When we started our hotel digital marketing career in 2009, we were doing things differently. The industry lacked tools and knowledge, and marketers relied on basic metrics to prepare digital marketing decisions. By the mid-2010s, most hotels had adopted digital marketing strategies such as OTA optimization, some paid advertising, website optimization, and social media activation. Everything was done manually. That’s what I call the digital marketing stone age.

There are many tools and resources available today to help you manage your digital marketing more effectively. From business intelligence tools to market research to workflow reduction solutions, there’s a tool for every challenge. It’s a shame most hotels are still in the 2010’s and don’t take advantage of these. In this article, we’ll take a look at his five must-have tools in any modern digital marketing setup.

OTA Insight

In most markets around the world, the majority of online bookings are generated by OTAs. The hotel’s marketing team prefers direct bookings, but a steady stream of OTA bookings doesn’t hurt business. OTA Insights is a great tool that provides excellent metrics and insights into your property’s performance OTA compared to the market. It is an essential tool for finding opportunities and detecting critical problems. The company just launched the first predictive market intelligence solution that captures hotel booking intent in real time to uncover new revenue opportunities.

Using OTA Insights or similar OTA intelligence tools for marketing and commercial decision making is a big step beyond relying on basic OTA stats or what the typical guesswork hotel manager does. .

https://www.otainsight.com

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About 60% of independent hotels are still in the 2010s when it comes to social media management, doing everything manually. that’s sad. Smart marketing teams, on the other hand, use social media tools to unlock a wealth of information and reduce the arduous workflow required to keep all social channels up to date.

Iconosquare is used by marketing agencies to make data-driven decisions for Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The platform gives both brands and agencies peace of mind with content scheduling, time-saving reporting, and in-depth analytics.

Other options include Sprout Social, HootSuite, and Brand24.

https://pro.iconosquare.com

hubspot

Many hotels use CRM systems for good reasons. Managing loyalty programs, tracking guest profiles, building integration funnels, and automating communications is not possible today without a CRM. While some booking engines offer simplified CRM systems, they fall far short of the effectiveness of dedicated CRMs.

HubSpot is the industry-standard CRM solution serving millions of businesses across industries, offering high-volume funnel management and customer relationship automation capabilities.

Thousands of hotel companies use Revinate as their CRM. Even so, HubSpot is better and I highly recommend checking it out.

Pricing is small business friendly and we even offer a free basic CRM for those willing to spare a dime. Manually follow up on suggestions.

https://www.hubspot.com

Market sampler

Market Sampler is a unique market research solution that gives you superpowers to see inside your audience’s mind. Micro-surveys allow you to target your survey campaigns to anyone online based on demographics, interests, income level, and more.

In most cases, hotels use the Market Sampler to measure brand awareness in key markets, see brand acceptance, and understand guest expectations for similar hotels. You can also use Market Sampler to gauge what people think about your hotel’s website and advertising.

It’s a smart, flexible tool that lets you start your research campaigns from as little as $50 and get your data in just a few days.

Smart Market Research Tool for Any Research Purpose

Semlash

Search engine optimization and content marketing are still very relevant to internet marketing, not only in hotels but in most industries. Unfortunately, over 70% of his privately owned hotels only produce content for social media. Having a well-written blog post on your hotel’s website is the number one factor in ranking on search engines and a highly motivated free web way to attract his traffic.

SemRush provides excellent tools for professional-level search engine ranking and content marketing management. You can spy on your competitors to identify the most profitable and highest converting search terms and use this information to increase your hotel brand’s search engine presence.

I’m not going to argue that SEO is hard work that requires constant research, writing, and perseverance, but in the long run, a strong search engine presence will generate more revenue than paid advertising. increase.

https://www.semrush.com

How much do these tools cost? Are they worth the investment?

Using the above or similar tools will cost you just over $1,000 per month. This unlocks mission-critical business and market insights, reduces the time needed to perform time-consuming tasks, and enables your team to do a better job overall.

You can automate your email marketing campaigns, find the best market segments to advertise, better manage your social media, and improve your hotel’s search engine traffic. If you’ve already measured the revenue and effectiveness of these activities, you can calculate whether they’re worth it.

If you’re not tracking revenue from the activities above, it’s a clear indication that your hotel is stuck in the Digital Stone Age and it’s time to plan for better digital marketing management.