Aug
5
The previous blog caused a couple of derisory emails. So let me clarify a couple of things.
1. Online promotion and selling is a good thing to do. I am not anti-internet.
2. When it comes to marketing per se and online marketing in particular - carelessness can be seen in a high percentage of hotels.
If you're going to use online social networking to promote your hotel business online, there is one fundamental thing you need to understand...
..you CANNOT sell directly through this route to market.
Instead, you have to earn the trust and appreciation of the online communities.
This plays beautifully into the hands of the luxury hotel operator.
So much of your job as a marketer of the luxury hotel experience is about getting people to understand the subtlety of your offering: What it's going to be like; what the flavours will be; how relaxing it will be; how discreet the service is... and so on.
You can create nice little peronalised sites all over the internet by using blogs and social networking sites. You can tell stories about what it's like to use your hotel.
Your objective is to create a band of followers. People who know about you and who like the cut of your jib. Your objective should NOT be about lobbing the latest 3for2 stay offer at them. They'll decide when they want to visit - you have no control over the timing of their desire to purchase.
What you can control, however, is the quality of their experience as a follower of your progress. In essence, you want to turn them from being bystanders to followers. Only then can you have a hope of turning them into prospects and finally into paying customers.
A decent online sales process should start with this understanding. You need to share stuff with people to earn their interest and their patronage. You need to deliver a carefully designed programme of information over time (see Permission Marketing by Seth Godin).
My problem with the majority of hotel sales processes is manifold:
a) there usually isn't one.
b) there is at best a limited understanding of the customer.
c) there is no strategy.
d) there is no plan.
e) execution is poor.
f) measurement is minimal, or measures the wrong things.
g) it becomes all about price.
h) the concept of "giving in order to receive" is not understood.
I could go on.
Luxury hotel guests deserve a luxury sales process. That means making an effort to prepare your marketing, attract people using your free content and engage them. Then keep engaging them until they are ready to convert into customers.
I wrote a book about this four years ago - anybody want to buy a copy?
1. Online promotion and selling is a good thing to do. I am not anti-internet.
2. When it comes to marketing per se and online marketing in particular - carelessness can be seen in a high percentage of hotels.
If you're going to use online social networking to promote your hotel business online, there is one fundamental thing you need to understand...
..you CANNOT sell directly through this route to market.
Instead, you have to earn the trust and appreciation of the online communities.
This plays beautifully into the hands of the luxury hotel operator.
So much of your job as a marketer of the luxury hotel experience is about getting people to understand the subtlety of your offering: What it's going to be like; what the flavours will be; how relaxing it will be; how discreet the service is... and so on.
You can create nice little peronalised sites all over the internet by using blogs and social networking sites. You can tell stories about what it's like to use your hotel.
Your objective is to create a band of followers. People who know about you and who like the cut of your jib. Your objective should NOT be about lobbing the latest 3for2 stay offer at them. They'll decide when they want to visit - you have no control over the timing of their desire to purchase.
What you can control, however, is the quality of their experience as a follower of your progress. In essence, you want to turn them from being bystanders to followers. Only then can you have a hope of turning them into prospects and finally into paying customers.
A decent online sales process should start with this understanding. You need to share stuff with people to earn their interest and their patronage. You need to deliver a carefully designed programme of information over time (see Permission Marketing by Seth Godin).
My problem with the majority of hotel sales processes is manifold:
a) there usually isn't one.
b) there is at best a limited understanding of the customer.
c) there is no strategy.
d) there is no plan.
e) execution is poor.
f) measurement is minimal, or measures the wrong things.
g) it becomes all about price.
h) the concept of "giving in order to receive" is not understood.
I could go on.
Luxury hotel guests deserve a luxury sales process. That means making an effort to prepare your marketing, attract people using your free content and engage them. Then keep engaging them until they are ready to convert into customers.
I wrote a book about this four years ago - anybody want to buy a copy?
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