The most important hotel marketing trends to watch in 2015

SHOW, SHARE, STAND OUT: THE MOST IMPORTANT HOTEL MARKETING TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2015 / 1
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The New Digital
Marketing Era
Chapter One
A Year In Review
Visual-First Movement
Modern Day Travel Shopping
Mobile Here and Now
Social Footprints
Video, Video, Video
Rise of Local
Bleisure
Content Marketing
Community Marketplace Grows
Chapter Two
Content Marketing
Content, But Not for the
Sake of Content
Raise Your Hand If You
Would Like to Increase Prices?
“Veni, Vidi, Vici”
Practical Takeaways
Chapter Three
The Shopping
Journey
Could It Get More Complicated?
Practical Takeaways
Chapter Four
The Power of
Social Media and
Mobile: SoMo
The Social House that Mark Built
Video = Super Glue
Mobile Takeover
Practical Takeaways
Chapter Five
Targeting
Getting in Bed with Millennials
After You
Bleisures:
They’re Smart, Not Trendy
Love Thy Neighbors
Practical Takeaways
Chapter Six
What The Experts
Are Saying
About Leonardo
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the most important
hotel marketing
trends to watch
in 2015
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Show, Share,
Stand Out
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Table
of Contents
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Thanks for downloading!
As 2014 comes to a close and we begin to prepare for the next
year, it’s the perfect time to look back at what made 2014 great
and what will stand out in 2015.
This eBook will recap the biggest trends of 2014 and what we
expect to come in 2015 – including the continued importance of
visual storytelling and effective content marketing to guide your
hotel’s online strategy.
We’ve also teamed up with a number of experts who have
provided their predictions for 2015 – keep an eye out for their
thoughts throughout the eBook.
Enjoy the eBook and join the discussion on social media using
#LeoeBook.
Regards,
Darlene Rondeau
V.P. Best Practices,
Online Merchandising
Leonardo
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A wonderful and intriguing characteristic of the
hotel business is that you can find lodging in
leading capital cities, small villages & towns and in
some of the most remote areas of the globe. Now,
accommodations aren’t necessarily corporately
owned structures, thanks to the likes of Airbnb,
HomeAway and Roomorama.
Whether the accommodations are the time-tested commercial real
estate empires we instantly recognize, or my friend Steve’s urban
walk up apartment, people are interested in where they’re sleeping
and bathing, where to eat and what to do in and around their
destination.
Though storytelling has always thrived on property, it really hasn’t
been until recent years that our marketing tools and technologies
have given us the ability to source, curate, publish and amplify
these stories in today’s multi-screen, multi-channel universe.
Now we’re seeing visual storytelling as a focal point of many
website redesigns, including Yahoo Travel, trivago, Despegar.com,
Intercontinental Hotel Group, your own property website along with
thousands of other progressive hospitality websites.
We are also seeing a rise in the popularity of the online travel
magazine format of Montage Hotels & Resorts or citizenM which
features large, rich photos accompanied by interesting stories,
easily accessed on mobile devices. This fresh approach grabs the
attention of travel shoppers and keeps them hanging around as
they cleverly convert them from potential guests to a loyal lodger.
The New
Digital Marketing Era
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Hoteliers continue to rationalize their digital marketing activities
as the pressure to increase direct bookings, improve ROI, find
new customers and balance media buys increases. After all, if
you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you
can’t understand it, you can’t control it. As H. James Harrington
famously said, “If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”
Hotels believe that the most profitable and important
transactions are those that happen directly – between hotel
and guest without the middleman. That said, today’s consumer
shops easily across many channels, looking for the right
experience at the right price. The savvy hotel marketer
recognizes this behavior, and, as a result, ensures that their
story is aligned with destination and review sites, social
networks, OTAs, and, of course, their brand and property
websites, to provide confidence in their hotel purchase decision.
If you share our passion for excellence in digital hotel
marketing, you’re probably already looking ahead to 2015 and
anticipating what the year will bring. Before we spring ahead to
next year, let’s take a look at some of the main themes of 2014.
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Chapter One
a year in review
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Visual-First Movement
Good hotel storytellers are moving away from blocks
of boring, standard text towards big, beautiful images,
compelling video and a captivating narrative.
A recent TripAdvisor study shows that photos are so essential
to driving engagement and bookings that just going from having
no photos to photos results in 138% increase in engagement.
Interestingly, YouTube reports that 88% of their travel searches focus
on destinations, attractions/points of interest or general travel ideas,
because video grabs the travelers’ attention and provides helpful
insights and inspiration during the research phase of the journey.
According to MIT, the human brain can process visual information
in as little as 13 milliseconds, and takes three times as long to
process a single word, so it’s no wonder that companies around the
globe from major companies like Twitter, Coca-Cola, and Prada to
small businesses like OpenView Labs and Premier Pools and Spas
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have graphically dominated marketing campaigns. All sizes
of companies have moved toward visuals as a fundamental
component of their brand strategy. Then they take it a step further
by matching them with informative and entertaining content which
encourages sharing and improves customer engagement.
The hospitality industry, as a whole, is slowly following suit. In a
recent study by Webmarketing 123,1 we learned that more than
63% of hotel marketers plan to increase spending on content.
This directionally positive action is good news for consumers
because it will give them an experience that provides the
motivation and insight to guide their travel planning, in the same
way they have when buying their latest handbag or a shiny new
car.
Modern Day Travel Shopping
Time is the new currency. Google cites that travelers spend
an average of 55 minutes to book a hotel and flights, visit 17
websites and click four different search ads per travel search,
with 90% of those travelers conducting the booking process over
multiple screens.
People shop for value, which is the combination of anticipated
experience + price. Among the most popular meta-search
channels for hotel rate shopping include Google Hotel Finder,
TripAdvisor, Kayak, Expedia and trivago. What they have in
common is that they all offer real time availability and pricing
from multiple sources to consumers, facilitating practically
effortless comparison shopping. Many of the leading third party
travel channels also have the added benefit of integrated visual
storytelling along with point of purchase reviews.
Visitors will very often disappear from your website if pages
take too long to load. Today’s consumer expects a visually rich
experience with your property wherever they’re shopping and
often images and
videos are the culprit
for long load times. This
is particularly true for
those on mobile devices
and for Millennials,
who readily admit that
their biggest pet peeve
is trying to navigate
a non-mobile friendly
site.2 Attention to quality
and performance are
essential.
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Mobile Here And Now
The multi-screen behavior has taken
hold with hotel shoppers travelling across
screens, like they cross the street, to
uncover your hotel’s story and to gain
insights into a potential stay. Handing off
the digital experience among devices is
becoming the norm, and is reinforced
with new platforms that are making it
easy to pick up one device and move to
another, with virtually no interruption of
the activity you were doing.
The use of mobile in the travel
shopping journey is growing faster than
expected with 52% of consumers using
smartphones to research trips and 25%
to book accommodations.3
Interestingly, of the estimated
30 billion annual mobile
searches, more than one-third
are local. Hotel search,
in destination, is considered
a “local” search.4 This begs
the question: considering the
time and money spent driving
consumers to your property,
are your hotel stories mobile-optimized
throughout the
shopping journey?
Your concierge, front desk staff and the
“Where” magazine in the guest room may
be overlooked by the immediacy of real-time
citizen reporting made possible by
the seamless integration of social media
and the ubiquitous access to mobile
technology. Guests are turning to their
social networks while en route to your
hotel or even while sitting in your lobby to
learn about where to eat, shop, drink or
just plain hang out.
A Year In Review
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Social Footprints
To understand how to engage hotel
guests on your social channels, you first
must understand why they’re there. At
the heart of it, people want to belong to
a community, that’s why they join civic
groups, sports teams, churches, and so
on. In today’s world, hugely successful
social platforms take that human
characteristic and create a platform
that combines the need to belong with
something of value. Like turning to
LinkedIn to rub elbows with potential
employers, or staying tuned into Twitter
to get breaking news.
Notable hotel brands have
created social relationships
by developing an “experience
driven” strategy aligned with
the aspirations of their target
guests. Best Western, as an
example, tells video stories
that describe the legacy and
heritage of their independent
owners and operators within
each of their communities
on YouTube. This strategy
smartly creates an emotional
connection to the brand and
to the people running the hotel; giving
shoppers a familiar impression before
ever stepping foot onsite. The consumer
feels trust and therefore their decision
to stay at a BW is an easy one. Creating
these feelings is what excellence in social
interaction is all about.
The growing pervasiveness and surge of
smartphones has made social networking
just a tap away.5 40% of cell phone
owners use a social networking site on
their phone, and 28% do so on a typical
day. Social networking is the place to be
casual and authentic, using engaging
imagery to accent your hotel’s story
and to promote your experiences in and
around the property in an understated
and entertaining way.
A Year In Review
Best Western Indie Films on YouTube
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Video, Video, Video
In a recent YouTube whitepaper, they
reported a year-over-year increase in the
consumption of branded travel videos,
with views of video up 118%. Additionally,
two out of three U.S. consumers watch
online travel video when they’re thinking
about taking a trip.6 Moving media can
provoke emotions better than still images
and text – it can make a connection and
be memorable; no wonder we’re seeing
consumers go crazy over it.
Millennials (or Gen Y) have grown up
in a digital world – and their biggest pet
peeve is trying to navigate non-optimized
mobile sites. They love, love, love
video, particularly short snippets of food
experiences, bar scenes and communal
areas. Social opportunities at every turn
are expected. And by 2018, just three
short years from now, Millennials are
predicted to surpass the spending power
of Boomers.7
In the “now” economy, consumers want
snackable chunks of visual content,
particularly with video. Best practice
examples include two to three 12 –
45 second vignettes of your property
experiences presenting guest rooms &
suites, restaurant and lounge facilities
and location of hotel with area attractions.
Production of an overall hotel
video, particularly when narrated
by your concierge or GM offers
consumers an option to visit with
your property and its surroundings
from start to finish when the time
is right. This type of video also has
its place in your media collection.
Most hotels know guests take home the
bath amenities – but after researching
their needs, Hyatt Hotels realized that the
toiletries they offered weren’t satisfying
their customers, especially female ones.
To appeal to more female travelers, Hyatt
Hotels & Resorts created a snackable
video showing prospective guests that
they can expect new high-quality “hotel
swag” when they book their next stay, and
it went viral, with over 420,000 views to
date.
A Year In Review
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts
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Rise of Local
We’ve always known this – i.e. your
guest doesn’t check into their room, lock
the door and never leave until check
out date. Today’s hotel consumer is
actually telling us what they’re interested
in by virtue of their clicking behavior. In
Leonardo’s extensive analysis of over
500 million views of media, we uncovered
a startling discovery. Consumers don’t
care about the exterior of your hotel
(unless your building is of historical or
architectural significance). What they
care about is where they’re going to
sleep and shower and what they’re
going to do in and around your property.
Now that we know what consumers pay
attention to when shopping for a place
to stay, it makes sense to craft stories
around these features and amenities to
address their questions and secure their
booking.
Bleisure
You might have to travel for business,
but it doesn’t mean that your vacations
should take a back seat. Nor should
your re-entry back from the beach
be more painful that the sunburn you
earned. There’s a new wanderer in
town and they’re known as the bleisure
traveler.
This new breed thinks nothing of using
their mobile devices to stay in touch
with work while on vacation and is likely
to add days of leisure before or after
their business trip due in large part
of the rise of mobile. With the use of
mobile significantly growing within the
travel industry, it is easier than ever for
vacationers to stay in-touch with their
work while on their trip. As mobile grows
even more, so too will this new trend,
which presents fresh opportunities for
hotels to modify their stories, appealing
more succinctly to this type of traveler.
Top 10 Viewed Images On Travel Websites
1. Guest Rooms
2. Restaurant 3. Recreation 4. Lobby
5. Map 6. Business Center 7. Pool
8. Amenity 9. Exterior 10. Bar/Lounge
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Content Marketing
Contemporary consumers record
programs to skip TV advertising, rarely
focus on magazine ads, and have
become so skilled at “online surfing”
that they can absorb information without
even a glance at banner ads that were
once a favored format. They are blind to
the conventional world of marketing and
as a result, we’ve seen a shift in hotel
digital media spending as we watch PPC
(pay per click) budgets overtake display
advertising.8 There must be a better
approach to engage and keep the hotel
shoppers’ attention.
Enter content marketing. But what exactly
is content marketing?9
Content marketing is a marketing
technique of creating and distributing
valuable, relevant and consistent
content to attract and acquire a clearly
defined audience – with the objective
of driving profitable customer action.
Or put another way, it’s the art
of communicating with your
customers without selling to
them.
If we pay attention, there are
lots of examples of best practice
content marketing focused on
delivering appreciated and
respected information that
resonates with a target group,
drawing them closer to the
company and its products. These
clever marketers use a variety
of channels to syndicate their
content to consumers using
Twitter, YouTube, email, websites, TV,
Pinterest, mobile apps and so on.
What Type of Content
Do Travelers Want To See?
Our eBook, Get in the Know About
SoMo, is filled with content ideas
from former hotelier and digital
marketing expert, Mark Hayward.
Check it out here (we especially point
out page 17 for a week’s worth of
content ideas).
A Year In Review
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Procter and Gamble,
naturally, found a
very inventive way to
integrate their myriad of
home & personal goods
into a content marketing
strategy that is useful
and practical without
being promotional.
They created P & G
Everyday, a website that
provides consumers with
beneficial and relevant
information while subtly
embedding their product
solutions into the story.
Montage Hotels & Resorts produces themontagemagazine.
com that informs and delights every step of the way using
classic storytelling techniques combined with big, rich visuals,
and purposeful and local content. Their marketing team takes
readers on an artful journey of their luxury collection, giving tips
about roadside attractions, nearby cultural events and shares
gourmet recipes for dog biscuits, which is their creative way of
telling hotel guests they’re pet friendly. Through inventive content
marketing, Montage has developed an affinity with their audience
through this elegant publication by speaking to the lifestyle
and destinations that they have in common; and in return, their
properties stay top of mind during the consumer’s search for a
place to relax, a place to have a cocktail, or a place to call home
after a busy day of client meetings.
The magic of great content marketing isn’t the platform or
the technology, it’s the manner in which it is combined that is
helpful to a
community of
customers in
an open and
friendly way
inviting instant
conversation
and feedback.
A Year In Review
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The web is becoming more and more visual as technology
continues to evolve. How do you see this evolving in 2015
and what should hotel marketers be doing in order to stay
ahead of the curve?
Many hotel execs don’t appreciate the value of quality
visuals updated consistently, and the definition of “quality”
has changed. A great Instagram photo or video, for
example, can drive more exposure than the best professional
photography. Hotel execs should engage Millennials to discuss
what make a highly shareable photo. Stock-type photography is
boring. Visuals should be more editorial in style with a lifestyle
flair, communicating the vibe and experience at the property. The
goal is to create imagery that’s shareable. The best way a brand
can build exposure in the digital arena is by other people doing
it for them by sharing on
their networks.
“
Greg Oates
Travel Industry Editor
and Hotel Strategist
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Community Marketplace
Grows
The genie is out of the bottle. The peer-to-
peer marketplace is here to stay and
many businesses from powerful taxi
companies to global hotel corporations
are trying to figure out how to either crush
these newcomers or somehow learn to
coexist. The facts are that our “world is
now wired to share and this creates an
economy of what’s mine is yours.”10
Who would have thought that there would
be enough trust between strangers that
people would actually rent an apartment
from some random person rather than
from a trusted established brand? Well,
they are and to the tune of billions.
At a recent ISHC (International Society
of Hospitality Consultants) conference
in Austin, hotel leaders got together to
discuss this very topic and its implications
on hospitality – namely, the impact of the
sharing economy by relative newcomers
like Airbnb or Wimdu.11 Intellectually,
these heads of hospitality know they
must do a better
job at telling
stories and
creating content
to retain and
attract hotel
shoppers.
By now, I think
we all know
that Airbnb
is a trusted
community
marketplace for
people to list,
discover, and
book unique
accommodations around the world —
online or from a mobile phone. Whether
it’s an apartment for a night or a villa
for a week, Airbnb connects people
to unique travel experiences, using
stunning imagery, matching descriptions,
integrated
reviews and
an easy to use
booking widget.
Emphasis on
experience!
It’s never just
been about the
rate, and it still
isn’t; otherwise,
everyone would
stay in the
budget friendly
$49 a night hotel.
A Year In Review
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Chapter Two
2015 Predictions:
content marketing
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In our daily diet of online news
from the likes of HotelNewsNow.
com, Tnooz and Skift, it wouldn’t
be surprising to read the
following headlines as we drink
our first cup of joe at home, take
the train to the city, or scan the
news on our smartphone while
we’re stopped at the red light
enroute to the office (not that we
condone texting while driving ☺).
Our predictions are organized into the
four main areas we believe will be top
of mind for Hospitality Marketers next
year. Additionally, we’ll share practical
takeaways that will help you prepare for
the next 12 months.
Content, But Not For The
Sake Of Content
When visual storytelling works it conveys
impressions and invokes memories; when
it works well, it makes us feel. That’s
what content marketing is: creating and
telling your story online, to reach your
prospective consumer, with an emphasis
on helping (informing), rather than just
selling. And it’s what smart marketers are
turning to in 2015. In fact, more than half
of B2C marketers plan to increase their
content marketing budget over the next
year.
There are a lot of bright hotel marketers
out there who already have the recipe
for the secret sauce and understand that
people don’t want to be “sold to” any
longer. This is particularly true of the
Millennials, a generation solidly grounded
in the workforce, and they are traveling
a lot. This group can smell a spin from
a mile away so authenticity is essential
to a successful marketing program, but
they’re in good company – this sentiment
transcends all demographics in today’s
society. Good content is the stimulus
that leads enquiring consumers through
the shopping journey on their road
to purchase, not an afterthought that
surrounds the booking engine.
Content Marketing
1888 Hotel
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Be authentic. Today’s on-the-go travelers use their
smartphones to take pictures and post them on
social media sites – use this User-Generated Content
(UGC) to your advantage. Thanks to technology,
taking and publishing high-quality photos and videos for your
hotel has never been easier. Today’s mobile devices are as much
cameras as they are communication devices. With advanced,
built-in cameras, photo editing software and downloadable social
media apps, anyone can now create, publish and amplify visually
engaging content – all from handheld mobile devices.
Compliment your professional photography with
UGC. There’s plenty of it out there on the social
mobile web just waiting to be discovered – and once
you do, you’ll gain new insight on what people love
about your hotel and gain ideas to help you tell your hotel story.
Plus, you’ll be showing guests’ stories from many perspectives
to give them a complete picture of the experience they’ll have at
your hotel (keep in mind your photos should be royalty-free or
must be accompanied by proper credit information posted in the
photo caption).
Recruit your staff. Most hotels have a budding photographer on
staff seeking exposure and feedback. Find out who they are and
work out a barter arrangement, or hold an employee contest for
new photos, with prizes for the best entries.
Look around. Connect with the local tourism board and nearby
attractions, restaurants and other vendors and suppliers for
photos that showcase the experience of staying in your area.
Get social. Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest
contests are very popular for a number of reasons.
They help promote the hotel and engage potential
guests, both local and out of town. They also provide
exceptional imagery that hotels can use on their websites, and
they encourage online sharing.
Create a photography lesson package with a local
professional photographer throughout the year then
let guests know that the best photos of the hotel and
destination will be used on the website.
Source
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Sort your media into stories by connecting all of
the wonderful attributes of your property, but start
by keeping it simple. An easy way to get going is
to create a dedicated page with special upcoming
events in your destination. Update it weekly with interesting
content (perhaps from the local CVB) and photos.
Apply Steve Job’s “Think Differently” campaign to your hotel
marketing plan as you consider your features and amenities
relative to your competition. Even if you have similar things to
offer your guests, express them more creatively and interestingly
than the hotel across the street using multi-media and entertaining
copy. Once you have their attention, integrate your stories with
special promotions and offers giving them a reason to choose
you.
Consider the season, local attractions or special
events. If it’s summertime, show off your pool,
outdoor or recreational activities, local parks, beach
or zoo. Does your specialty include weddings and
events, consider a natural flow of photos and videos: happy
newlyweds, the ballroom – empty, decorated, and then filled with
guests, a romantic nearby setting, etc.
Staying current with destination information is
extremely important when managing your content,
and we all know things change very quickly.
Fortunately, you don’t have to do it all yourself. Take
advantage of up-to-date event calendars from local businesses
and CVBs, city.com and community websites for a heads up on
what’s going on in your community. Transportation is always a
top traveler consideration. Be helpful by providing links to local
maps, public carriage options including the nearest subway/train
station, bus stops or limo service.
The idea is to give hotel shoppers an opportunity to see
themselves in your stories, giving them a feeling of what their
experience will be like at your property. Compliment the rich
visuals with engaging descriptive text and think of your image
captions as headlines in a newspaper or magazine: World Class
Golf, Lakefront Dining, Free Internet.
Curate
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Now it’s time to layout your
curated content or stories. The
most popular and effective way
to do this is to put them into
multi-media galleries divided
into logical subsections.
Your content can go even further, as you
repurpose it for your hotel website, social
media pages, mobile sites, third party
sites or even blog posts – the tone and
design of your content should match the
publication for which it’s intended.
Got a hot restaurant
or lounge? Publish a
gallery that features the
entertainment amenities
of your hotel with stories that show the
bartender creating cocktails accompanied
by the drink recipes, or perhaps a 15
second video of the hopping sports bar
during a hometown game.
San Juan Water Beach Club
knows how to be unique
online – and showcases its
creative dining options, like
its Truffle Butter Popcorn Soup, in its web
gallery. Don’t be afraid to replace the
standard “Rooms & Suites” with “Pillow-
Talk” or another fun description, like this
hotel does, or create dining options under
a tab like “Zest.”
Of course, you want consumers to be
able to find your carefully created stories
quickly and easily, which makes search
engine optimization (SEO) an important
consideration during this phase. SEO-Publish
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enabled photos and videos will ensure
that consumers can find you as they
search through the pages of choices
available to them across travel websites.
SEO drives them to your
website, but it’s equally
important to present your
guests with your visual
story “above the fold.” This is the space
of your web page that’s visible on the
initial view without any scrolling. It’s your
most valuable real estate. Begin telling
your story the moment the guest walks
through your “digital front door;” it’ll keep
them engaged and interested in what you
have to offer.
The publishing stage
should also consider
platforms beyond your
own website such as
mobile optimization, social sites and
online travel sites. 75% of leisure
travelers switch between devices to
conduct the same travel related planning
or booking activity which means your
content should be optimized for desktop,
tablets and smartphones to win their
business.12
Think about how one piece of content
can be re-used and published across
a variety of channels. Although
creating content is so easy using your
smartphone, you don’t need to constantly
create and publish brand new content
every time you need fresh content.
For example, start by
shooting a video using
your smartphone camera
and post it to YouTube and
Facebook in its entirety. Then, take still
shots of interesting parts within the video
using the screen capture functionality
on your smartphone. Post the photos to
your hotel’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
or Pinterest pages – or even your hotel
website. Once your original content
becomes a few months old, you can post
it to your social media channels again
with a fresh caption to make it more
timely and relevant.
Content Marketing
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Now that your content is assembled, organized and
designed, it’s time to amplify it.
There are many wonderful marketplace opportunities
for you to take advantage in today’s digital world.
Hotels have unique stories to tell different audiences,
e.g. your story
to a family with kids will be
different than the picture
you paint about hosting a
girls’ getaway weekend.
Hotel Giraffe tells a unique
story online and targets
its key demographics with
compelling images and
mentions local events
their customers may be
interested in.
First, identify the websites and social channels
your guests are using and ensure your content
is appealing, up-to-date and tablet/smartphone
accessible. Next, match your target demographics
and your unique story to the appropriate travel channel. Do
you cater to corporate travelers? Then your presence should
dominate corporate channels like Concur, GetThere, Corporate
Travel Management, etc. Want to target brides-to-be? OneWed.
com, Apple Vacations, or Tourico Holidays are great sites to share
your hotel story emphasizing features that brides are looking for.
You don’t need to limit yourself to one key
demographic, or target audience; however, the point
is that your hotel story can be aimed at different
types of guests, highlighting the experiences that are
most relevant and interesting to them. Once that’s done, amplify
your story on the channels being used by your ideal guest.
Amplify
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Content Marketing
Consistency is the cornerstone of every successful
company or product. One of the most valuable
things you can do for your guests is to give them
the assurance that the property experience will be
the same each and every time, regardless of how the booking is
made. This is only accomplished if you tell the same story from
website to website, including your own.
According to a recent study by Webtrends, leisure
travelers use an average of 6.5 travel sites during the
shopping phase alone. If your guest sees disjointed
views of your hotel as they surf around, their
confidence in your hotel’s ability to deliver on their expectation is
reduced along with the opportunity that they’ll choose you when it
comes time to make a reservation.
Content marketing is part of The Epicurean Hotel’s digital marketing strategy online – and
they do it well. Take a look at how they pick and choose various aspects of their unique hotel
story, and feature them prominently on their website and social media channels. These
personalized aspects make the hotel stand out and seem authentic and friendly.
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Raise your hand if you would like to
increase prices?
Raise prices? Tell a better story. In a world where everything
is rapidly being commoditized, it’s refreshing to know that an
authentic story, wrapped with rich meaning and visuals can
actually help you substantiate a higher price. In other words,
consumers are willing to pay more for an anticipated
experience and hotel shoppers are no different. So, if you’d
like to get $10 more per night than your competition across the
street, tell a better story.
This equation holds true for all types of hotel properties, from
budget accommodations up to the luxury category. The challenge
for many hotel marketers is how to best communicate their
value to the consumer. Successful companies are using tried
and true storytelling techniques to capture the attention of their
audiences and create an emotional connection with them. This
approach subsequently leads to a selling environment where the
consumer can “see and feel” the product and in turn will pay for
the anticipated experience.
Start by creating a framework to capture the value of your
property. Have you ever done something extraordinary for a
guest? Do you provide differentiated service that nobody else
Content Marketing
Did You Know?
Hoteliers, want to raise prices? Travelers will pay more when you’re telling a
compelling story online.
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offers? Is your location a hidden gem in the
city? Align these attributes with rich multi-media
(photos, videos and virtual tours), together
with snackable descriptions that represent the
reasons why you’re worth the extra money.
Once you’ve created the interpretation that
capitalizes on your hotel’s best features,
prepare your story to be told everywhere
consumers are searching for hotels. Is your
hotel’s mobile website optimized? Are your
business pages created for Facebook and
Pinterest? Do you have a modern multi-media
gallery on your hotel’s website?
And finally, once all the preparation is
complete, be sure you’re pushing or amplifying
your stories on all the channels that matter –
review sites, corporate and meeting planning
sites, OTAs, and of course, your independent
and brand websites.
How can hotels stand out in 2015?
Try to be visual and tell YOUR story, no
matter on which platform. Every property
has something specific like its location,
“
history, people on your team, special treats, an
amazing chef, etc. Elaborate around this and
use it, so your potential guests get a glimpse
on who you are and what to expect from a
stay at your hotel. Stock-type photography is
boring. Visuals should be more editorial in style
with a lifestyle flair, communicating the vibe
and experience at the property. The goal is to
create imagery that’s shareable. The best way
a brand can build exposure in the digital arena
is by other people doing it for them by sharing
on their networks.
Daniel Zelling
Founder, opensmile
Content Marketing
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What role will visual storytelling play in helping hotels
increase bookings in 2015?
The increased use of image-oriented social
networks such as Pinterest and Instagram reflects
the value guests place on visual content. Facebook
“
users upload some 200,000 photos every single minute
to the site. And plenty of research shows that improving
image quality and quantity helps guests trust your hotel
product,
and works
to increase
conversion rate,
as well. The
efforts OTAs
and Google
Tim Peter
Digital Marketing Expert
Tim Peter & Associates
have made in creating custom image content alone
should underscore the importance they place on images.
The more you can do to keep a fresh supply of high-quality
images on your sites and on third-party distribution
channels, the greater results you should expect to see.
Visual storytelling is older than spoken and written
language. Of the five bodily senses, sight informs the
majority of our experience in the world. We are visual
“
creatures. Entertaining, dynamic, humorous, uplifting and
authentic stories always work to communicate a message, no
matter the place or time. Tell an effective story and you have
people hooked, this never fails.
Joshua Johnson
Freelance Digital Media
Producer
Content Marketing
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Content Marketing
“Veni, Vidi, Vici”
This quote from Julius Caesar, I came, I saw, I conquered can be
appropriately translated into today’s digital marketing vernacular.
Your search engine marketing efforts lured the hotel shopper
to your website, Facebook page or brand site – so they came.
What was waiting for them when they arrived: a visually driven
website that engages the senses while succinctly describing the
experience? They saw. Finally, did this experience captivate
them enough that your property stayed top of mind as they went
down the shopping and decision path? Did you conquer or
secure the sale?
While the web clearly wasn’t around in 47 B.C., the battle for
hotels to attract and retain customers may be just as challenging
as Caesar’s conflict, oh so long ago, near the coast of Asia Minor.
Look around the internet and it’s quite apparent that visually-driven
websites are becoming the norm. More and more hotel
websites, developed by both brands and properties are creating
platforms to publish their visual stories, providing a compelling
and engaging experience for its visitors. The text-heavy designs
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of the early 2000’s are going by the wayside and image-driven
web interfaces are emerging fast in large part due to quicker
broadband speeds, cellular networks, and high resolution
screens. Consumers want to be informed and entertained, and
when the time comes, make their purchase decisions on whatever
device they happen to be using at the time. Are you prepared?
According to Deloitte, the most successful brands in 2015 will be
those that are able to most efficiently engage with consumers
and clearly differentiate what they offer.13 Delivering their brand
experience consistently will be vital.
uu Keep content snackable and as seen through the eyes of
your guests. Having “bite-sized” stories doesn’t mean a
series of photos that the consumer can zip through, but rather
it’s the art and science of presenting short vignettes about the
key elements of your property. This is accomplished through
12-45 second videos, bulleted or bolded text descriptions,
and photos that conjure up emotions with insights into your
environment.
uu Include video in your visual story: One of three leisure
travelers and 56% of business travelers engaged in travel-related
YouTube activities within the last six months,
according to the Google 2014 Traveler Study. As video
becomes a larger consideration during the shopping journey,
it’s increasingly important for hotel marketers to get ahead
of the curve. A strong visual presence, particularly with short
video snippets telling your story will hook your audience and
endear you to them.
uu Include reviews in your story. Reviews used to be just words
now they’re often more than that, with images and video
added. Take advantage of these guest stories because they
provide you with rich insights into how the hotel guest sees
you, which in turn you can use to fine tune your marketing
messages.
According to Cornell, consumers “believe” the review when there
is more of it, so drive up interaction and contribution of photos and
videos along with commentary.14 Reviews are the most powerful
value indicator for consumers. Shoppers also use reviews to draw
conclusions about value and quality, which is why competing
solely on price is rarely a good idea.
Content Marketing
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Practical Takeaways: Content Marketing
Today’s consumers don’t just want to hear about what your hotel offers - they want a story they can envision
themselves being a part of. Use these practical tips to make the most of content marketing.
1 2 3
1. Create. Use. Reuse. Repeat.
2. Think about what makes your hotel unique: What are the key
features and amenities that make a guest choose you over a
competitor? These features should be a key part of the hotel
story you’re creating and sharing.
3. The most successful hotels will be ones who can create a
consistent story across all channels and devices – so the
travel shopper understands your story and brand whether
they’re researching on their smartphone, booking on their
tablet or checking out your social media page.
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Chapter Three
2015 predictions:
the shopping
journey
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Could It Get More Complicated?
Yes, and it probably will, but there is a light in this tunnel, and it’s
called visual storytelling. In 2015, visual storytelling will become
even more important for hoteliers who want to navigate the
complex shopping journey and stand out online.
Let’s review the stages of the shopping journey which by most
travel marketing standards consists of five steps. What they’re
labelled varies from company to company, but the approach
is consistent: Inspiration & Awareness, Consideration, Intent,
Decision, and Post-Purchase (reviews & sharing).
Now, look at the growing list of options consumers have to wade
through just to figure out the right choice for their travel needs.
Property websites, hotel brands, corporate booking tools, GDSs,
airlines, holiday and destination planning sites, review sites, meta-search,
and mobile and social channels top the list. There are
literally hundreds of thousands of travel channels.
What’s most interesting about the combination of the shopping
phases with the complex digital landscape is the important role
visual storytelling plays. It wasn’t that long ago when a travel
site (pick one, any one), had a listing of hotels, with a large price
point and a thumbnail image of the property, usually the exterior.
Increasingly, wise marketers have moved from the boring text-heavy
presentations at the turn of the century to websites that are
dominated with rich media, like big, bold images, short, snackable
videos and descriptive text. This approach transports viewers to
“their place” by showing what it’s really like and according to MDG
Advertising, content with images gains 94% more total views than
non-visual content.15
“The right picture can go further than just telling your story
visually, it can make you feel emotions, evoke memories and even
make you act differently,” which is an essential motivator to move
people along the path to purchase.161
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How can hotels stand out from the competition on multiple
travel channels in 2015?
This is a fantastic question and the answer can be
summed up by what I like to call “C Squared,” which
represents consistency and caring! Hoteliers, of course,
can have profiles on every single travel channel that’s available
online. However, they must be willing to show up day in and
day out over the long-term. It seems cliché to emphasize
this but many, many properties are still using social media
solely as advertising and distribution channels. Yet, in order
to see real success
it must become a
conversation and
communication
channel akin to a
digital concierge.
“
Mark Hayward
Former Hotelier
& Digital Marketer
How did the shopping journey change in 2014 and what
changes do you expect for 2015?
As opposed to identifying a market segment and focusing
marketing efforts against it, Big Data has turned the
process upside down. Organizations are now looking at
the actual purchases and then looking for patterns to identify
micro-segments of guests to target. To oversimplify, travel
sellers will evaluate converted bookings and then trace paths
and data points back up the funnel to identify the combination
of signals that created the greatest probability for conversion.
They may identify that the best time to advertise an all-inclusive
beach destination is the weekend following a major snowstorm,
but that the less expensive properties sell better on Friday
night, while the luxury
properties sell best
on Sunday morning
(a totally fictional
example).
“
Robert Cole
Founder, RockCheetah
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Practical Takeaways: The Shopping Journey17
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. Make an early impression in the consumer’s purchase path
with video. 67% of leisure travelers watch videos when
thinking about taking a trip and 61% tune in when they are
choosing a destination
2. Consumers want to recognize a brand when they’re in the
awareness and consideration stage, making it important for
hotels to have a consistent story across all of the sites being
used
3. 45% of travelers plan to research or use peer-to-peer sharing
accommodations like Airbnb, so now is the time to step up
your visual storytelling to help level the playing field
4. Value is indifferent to property type. Focus on the story to
communicate the experience in a way that justifies spending
5. Mobile is important throughout the entire shopping journey
with 75% of leisure travelers switching between devices
to complete planning and booking. Being optimized for
smartphones and tablets shouldn’t be a back burner initiative
any longer
6. Be optimized for the multi-screen world. More than half
of leisure hotel bookers who use their smartphone for
inspiration, ultimately book another way
7. 80% of hotel bookers watch online videos to make a decision
regarding their accommodations. Video production isn’t as
expensive as it used to be and there is an option for every
budget
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Chapter Four
2015 Predictions:
the power of
social media and
mobile (somo)
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The Social House That Mark Built
Sure, Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t the first to
build a social network, but he took it to an
entirely new level 10 years ago when he
initially developed Facebook to give fellow
students a visual of their classmates and a
way to connect with each other. Today, social
marketing is used by hundreds of thousands
of companies to build customer relationships
in a nuanced and sophisticated way.
Consumer behavior has dictated what,
how, and when they want to interact with
companies, and with each other. It’s pretty clear that people are
looking for good storytelling on hotels’ social channels. Humans
are curious creatures. We love conversation and comments. We
want to be heard and understood.
Our definition of social networking has expanded over the last
several years, whereas it may have started with Facebook, now
it includes platforms that support video or image only sharing,
location based services, conversations with the “suits,” news
aggregators, group buying and selling, along with micro-and
blogging sites. And multi-media is the common denominator
for the leading social marketing companies. It’s woven into the
experience – whether it’s your bio picture or company graphic
on LinkedIn or a video on how to carve a Halloween pumpkin on
Pinterest, today’s social communication is dominated by visuals.
And that’s a good thing because in our busy,
busy world, where time is the new currency,
visuals are processed much, much faster
than words. In fact, people have drawn for
32,000 years, while we’ve only written for
5,000; and in today’s society, pictures help
pull us out of our noisy surroundings to
provide transparency and context.
Though storytelling has always thrived
on property, it really hasn’t been until
recent years that our marketing tools and
technologies have given us the ability to source, curate, publish
and amplify these stories in today’s multi-screen, multi-channel
universe.
The Power Of Social Media and Mobile
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It’s also hard to talk about social without including mobile in the
same discussion, because people don’t distinguish between
the two as perhaps marketers do. They just know that whatever
and whomever they’re engaging with at the time needs to be
authentic, amusing, helpful and visual.
There is much (and growing) research that tells us about the
critical role Social + Mobile, a.k.a. SoMo, plays in the daily lives of
consumers.
uu Social networking has passed gaming to become the #1
mobile app activity18
uu 60% of time spent on the mobile internet is devoted to social
networking19
uu Approximately 400 million of Facebook users are “mobile
only”20
uu Adding a photo to your tweet can boost retweets by 35%21
What opportunity will the rise of SoMo present to hoteliers?
Probably the most interesting development for me to
monitor closely is Twitter with their ‘Buy Button’ for
e-commerce tested in the U.S. right now. Imagine to have
the full booking process for your hotel´s promotions covered on
Twitter including the payment for a small transaction fee! We
also have Facebook on the path to become a “Social Search
Engine.” You might want to try entries such as “Hotels visited
by my friends” or more specifically “Hotels visited by my friends
in Los Angeles.” Question is: what would we rather trust when
looking for a hotel in Miami for our next trip? The results we get
from Google, the results on TripAdvisor OR the comments and
check-ins from our Facebook friends at hotels in Miami? I am
really curious about how much effort Facebook will push into this
functionality and when
this will be available
as well for additional
languages, as the data
they have in their hands
is extremely powerful!
“
Daniel Zelling
Founder, opensmile
Did You Know?
In today’s society, pictures help pull us out of our noisy surroundings to
provide transparency and context.
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The 2014 summer marketing phenomenon can be
summed up in 3 words: Ice. Bucket. Challenge.
In a little less than 1 month, the ALS marketing team generated
about $90 million compared with $2.6 million over the same
period last summer. The “SoMo” of this is that ALS engaged
people, encouraged them to tell their ice bucket story simply by
taking a video with their smartphone or tablet and posting it to
YouTube or Facebook. People went out of their way to script the
story, film and share!
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The four components of their well- orchestrated campaign
were fairly simple. Here are some ways you can learn from this
marketing campaign and incorporate the elements into your
hotel’s visual story:
1. Create personalized content
Not everyone will engage the same way, so they offered
two ways to participate: Donate money directly or voluntarily
dump ice water on your head.
Hotels: Mimic a similar tactic by
reaching out to guests in different
ways depending on the content and
platform. Create an instant chat
about a featured menu your chef
has prepared on your website to
engage people onsite, celebrate a
guest’s birthday on your Facebook
page or Instagram with photos
or a short video, or celebrate a
sporting event with pictures and a
corresponding hashtag on Twitter.
“Let’s go #dallascowboys @
hiltongardeninntimessquare.” It’s not
just one thing.
2. The Positive Power of Peer Pressure
ALS used Facebook’s tagging feature to challenge a friend as
the next target. Videos went wild – how else to best illustrate
the emotional and physical shock of pouring ice water on
yourself or allowing others to dunk you? And lastly, there was
accountability because the posts & videos were tagged back
to your wall.
Hotels: Launch a referral programs using
Facebook like “refer a friend” and win a
chance to enter the drawing for two free
cocktails at your trendy bar. Create a
mutual sharing program with your local
hotel partners e.g. florists, caterers, etc.,
inviting them to participate in your content
creation and vice versa.
The Hampton Inn & Suites Phoenix Surprise
entices travelers on Facebook by letting them know
they’re close to popular sporting events.
3. Celebs
It’s an old trick, but it works – Kermit the
Frog, Robert Downey Jr. and Martha
Stewart all took the plunge.
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Hotels: You may not need Taylor Swift or Emma Stone to make
your campaign, but perhaps there are well known community
personalities that you can snag. Think local chefs, and
mixologists, or someone else who would hold some significance
with your guests – even the newest furry arrival at the local zoo!
4. Fun
ALS launched the marketing event in the hottest part of year,
everyone wanted to cool off and we saw that people got really,
really creative, both with the ice bucket activity and donation
contributions.
Hotels: Have a good time relative to your property and its
surroundings. If the hotel is snowbound, have a snow people
making contest. Give prizes, encourage sharing. Halloween?
Have your employees do reverse trick or treating with guests and
hand out sweets. Ask your staff for other ideas based on these
examples.
The Sol Wave House calls themselves the “First
Tweet Experience Hotel,” and judging by the way they
use this popular social media channel with unique
hashtags, contests and more, they truly are!
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Video = Super Glue
If pictures are the glue, then online videos are the super glue
of stickiness and long lasting effects, particularly as a growing
consideration in the travel shopping journey. Here’s what the
2014 YouTube whitepaper and the 2014 Google Traveler Study
revealed about online video activity:
uu According to the 2014 Google Traveler study, search engines
are used as their first step in trip planning, coming at the
expense of apps, so your multi-media (photos, videos and
virtual tours) should have the appropriate meta tags to
maximize your presence in search results
uu Travelers are engaging with brands and content creators
more and more. So far this year, subscriptions to top travel
channels increased 106% YOY. Check out what DoubleTree
does with this storytelling opportunity!22
uu People view content across all of YouTube’s travel categories
such as destination & attraction related videos which tells
us that guests’ interest is not reserved for the inside of your
property, but rather what’s in and around the hotel
uu Travel shoppers are watching video in adjacent content
areas like restaurants, spas/fitness, sports and cooking
demonstrating that the travel category is lifestyle-oriented
uu Travel vlogs (i.e. video blogs), receive 4x more social
engagement than other types of travel content. People tend
to find them more engaging on a per view basis and often
more authentic, particularly with the younger audience (ages
18 – 24)
uu The older audience (ages 25 – 64) tend to view a wider
range of online video content further along the purchase path
extending to brand information, reviews and tips. Creating
short video snippets (12 – 45 seconds) is a smart way to
cover your bases
DoubleTree by Hilton on YouTube
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Be discerning with your content on social channels, the mantra
“less is more” should be applied to posts. A Facebook post on
Instagram isn’t going to have the same cache as an image or
video.
Practice good writing techniques using bulleted or bolded text that
describes your features and amenities in an amusing and subtle
way.
A solid social video strategy helps properties stimulate and
influence hotel shopping decisions more than ever before. Create
a plan and start simply by asking some basic questions. Who will
be responsible? What stories will you tell? Where will you find
them? How often will you post the video content?
Learning how to repurpose content will be critical to a hotel
marketer’s efficiency because it’s increasingly challenging to
keep up with the demand for fresh content. And after all, social
marketing should be fun for everyone involved, not a chore that
always seems to take a back seat.
Video is an important tool to reach and engage travel
shoppers, yet it seems hoteliers are hesitant to adapt. How
might this change in 2015 – and why?
The cost associated with creating good video content
is a challenge for hotels. The ROI potential is there if
videos are engaging from a consumer standpoint, versus
designed solely
as push marketing
vehicles. Too many
videos feel like
generic sales tools.
Videos with hotel
staff, local small
“
Greg Oates
& Hotel Strategist
businesses, behind-the-scenes vignettes at hotels, insider
perspectives, etc. are popular and drive traffic. This is a huge
trend and hotels should start experimenting. User-generated
videos are potentially another option, depending on the
property.
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How can hotels stand out in 2015?
Sights, sound and motion get attention and inspires.
A product manager for a prominent OTA told me that
despite all the conversion testing they run, the one
“
universal truth is ‘pretty pictures sell hotels.’ Hoteliers with
source imagery and websites that offer small, technically
inferior and poorly composed content are doing themselves a
disservice. Why would a guest have the slightest interest in
seeing the hotel’s
porte-cochere as
the lead image
on the website?
Or a stylistically lit
nighttime shot of an
empty bar? True, it
Robert Cole
may be more complicated or expensive to get signed releases,
use models, or hire a professional photographer for important
shots, but when well executes, it makes a huge difference in the
final product.
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Mobile Takeover
In 2010, Steve Jobs predicted that
tablets would eventually takeover PCs.
His prophecy will become true in 2015.
Gartner predicts a total of 320 million
tablet sales, versus just 316 million PC
sales (desktops and laptops).23 However,
this is small potatoes compared to
mobile. Next year, Gartner predicts ~
1.95 billion mobile phone sales — around
70% of which be smartphones.
Now, imagine this scenario. Friends are
sitting around, talking about where to
take their next vacation. Everyone in
the discussion pulls out their tablet or
phone and someone grabs the laptop
that is already on the table. Ideas are
starting to flow and the group decides
to head to San Francisco for a long
weekend. The million dollar question:
where to stay? Nob Hill, North Beach or
the Mission District? So many choices,
where do I start? 57% of leisure travelers
and 64% of business travelers will start
the shopping and booking process with
search and then go from there.
Eventually this crowd converges on the
Mission District because of its nightlife,
cuisine and coolness. Now they need a
place to stay. Fingers are flying over the
keyboards. Jennifer, on the laptop, is the
first to come up with a great selection of
options and directs the rest of the group
to the website to continue shopping.
Uh, oh. Of the three hotel choices she
can clearly see on her device, two of
them are not optimized for mobile and
therefore Jessica and Rachel, who are
using their tablet and smartphone, can’t
see the entire picture the way Jennifer
does. 61% of mobile users abandon non-mobile
optimized websites. From here,
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you can probably figure out the rest of the story.
Consumers expect to see great visuals, even on the smaller
screens of their smartphones and tablets because it helps them
imagine the experience they could have at your property.
The mobile market is booming as travelers are turning to their
smartphones and tablets throughout the shopping journey. Mobile
traffic has grown 125% in the last year,24 and this growth is
expected to continue. This increase drives the need for your hotel
to create an optimized mobile website that offers an easy-to-use
shopping experience. Additionally, Google’s 2014 research shows
that only 23% of those who have encountered a mobile site that
wasn’t optimized actually pushed through. That’s a lot of money
left sitting on the table. It’s time to ramp up your mobile marketing
strategies.
Savvy hotel marketer citizenM is totally mobile optimized for
hotel shoppers, but what is also notably clever is that they
accentuate the “I get the mobile message” in their marketing
strategy by showing their guests in a variety of situations using
their portable electronic devices; lying on the bed checking texts,
sitting in the lounge updating presentations on their laptops, and
watching movies on their tablets. This double-pronged solution
for the mobile traveler provides a good shopping experience
and gives their target audience an effective and impactful visual
presentation of the anticipated experience.
citizenM Hotels
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Make sure your hotel story is told on all the devices travel
shoppers use to search for travel by having smartphone and
tablet optimized websites that automatically reformat to fit the
user’s screen. Alternatively, you could create a single responsive
website using the same CSS files. You can also develop an
adaptive website using the same CSS, giving you the ability to
choose which content goes where (this comes in handy if you
want to create special offers unique to shoppers searching for
travel via their mobile devices).
To respond to the mobile trend, eCommerce marketers are
adopting responsive design implementations which automatically
render and function appropriately according to the device being
used. This may be more time consuming in development, but
ultimately gives the consumer the best experience as they travel
across screens and increasingly shop, book and interact with
your hotel throughout their day. The multi-device movement will
increase in the coming years. According to a Hudson Crossing
study, by 2018, 91% of travelers will own a smartphone and 89%
will own a tablet.25
Consumers are “uber” mobile – pun intended. People on mobile
devices have a much shorter attention span compared to desktop
(or even tablet), so it’s important that videos be snackable and in
mobile-friendly formats.
According to HeBS, the majority of mobile bookings in 2014
are coming from the voice channel, so a key element of your
mobile website design should be a clearly visible “call” button.26
Also, embed a map of your location with easy to access contact
information.
How has the cross-device, multi-screen behavior impacted
hoteliers and what can they do to ensure that their hotel is
telling a consistent story across all devices?
We all know that customers are using multiple devices,
at different times and stages of inspiration, shopping and
booking. The trick is to 1. Be everywhere throughout
the process
and 2. Where
possible, make the
transition between
screens easy for
your shopper.
“
Adam Anderson
Director, Industry Relations
Expedia
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What’s the most important thing hotel marketers need to
know about mobile in 2015?
No matter how much focus you’ve given mobile to this
point, you can still do more. Data from Google suggests
that 100% of all the growth in search volume now comes
“
from mobile. More than half of all smartphone users sleep with
their devices, for fear of missing out on emails, calls, texts,
and Tweets. As a
result, mobile often
represents the first
experience guests
will have with your
property. And for
most hotels, that
Tim Peter
mobile experience — from discovery, research, and booking,
through on-property and loyalty — has plenty of room for
improvement to attract and retain guests.
In 2014, mobile Internet usage for the first time exceeded
desktop usage! For me, mobile is and will be all about
the experience and conversion. Speed, easy navigation,
intuitive handling - not
available on your site?
You just lost me and
potentially the majority
of all the other guys out
there researching your
information via mobile.
“
Daniel Zelling
Founder, opensmile
Did You Know?
Only 23% of those who have encountered a mobile site that wasn’t
optimized actually pushed through.
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Staybridge Suites Oakville’s mobile-optimized
website provides the contact
information travel shoppers need, making
it easy for them to call with one click.
Imagery creates messages & stories that
are not lost in translation and instantly
inspires a reaction which is why they’re
such a natural fit on mobile devices.
Since there is less room for “stuff” on the
screen, and it has an immediate impact.
Say hello to the “Silent Traveler.”
These are consumers who don’t
just use their mobile devices
to research and book hotels,
but they also turn to them first
to solve any problems they
encounter when they travel,
instead of getting in touch with
the hotel’s customer service
staff. These travelers are
predominately Millennials and
we know they love technology;
in fact, it practically defines
them.
These guests are not waiting for hotels
to answer their questions or solve their
dilemmas – they’re turning to mobile
and reaching out to hotels on social
media for information, possibly without
even contacting your hotel directly.
They’re looking for highly personalized
experiences on-site and off – they want
hotels to tell a unique story about the
type of experience they’ll have when
they book their stay. Highlight features
that really appeal to this group like your
free smartphone and tablet chargers (for
both Android and iPhone). Of course,
your complimentary Wi-Fi is easy to
communicate with the right visuals and a
short caption.
This new Silent Mobile Traveler, as
documented recently by Skift, can be
summed up in just a few words: self-reliant
but extremely mobile-dependent.
An optimized mobile experience makes
it super easy for travel
shoppers to learn about
your property and book
when the time is right.
Don’t be “swiped” off the
consideration list because
of a bad or non-existent
experience. Good stories
aren’t told once, they’re
told over and over again,
so enable sharing via
email, texting and across
your most popular social
sites.
Staybridge Suites Oakville
leonardo.com

Practical Takeaways: SoMo (Social + Mobile)
Making the most of SoMo can help you tell a better hotel story - and reach more travel shoppers, plus save you time and money by
repurposing the content you already have! Follow these ten tips to add SoMo to your hotel digital marketing strategy.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1. Include engaging rich visual media created by you, your staff
or your guests in your hotel story
2. Embed links to your social media channels prominently on
your website
3. Make both your visual content and the supporting text
descriptions “snackable” (short and sweet)
4. Encourage guests to share photos and videos during their
stay
5. Actively monitor and engage on social media
6. Make sure your visual content is optimized for mobile
(mobile-optimized visuals so travel shoppers don’t need to
scroll through images on their mobile phones)46
7. Ask questions and include calls to action to boost interaction
and exposure47
8. Select hashtags that are relevant to your brand and
encourage guests to use them48
9. Make photos stand out by editing them using filters and
enhancers within social apps49
10. Reuse and publish content to multiple social networks50
leonardo.com

Chapter Five
2015 Predictions:
targeting
leonardo.com

The web is moving to a very
personalized medium. More
and more, you’re going to see
content tailored to your interests
– it’s already happening on
social sites and across the web
(notice that ad for a shoe sale
pops up, just after you’ve visited
the shoe store’s website), but
we predict it will continue to
evolve further as companies
learn to better personalize their
content to the right consumer
– and this is especially true for
hotels.
To stand out in 2015,
hoteliers need to deliver
the message appropriately
for your market. To tell a
story that impacts your
ideal travel shoppers,
first you must understand
what stories resonate with
them. Millennials, business
travelers, leisure travelers
and event planners are all
searching for the right hotel property,
but their requirements are very different.
This type of targeting gets more
complicated as you expand this definition
to include the variety of growing travel
markets around the globe like Asia.
Understanding the characteristics,
preferences and behaviors of your ideal
audience, backed by reputable data, will
help you efficiently expand your reach.
Targeting
Did You Know?
The web will continue to evolve further as
companies learn to better personalize their
content to the right consumer.
The Four Seasons and Resort
leonardo.com

Getting In Bed With Millennials
The Millennial Generation (Gen Y) has grown up. Born between
1980 and the early 2000s, this generation is one of the largest
since the Baby Boom. According to ComScore, there are
79 million Millennials in the US. This
generation has now established itself in the
workforce, and they are traveling a lot for
work. Worldwide, business travelers age 30
and under are going on trips 4.7 times per
year and 30-45 year olds are only going 3.6
times per year.
There is a huge potential market to be
tapped, but the Millennials have a set of
expectations that are vastly different than
previous generations and understanding
them is crucial to telling visual stories that
resonate with them.
For starters, Millennials thrive on
authenticity, so giving them a clear path
to guest reviews goes a long way with this crowd. Of the top
purchases Millennials won’t complete without user generated
content, hotels rank #3 at 39%.27
The Gen Y-ers also love to compare prices across different sites
before purchasing online; in fact, on average they will check 10.2
sources before making a reservation.28
What this behavior is telling us is that
hotels should emphasize offering a unique
experience for a good price, if these are
your guests.
How much do Millennials love their
phones? Well, 80% of them sleep next
to these devices29 and they really, really
dislike a non-mobile friendly site, so you
won’t be developing any relationships
here unless you’re aligned with their digital
habits.
Targeting
leonardo.com

After You
Pinterest is worth more than $5,000,000,000 because its 70
million users are rich, female and like to spend. This is the
headline from Business Insider summing up what today’s well-informed
marketer already knows: one of the most sought
after consumer targets, women, account for more than 85%
of all household purchases and in particular, 92% of vacation
decisions.30 Consider this as well: 47% of all women who travel
do so for business! In fact, the Clute Institute, a business journal
publication, found that females represent around 40% of all
business travel worldwide! It’s time to take notice and focus these
powerful spenders in a more concentrated and effective way.
Women don’t buy with the objective of collecting more things: they
want the experience to go along with it, which is why, as we look
to hospitality, combining the appropriate visual media along with
rich descriptive text to create a compelling story, makes all the
sense in the world.
Modern day marketing begins with the seller’s story, i.e. your
hotel’s story, accomplished by using a blend of pictures and
narration, and, of course, the audience. In this case, we’re after
the female traveler, a.k.a., the travel decision maker, and they
want to be informed, entertained and inspired.
Consumers of both genders scan for information online so use
visual writing techniques like bolding, italics, bullets and short
paragraphs, making it easy for them to select your hotel based on
their requirements. Here are a couple of examples:
Caption: Peace & Quiet
Short Description: Dad’s got the
kiddos, now its Mommy time! Onsite
spas, pools and more
Caption: In the Hood
Short Description: Exit lobby. Turn
right, drugstore and coffee. Turn left,
quick lunch & adorable boutiques
When you deliver on these essentials the ladies will choose you
and your brand, and importantly, be loyal. Interestingly, women
are more likely to join loyalty programs and stick with the brands
that they most like, according to a new Skift report called The
Rise of Female Business Travelers.
leonardo.com

Bleisures:
They’re Smart, Not Trendy
A bleisure traveler is someone who is
carrying out both business and leisure
activities while on their trip.
Who wants to come back from vacation
with an overflowing email box, when for
15 minutes a day, I can swift through the
messages and quickly address the most
pressing or keep them moving along the
food chain. Re-entry is a whole lot easier.
Conversely, I’m meeting
important clients on the
coast on Friday, so why
not take advantage of
the opportunity to extend
a day or two, and visit
friends or family or just
chill for the weekend. This
is the Bleisure traveler.
As the lines between
business and leisure
travelers blur, it presents
an opportunity for
hoteliers to ensure their
hotel story is appealing
to these new types of travelers, who are
becoming a bigger player in the travel
industry.
With mobile, it’s easier than ever for
vacationers to stay in-touch with their
work while on their trip. In fact, 37%
of managers expect their employees
to check email while on vacation and
43% of international travelers have
also admitted to taking their mobile
professional devices with them on
holidays or on weekend trips.31
As the number of travelers mixing
business and leisure continue to rise, it
presents fresh opportunities for hotels
to incorporate bleisure travelers in your
hotel’s visual story. Highlight features and
amenities that would resonate with them
most, and in turn expand your reach to a
broader audience.
Targeting
Somerset Inn
leonardo.com

Let’s not forget about the lucrative Convention Business.
According to a recent report by Hotwire and Egencia, just under
half (49%) of convention go-ers (ages 35-44) will tack on leisure
time onto their work trip. This number increases to 56% when
we look at younger business travelers (ages 18-34). Keep them
at your property and in your city with can’t refuse promotions
bookending the convention dates.
Pullman Hotels & Resorts, which has over 80 four and five star
properties around the world, targets the Bleisure traveler with their
“Time for Pleasure by Pullman” promotion, designed to encourage
business travelers to extend trips for leisure.
This year, we saw the blurring lines between business and
leisure travelers. How will these blurring lines affect the
way hotels market to specific target demographics?
It gets harder and harder to target some demographics
because they are so blurred, but in general the business
and leisure guests still want the same thing – a great
experience. We will continue to focus on the experiences that
we offer as even a guest coming for a leisure trip can see the
benefits of a
great experience
from a corporate
perspective.
“
Lyn Kienholz
Director of Sales
Country Inn & Suites -
Chanhassen
Targeting
Pullman Hotels & Resorts
leonardo.com

Love Thy Neighbors
Creating your local marketing storytelling strategy is vital to
attracting more customers by being a helpful and trusted resource
before, during and after their visit. Start by expanding your
definition of
local. Yes,
your out-of-towners
want
information
about
neighborhood
restaurants,
coffee shops,
shopping and
attractions, but
don’t stop there. Extend your reach to your community – those
that walk or drive by your property each day. What story are you
telling them? Where do you start?
As the lodging industry grapples with Airbnb, TripAdvisor and
other locally oriented services, major hotel brands are increasingly
taking a back seat to the surrounding neighborhoods. “Our facility
is no longer the destination,” said one hotel executive. “Now we
are a portal to the community around us.”32
About half of travelers want to explore the local area while on a
business trip, according to a 2013 survey released by Millward
Brown. For business travelers, “discovery” now ranks higher than
“escape” or “indulgence,” per the survey.
Is there a lovely place for afternoon tea, or a mellow “after
work” piano bar in the area? Share these activity ideas with
your guests; they’ll thank you for it by telling others about your
recommendations. Partner on promotions with local businesses
and stand out from your competition. It pays to be first in your
comp set to be a unique and helpful host. We see brands like
Red Lion Hotels offering distinctive settings and stimulating local
experiences, which cater to middle-America travelers.
Think about the activities
going around your hotel for
inspiration, the Hotel Galvez
showcases local events on
their hotel’s Facebook page.
leonardo.com

Practical Takeaways: Targeting
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Identify the local demographics and map the details to your
ideal potential customer base: families, singles, old, young,
professional or tradesperson
2. Prepare a list of local businesses whose clients have the
same profile; target them for online cross-promotional
opportunities
3. Research your competitors. What are they doing to attract
locals? One-up them with more interesting posts and offers
and by making a deeper emotional connection using visuals
and captivating headlines
4. Develop a property website that emphasizes the value and
experiences you offer
5. Take advantage of destination sites and social sites like
Facebook and Instagram to target travelers.
6. Link to area business websites and blogs with photos and
anecdotes of a sporting event or celebration you hosted.
7. Promote special offers like half-price wine night in your
lounge along with weekend specials to attract the “staycation
crowd”
8. Double duty syndication with local CVB’s + third party
channels. Locals also search across the web while planning
their staycation
9. Prepare for 2015’s convention season by offering promotions
to keep visitors in your town and importantly at your property
before/after events
leonardo.com

Chapter Six
what the experts
are saying
leonardo.com

In 1938, Aldo Gucci said, “The story and
experience is remembered long after price is
forgotten,” and 76 years later, that adage still holds
true. Each day, as hotel staff walk through the
lobby & hallways, and back-of-the-house alcoves
and hideouts, they come across anecdotes told by
guests and fellow teammates.
Take these stories and stitch them together with the hard-wired
elements of your property like your clean and comfortable
breakfast area, lively sports bar or proximity to the theatre district.
Use the Lopez family reunion last fall as the backdrop to describe
the hotel’s ability to host and cater special occasions for large
groups. Perhaps you have the ideal location to mix business
with pleasure. Walk through the neighborhood, pretend you’re
your own guest, and notice the little things like the park across
the street, a nearby subway station or dinner theatre. All of the
content ideas you need are right at your doorstep and inside your
building.
Most hotel marketers will readily say that things are changing so
rapidly, it’s hard to stay on top of it all. Keeping current will help
you focus on the actions that are right for you to make things
more manageable.
Attend a 45 minute educational webinar that promises practical
tips you can put into action, download an eBook and read a
section each morning with your coffee, take 60 seconds to read
that infographic that just arrived in your inbox. Of course, you
also have the support of your brand, management companies,
technology partners and industry associations at your disposal.
Today’s travel consumer is in charge. They choose how and
when they will shop for hotels. They decide what device is most
convenient to conduct their research. They often prefer to solicit
input from strangers on social channels rather than taking the
brand’s word for it. The booking decision rests squarely on
their shoulders and their selection is based on how well we can
engage, inspire, and inform.
Let’s prepare for a terrific 2015 together.
leonardo.com

What are your top three hotel marketing predictions for 2015?
Expect to see more and better hotel blogs. Hotels are
understanding the value of quality content to drive
consumers to their websites, build SEO and increase direct
bookings. Websites should have an editorial space that can be
updated consistently.
User generated content continues to increase exponentially every
year and hotels should incorporate that as much as possible in all
brand communication platforms.
Event/experiential marketing is growing in usage, and it’s a great
way to engage consumers. Hotels should create on-property
experiences or partner with local events to create storytelling
marketing that’s shareable.
We’re looking at trends like the importance of mobile for
shopping and booking. In terms of functionality and UI,
at Expedia we are firm believers in the A/B test. We try
something out,
compare it to the
status quo and
consumer behavior
then dictates our
decision.
Social media analytics & campaigns will play a bigger
role in 2015. So far, most hospitality businesses focus on
Facebook media campaigns and statistics (if any), but
now with the new reporting and campaigns provided by Twitter,
Pinterest and Instagram (partly in the U.S. only) there are new
ways to test what works for your business specifically. In 2015,
we should see a bigger split on where different businesses
concentrate their
marketing efforts
depending on their
customer base,
location, property
type and story.
What The Experts Have To Say
“
“
Greg Oates
& Hotel Strategist
Adam Anderson
Director, Industry Relations
Expedia
“
Daniel Zelling
Founder, opensmjle
leonardo.com

What are your top three hotel
marketing predictions for 2015?
Multi-screen booking – Proactive
hoteliers must place emphasis on
the seamless integration of the
multi-screen booking trend that is currently
taking place. I predict an increased
integration of user generated content
across all touch points. Finally, hoteliers
should pay close attention to Google over
the next couple of months. Meta-search
will of course continue to play a pivotal
role in how potential guests search out
and book their accommodations.
Mobile-first Is Mandatory –
Responsive Design and mobile-optimized
websites are now a
necessity for most hoteliers. Of particular
focus will be providing a rich, branded
experience, complete with quality imagery
and multimedia. Travelers now expect
the same experience on a phone as they
do on a desktop – and they are currently
disappointed – that will change.
Rate Parity Gets Undermined –
Hoteliers have relied on rate parity as a
foundational element, not only in their
customer value proposition but in their
revenue management strategies and in
simplifying their distribution processes.
The ability to provide discounted rates
on password protected sites has been
around for years, but was the exception,
now it will become the norm. With every
major entity online possessing profiles
of its users (Google, Facebook, Apple,
Microsoft, Amazon, etc.) a practice that
allowed tactical rates to target small, well-defined
constituencies may become an
expectation of the mainstream traveler.
Customization & Personalization –
Enable unique online and in-destination
experiences.
Mark Hayward
Former Hotelier
& Digital Marketer
Robert Cole
“
“
leonardo.com

What are your top three
hotel marketing predictions
for 2015?
We’ll see an increased
focus on the profitability
of marketing activities.
Now that RevPAR is growing,
it’s time to focus not just on
filling rooms, but on whether
you’re filling those rooms
profitably.
Google, Facebook, and
at least some OTAs will
introduce new products
to capitalize on this profit-focused
approach. Google
is rumored to be working on
a “captive demand” platform
to funnel more hotel activity
within paid search, and away
from OTAs and meta search.
Priceline’s acquisitions of
Buuteeq, Hotel Ninjas, and
OpenTable show a desire
to get deeper in the hotel
value chain, and its success
will depend entirely on how
profitably hotels can adopt its
platforms.
Finally, hotel companies
that help their guests
manage discovery, research,
booking, and loyalty across
all channels – web,
mobile, social, voice
– stand to win in
what looks to be a
seller’s market for the
coming year.
In 2015 I anticipate
brands embracing
user-generated
content on larger scales
and incorporating UGC
more significantly into their
corporate image. The brands
that empower their marketing
departments as mini digital
media production houses
and engage professional
content creators, influencers
and tastemakers will create
the biggest buzz, get the
most eyeballs and position
themselves on the cutting
edge of online marketing.
The web is about to get a
whole lot more visual. 4K
capable screens have arrived
and will be the norm as
time passes. I anticipate VR
technology, such as Oculus,
to graduate from video games
and begin to play a major role
in how we consume media
and navigate the web. The
future is very, very visual.
More so than you or I can
imagine.
The time for thinking creatively
about communication and
boldly crafting compelling
visual stories is now so
that when the tech of the
near future comes roaring
into the room, you are
ready to embrace the
possibilities and innovate
your message.
“
“
Tim Peter
Joshua Johnson
Freelance Digital
Media Producer
leonardo.com

What is the biggest opportunity you
see for hoteliers at the property level in
2015?
The biggest opportunities I would
say are maximizing rates – limited
the faded rate that all hotels tend
to do. Furthermore, for hotel renovating,
a big opportunity is to create more
usable public space so that guests are
not “locked in their guest rooms.” Lastly,
mobile advertising and rich media. Making
sure that your presence on the mobile
platform is efficient will also help capture
more business from both corporate and
leisure travelers.
What are your top three hotel
marketing predictions for 2015?
Reality Marketing. The era of
fairytale descriptions and fantasy
photography is giving way to reality
marketing. Travelers want to know exactly
what to expect, and if they’re misled,
they’ll share their disappointment on
social networks, damaging the hotel’s
reputation. When hotels manage the
guest experience with precision by setting
realistic expectations through sales and
marketing imagery and messaging and
training and empowering staff to meet and
exceed expectations, their guests will do
the marketing for them.
Integration of user-generated content with
brand marketing content. Increasingly,
we’ve been seeing user-generated content
integrated on brand websites in the form
of social feeds, review widgets and share
buttons. The next wave is the integration
of visual user-generated content, as
Starwood and 1888 Hotel Sydney have
done with Instagram integration.
Lots more video. As video technology
evolves, we’ll see even more of it on
social networks and brand websites. More
than any other medium, video tells the
real story. Stay tuned for video that can be
fast-forwarded and searched by keyword,
video view counts on Facebook, and the
next big craze: video selfies.
“ “
Rupesh Patel
President & COO
Zenique Hotels
Daniel E. Craig
Founder, Reknown
leonardo.com

What are your top three digital
marketing goals for 2015?
In general, to have more of
a presence on social media,
Facebook specifically (plan out
my schedule better & utilize Revinate to
plan out the social media). 2. To update
photos & look for ways to be creative in
our photography. 3. Research brands from
all over the world and find photographs
that speak to me as different, engaging,
etc. and look for ways to incorporate those
types of photos on our site.
Our three goals in a broad sense
are mobile presence, social media,
and online reviews. We are
looking to enhance each of our hotel’s
mobile presence with mobile sites and
other mobile features that will make the
guest’s experience more tech-friendly. For
social media, we are running in-house
campaigns to encourage guests to follow/
like our social pages. With a growing
follower base, we will start offering
discounts exclusively to each social
site. For online reviews, we again will be
continuing to encourage guests to write
reviews. We have also been responding
to all reviews on a few sites (positive and
negative).
Our digital marketing goals for 2015
are:
1. Multi-channel communications: linking
messages to make the booking
process easy, consistency in look and
feel of all channel communications.
2. Increase reach: piggyback destination
#hashtag promotions
3. Continue to improve e-newsletters
and ensure they’re mobile and tablet
optimized.
“
“
Lyn Kienholz
Director of Sales
Country Inn & Suites,
Chanhassen Rupesh Patel
President & COO
Zenique Hotels
“
Elizabeth Vance
Director of Sales & Marketing
Stella Maris Resort Club
leonardo.com

What are your top three digital marketing goals for 2015?
2015 is about relevant content and one-to-one marketing.
In 2015 we should try to find out who this customer really is
and how he/she behaves at that moment (intent). Knowing
this we can help make the next step easier and make it a joyful
journey. Our target for 2015 is:
1. Have a fully integrated/automated system in the entire customer
journey.
2. Make better use of the social power/value of each customer
3. Be able to predict a website users next step and automate
content/visuals based on that and learn from it.
What should hoteliers focus on as they move into 2015?
With all the OTAs, meta-search engines and social media
sites, hoteliers tend to forget their main online business
asset: their own website! We see huge efforts to keep
up with all those other
networks and platforms,
but at the same time their
own website still is not
mobile optimized, has
old content or not even a
booking engine in place.
Consistent and more varied content delivery across all
channels. Understanding the Millennial traveler. Creating
deeper connections among the hotel, consumers and local
community.
Lennert de Jong
Commercial Director
CitizenM Hotels
“
Daniel Zelling
Founder, opensmjle
“
Greg Oates
Travel Industry Editor &
Hotel Strategist
“
leonardo.com

The most important hotel marketing trends to watch in 2015

The most important hotel marketing trends to watch in 2015

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The most important hotel marketing trends to watch in 2015