As the COVID-19 pandemic winds down, and the summer season is upon us, many innkeepers are developing strategies for re-opening their properties.
In addition to properly disinfecting your property (see our recent podcast), the right digital marketing efforts can help to expand awareness and drive future bookings for guests.
According to Kent Schnepp, CEO of Odysys, while there is no silver-bullet marketing campaign that will restore your business to the pre-COVID levels, there are three key areas that innkeepers should focus on right now as they reopen their properties:
1) Foundational Marketing: Focus on understanding your ideal guest, and then market to them based on what originally attracted them to your property. Once you understand the guest, the next step is implementing SEO, local search marketing, email marketing and content development efforts.
2) Co-Marketing Strategies: Now is also the ideal time to seek out co-marketing partnerships with businesses in your area – such as joint podcasts and other content marketing efforts with local wineries, restaurants or regional associations. This allows for these partner organizations to jointly market your destination and region first, and then you can focus on marketing your property.
3) Learning New Digital Marketing Skills/Tools: While innkeepers are most likely busier now than they were two months ago, it is still recommended to use any remaining COVID-19 related downtime to learn new marketing skills. This can include focusing on learning how to best leverage Google Analytics, MailChimp, and even do a complete website refresh.
Thanks to Kent Schnepp, CEO of Odysys, for contributing to this Frictionless Innkeeper TIP by sharing insights during a Frictionless Innkeeper podcast.
Odysys offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketing and technology platform that helps innkeepers and independent hotels to significantly reduce their guest acquisition costs. The company also hosts the InnSpeak Podcast.
