5 essential tools to move your hotel out of the digital stone age

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by Anna Munhin Sep 15, 2022 News
5 essential tools to move your hotel out of the digital stone age

We were doing things differently when I began my career. Digital marketers relied on basic metrics to prepare for their decisions. Most hotels had digital marketing strategies in place by the mid-2010s, which included paid ads and being active on the internet. The work was done manually. Digital marketing is called the stone age.

Digital marketing has tons of tools and resources that can be used more effectively. There are a lot of tools for every challenge. Most hotels are stuck in the 2010s, so they don't use these. Five must-have tools will be introduced in this article.

OTA Insight

Most online bookings in most markets are made by online travel agencies. Having a steady stream ofOTA bookings can't hurt the business. Excellent metrics and insights on how your property performs onOTAs compared to the market are provided byOTA Insight. It is an essential tool to find opportunities. The new solution captures hotel booking intent in real time to uncover new revenue opportunities.

The use of OTA insight or similar intelligence tools for marketing and commercial decision-making is a major step in the right direction.

There is a website calledotainsight.com.

Iconosquare

Around 60 percent of independent hotels are stuck in the 2010s when it comes to social media management. It's sad. Smart marketing teams use social media tools to make it easier to keep up with the latest social channels.

Icono square is used by marketing agencies to make data driven decisions. The platform gives brands and agencies peace of mind by offering time-saving reporting and in-depth analysis.

Brand 24 is one of the alternatives.

There is a website called "pro.iconosquare.com".

HubSpot

A lot of hotels use systems for customer relationship management. It's borderline impossible to manage loyalty programs, keep track of guest profiles, and automate communication in today's world. Booking engines offer simplified systems, but they aren't very effective.

There are tons of funnel management and customer relations automation features in HubSpot, which is an industry standard.

Revinate is used by quite a lot of hotels. It's better for them to check out HubSpot.

The company has a free basicCRM for those who cannot afford it. Good luck sending birthday emails and following up on proposals if you think you don't need aCRM.

There is a website called Hubspot.com.

Market Sampler

Market Sampler is a market research solution that gives you the ability to see inside the minds of your audience. You can use micro-surveys to target research campaigns to anyone you want.

Market Sampler is used by hotels to measure brand awareness, check brand acceptance, and understand guest expectations. Market Sampler can be used to measure what people think about your ads.

You can launch a research campaign from as low as $50 and get data in a few days.

There is a marketsampler.

SemRush

It's still relevant to internet marketing, even for hotels. Over 70% of independent hotels only make content for social media. The #1 factor for ranking in search engines and the way to get high-intent web traffic is a well-written hotel website.

SemRush has great tools for professional-level search engine ranking. You can use this information to improve the search engine presence of your hotel brand by using the most lucrative and best-converting search terms.

In the long term, a strong search engine presence will generate more revenue than paid ads can buy, because it requires continuous research, writing, and patience.

www.semrush.com

How much these tools cost? Does it worth the investment?

It will cost over $1,000 per month to use the above tools. Your team will be able to do a better job and you will be able to unlock mission-critical business and market insights.

You will be able to automate email marketing campaigns, find ideal market segments to advertise for, manage your social media more effectively, and improve the search engine traffic of your hotel. If you measure the revenue and effectiveness of these activities already, you can do the math.

It is time to plan for better digital marketing management if you don't track revenue from the above activities.