Putting together a boutique hotel marketing plan involves five essential components. You need to be mobile-optimized,use an email marketing tool, utilize social media, create updated listings online, and create shareable content.
This combination will result in a strong boutique hotel marketing plan.
The importance of digital marketing for a boutique hotel
You might not realize it, but a strong boutique hotel marketing plan can completely transform your business.
In today’s digital age, everyone is looking for information on the internet. When someone wants to find the right hotel for their trip, they’ll go to Google and conduct some searches.
If your company doesn’t show up on Google, you’re missing out on a ton of new customers. Digital marketing directs internet traffic towards your company.
It doesn’t just happen on Google, either. Each time someone accesses the internet, there’s an opportunity for them to connect to your brand. With enough people going to your site, your bookings are sure to go up.
The best part? Putting together a robust digital marketing plan is easier than you might think.
The power of branding for your boutique hotel
Part of your marketing campaign is going to be your branding. Branding is how you present your company to your customers.
Your boutique hotel’s brand is built through the way that you conduct business, how you speak, and what your focuses are. The public will take all of this information and develop their perspective of your brand.
For example, Starbuck’s brand is all about high-end specialty coffees. Apple brands itself as a cutting-edge, sleek, and modern tech company.
What’s your hotel’s brand?
It’s important to remember your branding throughout your marketing campaign.
The 5 elements of a boutique hotel marketing plan
As mentioned earlier, it’s fairly easy to put together a marketing plan. Get off to a good start with these five elements:
1. A mobile-responsive travel website
This cannot be stressed enough — you need your website to be mobile-responsive. If your website doesn’t display properly on a phone, you’re cutting your potential customer base into a small sliver.
Making your website mobile-response should be a primary goal as you build your hotel’s website.
A site that isn’t mobile-responsive will look really weird on a phone. Text will be cut up, images will be hard to maneuver around, and the menu won’t work.
The second someone lands on a site that isn’t compatible with their phone, they’ll simply leave your site. That’s a potential customer down the drain.
2. An email marketing tool
Email marketing offers the highest return on investment (ROI) out of every marketing type — $42 back for every $1 invested. This means that you get the biggest bang for your buck with this marketing technique.
Your small business can do a lot with such a great ROI, which makes email marketing for your boutique hotel a must-have.
When you’re sending out emails, keep them short and to-the-point. Never spam your mailing list.
If you stick to monthly newsletters and discount emails, recipients will look forward to receiving a message from you. You can nurture your leads through an email marketing campaign and walk them through the sales process.
There are even email marketing tools that do a lot of the heavy lifting for you by allowing you to automate certain aspects of your boutique hotel marketing plan. Giving you more time to focus on other aspects of your business.
3. A primary social media channel
Any small business can use social media, but it works especially well with boutique hotels. Your hotel was built around its aesthetics and vibes. This is exactly what social media users like to see.
The big three platforms you’ll want to consider are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Consider your target audience when you think about which social media platform to utilize the most.
Twitter and Facebook make it easier to share content and create shareable posts. Instagram revolves around gorgeous pictures. Boutique hotel social media is a great way to show the views, rooms, and location of your hotel.
By adding links to your posts, you can also drive more viewers to your website.
The goal is to establish brand awareness around your hotel. You want people to recognize your name and the area you’re located in. When they plan a trip to your town, you want to be the first name that they think of.
4. Up-to-date listings on popular travel websites
There are a lot of travel websites that people will visit to search for a boutique hotel. Tripadvisor, Yelp, Google, and Facebook are the big players in this industry.
On top of that, there are also niche hotel sites like BoutiqueHotel, MyBoutiqueHotel, and TabletHotels.
The best method is to keep your hotel listings up to date — on all of these major sites. Your listing should have all the most important information about your hotel:
- Your phone number
- Your address
- Photos
- Logo
- Links to your website and social media accounts
- Your hotel’s name
Why does it work? When someone looks up hotels in your area, your hotel will pop up if you do this right. With enough time and patience, your name will rise to the top of the list.
This all goes back to getting eyes on your hotel in the digital age. This form of digital marketing finds leads when they’re ready to complete a booking.
Make sure that you do a good job of capturing your aesthetic and branding in the images you upload. You want to emphasize the boutique aspect of your hotel.
5. A way to easily create and share travel content
The main goal for your online platforms is to create sharable content. And, if your post goes viral, you get a ton of potential customers’ attention — which is the dream of every social media post. But, you don’t have to “go viral” to have your social media content work for you.
The point of content marketing is to create content that your followers, readers, and potential guests will find interesting and will want to share with their friends. And, as your content gets read and shared, so will the name and brand of your boutique hotel.
Shareable content may include an infographic about the hot spots in your area, tips for packing for a weekend getaway, or insider tips to getting the best rooms for the best prices. Just make sure that your company’s name, logo and website URL are all prominently displayed on every infographic you post.
Whatever you decide to share, the content should be related to your boutique hotel in one way or another. Whether that means sharing knowledge of your industry, tourist hot-spots, or best attractions, that’s up to you.
Alternatively, you can show a room or view from your hotel, a dish from your in-house restaurant (or a restaurant you partner with), or a nearby attraction. This will entice people to wonder where the picture came from and increase their desire to visit your website to find out more..
Conclusion
These five components will help your boutique hotel make more money and get more customers. It’s important to utilize online marketing since today’s marketing world is largely digital. If it’s done right, your name will pop up first as people search for their next getaway.
For more information about marketing a boutique hotel, download the free ultimate guide.
