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13 Best Digital Marketing Strategies for Resorts and Vacation Rentals That’ll Increase Bookings

Daniel Martin July 7, 20213 years

Owning and running a business in the hospitality industry is no easy task. It requires a lot of investment in time, money, and other resources to attract your ideal clientele. As an entrepreneur in this field, having a solid marketing strategy can help you attract new leads and increase your conversion rates.
The most daunting task is developing an effective marketing strategy for your business. A strategy that can help make the internet a valuable resource for your business by increasing direct online bookings. This article looks into the top digital marketing strategies for businesses in the hospitality industry.

Read on to find out more.

1. Define Your Audience

Targeting your digital marketing efforts to the right people can help your strategy succeed. You need to understand your average customer and the things they want. It would be best if you also found out which social media channel your audience spends most of their time browsing.

Besides, it would help if you defined their journey once they’re on your website. Please find out the web pages they frequently click on and the keywords they enter into your website’s search tool.

A good understanding of these details can help you improve the relevance and effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy. You will be able to create content that people looking for vacation accommodation would want to read.

2. Get Listed on Google

The internet has revolutionized how people advertise their businesses today. You can advertise your services to your audience by getting your business registered on Google. Before making bookings, people search for resorts and vacation rentals – listed businesses appear in the results.
Google My Business is a platform that lists everything from a barbershop to the biggest resorts and vacation rentals in the world. All you need to do is get to the platform and fill an online form with all the details relating to your business. Ensure you provide the correct business name, an accurate location, and your contact details.

3. Have Your Website

You cannot mention having a digital marketing strategy without talking about a website. A business website acts as a front office and the customer’s first touchpoint. But then, a website is only as effective as the content it has within its pages.

Your website content needs to cover all that your business does. Ensure a good balance between textual and visual content.

Add a booking button and a contact page too. This technique is similar to nonprofit organization websites. They prioritize including a call to action buttons like ‘Donate Now’ or ‘Donate Here’.

They want to make sure that if a visitor wants to donate to the cause, it’s easy for them to do so. These websites use website builders for nonprofits to ensure that they include all the important website elements so you can use one too.

4. Follow the SEO Staples

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the important factors that help us market our businesses online. Good SEO helps businesses get listed on the first pages of SERPs. Top search engines such as Google check websites for relevant content and other features to help customers rank them.

SEO is the backbone of businesses, and you, therefore, need to invest in it. Ensure that your website design is user-friendly, contains valuable content, and is optimized. Use videos and photos that showcase your vacation rental and resort for the best results.

5. Market on Social Media

Going the social media way can help you increase your leads and conversions. You need to have a presence for your business on different social media platforms. As mentioned earlier, finding out the social channels your target audience uses helps. That way, you target your efforts in the right direction.

This is also the best channel to show people how awesome your resort and rentals are. Videos and pictures are easily shareable on these platforms. If you play your cards right, you might even go viral with the right content.

Another practice to increase your lead generation is social listening. It means that you monitor your social channels for customers looking for help. Check your social media pages for mentions, comments, reviews, and questions, then reply to each.

6. Maintain Your Online Reputation

Online reputations determine whether businesses get more customers in the future. As mentioned earlier, people come to the internet to search for businesses before transacting. They read online reviews and base their purchase decisions on what they see.

The feedback you get from past clients, negative or positive, is crucial here. It shows the level of satisfaction your guests get and determines your reputation. You need to respond to both positive and negative reviews and comments. Keep your responses positive and use the feedback to improve.

7. Tell Your Story Through Video

Visuals play a significant role in marketing businesses. According to HubSpot, 81% of businesses today use video marketing in their strategies. In addition, 91% of marketers say that customers understand products better when they’re explained in videos. That makes it a perfect way to tell your brand’s story.
We cannot overemphasize the benefits of using video marketing in your strategy. It informs and educates your audience about your vacation rental business. It also gives you an edge over competitors and helps you personalize your message.

8. Blogging Does Work

Blogs can help you reach a wider audience and improve your bookings. It helps you attract like-minded people and show your expertise in your industry. It can be an excellent digital marketing tool for your business if you do it right. Your blog can make people dig deeper into your website and book.

You need to expand your reach when it comes to blogging. You do not have to mention your business in every article you post on your blog. Recommend some good places your guests can go for sightseeing and many other activities.

9. Go Above and Beyond in Customer Service

Another way to market your business is by offering exceptional services. Your past clients’ reviews and comments about your business depend on how you served them. Ensure that your service delivery is unmatchable within your industry to have a competitive advantage over other hospitality businesses.

Your customer’s journey with your business starts immediately when they notice it. This process goes on even long after they have left your premises. The first impression they have about your business determines whether they stay. How you treat them during and after their stay determines whether they’ll revisit.

10. Consider Email Marketing

Email marketing is another vital marketing strategy that’s worth considering. As a resort or vacation rental business owner, you need to have an email list of potential customers. You can use your website’s contact form to gather as many email addresses as possible.

After building a list, you need to engage the people therein regularly. Send them emails letting them know that you launched a new product or that you have an offer. Ensure that you include calls-to-action on all your emails to increase your conversions from email marketing.

11. Deploy Chatbots on Your Site

A growing trend in the digital marketing field is the use of chatbots. This tech is now popular in resort and rental vacation businesses. If you have a website or application, consider deploying chatbots to engage people and even help them book their spots on your premises.

Chatbots are becoming more intelligent every day, and they can now do things like human agents. They help reduce the need to have a human agent waiting every time. Your visitors also have their problems resolved in time, especially the most basic questions.

12. Provide Incentives

There are several ways to get customers to your hospitality business. Providing incentives such as free accommodation at your vacation rental helps build trust between your business and potential customers. It also gives potential customers a reason to choose you over your competitors.
You can give incentives such as discounts and other offers both to new and existing customers. Limited offers and discounts create a sense of urgency, increasing conversions in a short span. Incentives make people get interested in your services, making them worthwhile.

13. Focus on Influencer Marketing

Another important way that marketers can reach their online audiences is by using influencers. This method has been growing exponentially as social media becomes more widely used. Influencers have vast audiences on different social channels and have the power to influence their purchase decisions.

It would be best if you found an influencer who has a reputation in the hospitality industry. Avoid cheap influencers who have nothing meaningful to offer. Some will ask for freebies only to offer a shoutout to their followers in return. This will not benefit your brand.

Make sure the influencer has a following on the social media channels most of your target market uses. The influencer you pick will choose a topic and create engaging posts and videos or even visit your premises and advertise there.

#14 is to contact Resort Trades and make sure you are part of our Members Directory

Conclusion

There is so much that you can do to get your resort or vacation rental to potential customers. The strategies mentioned above are effective for anyone looking to generate online bookings. They can help you build brand awareness, find your ideal audience, and increase conversions.
But then, implementing your digital marketing strategies isn’t easy. It requires time, effort, and patience to start reaping the benefits of internet marketing. As a business person looking to increase your profits with an online presence, every strategy mentioned above is worthwhile.

Daniel Martin loves building winning content teams. Over the past few years, he has built high-performance teams that have produced engaging content enjoyed by millions of users. He can be reached at https://www.arcstone.com/blog/best-website-builders-for-nonprofits or dan@arcstone.me.

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