Which strategies work to increase traffic to your hotel website?

Traditional marketing strategies are no longer as effective as they were 15 years ago. Now, most of our potential customers are on the Internet. For this reason, a hotel’s website must attract more visits. Because these visits are essential to increasing bookings at your hotel.

And when you plan for increased online bookings, the first idea that comes to mind is increasing web traffic to achieve it. Without traffic and without visits, it’s difficult to image an increase in web bookings. Not all users convert; in other words, not all users reach or finish the booking process. So if you increase the volume of traffic, you also increase the volume of customers.

But with so much competition in the sector, getting more online visits is a big challenge. Fortunately, there are online strategies to help with this process although you have to be constant and analyse, analyse and analyse the results. Needless to say, analyses are essential to any strategy your hotel wishes to implement.

Evaluating how your actions are going will allow you to make changes on time and repeat the ones that work the best.

But before all that, you have to lay the foundation.

Any online strategy has to be based on two principles:

1. Defining the customers.

Although a hotel’s targets are defined by its corporate profile, not all marketing managers establish the nuances between the types of customers to target when defining adequate marketing strategies. This is a fundamental preliminary step.

Consumption patterns have changed and continue to change thanks to the Internet. It is no longer enough to take into account sociodemographic information to define targets. Now, it’s essential to consider the offline and online consumption preference related to the sector. These preference help specify what, how, when and where our potential customers consume.

2. Defining the goals.

Each campaign and each strategy must have defined goals. Irrespective of the purpose, it is important to establish a SMART goal from the very beginning: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. Conducting campaigns without goals makes it impossible to evaluate the efficacy of the actions implemented. Defining goals is essential to analysing the evolution of your strategies.

Search-based strategies

1. SEO

Search Engine Optimization is one of the essential strategies to attracting potential customers. On-Page SEO is based on web structuring and the use of keywords to optimize your hotel’s webpages for search engines and users.

By using the right keywords your potential consumers would use, you are more likely to be found in search engines. And in order to choose the right keywords, you must know your potential customers well.

2. PPC

Pay-Per-Click is an online advertising strategy. When people talk about PPC, they’re mainly referring to Google AdWords, a platform that allows you to advertise based on a keyword strategy.

This strategy allows you to also segment the audiences you wish to target: the most susceptible audiences. Given that the hotel sector is so competitive, you need to invest in online advertising with the keywords that will get the most traffic at your site.

Content-based strategies

1. Web content

Content is what drives the Internet. The Internet is not conceived without it and it’s what users want to consume when they go online. When talking about content, we’re not only referring to text as the format may vary: video, images, gif, etc.

So, once you’ve analysed the right keywords for an SEO strategy, you need to generate content revolving around these keywords. You may adapt the content of your pages to your needs depending on your potential customers’ information consumption preferences.

2. Blogging and Social Media

Besides web content, what users first look for before deciding to book a hotel is information on the destination and other users’ experiences. This content is not usually contemplated on hotel webpages, but is essential to attracting potential customers in the early phases of their buying cycle.

For this reason, generating content also based on a keywords strategy related to the area and useful information for travel and travellers is necessary. This content must be published on a blog and in social media, channels that actually direct users to your hotel website. Channels that help get more traffic.

Conversion-based strategies

1. CRM

Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a philosophy on the one hand which puts consumers at the centre of all strategies. On the other hand, it’s software that is needed to store and manage all types of information received on contacts and customers. It’s information that helps you analyse consumer trends and improve your relationship with prospects.

Moreover, these data are what help you select the contact properties that will best work on your web forms and create segmented lists to conduct email marketing actions.

2. Email marketing

Email marketing is an essential strategy for converting contacts into customers and making your guests loyal. If well-executed, it’s a strategy that can help you keep interest alive among your contacts, generate brand awareness and, what’s more important, help you make your customers loyal to increase direct bookings.