JULY-SEPT-20228 HOSPITALITY BUSINESS REVIEWBACK TO BASICS ­ ONE SIMPLE APPROACH TO WINNING GUESTS THROUGH DIGITAL MARKETINGOver the last fifteen years, I've worked with hundreds of hotels all over the country. Each hotel was a little different ­ some were over a thousand rooms while others were under 50 rooms; one was a 5-star luxury resort and another was a 1-star hostel; one was a vacation rental a few blocks from the boardwalk of Venice Beach, California, while a few were in the hustle and bustle of New York City's Times Square ­ but one thing was always consistent: the question I was asked was "how can we do better through digital marketing?". Digital Marketing is an umbrella term that generally refers to any marketing method conducted through electronic means that a hotel might leverage to interact with and acquire guests. This includes websites, search engines, blogs, social media, videos, emails and ads. There are almost an infinite number of opportunities to improve digital marketing efforts and be successful. In fact, it's a full-time job, it's MY full-time job. When working with new clients or hotels, I always start at the same place: Think Like A Guest: this seems simple, but it's often overlooked by the bells and whistles of other suggestions, tactics, or trends. When I start working with a new hotel, I immediately put myself in the guests' shoes and try to walk through the entire customer journey. As I go through this process, I'm often surprised at how much insight I gain in such a short amount of time, including key takeaways and action items that lead to a better guest experience and higher performing digital marketing efforts. By the way, this is also an exercise I recommend conducting as often as possible. This one simple method will help any hotel leverage digital marketing to acquire more guests and remain relevant in the ever-changing digital marketing landscape. Here are some examples of how to think like a guest, which can lead to actionable insights that can be executed through digital marketing. Think about where a guest starts their search:If I were a guest, where would I start my process of looking for a hotel? Would I go to Google Search? What exact words would I search first? What would the search engine results page look like for the keywords that I used in my search? Were any ads displayed? What would the ads look like? Would any hotel websites show up? Would any other websites show up, like Expedia.com? Would I refine my search after my initial search? And so on. The questions will start to flow out of your brain as you walk through this process. By Jason Abdullah, Corporate Director of Digital Marketing, Pacific Hospitality GroupJason AbdullahIN MY OPINION
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