Why You Need An Industry Leading Resort Digital Marketing Agency

Are you in the hospitality industry and looking for an industry-leading resort digital marketing agency to give you a competitive edge? Did you know that digital marketing agencies that develop marketing campaigns for five-star resorts and luxury hospitality brands need to possess a particular set of skills? Were you aware of the multitude of benefits you can reap from hiring a specialist hotel digital marketing agency? 

Whether you’re the owner of boutique hotels or a world-famous luxury resort chain, you will need to invest in well-designed digital marketing campaigns to increase your brand awareness and engage with your target audience on social media as well as other online channels. Only then will you be able to pull in more prospective guests to your website, and drive direct bookings. 

Keep reading to find out why digital marketing is important for anyone in the hospitality industry, the essential hotel marketing services you will need to succeed, and how experienced digital marketing agencies working in the travel industry can help you achieve all that.   

Why Digital Marketing Is Important For The Hospitality Industry 

Hotel marketing involves both offline and online marketing methods. Both of these are used for promoting luxury brands like five-star resorts and increasing the reach of their messaging. This is how luxury hotels and resorts get potential guests to make more direct bookings. 

As digital advertising methods have evolved rapidly with the increasing penetration of smartphones and social media, a large chunk of this hotel marketing has shifted away from traditional methods. Instead of relying on travel magazines and television commercials to promote a high-class resort brand, many in the hotel industry now have to deal with search engine optimization and social media marketing methods.   

The reason for this is clear. Everyone from business travelers to families going on holiday to a wedded couple looking for a romantic getaway is now using the technology at their fingertips to learn everything they can about their destination long before they hop on a plane. They wish to know what amenities your hotel or resort has to offer, how close it is to local attractions, whether previous guests had a great experience there, and compare all of this with your competitors.    

Many online booking websites like Expedia have also sprung up in addition to your competitors’ hotel websites to encourage potential guests to make their bookings through them. You may receive bookings through such an online booking site, but you would obviously prefer to bring in new guests through your own channels. 

Whether you’re a small boutique resort or an established brand with multiple resorts all around the world, you would need to invest in superior digital marketing efforts to compete with all of these entities online. Only then will you be able to grab the attention of your audience, and increase awareness about your own brand. This will drive website traffic from social media channels, and search engine results toward your own website when travelers do their research for their next vacation.    

Digital Marketing Services Essential For Hotels And Resorts

Hospitality businesses need a digital marketing strategy that encompasses several essential areas like social media, web design, content writing, and SEO. Digital marketing agencies that have a deep understanding of the hospitality industry are the ones most qualified with these services to make your digital strategy a success.    

Optimizing Hotel Website Conversions

A major part of hospitality digital marketing is to ensure your website is prepared to impress visitors, allow them to easily navigate it, find the relevant information they were looking for and convince them to make a booking. Your resort website needs to reflect your brand identity, give a taste of what a stay at your resort will be like, and make visitors wish they were already at the destination. 

This means web design and development are very important to make the user experience as smooth as possible. The landing page needs to include elements that drive the visitors towards a conversion like a call-to-action (CTA) while also providing the information you promised them. All of your web pages that can be accessed from here need to be laid out in an intuitive manner that won’t confuse your potential new guests.

Graphic designers need to ensure the colors, fonts, logos, and any other visual branding elements complement your image. You will definitely need high-resolution photos and videos, as well as new methods like 360-degree views and virtual tours to really highlight what your resort has to offer.  

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

There’s no point in investing in web design and development to make a fantastic-looking website if nobody actually visits it. This makes SEO a major part of any digital marketing plan. The idea is to identify the keywords that travelers are using to search when they look for a destination or resort. With content writers that have experience in SEO, you can optimize your website copy by strategically including the most effective keywords. 

For an existing resort website, digital marketing agencies will often begin this process by auditing your website to find where improvements can be made. They can also find what sort of backlinks are pointing toward your website and whether these are of high quality to match the standards of your brand. A hotel marketing agency will be aware of which type of backlinks will bring in the most traffic, and which help your hotel brand look more appealing. 

When done well, website SEO will push your resort website to be displayed higher in Google search results, allowing more people to find it easily. The more people come across your website when they search online, the more they will visit it. If your hotel website is designed well as mentioned above, the more bookings you will have, and the more guests you will receive. 

Apart from appearing high on organic search results, you can also make use of paid advertising by using the Google Ads platform to place yourself in the sponsored section of a search results page. Google Hotel Ads will allow you to display your real-time availability of rooms, pricing, and other information that a potential guest will need before making a booking. This is done through the same Google Business profile which you most likely already have for displaying your location on Google Maps. 

Content Marketing

Besides vital information like resort packages, the prices of suites and rooms, the amenities, and location details that a potential guest wishes to know, there are other ways of grabbing their attention. In hospitality digital marketing, this can be done by creating content that travelers will appreciate for their relevancy and usefulness.

The easiest thing is to start a blog that provides travelers with useful tips, and recommendations on the best places to visit near your hotel or resort. This could be restaurants, spa treatment centers, massage parlors, water sports, safari tours, and anything else that is available near your location. Of course, if your resort includes many of these services already, you can write articles highlighting these aspects. 

The idea behind content marketing is to capture the attention of people that are not directly searching for your resort, delivering engaging content they find useful, and then making them aware of your resort brand. When the time comes for them to book a hotel, your name will be remembered. As with your website copy, you can use SEO methods to ensure your blog content gets pushed to the top of search results.  

Optimization For Mobile Devices

You already know that more people do their browsing on mobile devices than they do on desktop computers. This means that everything on your website including your blog articles, high-resolution images, and important information is displayed properly for the small size of a smartphone device. I

f your images are getting cropped or a user cannot see the drop-down menus, your potential guest may get annoyed or confused. This cannot be allowed to happen. An experienced marketing agency will know how to display your website in all its glory no matter which device is being used to visit it. 

Social Media Marketing

In online marketing, you cannot ignore the power and reach of social media. Not only do these digital platforms allow you to maintain a digital presence that is visible to your target market, but you can also directly interact with them and deliver engaging social media content to get their attention. 

Not only can your travel blog receive more web traffic when shared on social media, but you can turn these blog topics into videos that can be shared on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. If you didn’t know already, videos on social media have some of the highest engagement levels and have the best potential to generate clicks. If you have stunning video footage of your resort, social media is the best place to show off.

A big part of social media marketing is to learn about what your audience is interested in. By finding what pages they follow, you can create your content to blend seamlessly into their news feed. Even your ads on social media will get more clicks and engagement if they look like other user-generated content. 

Social media marketing can be messy if you have multiple accounts on different platforms to manage. An experienced hotel marketing agency will know what are the best aspect ratios for your images, the format your upload files should be in, and how to make your video clips work without any sound. A hotel marketing company will also be able to use its network to find the best social media influencers. This will allow your resort or hotel to extend your reach to an even wider audience. 

Email Marketing

Most of the online marketing methods we discussed up until now were meant to attract more guests to your website and encourage them to make a booking. Email marketing can be used after their stay is over. You can ask your guests to leave some feedback or leave a review on your website. It’s a chance to improve your services, maintain a relationship with your guests, and benefit from positive reviews online. 

If your guests had a memorable stay, you can use leverage these positive travel-related experiences that they associate with your resort in the future. The next time you’re giving a special offer to guests that have already stayed, you can reach out to them with email marketing. 

It’s important not to be too spammy with this, always use a personal touch like their name to address them, and show how much you care. If done well, this is another way to get more bookings for your hotel or resort. An experienced hotel marketing agency will know how to properly utilize email marketing.  

Why You Need A Hotel Marketing Agency

Hospitality digital marketing is a niche that not only requires the complete range of skills and services we mentioned above, but also an understanding of how to deploy these tools in the high-end hospitality industry. You can try to leverage your own experience in the industry to start a blog and create simple content for social media, but aspects such as web development, graphic design, and SEO require an expert hand to pull it off well.

What you need is an experienced digital agency that provides hospitality marketing services. The following is what you stand to gain from hiring hospitality marketing agencies to take care of all your digital marketing needs. 

Hospitality Marketing Agencies Have Experience

If the digital agency you hire has an existing portfolio that includes other hospitality businesses, then you can be rest assured that they already know how the industry works. They will already know who the world’s leading trendsetters are and the unique challenges you may be facing. They would have already implemented strategies that have worked and overcome these obstacles while working on other projects. 

They Can Give You A Fresh Perspective 

Sometimes you need an outside perspective to get an idea of what needs improvement. Digital marketing agencies will be able to come up with new ideas you haven’t even thought of and be utilizing cutting-edge technology that you don’t have access to. Their SEO tools and auditing systems can give insights into your own website and highlight issues you have been unaware of. This can help you fix these problems and stay ahead of your competition.   

Build Your Brand’s Digital Presence

You may not have realized the true potential of your brand on online platforms like social media. For example, your boutique resort may be located near a scenic location, but you may be lacking the skills to capture it in all its glory and show it off on Instagram. A hospitality agency will be able to collaborate with skilled photography or videography specialist to high-quality content that will impress travelers when shared on social media. They may even be able to work with influencers that already have an audience if you’re still getting started on building your own. 

Brand Reputation Management

The reputation of your brand is everything to bring in more guests to your hotel or resort. Guest reviews and testimonials matter, and naturally the best way to get positive word of mouth is to provide a great service. How a potential visitor to your social media pages and website will perceive your brand online is also important. 

Your hospitality marketing efforts need to be consistent with your brand image, and always reflect your values, and the level of service you provide. Digital agencies can perform this reputation management for you, ensuring that all your communications with your target audience remain on brand at all times.  

Saves Your Time And Money

Your resort or hotel may currently lack the creative talent, software tools, and technological capabilities to perform certain aspects of hospitality marketing such as SEO and social media management. If that is the case, then it would be time-consuming, not to mention expensive to build such capabilities. It would also shift the focus away from what you do best, providing your guests a memorable experience at your hotel or resort. 

A creative partner that can handle your hospitality marketing needs will save time, money, and all the hassle you would otherwise have to go through. If your business operates in a niche for luxury resorts, you may benefit greatly from a boutique digital marketing agency that will be able to customize everything to your heart’s content. 

Looking For An Industry Leading Resort Digital Marketing Agency?

If you’re about to start looking for a digital marketing partner that can provide the essential services you need, then look no further than Inquivix. We provide comprehensive digital marketing services that include website SEO, content marketing, social media management as well as web design and development. With an extensive portfolio that includes many clients in the hospitality industry, we are uniquely positioned to provide any and all hotel or resort marketing needs you may have.   

To learn more about marketing for resorts in Thailand, read Marketing Strategies for Resorts and Hotels in Thailand or visit the Inquivix website today!

FAQs

Is Digital Marketing Important For The Hotel Business?

Yes. Digital marketing methods extend the reach of your marketing messages, enhance the relationships you have with your guests, and improve the brand image of your hotel or resort.

How Do I Market My Resort Online?

You will need to design and develop a website that reflects your brand, use search engine optimization to rise to the top of search engine rankings, create travel-related content that will be engaging to your audience, and utilize social media to share it with them.