What do you do to find the best hotels or restaurants in a new city? After browsing through one or two review platforms, you might also see some of the hotels re-appearing as ads on your search results for other queries. That’s one of the smart techniques hotels use to drag your attention towards a successful conversion. The market size of the hospitality industry has reached 4700 billion dollars by 2023. Creative marketing is the key to success for anyone to thrive in this highly competitive industry. In this regard, we thought of sharing the top six creative marketing strategies for hotels and restaurants that guarantee maximum conversions.
1. Optimize Your Business Website: SEO
When 99% of people use the internet to search for local businesses, search engine optimization (SEO) becomes imperative for marketing businesses online. It involves ranking your hotel or restaurant for popular search terms online, such as “best hotel near me” or “best Thai restaurant near me.” SEO is the most cost-effective marketing option than print or television. It also helps your business website establish trust and authority with search engines to keep attracting huge potential customers every day with minimum effort. But it may take a few months to show initial results. That’s because there are several aspects of SEO. You have to work on your website content, technicality, cross-device compatibility, and a lot more. So, it is wise to hire an expert to optimize your website to save you huge marketing costs by dominating the top 3 rankings for popular search queries.
2. Offer Loyalty Programs to Incentivize Dining Within the Hotel
Do you know 44% of people say loyalty programs influence their hotel selection? Loyalty programs incentivize repeat businesses, increase your average order value, and offer valuable data-driven customer behaviour and preferences insights. You can choose from different loyalty programs to incentivize your customers, such as points-based and item-based rewards. Keep the terms relatively simple to encourage more participation. For instance, if members know they are eligible for a free complimentary dish after every $100 spent, they will be more willing to participate. You can also use loyalty programs to trigger your online orders. However, make sure the program brings in more than it costs.
3. Target Customers With Special Preferences
If you don’t understand customers, how else will you exceed their expectations? It holds equal importance for hotels and restaurants. Thus, it is important first to identify and define your target audience and streamline your marketing strategy accordingly. For instance, if your restaurant targets retired wealthy American customers aged 65-75, you would add more dishes to meet the nutritional needs of seniors. You will add Hummus veggie wrap or Citrus salmon with baked sweet potato to your top suggestions on the menu over butter chicken masala. You can market go-to meals for seniors at a slightly premium price to maximize your per-table profit at ease.
4. Collaborate with Influencers
Nearly 2000 TikTok influencers from the US have 50,000-100,000 followers. Influencer marketing is the most effective paid marketing strategy to gain a quick spotlight. You make paid collaborations with ideal social media influencers with huge fan followings. You can choose influencers from different channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest, to tap more potential customers. They promote your dishes, cuisine, service quality, and other USPs in front of their followers to trigger new visits. Set clear and measurable goals for your influencer marketing campaigns to avoid unwanted disappointments and increase ROI.
5. Go Above and Beyond to Earn 5-star Reviews Online
Around 93% of customers admit online reviews influence their purchasing decisions. That said, online reviews can make or break your business. People see reviews as social proof of your service quality and assurance of an enjoyable dining experience with their loved ones. This underscores the importance of investing in reputation management. It also involves handling negative reviews smartly to manage your restaurant’s reputation. Typically, customers wouldn’t think to leave positive reviews after a good experience. You have to ask them for it. Sometimes, new hotels and restaurants also incentivize their customers with special discounts to earn 5-star reviews on major review platforms such as Google My Business and Yelp. You can also ask for the same through email marketing.
6. Market More During Peak Season
Many upscale restaurants and hotels see a drop in business during a seasonal holiday or major event. Customers are less likely to dine out as they cook meals with their family at home or travel out of the city. During such times, smart restaurant owners offer special offers to attract people to dine with family. Even simple deals like 2-for-1 meals and 25% off the check help businesses increase their bottom line. You can adjust the extra expenses toward marketing with seasonal menu changes and waste minimization.
How to Optimize Your Marketing Campaigns?
Optimizing your marketing campaigns with timely corrective measures is important to maximize conversions. It is only possible through data-driven insights from your sales, customer feedback, and other performance KPIs. For instance, if maximum sales are coming through influencer marketing campaigns, investing more in it during peak seasons is wise. However, keeping a tap on such real-time and historical data is not easy unless you take the help of smart tools and automation.
End Thoughts
How well you market your hotel or restaurant indicates how well you understand your customers. There are different ways of marketing the hospitality business, but every method requires real-time data-driven insights to make smart adjustments for optimizing efforts towards your end goal. In this regard, Restroworks’ hotel restaurant management software offers smart assistance to aid your marketing efforts and easily streamline your operations. For instance, you get data-driven insights on guest feedback to improve dining experiences and identify your USPs to focus on for marketing, all under one suite. Also, you can leverage the software for multi-outlet management, menu organization, event management, COGS optimization, and more. In short, sign in for delightful dining and effortless hotel management with Restroworks’ hotel restaurant management software.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How can marketing increase customer lifetime value in hotels and restaurants?
Unique marketing strategies can enhance customer loyalty. Apart from offering a unique dining experience, marketing loyalty programs and personalized offers can easily attract new customers. Using social media, email campaigns, and ad promotions effectively encourages repeat businesses, thereby increasing customer’s lifetime value.
2. What are effective low-cost marketing strategies for restaurants?
Focus on word-of-mouth, which comes from exceptional customer experience. Additionally, you can engage in community events and partner with local businesses for cross-promotions. Posting mouth-watering dish pictures on social media is also a budget-friendly marketing strategy. Lastly, offering loyalty programs can encourage repeat visits at a minimal marketing cost.
3. How important are online reviews for marketing?
Your business’s online reviews can significantly influence your potential customers’ dining decisions. Therefore, actively encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews and address negative reviews professionally and courteously.
