-targeted presents new marketing opportunities for

hoteliers, allowing them to connect with travelers looking

for overnight accommodations, dining and nightlife

hotspots, spa treatments, and other hotel services in

particular locales.

In order for you to gain your fair share of the market, local

and mobile considerations simply need to be incorporated

into your 2012 digital marketing strategy. Otherwise, you’ll

be left in the dust, as continual advancements and growth

trends move further in this direction.

FuNDaMENTaL cHaNgES iN THE SEaRcH LaNDScaPECentral to any understanding is a grasp of just how

rapidly the Internet search landscape is evolving.

Robert Rauch, president of R.A. Rauch & Associates – a San

Diego - based hospitality management company – notes that

more than 50 percent of travel bookings are made on the

Internet, with over 114 million people researching travel

online and 94 million actually booking reservations.

Hardly surprising news: More and more travel consumers are

using the Internet. What is interesting, and begs further

examination, is how these consumers are searching the

Internet in ways that detour from the traditional.

LocaL SEaRcHAs the search engines continuously evolve their ability

to personalize results – in the interest of presenting

individual users with information most relevant to their

own needs – location is one of the key factors that plays

into this equation.

Optimization of content for locally based search terms is

vital for several reasons:

• The Kelsey Group reports that 74% of Internet users

perform local searches.

• According to Google, consumers initiate more than 3

billion local searches each month, with nearly 40% of

mobile queries related to location.

• A recent Pew Research Center study found that

� / 10 LocaL aND MoBiLE MaRkETiNg STRaTEgiES To PuT YouR HoTEL oN THE MaP

• More than 15 million people are projected to book

hotel rooms via their mobile device in 2012, according

to eMarketer.

In addition to researching and reserving

accommodations via their mobile gadgets, travelers are

communicating their personal preferences with regard

to lodging and ancillary hotel services like restaurant

reservations, spa treatments and conference planning

directly to hotels. New behaviors – enhanced and enabled by

increasingly sophisticated technologies – demand that hotels

become more engaging in both their marketing efforts and

the manner in which they service guests.

THE aDvENT oF “SoLoMo” Two particular Google statistics mentioned above bear

repeating: Consumers conduct over 3 billion local

searches every month, and almost 40% of mobile searches

have local intent. These trends, combined with the “it’s

not going away” omnipresence of social media, led to one

of the more frequently discussed topics during the annual

2012 SES (Search Engine Strategies) conference in London:

SoLoMo. While not an acronym for a trendy new NYC

neighborhood, it is a place hoteliers will surely want to be

in 2012 – at the convergence of the SOcial, LOcal and MObile

media platforms.

Smartphone and tablet-wielding travelers are becoming

increasingly savvy SoLoMo consumers. Couple this with

the news that more and more drivers are researching

hotels from their cars’ Wi-Fi-equipped GPS systems, and

the mandate becomes clear: It’s imperative that hoteliers

localize their website content to capture mobile customers.

There are several marketing strategies that hotels can utilize

to address the growing demand for local and mobile travel

services and, ultimately, benefit their properties.

53% of survey respondents used search to find local

restaurant, bar and club information, and 35% searched

for information on other types of local businesses.

• One Boston-area hotel management firm noted a 508%

increase in Web-originated reservation phone calls

within the first month of shifting its website to a

localized approach.

With respect to hotels, the importance of responding to

local search tendencies cannot be overstated. A property

that localizes its marketing efforts to a specific geographic

target – by optimizing its website for locally searched terms,

claiming listings on the top search engines’ local directories

and providing geo-specific visual and textual content that

is of value to users – stands a distinctly better chance of converting local searches into paying guests.

MoBiLE SEaRcHWhile mobile channels are expanding at an aggressive rate, it

wouldn’t be unthinkable to suggest that desktop and laptop

computers are headed in the direction of the payphone.

Fifty percent of U.S. adults and eighty percent of business

travelers have smartphones and tablets like the iPad, with

Google projecting that the use of these mobile devices as

a means for accessing the Web will surpass traditional PCs

by 2013.

This paradigm shift has been felt in the hospitality industry:

• According to Forrester Research, mobile bookings

have quadrupled between 2008 and 2010, and Google

reports that hotel mobile searches have increased by

3,000 percent from 2010 to 2011.

• IHG recently reported $148 million in mobile bookings

for 2011, a greater than ten-fold increase over 2010.


Let’s take a look at five on each platform.

LocaL BEST PRacTicES1. Optimize your website for local search.If you do nothing else, place your street address and

phone number on every page of your website. This not

only makes it easier for customers to find your address, it

lets the search engines know that you are a local business.

However, search engines aren’t able to read images, so

make certain that your address and phone number are in

text format.

Equally crucial is the integration of local keywords

throughout your website – e.g., “midtown Manhattan hotel”

or “downtown Denver accommodations.” Use a tool such

as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to research market-

specific keywords with active demand. Select one or two

main phrases to be targeted on each page, and incorporate

them into your site content – to show the search engines

that you offer relevant info for users looking for places to

stay, dine, lounge, and host events in your local area.

Taking things a step further, create a Contact Us page with

all of your local information. A well-thought-out Contact

Us page includes a photo (e.g., an exterior shot or a picture

of the lobby), street address, phone number, fax number,

contact form, email address, and a map (a Google map is

the most common choice). Having a dedicated Contact Us

page will help customers find you easily and strengthen

your local listing.

A fourth, and more advanced, way to boost your website’s

local search exposure is to have your webmaster create a

KML location file to display your hotel’s geographic data for

Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile.

2. Claim and optimize your listing on the top search engines and local search directories.With the rise of SoLoMo and the simple truth that mobile

devices will only get faster, any hotelier’s mobile SEO

strategy needs to be local and immediate. This is why

the local databases and directory listing services are

so important: More and more people are conducting searches

from cell phones and mobile devices than ever before, and

these searches favor local databases over the traditional

search engine databases. This means that unless you’ve

listed your hotel locally, travelers researching lodging on

their mobile devices won’t find you.

For both independent and branded hotels, optimizing and

enhancing local search listings on the top three search

engines’ local directories – Google Places, Yahoo Local, and

Bing Local – should be supplemented by submission to more


than 150 business directories, including Yelp, Citysearch,

MapQuest, DexKnows, and many others. Collectively, these

listings boost your placement in the search engines’ local

results, in addition to providing travelers and local residents

with additional means of finding you, as referral sites in their

own right, which they can visit to find businesses located in

a particular area. If you don’t have the time to submit your

property to local directories, several services – including

VIZERGY’S local search submission service – will add your

details to local search directories automatically.

When listing your hotel in these directories, keep

in mind that consistency is absolutely critical. “The

Downtown Hotel & Spa” is not the same as “Downtown

Hotel & Spa” or “Downtown Hotel and Spa” in the search

engines’ eyes. It is imperative that the search engines see

the official name, address, and phone number of your

hotel listed and formatted in the exact same way in order

to recognize them as belonging to the same business. If the

search engines see differences in the way this information

is displayed, they assume that the listings do not represent

the same hotel, which dilutes the power of these listings

and your overall placement as a result.

3. Use Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and other social sharing sites to reach out to local audiences.The third leg of the “SoLoMo” triad is “social.” Once you’ve

optimized your own website from a local perspective, it’s

time to get out there on the Web and mingle in the most

popular social networks, with a localized approach to the

content you share.

Using Facebook to target local customers by interacting

with pages that travelers coming to the area might

logically visit is a powerful way to promote your

property. For example, if your hotel is near the Colorado

Convention Center, you might post comments about

upcoming events and other helpful information on its

Facebook profile. As travelers browse the Convention

Center’s Facebook page, they could see your hotel’s post

and click over to learn more about you as a potential place

to stay while they’re in town for an event.

While creating and managing a Facebook page is an

essential element, given its level of influence, certain

aspects of Twitter make it an even more effective

promotional tool. Of particular note is the Advanced

Twitter Search, which allows you to locate people who

tweet about any topic. So if someone tweets “Anyone

know a great hotel with a pool near the Colorado

Convention Center?” you can respond with a tweet

of your own should your property fit the description.

Foursquare, Flickr, YouTube, and a multitude of other social

sites can be viewed in the same light – as opportunities to

interact with users looking for local information. By sharing

helpful info, photos, videos, and other material about your


destination, you’ll be able to engage with a variety of

different audiences who are likely to be receptive to

staying with you.

4. Respond to your reviews, good or bad. Be sure to frequent sites that feature reviews of your hotel

– Google Places, Yelp, Citysearch, TripAdvisor – to find out

what people are saying about their experiences as guests.

This is your best opportunity to learn, grow and provide

better service.

If you’ve received a negative review, look at it as a

chance to explain yourself and defend your brand. Most

people understand that any business can have a bad day, and

potential guests will be interested to see what steps you’ve

taken to correct the situation. According to hospitality

consultant and author Daniel Edward Craig, “responding

to reviews shows that you’re listening and you care. It’s

also an opportunity to set expectations for future guests.

You may be responding to an individual reviewer, but your

audience is the greater community of travel shoppers.”

In a Forrester survey commissioned by TripAdvisor, 79% of

travelers indicated that a management response to a

negative review reassures them.

It is also worth noting that the overall volume of reviews

and the percentage of positive versus negative comments

factor into the local results, which makes it especially

important for you to know what your guests think you’re

doing right – to ensure that you keep doing it – and wrong,

so that you can correct the issue immediately.

5. Attract high-quality inbound links, particularly from trusted local websites.Once you’ve submitted your site to all of the most important

business directories with national and international reach

(as described in Step 2 above), it’s time to focus on the most

influential websites in your own individual market, state,

and region. Think about the most authoritative sources of

information about your local area – from regional

travel guides and local chambers of commerce to press

publications and media companies. By soliciting links from

other trusted websites grounded in your locale, you’ll

demonstrate to the search engines that your site is a

reputable source that should be included in the top results

for the area.

One of the most effective ways to solicit links with other

trusted websites in your local neighborhood is to produce

”“

responding to reviews shows that you’re listening and you care. it’s also an opportunity to set expectations for future guests.

- DaNiEL EDwaRD cRaig


pieces of highly informative content, packed with details

designed to help travelers interested in visiting the area.

Use these pieces to negotiate links with respected sites in

your region, based upon the value of the information that

you’ve put together for the benefit of their audiences.

In placing or requesting links from other websites, give

careful consideration to the “anchor text” that is used

– i.e., the clickable text that is hyperlinked to your site.

Whenever possible, incorporate the market name and / or

keywords into these text links, as this practice will help

boost your rankings for phrases that include these words in

the search engines’ local results.

MoBiLE BEST PRacTicES1. Develop a mobile site, specifically designed and optimized to perform well on mobile devices. Websites designed to be viewed on traditional desktop

computers with a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels

or higher don’t translate well to the much smaller

mobile device screens (320 x 480 pixels). Trying to

shoehorn your wide-screen desktop website onto the tiny

screen of a mobile device is a worthless exercise that

destroys usability and conversion rates. Unable to access the

information they need, users will abandon your site without

booking a reservation. Mobile search engines employ

different bots and algorithms than those used for traditional

web searches. They evaluate your website as if it was being

rendered on a mobile phone, and they rank results partially

based on how well the page will render on the type of device

submitting the query. This means that if your mobile site is

poorly designed, the search engines will know it and disregard

it as a quality source of information. A few tips along

these lines:

• Make sure that your mobile site content renders

well and loads quickly on the devices most frequently

utilized by your target audiences.

• Keep the content of your site as simple as possible,

to make it easy for users and search engines alike to

process all information – with clean code, concise text,

and minimal imagery.

• Create and submit a mobile sitemap – using the

instructions on Google’s Mobile Webmaster Help

Centre as a guide – to ensure crawling and indexing by

the search engines’ mobile bots.

• Upload your site to mobile directories, including

Taptu, Jumptap, find.Mobi, YPMobile, AroundMe,

and Slifter.

• Include outbound links to other mobile websites, to

associate it with established sites designed for these

types of devices and further signal that it has been

built specifically to serve this audience.

• Request links back from other mobile websites – such

as any sites you’ve linked to in your page content – to

further build your link popularity and status in the

mobile community.

2. Incorporate interactive functionality and apps into your mobile website.


Interactivity is key with mobile users, who are often “on the

go” and looking to fulfill immediate needs. Allow users to

interact with the content on your mobile site, to create

more meaningful, engaging experiences.

• Include search functionality, to make it easy for

consumers to find exactly what they are looking for on

your mobile site.

• Incorporate click-to-talk functionality, allowing

visitors to contact you with a simple press of

a button.

• Offer signup for email and SMS text messaging,

to allow you to continue the conversation beyond

their initial visit to your mobile site, to build a more

lasting bond.

• Enable social sharing through SMS, Facebook, and

Twitter – to allow loyal guests to share their affinity

for your hotel with their friends and family.

3. Deploy a Mobile SEM campaign.Paid-search campaigns are a powerful way to drive qualified

traffic to your mobile site. Follow the tips below to ensure

optimal results:

• Segment all PPC campaigns by mobile, tablet, and

desktop users. In order for this channel to work

effectively, separate campaigns simply must be

prepared and tracked for these three types of devices

– with ad copy and landing pages produced specifically

for mobile display.

• Tailor your SEM campaign to mobile search intent.

Mobile users are likely to be further along in the buying

funnel than the average desktop user, enabling them to be

motivated more easily by just the right strategy and

messaging. Use Google Analytics keyword tool and

other conversion data – set to focus on mobile users – to

tailor your campaign to meet their needs. Target users

by geographic area, for tight control of its display.

• Optimize mobile landing pages. Ensure that the

landing page at the receiving end of each ad is not

optimized for display on mobile devices, but matches

the specific needs and desires that mobile users are

most likely looking to fulfill. Make sure that all buttons

on the page – as well as the phone number – are easily

clickable, by testing all functionality and optimizing

the page content for best results.

4. Use Mobile SMS marketing to engage with opt-in customers.Text-based marketing is a great way to continue interaction

with self-selecting customers. But it needs to be done right,

by recognizing that it needs to be treated much differently

than email marketing, where messages are continually

“pushed” out to subscribers. With SMS marketing, the

key is to treat it as a “pull” campaign, where users are

invited to text a particular keyword to a designated code

to enter sweepstakes and contests; request information

about special offers; or interact with hotel staff in other

ways. Segment opt-in SMS customers very carefully, to


avoid the dreaded “STOP” that puts an end to all further

communication through this channel, if a user receives an

unwanted message.

• Text-messaging (SMS). Push periodic text messages

out to mobile users who have opted in to this type of

contact, delivering deals and information that relate

to their specified needs.

• Multi-media messaging (MMS). Take these messages to

the next level by incorporating pictures, sound, and a lot

more text.

5. Use location-based deals and simple calls to action to promote the mobile site through digital media.A variety of other forms of digital media can be used to

drive traffic to the mobile site, with an emphasis on locally

based deals.

• Mobile banner advertising, run in the main mobile

feeder markets – with very simple, clear calls to action

and targeted offers, created in a minimum of four sizes

to cover the full range of mobile devices.

• Location-based mobile couponing, such as Facebook

Places Coupons and Foursquare Check-In Deals, which

offer powerful incentives to buy through highly enticing

special offers.

coNcLuSioNIt is vital for hotel owners and operators to make

SoLoMo a priority in 2012 and beyond. By providing fresh

local content and compelling location-based offers, you’ll

be able to position your property as the place to be in your

market. As a complement to your hotel’s desktop website, a

dedicated mobile site - specifically designed to operate

on travelers’ tablets and smartphones - will increase your

property’s online visibility, draw mobile traffic to your site,

and, ultimately, drive revenue.

aBouT viZERgYVIZERGY is an award-winning website development and

Internet marketing company, specializing in providing

innovative digital solutions for the hospitality industry.

Based in Jacksonville, Florida, VIZERGY offers complete web

presence management – including website design, mobile

design, search marketing, link building, email marketing,

reservation services and social media strategies that help

hoteliers turn their website into their most-effective

distribution channel. Helping drive online revenue since

1998, the company has propelled thousands of branded and

independent hotels, resorts and property management

groups to success.

[email protected] | 1-800-201-1949 | vizergy.com

10 LocaL aND MoBiLE MaRkETiNg STRaTEgiES To PuT YouR … · / 10 LocaL aND MoBiLE MaRkETiNg...

Documents

Transcript of 10 LocaL aND MoBiLE MaRkETiNg STRaTEgiES To PuT YouR … · / 10 LocaL aND MoBiLE MaRkETiNg...