The Technology of Online Marketing for Resorts

The line between technology and marketing isn’t blurred, it just doesn’t exist any longer. To market well, one must know and understand how technology functions and how to use it to get the best ROI, but luckily because technology is so important it’s also easier to get and understand than ever before.

Almost anything technological that a resort could want to do for marketing purposes can be done. From building a high-performing website to remarketing to the people who visit that website when they are on other platforms to sending emails in real time.

The technology is at marketer’s fingertips to do all of those things and many more. Marketers need to know about technology, but they don’t necessarily have to build it all on their own. For example, even if you don’t understand the backend way that Facebook is able to show an ad to someone who visited your resort’s website and is planning a vacation, if you know how to utilize their technology a marketer can see a lot of success.

It’s nearly impossible to sum up the technology in internet marketing for resorts since many resorts use different operating systems, have different budgets and different technology needs, but regardless of the details of your resort there’s most likely some technology you can tap into to maximize results. As a marketer here are some of my top tips for utilizing technology to maximize your direct bookings.

1. Use or follow a website template. There’s a reason most websites follow the same format, just like newspapers always have, because the reader spends less time figuring it out and more time digesting the information. Don’t recreate the wheel with websites layout, show photos, and communicate specials and the reasons why people should stay with you. Don’t overcomplicate it. A website template will allow you to easily follow this format and improve the experience of the potential guests who visit your site.
2. It’s a grave mistake to neglect your analytics. Setting up analytics on a website is quick, easy and free with tools such as Google Analytics. You can upgrade to fancier tools, but even Google Analytics gives you everything you need to gauge the performance of a website. Without analytics you cannot track how many people visit your site, where your traffic comes from, where visitors drop away from your site and other valuable information that can help you make constant improvements.
3. Remarketing should be your best friend. The reason that platforms such as Google and Facebook can provide advertisers with great results for a low price is because they don’t waste time. These platforms have figured out how to effectively avoid showing ads to consumers who aren’t right for the ad. The technology that these platforms have available for re marketing allow resorts to show those people who were researching and never booked an ad on a different platform so that their resort stays top of mind. If marketers utilize the technology to it’s potential they can develop ad plans that generate bookings for less than a dollar.
4. Email isn’t dead if you use it in real-time. It’s often said that people’s inboxes are so flooded that email marketing has gotten out of control and killed itself, especially for a resort, a business that people are not using on a regular basis. The best way for resorts to successfully email market isn’t to send out an email whenever they have a special running, the best way is to use real-time technology to send an email to potential customers in the moment when they are shopping. Email marketing tool such as Emma, MailChimp, Infusionsoft, Weber, Silverpop and more allow marketers to set up forms that email someone just seconds after they click the submission button. Setting these up is one of the strongest and most valuable ways to get people to book direct.

The possibilities to merge technology with marketing are endless. The only thing that can possibly hold marketers back is a lack of imagination because technology tools are cheaper, easier to understand and better functioning than ever before.