In this competitive digital age, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. Your business could suffer if you don’t adapt to these new trends which could leave you in danger of falling behind your competitors. Whether you own a restaurant, a chain of hotels or even a popular theme park - it’s important to be aware of current marketing trends and how your business can massively benefit from adopting or even creating such trends. So, here’s how to succeed at marketing in the hospitality industry in 2020.
- 1. It's Time To Go Mobile
- 2. Customers Love Personalisation
- 3. Taking advantage of Social Media
- 4. Visual Content is more engaging
- 5. Wearable Technology will become the norm
By following these marketing tips and tricks, your business should see the many rewards that come with adapting to the ever-changing landscape.
1. It’s Time To Go Mobile
While desktops and laptops are a necessity for your business and how it operates, it’s important to understand that the majority of customers are now tech-savvy and will be using their mobiles for anything they can. If your business doesn’t have the technology in place to deal with their devices, then you’re already at a major disadvantage.
Think about it, people don’t want to deal with countless sheets of paper to show that they’ve booked a reservation at your hotel. They might not always carry cash around, or could forget wallets and purses at home. Customers can view what you have to offer on their mobile on-the-go to decide whether they want to visit your business. They can book through their mobiles, they can pay through them and your mobile responsiveness could have an impact on your Google ranking, too.
So, go mobile or get left behind. Innovative platforms are always creating new technology to make mobile features take over the current norm, so make sure your marketing efforts are mobile friendly.
2. Customers Love Personalisation
The only way you’re going to make a profit is if your customers are happy, they continue to come back and even recommend others to visit your establishment. A simple yet effective marketing method to help you succeed in 2018 is to add a personal touch, such as their booking experience, for example. You can get to know them before they arrive, maybe guests are coming for their honeymoon, or even celebrating a birthday or an anniversary. Trips like these deserve personalisation from your staff to leave guests impressed, so include this simple marketing technique in your business.
There’s also software available that enables you to recognise the regular guests, so you can give them the personal attention they deserve. By doing this and showing you remember these guests, you’ll be earning loyalty in 2018 and beyond.
3. Take Advantage Of Social Media
While there are so many social media platforms out there that it’s difficult to keep up with them all, it’s a major advantage to utilise them all to their potential. Social media is key for the hospitality industry, as it’s a way to interact with potential customers and even advertise your business and offers you might have on at the time. Sending out two random tweets a day isn’t the right direction to go in. Plan a strategy, think about how many social media posts you want to post in a day, and on which platforms, along with what the message is you’re trying to get across.
This can be stretched further. Think about ‘temporary’ social media that’s popular now. Consider utilising platforms like Snapchat or the ‘stories’ feature on Instagram that make visual posts available for a certain period of time. The self-deleting platforms have great potential as marketing tools, as it means your hospitality company can run ‘now or never’ promotions to become closer to consumers by creating a feeling of exclusivity. Using social media like this will even encourage customers to get involved to be ‘featured’ on your account, without being left there permanently.
It’s also important to prepare for the unexpected on social media, so you’ll be ready to post whenever an important event takes place. For example, the Super Bowl event back in 2013 suffered a power outage and fans flooded to social media while the game was suspended. Oreo took advantage of that by posting a simple tweet which raked in over 10,000 retweets in an hour.
Power out? No problem. pic.twitter.com/dnQ7pOgC
— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) 4 February 2013
Simple messages on social media can leave a lasting impact, so take advantage of it and your business will see the benefits.
4. Visual Content Is More Engaging
Whether it’s virtual reality to show off state-of-the-art hotel room features, or a video showing off how your kitchen staff prepare food, visual content is an important marketing technique that owners of businesses in the hospitality industry need to give great importance to. From live video streaming on Facebook to the traditional video advertising, you have plenty of options to choose that offer excellent video support.
YouTube reports that mobile video consumption increases by 100% year-on-year, while Invodo found that 92% of consumers share video content with others. For your business, adopting this technique could be a huge advantage. People don’t have much time anymore to sit down and scroll through countless text - but they could be engaged further if you’re offering a video instead.
5. Wearable Technology Will Become The Norm
Can you spot the trend? Technology is taking over, so it’s time to ditch the outdated marketing methods if you want your hospitality business to succeed. While the adoption of wearable technology has been slow, it’s still a growing trend in 2018 and is expected to increase in popularity in the coming years. In the hospitality industry, hotels and resorts are amongst the best-placed to take advantage of this growing trend.
Disney World is a great example of how wearable technology is an effective marketing tool. They have already created something called the Disney MagicBand, or MyMagic+, which guests use instead of paper tickets to the park, keycard to get in their hotel rooms and even use in their stores - all available from a small device on their wrist.
Your hospitality business can benefit greatly from adopting wearable technology. It shows you’re innovative and ahead of the game, which consumers love. They’ll also be more inclined to book directly through you, rather than third-parties. Your restaurant staff could benefit from ditching tablets or notepads and wearing smartwatches to help communicate easier, reduce waiting times and even easily display order so busy waitstaff and bartenders can notice and respond to it.
It’s clear to see how marketing in the hospitality industry is vital, so take the relevant steps you need to succeed in 2018.
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