What is the purpose of retargeting hotel ads? 

It is an approach that allows marketers to ‘re-attract’ their customers—who might even have put some items in their online shopping cart that they decided to abandon in the end—back to their website and complete the purchase.

According to fivefifty.com, technically, retargeting works by putting JavaScript code on website pages of a brand, therefore when visitors visit the brand’s website, an anonymous cookie will be transferred to them. Once the visitors, now with the anonymous cookie, leave the website, the retargeting service provider will distribute the brand’s ads to these visitors, hence ensuring that only those who have visited the brand’s website before will receive these retargeting ads.

How does retargeting hotel ads work?

There are different ways of retargeting, such as, site retargeting, e-mail retargeting and social retargeting. Site retargeting refers to displaying related ads to customers who visited the brand’s website previously. Furthermore, this method is also helpful in taking into consideration if the guest had made a purchase on the website or not, therefore preventing ad overflow. E-mail retargeting helps improve e-mail marketing by displaying ads to customers who have opened e-mails from a brand. It works by using a code in an e-mail, and customers who opened the e-mail will see the brand’s ads on other websites that they go to. Lastly, social retargeting allows marketers to place retargeting ads on social media channels. According to netaffinity.com, approximately 54% of marketers believe that social retargeting is more effective than e-mail or search retargeting.

According to a study by comScore and ValueClick Media, within four weeks of retargeted ad exposure, there was a significant growth in brand searches by 1,046% and in website visits at 726%. Retargeting is also considered as a cost-effective method, reasonably cheaper than other forms of marketing campaigns. It is evident that retargeting is a very capable marketing tool that marketers need to consider.

Examples of best practice retargeting hotel marketing campaigns

Re-attracting customers is becoming an issue for hotels, as most potential guests abandon the booking process before a reservation is successfully made. Potential guests may have chosen dates and were ready to check out, however, the process was left incomplete. By placing retargeting hotel ads, there are chances of bringing them back to the hotel’s website to complete their purchase. According to digitalinformationworld.com, 70% of visitors on a brand’s website who are targeted with retargeting ads will be more likely to be converted. Additionally, a few takeaways from Online Marketing Strategies in Travel event suggests that 92% of visitors of a website does not return and only 27% of hotels send automatic e-mails on the day of arrival and the day the guests leave.

In the present day, people are very attached to their mobile phones, including travelers. According to statisticbrain.com, every year there are 148.3 million travel bookings made on the internet and 65% of same-day hotel reservations are made from a mobile phone. Therefore it is important to consider executing retargeting on mobile devices as well. An example of retargeting practice is the Facebook ad product, which had been used by InterContinental Hotel Groups (IHG). According to skift.com, the product, which is known as Dynamic Ads for Travel, is designed for hospitality brands as well as other travel brands to aid them in retargeting customers that are browsing popular apps (such as Facebook or Instagram) on mobile devices. Dynamic Ads for Travel allows hotel marketers to place retargeting ads on Facebook’s mobile app, focusing on travelers who had viewed a room on a certain hotel website, the ads will display the room that they had viewed, together with other similar hotels in the area with actual availability and rates. Similarly, tour agencies can also display images of famous tourist attractions based on which destination a traveler had been researching (for example, an image of the Great Wall of China, if the traveler had researched a trip to China). IHG is using Dynamic Ads for Travel to increase bookings as well as to emphasize the benefits of membership in the IHG Rewards Club, which is available to both members and non-members. According to IHG there has been an increase in their capability to reach their guests by 50%.

According to netaffinity.com, e-mail retargeting is also effective for hotels. For instance, Le Parc Suite hotels, after discovering 94.5% of their website visitors did not complete booking process once they checked the prices, carried out e-mail retargeting and successfully regained tens of thousands in income, as well as improving their return on ad spend (ROAS) by 1710%. According to netaffinity.com, there are different types of e-mail and the effective period to send them. The first retargeting e-mail should not give the impression that the hotel is pressuring customers to pay, instead, it should be a simple plain reminder along with a direct link to the booking page, along with the hotel name and room name. This ideally should be sent within three hours, as it can have an average click-through rate of 20% and open rate of 40%. The second e-mail, which can be sent the next day, can use the same message as the first e-mail, however, hotels can use other tactics such as, letting the guests know that there are only a few rooms left available. On the second or third day, a third e-mail can be sent including a special offer, such as a discount.

Key takeaways for your hotel business

For the hotel industry, retargeting hotel ads is essential to increase bookings, especially today where customers often abandon the booking process before it was completed. There are several reasons customers might decide to abandon the booking process—perhaps it was technical issues or the price that they find to be too expensive. Retargeting is an effective method to reach out to these guests, re-attracting them. E-mail retargeting and social retargeting is considered the most effective for hotels. Essentially, e-mail retargeting is a basic reminder to potential guests about their incomplete booking. A reminder that only a few rooms are left available, along with an appealing offer would be included on the second and third e-mail in order to gently urge the potential guest to make a purchase. Social retargeting is effective as the majority of people are on social media. Hence when they leave a hotel’s website they are likely to browse social media sites, where retargeting ads are displayed. Facebook’s Dynamic Ads for Travel is very helpful for travel brands to carry out retargeting as Facebook is one of the most used social media and most people accessed Facebook from their mobile phones. This product helps to create retargeting hotel ads on their mobile app. Hence, people who are not on their desktop computer can be reached.

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During her visit, Amaliny attended several conference speeches and gained some valuable insights and stats on digital marketing trends for the travel and hospitality industry. She shares 4 key travel digital marketing learnings from the event:

Create a Seamless Data-based Travel Digital Marketing Strategy

We gained some valuable insights from Sojern’s talk on How Data Creates a Seamless Travel Marketing Strategy. Today’s travelers have instant access to all information. They are constantly reminded of others’ travel experiences and satisfaction. They have the ability to travel further and more frequently than ever before and to shop without thinking – they buy anywhere, anytime. Also, travel planning has changed. Travelers visit an average of 38 sites before making a booking a vacation. They visit 140 sites in a 45-day path to purchase, which is an increase of +268% in 3 years. In the report The Modern Traveler’s Path to Purchase, Sojern shows different travelers approach to travel—with unique trip motivations, as well as different ways of dreaming, planning and booking travel across verticals, regions, and devices.

Facebook promoted several solutions to reach the traveler in the travel booking journey, during the entire funnel. In the upper funnel, when the customer has no clear travel intent, targeted creative content optimized to the travel intent is a way to target the potential customer. In the mid-funnel, the potential customer has expressed his or her intent for specific destinations but has not visited your website yet. Instead, the customer has researched further and has visited multiple travel sites. Dynamic Ads has been the most effective Facebook product in this phase and it works great for travel advertisers. One of the great things about Dynamic Ads for Travel (DAT) is that it captures flight data from your website. If you are selling both, hotels and flights, on your website, you will be able to use flight signals for your hotel-level retargeting. This becomes even more important in the low funnel when the customer has been on your site. Facebook leverages a broad collection of travel intent signals, such as liking friends posts of certain destinations, clicking on destination-based facebook ads or researching attractions in a potential destination. The algorithm analyses whether the behavior has the same pattern as someone who recently purchased the travel.

Chatbots are Transforming the Travel Industry

Not only Facebook stressed the rising importance of chatbots for the travel industry and travel digital marketing. Chatbots are artificial intelligence programmes that conduct conversations with humans through chat interfaces. A chatbot is basically a personal assistant who can respond to inquiries or give recommendations on a certain topic in a real-time manner. Research shows that more consumers are using messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger, compared to social networks, and this trend is fast extending to the travel industry, where we are seeing chatbots as messenger apps being rolled out as a new interface for customer interaction. The combined number of global monthly active users of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are approx. 3.5 billion, which lags compared to the combined active users of messenger apps including WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber and Messenger, at around 3.7 billion. For the travel industry, mostly customer-centric businesses and destinations, chatbots are ideal. Ideally, they serve as 24/7 front-end customer care specialists. Hotels and travel companies do not have to respond manually to comments and inquiries in blogs, websites, and social media channels. Humans are quite open when it comes to using chatbots. One of the major advantages of chatbots is, that it is market research as you go. You can collect rich qualitative data concerning your customers, based on which you can change, refine and develop travel products as you see trends emerging. Furthermore, chatbots are multilingual and enable you to reach diverse markets. Post-trip, bots can send out feedback forms that can generate valuable information on how your business could further improve a guest’s travel experience.

Travelers are Becoming Less Loyal

A global average 70% of loyalty program members are likely to book with a different airline or hotel for a better price. In an effort to keep up with changing customer behavior, premium hotel chains such as Marriott were changing their rewards program. Marriott Hotel “Points are not the point anymore,” Thom Kozik, Vice President of loyalty at Marriott, told USA TODAY. “We weren’t keeping track of how consumers were changing their behavior.” The goal of this move: offer more flexibility to travel customers, who, don’t always want to use their points to get a free hotel stay. Marriott is just one example of how many companies in the tourism and travel industry today are scrambling to update their customer loyalty programs to keep up with customers.

The customer service plays a crucial role when thinking about increasing traveler loyalty. During their trip, in-destination, 84% of the travelers expect to access information anywhere while they travel. 85% of travelers decide on activities only after having arrived at the destination. 50% of travelers use smartphones to look for things to do once they have arrived at the destination. Improving the travel experience itself is a major cornerstone to reach higher customer loyalty.

Influencer Marketing is Powerful

Influencer Marketing is becoming more and more an effective destination, hotel and travel digital marketing method. In a panel discussion several travel bloggers, who were part of the Professional Travel Bloggers Association, shared their tips and secrets for a successful collaboration with travel bloggers. The travel bloggers stressed the importance of making sure that they a great experience in the hotels and destination, during the collaboration. They would hesitate to share untrue information an would be honest when sharing their experiences with their followers. These days Travel Influencers are acting more like brand ambassadors. So, when you work with them, it is your company as a whole which will be promoted via breathtaking footage. Influencers know how to create fantastic visual content to promote your brand image. Start building personal and authentic relationships with famous travelers in the social space, and make sure both of your brand values are aligned for maximum benefit. This will result in great content and a mutually beneficial relationship. This way your brand is promoted and influencers are given the resources to create even more engaging content for their audience.

Working together with social media influencers is a good way to drive engagement and sales, however, it is important to choose the influencers carefully, as some of them might have values that do not match that of your company’s. For a better, genuine content, a good relationship with influencers is essential, in order to avoid creating a negative impression around the content, such as, ‘the influencers are only doing this for the money, hence they do not put in an adequate amount of effort into their content’.

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Why Social Influencers Marketing Is Trending

According to a joint study by Twitter and Annalect, 49% of people rely on influencers’ recommendations on Twitter, following closely behind friends’ recommendations (56%), which came out on top. Furthermore, the study also finds that 40% of people have purchased an item online after they saw the item being used by an influencer on Instagram or YouTube. Hence when it comes to product recommendations, people find that social media influencers are nearly as trustworthy as friends. In relation to the case, people will be more likely to buy products that are recommended by social media influencers, as they find it easier to relate to these digital stars rather than famous celebrities. Moreover, social media influencers are perceived as “friends”. According to a recent study by Defy Media, teens and young adults between the ages 13 and 24 described YouTubers as “just like me, understands me, someone I trust has the best advice, genuine, someone I feel close to”.

Social Influencers in Destination Marketing

For the tourism industry—like other businesses—social media is utilized for the purpose of marketing, drive engagement, brand exposure and ultimately increase sales. At times, companies and influencers might have a similar target market. In this case, tour agencies can reach out to influencers with the same target audience.

Relevant social media influencers, such as travel bloggers, share the story of their journeys on the internet. Travel bloggers gained feedback from their readers, who admire their work, and some who are inspired will book a similar trip for similar experiences. Hence travel bloggers influence consumers’ purchase decisions.

Reaching Out To Influencers

Working together with travel bloggers is a good way to gain exposure and drive sales, however, it is important to keep a few things in mind before jumping on the travel blogger wagon. According to skift.com, there are a number of things to consider such as, building a genuine relationship prior to working together, examine the influencers’ audience and ensuring the brand is associated with the right influencers. Although it may take time, building a genuine relationship before proposing collaboration will enhance the result—high-quality content from the social influencers—and ultimately, improves the brand’s image and drive sales. While millions of followers sound appealing, tour agencies must also examine these followers to ensure that they are the correct audience to promote to, tour agencies shouldn’t promote to an audience that does not have relevant interest as it will not help in achieving business goals. Last but not least, it is also important to ensure that the influencers’ values are in accordance with the company’s, as they will be representing the company, a positive image and reputation must be maintained.

Working with Social Influencers

Tour agencies, hotels, and destinations can post quality content on their social media channels in order to develop brand identity, introduce brand values and drive engagement. Additionally, a high-quality content will also give influencers a better idea of what the company is doing and what their values and mission statement are.

According to a survey by Chase Card Services, 44% millennial travelers searched for opinions on social media while doing research about a planned trip. Potential social influencers in destination marketing could come across the company’s content and there is a possibility of them reaching out first.

Hotels and destinations can meet millennial travelers’ needs by providing quality services, for instance, going entirely digital—providing a way for them to check in and check out online, as well as providing fast and free Wi-Fi in order for them to stay online and post on social media. These features are, in fact, what the millennial travelers are looking for. According to a survey by Skidmore Studio, 90% of millennials are attracted to the idea of checking in and out of a hotel digitally. Moreover, according to adweek.com, hotels are developing new millennial traveler-focused strategy, for instance, providing fast and free Wi-Fi and having new, appealing interior design. Survey by Chase Card Services also finds that 97% of millennial travelers post on social networking sites while traveling and 73% of millennial travelers post on social networking sites at least once a day. By providing the necessities, it will create an all-around pleasant experience for influencers, which will more likely result in better content, as well as emphasizing the features being promoted, in this case, amenities. According to TripBarometer 2015, amenities that are most significant in affecting guests’ decision when booking an accommodation, are, free Wi-Fi in room, free breakfast, free shuttle bus and staff who speak the traveler’s language. Hence, social influencers can promote a destination’s services and facilities that will appeal to the target audience.

Conclusion

Working together with social media influencers is a good way to drive engagement and sales, however, it is important to choose the influencers carefully, as some of them might have values that do not match that of your company’s. For a better, genuine content, a good relationship with influencers is essential, in order to avoid creating a negative impression around the content, such as, ‘the influencers are only doing this for the money, hence they do not put in an adequate amount of effort into their content’.

During their trip, social media influencers should focus on promoting a destination’s highlights, from local attractions, culinary experience to accommodations. Tour agencies and destinations can enhance their experience by providing them necessities to stay online and post content as it is happening. Therefore, their followers will be able to see real-time updates and have a sense of experiencing the trip with the influencers that they admire. From a marketer’s point of view, it is more likely to affect their decision to book a trip as the recommendations come from the influencers they follow on social media, and these influencers are not simply online celebrities, rather, they are individuals considered as friends. Hence their recommendations are perceived as personal recommendations from friends.

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Why it is important for hotels to have a website that converts

Conversion rates are considerably influenced by online reviews, a study by TrustYou finds. Positive reviews lead to more bookings and increase in sales, hence it is crucial to maintaining a good online reputation. Part of driving conversion rate is the conversion process itself.

For hotels, the main aim is to allow guests to make a direct booking once they are done browsing the hotel website. A booking process should be simple and straightforward. A survey by SaleCycle reveals that 81% of people do not complete online travel bookings. 13% said the checkout process was too complicated and time-consuming, 9% had technical difficulties and 7% had trouble with payment.

Moreover, according to Hospitality Times, the average hotel website conversions is 2-3% and around 95% of people neglected the direct booking process before the reservation is made. These further indicates the issue with the direct booking process that travelers are facing and that it still is the main issue that hotels need to solve in order to drive conversions.

There are a number of factors that hotels need to include in their website development strategy, in order to increase their conversion rates.

What makes up a website that converts

Studies conducted by Lindgaard, Fernandes, Dudek and Brown (2006) suggested that the time people take to decide whether a visual content is attractive or not is approximately 50 milliseconds. Similarly, hotel web designers only have 50 milliseconds to make a striking first impression. According to Sojern, the key parts that affect conversion are content, design, and images.

• Content – design and device friendliness are significant components of a website content. The visual design must be simple yet appealing, informative yet not excessively, and clear quality images are necessary. The booking page must include a clear calendar, for guests to choose their check-in and check-out date. The design must also be tablet and mobile-friendly, meaning it can be accessed effectively not only on a desktop computer but on mobile phones and tablets as well. According to research by Rezdy.com, 30% of direct online bookings are made on mobile devices, and according to statisticbrain, 65% of guests make hotel reservations on the same day on mobile devices. Hence a mobile-friendly content is more likely to drive conversions as more and more people are making bookings online and are often on their mobile devices.

• SEO – ensuring the hotel website shows up on Google search page is equally important, this can be achieved by boosting Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. According to the google study Mobile Path to Success, people spent 15+ hours a week doing research online on their mobile phones before making any purchase decision, the majority of their research starts with a search engine, and approximately 74% are using a search engine. This indicates people’s current mobile habits, which means, a search engine is what people would use first at the start of their shopping process, and travel bookings are not an exception. In order for a website to appear on Google search page, the content on the website must be SEO-optimized. According to google, the best ways to boost SEO is by including relevant and most searched phrases on the hotel website — phrases that the guests are most likely to search for on search engines, inserting other links and creating new content from time to time. By including relevant phrases it increases the chance of the website to appear on the search results page, however, it is important to bear in mind that the guests are a priority, rather than search engines. Content should be constructed in a way that it meets guests’ needs, yet still easily recognized by search engines. Creating refreshing new content indicates the website is active and involved, rather than unresponsive, and it helps in boosting SEO. Including other links will also be helpful in allowing guests to view a specific feature, as well as in boosting SEO, for example, hotels can include hyperlinks regarding “nearby attractions”, which will direct guests to the attraction’s website itself.

• Social Media – social media is an important promotion tool for modern businesses. Research by Rezdy.com finds that 82% of customers have a higher level of trust towards companies that use social media. Social media helps businesses in marketing content and drive traffic to the website. For instance, today, major hotel brands are posting and promoting their content on Instagram, by posting new content regularly, directly engaging with guests and reposting guests’ content. As mentioned before, posting new fresh content every now and then is essential in boosting SEO, additionally, it is also helpful in driving traffic and to indicate a steady online presence and activity. Furthermore, TripAdvisor hotel reviews can also be utilized as social media tools. The majority of travelers rely on TripAdvisor reviews before making hotel reservations. According to TripAdvisor report, 77% of travelers typically or always refer to TripAdvisor reviews before selecting a hotel. Hence positive TripAdvisor reviews are useful in driving traffic and increase conversion.

Conclusion

Whether or not a website is able to drive conversion rate is mainly determined by its content. Hotels should pay attention to close details and ensure that the information on the website is simple and straightforward and that the booking process is smooth and uncomplicated. Content must also be SEO-optimized to increase the chance of being discovered on search engine results page. Social media can also be used to promote content and drive traffic to the main website in order to drive conversion. Nonetheless, content must be designed primarily to meet the needs of customers, to make it convenient and easy for them to make reservations.

The post Driving Direct Bookings: How Hotels can Create a Website that Converts appeared first on millionmetrics.

The secret is out: freelancing is great. You get to be your own boss, choose your own hours, and never have to say yes to a project you don’t want to do! However, with more and more people leaping into freelance work, the competition is steep.

To make it as a successful freelancer, you need to make sure you’re selling yourself properly online.

Check out this list of ultimate tips to sell yourself as a top authority freelance in your niche.

1) Find Your USP

More companies want to hire an expert in their field than a jack-of-all trades. Decide what field you’re going to niche in to improve your chances of finding higher-paying clients wanting to work with you on a long term basis. For example, if you’re a copywriter, you may want to niche in one of the following areas:

• B2B Copy
• Content Marketing
• Technical Writing
• Ghost Writing
• Specialise in a field: finance, beauty, business, SEO – whatever you have the most expertise in!

2) Become an Authority in Your Niche

The more niche your field is, the easier it is to become an authority in it. Hone down your services to target specific clients and their competitors. Making yourself exclusively available to a smaller amount of companies won’t alienate you from potential clients – it will actually make you more desirable.

3) Create a Website

If you don’t have a website advertising your freelance services, you’re seriously missing a trick! You need a website to send potential clients to that explains what you do, shows off your portfolio, and tells people where to find you.

Your website is an online reflection of yourself and the work you do, so invest some time in making it something you’re proud of. Without a website, selling yourself as a professional freelancer is going to be a lot harder.

4) Start Blogging

Blogging is one of the best ways to assert yourself as an authority in your freelancing niche. Start blogging about your subject and create genuinely useful, informative posts to share with your community and potential clients. Without a blog, you lose your voice as a freelancer in the industry.

5) Social Media

Unfortunately, having a website set up and publishing blog posts isn’t enough to really sell yourself as a freelancer. You need to get your name in front of people, and the best way to do that is to market yourself online via social media.

Set up professional accounts for your freelance services across a few platforms (although be careful not to spread yourself too thin!), and post consistently. Try to also connect with other freelancers in your niche – referrals from other freelancers can be a valuable source of income for many freelancers.

Have you missed out any of these 5 essential tips as a freelancer? Try them out and see how much your business changes in the next few months!

Bio: Yaz is the content creator and marketing assistant for Freelancermap. Freelancermap connects IT professionals with remote jobs around the world, and shares weekly tips, advice, and interviews for other freelancers. Check out the blog for more freelancing tips!

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• Positive media coverage
• Increased website traffic
• Increased number of bookings from food tourists

Food Tourism – The Latest Trend

Public interest in food has been steadily increasing, ultimately transforming food tourism into the new global trend, even more so fueled by countless unique food experiences posted on social media sites. Unlike common tourism, food tourism focuses on culinary experience—food and drink that are locally sourced, rather than mere sightseeing. According to the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance (OCTA), culinary tourism refers to “any tourism experience in which one learns about, appreciates, and/or consumes food and drink that reflects the local, regional, or national cuisine, heritage, culture, tradition or culinary techniques”. The concept suggests people pursue a memorable food or drink experience by developing a better understanding and/or consuming local food or drink with the essence of culture in them. It is considered first-hand cultural experience and it is on top of the tourist attraction list.

What Hotels and Tourism Businesses Can Do To Promote Food Tourism

As food tourism is a growing tourist attraction, hotels and tour agencies can promote certain cuisines at certain countries by organizing regular tours focusing on cuisine. For instance, Four Seasons Hotel in Hangzhou, China, runs a private dinner and tour where tourists will be taken to the local food market where they can enjoy authentic Shanghainese and Cantonese cuisine.

Social media plays a role in driving the interest and enthusiasm in food experiences. Hence food tourism is massively popular among millennials, who share their food experiences on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. It is possible for marketers to acquire additional promotion through organizing events, such as market feast or beer festivals, and encouraging millennials to share the experiences on social media. Furthermore, a recent study by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) involving the UNWTO Affiliate Members working in different sectors, shows that food events are the most popular tourism product, followed by cooking class and workshops, as well as food fairs highlighting local products. Similar study also reveals that organizing events is the most used marketing and promotion tool, followed by brochures and advertising.

Social Media for Food Tourism

Current food tourism trends include food bloggers and food Instagram accounts, with videos, reviews and recommendations to top it off. Food photography is one of the most popular forms of Instagram posts along with fashion and photography. Popular food related hashtags on Instagram such as #foodie, #foodporn and #nom has over 20 million images. Users who share their experience ultimately gained thousands of followers, drawing attention to the places they visited, contributing to brand awareness and brand recognition. Additionally, the #travel hashtag also features many culinary posts. Therefore, food photography contributes to the improvement in tourism.

Another strategy is to enlist the help of social media influencers, particularly, food bloggers. Some food bloggers have a massive online following, which would contribute to increasing a hotel or a restaurant’s publicity. By allowing food bloggers to write reviews, take stunning photos of the food, and share their experiences, visual content for the restaurants are generated. Social media examiner published a social media marketing report in 2016, which shows that 37% of marketers considered visual marketing to be the most significant form of content, with blogging following after. Furthermore, social networking sites such as Instagram and Snapchat that primarily covers visual content (photos and videos), can be considered tools to use in visual marketing.

Cooking Classes and Workshops

Another popular food tourism product is cooking class and workshops. Cooking sessions are quite common in a number of countries including Japan, France and Italy, where tourists are able to visit local villages or gardens to collect ingredients and later on, cook meals from scratch accompanied by the locals. It is a whole new culinary tourism experience as it is not the same as watching cooking shows on television at home, rather it is an authentic experience in a place where a certain cuisine originates.

Food Tourism Helps To Promote Destination Marketing

As food is an integral part of cultural experience, some believed that food tourism plays an important role in promoting destination marketing. For the millennials, the internet is the main source of information as well as inspiration. Hotels and tour agencies can develop relevant content as part of their destination-marketing strategy. For instance, Australia has their own Instagram page focusing on all things local and featuring tourist attractions and culinary hotspots. Hence tourists are able to plan thoroughly—which places to visit and what food or drink to try.

To conclude, culinary experience is becoming more and more a focus for traveling. As a new trend with a high amount of interest among the millennials, there are quite a number of digital marketing trends that hotels, restaurants, and tour agencies need to catch up to, focusing on content strategy and development. Moreover, some believed that dining is not the ‘final destination’ for food tourists, rather, it is learning about where the food comes from and how it was produced—is the future of food tourism. This means that there is an increasing request for a memorable cooking experience, and it is crucial for hotels and tour agencies to expand their culinary tourism choices in order to meet their customers’ demands and provide quality food tourism experiences.

The post The Rise of Food Tourism: How food tourism can boost the hospitality & tourism industry appeared first on millionmetrics.

There are four effective ways to help boost SEO for your restaurant or F&B business:

• Use Social Media

  Social media is considered a vital part of SEO. The more dominant social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are essential in today’s social media marketing. Recent social media study shows that at least 63% marketers intend to increase the use of Facebook and YouTube as these are considered ‘top platforms’. Furthermore, there are billions of users on each site and these pages are the most likely to appear on the first page of search engine such as Google. Posting relevant content on social media will help a brand attract their target customers. Content on social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are most likely to appear on Google search results page, therefore it is a definite way to redirect users to your page. With Google’s varying algorithms and tough competition in the food and beverage market, being on top of a specific category is likely to be effective, for instance, being the “top ice cream shop”, or “new café you should try this summer”. This will help drive SEO results and web traffic, as well as increasing number of views and followers.

• Relevant Keywords

  Experts have predicted that in 2017, SEO is more likely to be user-centric. This means optimizing content based on customers’ needs, which will increase the chance of higher ranking on Google. Including relevant keywords in your content that customers are likely to include in their search will help prompt search engines to redirect users to your pages. Well-picked keywords are likely to have higher chance to optimize the content posted online. Additionally, images with relevant keywords included in its caption could also help with optimizing online posts. Including relevant keywords in titles and the body of the text is highly recommended. Moreover, since recent studies show that the presence of keywords itself does not appear to have any effect on a website’s rank on Google search results page. Nonetheless, high-ranking pages with high-volume keywords, do have relevant keywords in their title and body of the text. Therefore, to include keywords with large search volumes are highly significant. Furthermore, highly-targetted long tail keywords have a higher chance to convert visitors into customers.

• Maintain A Strong Online Presence

  Currently, food and beverage posts have a high chance of going viral online, even more, once it is discovered by online news platforms. It is crucial to stay active on social media, updating content, posting new content and interacting with customers. To avoid repetition, sharing the latest news on your restaurant or F&B business will also be helpful. Recent surveys show that 40% of SEO experts admitted that content development is the most persistent issue. There are a lot of brands with not so active social media accounts, this often gives the impression that the brand is not very active online hence it will be difficult to reach them. These brands could have relevant content, yet due to their inactivity, search engines are less likely to be aware of it and customers would not find them on the first search results page. Furthermore, the number of content reposted or referenced by other websites can also customers discover your brand. Including a link to the main website is also helpful, however, it is best to avoid generic phrases such as “click here” on the link button. Instead, try including main keywords as the text, for instance, “top summer menus”.

• Customer Reviews

  Before visiting a place, customers would often check online reviews, and it is particularly significant in affecting their decision-making process. It is considered as user-generated content, which has the potential to affect SEO by driving online conversations around your brand as well as keyword traffic. Additionally, offering rewards for reviews is an excellent strategy to encourage customers to leave a feedback.

In conclusion, today’s digital marketing demands brands to boost their SEO in order to stay relevant and compete with other players on the market. SEO is only attainable through proper planning, execution, and monitoring. Any restaurant or F&B business is encouraged to improve their rankings on search engines, as it is one of the most important steps to be taken to gaining more visitors.

The post Four Effective Ways To Boost Your Restaurant SEO appeared first on millionmetrics.

Snapchat is currently one of the top social media apps that people are using, along with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. According to HootSuite, statistics in 2016 shows that there are over 300 million active users every month. It was predicted that in 2017, Snapchat will have more users than Twitter and LinkedIn. Recent data also reveals there are over two billion snaps created daily, and that there is a steady growth of usage in North America, Europe and the rest of the world. In terms of user experience, Snapchat content is very much real-time, personal and immediate, creating a sense of realism. Furthermore, Snapchat users often share personal content, that is, happened in their everyday life. Hence when a brand attempts to connect with them through Snapchat, there is a sense of intimacy—as though they’re communicating with a friend rather than a brand. When it comes to engaging guests, hotels, as well as a number of tour operators typically display user-generated content, for instance, reposting guests’ posts.

There are a number of Hotel Snapchat Marketing tactics, which hotel managers and tour agencies are encouraged to try:

1. Various Content

Snapchat enables brands to create different types of content, from videos to interactive ads. Music and animations can be included, strengthening the appeal of the content. The varying components could lead to a boost in brand awareness and brand recognition. There is no limit to creativity, as Snapchat content is considered informal and fun.

2. Personalised Geofilters

Users’ favorite location based filters are a fun and easy way to share their current location with others. Hotels can create their own geofilters for visitors who are staying in a certain country, which would not be present when the visitor stays at the same hotel in a different country. Although targeting certain market on Snapchat can be costly, marketers might want to consider personalized geofilters as they are also more affordable, starting at $5 per 20,000 square feet.

3. Personalised Filters

Face filters can also be considered as this is the most common form of user-generated content. For instance, in order to promote an upcoming movie, there is a special limited edition filter based on the movie. Users are able to take a snap using the filter and post it on their story feed. This strategy is particularly effective for raising awareness. To encourage users participation, perhaps hotels can set up a filter, which can only be found on a certain floor or a certain area.

4. Increased Interaction

Responses on Snapchat are immediate and real-time, which means interaction with customers is prompt. Customers’ inquiries would also be instantly handled.

5. Partnership with Social Media Influencer

Collaboration with social media influencers could assist the hospitality industry in delivering their content to the mass audience, emphasizing brand personality, as well as driving customers’ purchase decision and ultimately increase sales.

6. Events Update

For any events such as seminars, events held at hotels or cultural festivals, brands are able to do a ‘live update’ on Snapchat. This entails sharing event highlights in the form of short videos, thus followers are able to watch the event as it happens. A new geofilter especially made for the event would be a creative way to encourage guests to post their own content.

7. Sneak Peeks

Sharing some sneak peeks of new products before the official launch is a good way to inform the customers as well as to predict whether or not it is going to succeed on the market.

8. Behind the Scenes

Filming some behind-the-scenes is a good way to show customers that they are a part of the brand’s journey. This footage can be exclusive to followers of the brand only.

9. Campaigns

Marketing campaigns on Snapchat are likely to be successful due to its wide reach worldwide. For instance, hotels and tour agencies can create a themed campaign in which their followers can submit their own content, such as, their favorite things about a certain country. CEO of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, has revealed that there is a significant rise in video views, from two billion views earlier in 2015 and later in 2016, ten billion views per day. It was believed to be the result of encouragement towards creating—rather than “simply consuming”. When consumers contribute by creating, it is a more active and effective form of interaction.

10. Guest Content

“Takeover” by social media influencers such as travel bloggers can provide quality guest content that could lead to an increase in web traffic and number of followers.

11. Cross-promotion

This means promoting Snapchat content on other social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. This aims to bring more views and engagement on Snapchat.

12. Product Demo

At times, people are still confused about how a certain product really works. Videos showing a demo about how the product works, or other tips and tricks, would be a very useful for customers. For instance, a brief demo on how to use hotel-booking apps.

13. Multiple Admins

Hotel Snapchat Marketing is all about unleashing creativity, therefore have more than one admin to post content. This will bring more diverse content that is more likely to keep the customers interested.

In conclusion, Snapchat is a highly effective tool in involving customers. People love when their content is recognized by brands, even more, when brands invite them to be a part of the brand’s story. Additionally, it is equally important to know which social media to use, however, it is also important to ensure a positive return on investment (ROI), as Snapchat content is fairly expensive and if it proves to be ineffective and cost-efficient, perhaps it is not the most suitable tool to use.

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