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How to Pull Off a PR Stunt & Create Brand WOW
Melissa DiGianfilippo | November 8, 2019
By Melissa DiGianfilippo Bill Gates once said, "If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on public relations." Smart man. Public relations can be less expensive and far more effective than you might think. Still, the most significant obstacle aside from budget is tickling the fancy of media outlets and your target audience. Without the media, your story is less likely to reach the public. A well-planned and executed PR stunt can generate incredible amounts of interest and elevate your hotel, motel, B&B, or resort to a new level in the minds and hearts of the media, and more importantly, potential guests. First, you might be won...
Hotel Sales RFP’s Circa 2020: How to Be the Best, Not Just the First to Respond
Doug Kennedy | November 8, 2019
By Doug Kennedy When I speak with hotel sales leaders at my training workshops and conference presentations, and when I read interviews with them in hotel trade publications such as this one, it seems that most are buying-in to these three myths about hotel sales in the current era: The most important factor in closing more leads is to be the first to respond. The second key to success is having the coolest PDF or online brochure, with more pictures than everyone else. Planners who send digital inquiries do not want to talk or correspond; they only want to get the proposal they asked for. Let’s tackle these mistaken beliefs...
NextPax Travel Technology Selects Puzzle Partner as Agency of Record to Expand Global Presence
NextPax, Inc. | November 5, 2019
Puzzle Partner to spearhead North American marketing initiatives for Europe’s foremost vacation rental and hotel channel manager Toronto, Ontario (November 2, 2019) - NextPax, the most advanced channel management technology provider for hotels, resorts and vacation rentals worldwide has named Puzzle Partner as their PR Agency of Record (AOR). Puzzle Partner will be responsible for strategic content and public relations initiatives to strengthen the NextPax brand in the Americas. NextPax chose Puzzle Partner because of the agency’s integrated approach, the hotel and travel industry knowledge of its team and its dedication toward driv...
Service Excellence: Through the Eyes of a Server
Bryan K. Williams | November 4, 2019
By Dr. Bryan K. Williams Back to my roots. There’s something deeply moving and rejuvenating to go back to where it all started. My professional career began almost 30 years ago in a fine-dining French restaurant called “The Palm Terrace”. I started as a busboy, then worked my way up to various roles. However, the job that transformed me; the one that made me feel like I was flying...the one that fully consumed me, was as a restaurant server. Oh, I loved that job. In fact, I still view myself as a server today! Many of the articles, books, keynotes and workshops that I’ve created were inspired by my time as a server. I studied...
The Hunter Group Salesperson: Endangered Species or Already Extinct?
Kristi White, VP, Product Management | November 4, 2019
By Kristi White Recently, I was attempting to source a new vendor for an installation. I did an exhaustive Google search and found three potential companies (they shall remain nameless to protect the guilty). I reached out to them via their websites inquiry form and waited for a response. Fortunately, all three companies responded promptly (within 2 hours). However, that is where the positive vibes ended. Four frustrating hours (and over 40 emails) later, I had scheduled appointments with all three companies but only AFTER I insisted on the call from each. Is This What Sales Has Become? This agita led me to drop by a colleague’s offi...
Back to Basics: Metasearch
NextGuest Digital | October 31, 2019
Metasearch platforms can seamlessly provide online travel shoppers with real-time pricing and availability throughout key touchpoints in the travel planning journey. Metasearch is becoming more sophisticated and so should your hotel’s strategy around it. With recent updates such as the joining of Google Hotel Ads with Google Ads and the rollout of Bing Hotel Ads, hoteliers can now stack up against the OTAs by displaying their hotel logo and price among highly trafficked results. What is it? When a user performs a search query for a hotel, whether on a search engine such as Google or Bing or a platform like TripAdvisor, the results that ap...
How Hotel Marketing Teams Are Winning with Video Content
Jessica Kaiser | October 30, 2019
By Jessica Kaiser If you’re looking at your phone or computer, it’s increasingly likely that you’re watching video. Facebook executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, have repeatedly stated over the last few years that by the end of the decade, video will make up the vast majority of what we see in the News Feed. As large a slice of our time that video takes up today – whether it reaches us through paid spots, email, websites, or social – that number will only tick up, across all demographics. Simply put, hotels that aren’t investing (or considering investing) in video content risk having their messaging slowly drowned out over...
The Top 5 Things You Need to Know Now in Hotel Digital Marketing: October Edition
NextGuest Digital | October 29, 2019
By Margaret Mastrogiacomo, EVP Strategy The world of hospitality digital marketing is always changing, and the key to success is staying ahead of the curve. This month, the latest digital innovations include Google testing search results without URLs, the benefits of being GDPR-compliant, and the colors that will be making a splash in 2020 design. From SEO to design, find out the top five things you need to know now in hotel digital marketing to make sure your hotel is ready to reach your next guest. 1. SEO: Google is testing search results without URLs. Recently, Google has been testing completely removing URLs from search results i...
8 Tips for Incorporating Influencers Into Your Hotel Marketing Strategy
Kacey Bradley | October 25, 2019
If you've logged onto Instagram at any point in the last couple of years, you've probably noticed your favorite actor, singer or another celebrity making posts with hashtags such as "ad" or "sponsored." With so many followers watching what they do, these people become influencers, inspiring others to buy the products they use just by showing the world that they use them. Often, companies collaborate with these celebrities or Insta-famous individuals to get them to showcase their offerings, too. As it turns out, this type of social media marketing can be a super useful marketing technique for hotels. Influencers come in and document their s...
Opening a Pop-Up Store in a Hotel
Kacey Bradley | October 21, 2019
By Kacey Bradley Just over a decade ago, the idea of brick-and-mortar shops began to change. Instead of investing in one permanent location for their businesses, brand owners moved their store around as often as they liked through their pop-up shops. The idea of pop-up stores is still relatively new, but is becoming more popular each passing year. People of all ages want to stop by and check out what's on offer when a new store appears, which provides tons of opportunities to the shop and who they partner with. Hotels are jumping on board this trend by opening pop-up stores in their lobbies. Read on to learn how any hotel can operate...
10 Items to Include in Your Hotel Marketing Budget
Stephanie Smith | October 21, 2019
By Stephanie Smith Now is the time to ask for funds for your 2020 hotel marketing budget. Here are some must-have digital marketing items to include and how to think through that process. Note for branded hotels: be sure you understand what the brand does for you, and what you need to handle at the hotel level. The brand sets aside funds for branding but generally does not make its way down to promote specific hotels. For Marriott, you have the option to opt into Marriott Digital Services. If you are a Hilton, you are automatically enrolled in Hilton Advance and can opt into Hilton Amplify and Elevate. Gather Reports and Analyze Tre...
Vizergy Continues to Innovate Technology With Voice Search Optimization Enhancement
Vizergy | October 17, 2019
Vizergy, the hospitality industry’s leading provider in digital marketing and software solutions, continues to innovate by expanding the native functionality of the Vizergy Marketing System (VMS). This newest enhancement allows clients to optimize for voice search in an automated fashion using structured data, also known as schema markup. The structured data, which is in the latest JSON-LD format recommended by Google, enables rich results for your website and is embedded into website code to help it become more easily discovered by search engines and help optimize your website content for voice search. Voice search impacts SEO ran...
Lodging Interactive Becomes Sprout Social Agency Partner
Lodging Interactive | October 17, 2019
PARSIPPANY, NJ - October 17, 2019 - Lodging Interactive, an award-winning digital marketing and social media engagement agency exclusively serving the hospitality industry, today announced it has become a Sprout Social Agency Partner. Through its commingle:engage Social Media Marketing division, the Company continues to expand its client base which includes hundreds of hotels, resorts, restaurants and spas around the globe. “We continue to invest heavily in ‘best-in-class’ technology platforms and partners that enable our clients and team members to remain at the forefront of social media marketing and engagement,” said DJ Va...
Three Steps to Curating Your Hotel’s Social Influencer Strategy
NextGuest | October 17, 2019
Travel influencers are having a moment. With the ability to showcase stunning photography and lesser-known parts of the world, social media is the perfect platform for avid travelers to gain a following. This provides the perfect opportunity for hotel brands to partner with influencers and tap into those audiences in order to reach ideal guests. Don’t know where to start? Read on to learn our three steps for getting your influencer strategy in place. Identify The first step for your hotel is to find the influencers that you want to work with. A great place to start is on Instagram or YouTube. Search relevant hashtags ...
Generate Group Leads With Rich Destination Content
Tambourine | October 11, 2019
Content isn’t just for attracting leisure travelers. Woo meeting planners and group guests with your depth of local knowledge. Destination content isn’t just vital to attracting leisure guests to your hotel; it is also crucial for generating group sales leads, giving your sales team another effective tool at their disposal. When meeting planners book a hotel for a conference, convention or similar event, they’re not just looking for meeting spaces, a ballroom and quality accommodations for their attendees. They want to feel that the hotel they’ve selected is the epicenter of the destination where it is located, and that choosing you...
Watch Now: How to Capitalize on the Journey to Increase Direct Bookings
NextGuest Digital | October 11, 2019
We all know from experience that a lot goes into planning the perfect vacation, and with so many devices and planning resources, the journey is complex. In our latest webinar with Sojern, we discuss strategies for reaching potential guests throughout the entire travel planning journey and address key digital moments in each phase that shape and influence the booking decision. Speakers include Amy Devlaliwalla, Senior Director of Global Partnerships and Strategic Accounts at Sojern, and Margaret Mastrogiacomo, Executive Vice President of Strategy at NextGuest. Click here to watch the webinar....
Lodging Interactive Launches Social Media Marketing News Apple Podcast
Lodging Interactive | October 11, 2019
Lodging Interactive, an award-winning digital marketing and social media engagement agency exclusively serving the hospitality industry, today announced the rollout of its commingle:engage bi-weekly podcast. The podcast episodes cover the latest changes and updates announced on social media and what they mean for hotels and resorts. “The world of social media continues to evolve and as it does it presents many opportunities and implications for hotels and resorts,” stated DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive’s Founder & CEO. “We wanted to create a new way to keep hoteliers informed and educated on the latest social media marketing...
To Buy or Not to Buy… That Is the Question
JLNPR Inc. | October 10, 2019
2 Tips to Boost Your Company’s Brand Awareness & Close More Sales By Jennifer Nagy Small businesses, especially those in the startup phase, spend a lot of time focusing on how to increase sales. (I mean, rightfully so; after sinking thousands of dollars into developing a brand-spanking new technology solution, who wouldn’t want to start making some of that cash back ASAP?!) Because of that mindset, most entrepreneurs launch their business with a complete sales strategy established, a team hired to do the legwork and incentive structures established to incentivize their sales staff – which is great; however, in many cases, h...
Latest Social Media News and What It Means for Hotels
Lodging Interactive | October 9, 2019
We never know exactly what we’re going to get when it comes to social media updates, and even with our best and most educated guesses, some new developments are always keeping us on our toes. The last two weeks have been no different, giving us some surprising new features that we’re excited about. Let’s take a look at how each one will impact hotels and resorts moving forward. New Selling & Collaborative Facebook Stories Tools Facebook is currently testing several new Stories features that will add functionality to the platform. [caption id="attachment_206544" align="alignleft" width="350"] Image source: Marketing Land[/capt...
Back to Basics: Five Tips for Cyber Monday Success
NextGuest Digital | October 8, 2019
Over the years, Cyber Monday has become a huge opportunity for hotels to drive bookings. What started as a one-day online shopping holiday that followed Black Friday has now extended to weeks before Thanksgiving, with some sales even lasting the entire month of November. As a result, consumers aren’t just searching for deals earlier — they’re making more purchases over a longer period of time. In 2018, Cyber Monday sales hit $7.9 billion, a 19.3% increase from the previous year (Adobe). While businesses are making more, consumers are also planning to spend more: This year, the average consumer plans to spend $431 on Cyber Monday. Whi...
Conversational Marketing Should Be Part of Every Hotel’s Marketing Plan in 2020.
Lodging Interactive | October 1, 2019
PARSIPPANY, NJ - October 1, 2019 - Lodging Interactive’s Founder and CEO, DJ Vallauri, discusses the importance of conversational marketing and why every hotel should prepare to leverage the new Facebook social media messaging platform in 2020. Much has been said and written about “conversational marketing” and how future marketers will be required to master this consumer engagement technique in order to be successful. Clearly, the hospitality industry is well-positioned to leverage the loyalty-building power of conversational marketing through personal engagement with its guests, pre-arrival, during guest stays and post-checkout. Le...
Now Available for Download: Hotelier’s Guide to 2020 Digital Marketing & Technology Budget Planning
NextGuest Digital | September 30, 2019
Budgeting season is a time to analyze your hotel’s marketing and technology initiatives from the previous year and set a new plan in action to start off 2020 on the right foot. When putting together your budget, think about upgrades your property needs to make regarding your digital technology and marketing strategy. It’s important to have an idea of where the industry is heading and keep forecasted trends for the upcoming year in mind when deciding how you want to allocate your marketing dollars. Budgeting should be looked at as more of an action plan to give your hotel a clear picture of where your money will be going each month and ...
Hotel Franchise Brand Management: What Role for the Brand?
Holden Madison | September 26, 2019
By Holden Madison Tess Mattisson, Senior Director of European Marketing for Choice Hotels International, oversees 400+ hotels and multiple franchise brands across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa regions: she has picked up a thing or two on hotel brand management in franchising. Moving Beyond: Your Brand and Butter Traditional brand names and logos are moving to a more mobile, personalized approach for franchisees. It starts with scalability – measuring and learning from new investments – and then taking those investments to the whole business. Scalability boils down to the services offered, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all...
Social Media News: Facebook’s Clear History Tool Is Officially Here
September 20, 2019
As we all start the month of September off strong, it’s important to remember that keeping up with all the new social media updates will help us keep the momentum going. And this month, we definitely got some big updates. Let’s take a look at all the new changes that impact hotels and resorts and what they mean for businesses in the hospitality industry. Facebook’s Clear History Tool is Here Facebook’s Clear History Tool is officially here, rolling out to audiences quickly. Users will now be able to clear their off-Facebook activity from being stored in the platform’s database, which includes what Facebook’s conversion p...
