Hospitality Digital Marketing Trends For 2017

2017 has certainly been a year that saw some effective hospitality digital marketing trends emerge. With technology developing as it has, its become far more accessible to all and it’s done great things for the competitive business marketplace. 

Leaders in the hospitality industry have been interested in finding out how the trends seen can be used to increase profits and boost marketing outcomes. Marketing in the hospitality industry can be complex, but with the right systems and technology, it doesn’t have to be.

3 Driving Factors For Marketing In The Hospitality Industry

There are 3 main factors that have driven digital marketing trends in the hospitality industry and these are: 

• Increased use of digital technology by consumers: Hospitality consumers are using the internet more for making bookings, ordering take-away, looking up menus and finding directions.
• Costs: Digital marketing in hospitality industry is far more cost-effective online than it is in other traditional forms. You will pay a prime price for a high quality brochure or images to be distributed to hundreds of people in print, a picture of a delicious meal can be posted to Facebook and shared with millions of people in a matter of seconds and with no cost attached. Social media has made digital advertising far more affordable.
• Keeping up with the competition: Businesses in the hospitality industry have to follow suit when competitors adopt more technology in order to still have a competitive edge. A restaurant or hotel that can be easily found online will have more bookings than one that doesn’t feature in a digital search!

The Hospitality Digital Marketing Trends That Have Flourished This Year

The marketing industry has seen the following advertising and engagement efforts really working for businesses in the hospitality industry in 2017:

• Something to look at

It’s amazing how effective marketing efforts can be when using visuals to sell an experience. An eye-catching image is up to 40 times more likely to be shared with others. Companies have hired photographers and asked customers to take their own pictures and share them on social media, for instance. This type of marketing is highly effective! 

• Mingling…online

Being social has been one of the top trends for marketing in the hospitality industry in 2017. It’s important for an establishment to build and nurture relationships with existing and potential customers. Starting conversations online and interacting with fans, members and supporters is a great way to “mingle” with the client base.  

Hospitality businesses have realised how important it is to plan their social media posts and to ensure that they have content pre-planned for posting according to a regular schedule. 

• Influencer marketing

This has been a highly effective trend seen in 2017. With this type of marketing, a business identifies who it’s major influencers are and uses them to create a buzz about their product and brand. 

The influencers must have a good social media following and be looked up to by the target audience. This is done by using tools such as Klout or Google to identify influencers. 

Then the business creates posts with content that speaks to the expertise and interests of the influencers, to ensure that they have an impact on them. Promotional messages are then shared with the common audience by tagging, sharing content and similar. 

• Virtual reality

VR has made a dramatic entrance and takes the consumer one step closer to the real thing. They can immerse themselves in a promotional message whether it’s on how a product works or what an experience should feel like. This type of experiential marketing assists consumers with understanding and imagining how the product will fit into a conventional lifestyle. 

• Something to wear

Wearables much like the smartwatch have been used to help busy waiters and bar staff keep on track with orders. Wearables have helped the hospitality industry to minimise waiting times, allow safer transactions (when a customer pays with their own smartphone using apps such as Zapper) and so on. 

• Being responsive

Responsive websites have done great things for marketing in the hospitality industry this year. When one considers just how many people use their smartphones and portable devices to look for restaurants, bars and similar, it’s easily realised why responsive web design has become a major trend. 

Responsive websites are user-friendly, easy to navigate, offer quick and easy online communication options and are designed to fit the screen of any size smarthphone or device. The most effective of these sites are the ones that allow online reservations and menu downloads. 

• Being analytical

A closer look at analytics has definitely been seen. There is so much data that is easily available to the hospitality industry. This data has effectively been used to optimise efficiency and boost profits. In many instances, web based software is used to track data in real time so that restaurant owners can make better informed decisions.

To Wrap Things Up With Digital Marketing Trends Seen In 2017

While content will always be a high priority when it comes to online marketing, the way in which the content is created and shared has been changing in the hospitality industry. 2017 thus far has seen these trends emerge and there are bound to be a few more to offer value to marketing in the hospitality industry before the turn of the year!