Jun
22
Potential leisure customers don't need to buy a stay in a hotel to make them feel good.
Hotels find themselves in a straight fight with everyone else who has in interest in the "disposable income" people have. As we all know - there isn't so much that's disposable these days, but there's still some out there.
It may be a straight fight, but it's not a battle of equals. This is true David and Goliath combat. Your problem, as you sit there in your hotel wondering where the next booking is going to come from, is not just that Goliath is a lot bigger than you. Your problem is that Goliath is a lot better informed about your target market and he knows how to influence buying decisions in such a way that even the buyer is completely unaware of what's going on.
You see the buying decision is not just which hotel or which location? There are competing products out there - everything from new cars to boxes of chocolates and they are considerably - I said CONSIDERABLY - better at marketing then 99.9% of hotels.
They can say to your potential customers "buy me instead".
...and they will obey...
Hotels find themselves in a straight fight with everyone else who has in interest in the "disposable income" people have. As we all know - there isn't so much that's disposable these days, but there's still some out there.
It may be a straight fight, but it's not a battle of equals. This is true David and Goliath combat. Your problem, as you sit there in your hotel wondering where the next booking is going to come from, is not just that Goliath is a lot bigger than you. Your problem is that Goliath is a lot better informed about your target market and he knows how to influence buying decisions in such a way that even the buyer is completely unaware of what's going on.
You see the buying decision is not just which hotel or which location? There are competing products out there - everything from new cars to boxes of chocolates and they are considerably - I said CONSIDERABLY - better at marketing then 99.9% of hotels.
They can say to your potential customers "buy me instead".
...and they will obey...
If you want proof (and most hoteliers I know have this habit of insisting that I prove things for them) - go and invest in the new UK edition of Wired magazine.
There's an article on page 98 which talks about the following marketing tactics:
- Brain-scan research
- Phone location mapping
- Eye tracking
- Store location mapping
- Face reading ads
- Personality profiling
- Sensory marketing
- Loyalty card linked TV ads
...and many more.
The businesses competing with you for "disposable income" are using techniques like these. They are very sophisticated. They invest in their marketing and they use clever people to make sales happen. Contrast this with the attitude in the hotel industry. What's one of the first things hotels cut when things get tight? Marketing.
There are things you, as a hotelier, can do to improve your online sales. Outside of this article in Wired magazine, there are things like Persuasion Architecture for websites (I bet your webmaster hasn't mentioned that one to you recently - or am I wrong?). It takes effort and costs money to develop, but in exchange you get a good chance of significantly improved "look to book" ratios. I recently came across a hotel with an astonishing look to book ratio of 76%. In a world where hotels regard the "average" as around 2%, this exception proves the rule. This hotel manages its marketing, it has invested heavily over several years and it maintains good people to do the marketing and selling work. It doesn't have its sales people polish teaspoons on busy days. It has its sales people making sure every day is a busy day. Just like your competitors from other industries.
Hotels and effective marketing go together in the same way as oil and water don't.
For example, some hotels will spend a couple of thousand on their website every five years whether they need to or not.
Other hotels still think that a one-off advert with the business name as the headline and a picture of a restaurant chair will have people flocking to the door... If you're not prepared to make the effort, you won't get the results you need.
Your competitors are very, very good - and they're making a lot of things work for them.
How good do you want to be? How hard are you making your marketing investment work for you?
Your competitors are constantly enticing and encouraging people to buy. What are you doing?
There's an article on page 98 which talks about the following marketing tactics:
- Brain-scan research
- Phone location mapping
- Eye tracking
- Store location mapping
- Face reading ads
- Personality profiling
- Sensory marketing
- Loyalty card linked TV ads
...and many more.
The businesses competing with you for "disposable income" are using techniques like these. They are very sophisticated. They invest in their marketing and they use clever people to make sales happen. Contrast this with the attitude in the hotel industry. What's one of the first things hotels cut when things get tight? Marketing.
There are things you, as a hotelier, can do to improve your online sales. Outside of this article in Wired magazine, there are things like Persuasion Architecture for websites (I bet your webmaster hasn't mentioned that one to you recently - or am I wrong?). It takes effort and costs money to develop, but in exchange you get a good chance of significantly improved "look to book" ratios. I recently came across a hotel with an astonishing look to book ratio of 76%. In a world where hotels regard the "average" as around 2%, this exception proves the rule. This hotel manages its marketing, it has invested heavily over several years and it maintains good people to do the marketing and selling work. It doesn't have its sales people polish teaspoons on busy days. It has its sales people making sure every day is a busy day. Just like your competitors from other industries.
Hotels and effective marketing go together in the same way as oil and water don't.
For example, some hotels will spend a couple of thousand on their website every five years whether they need to or not.
Other hotels still think that a one-off advert with the business name as the headline and a picture of a restaurant chair will have people flocking to the door... If you're not prepared to make the effort, you won't get the results you need.Your competitors are very, very good - and they're making a lot of things work for them.
How good do you want to be? How hard are you making your marketing investment work for you?
Your competitors are constantly enticing and encouraging people to buy. What are you doing?
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