If you want to maximise bookings this festive season, you’ve got to start now.With Christmas and New Year’s fast approaching, here are some tips for making the most of the busiest booking period of the year.
Get Ready
Planning and preparation is the first step of any successful marketing campaign.
Work out when your guests will book
While you get ready for Christmas, check your website’s analytics to see which days have generated most traffic and bookings historically.
Prepare for the influx
Your festive season boom could quickly become a bust if all the extra traffic takes down your site. Make sure the booking experience is fast and smooth for guests by getting an expert to identify and eliminate any niggles that could be slowing down your site before the Christmas onslaught begins.
Create Seasonal Content for your Blog
Drive traffic to your website, build authority and get guests ready to book by creating engaging, shareable blog content about local Christmas shopping destinations, festive events, New Year’s parties, and more.
Go Mobile
Most of your guests expect to be able to research and book their holidays on the move. With mobile ecommerce predicted to reach a value of $41.68 billion this year, making sure your website supports mobile browsing so your guests can browse and book wherever they are should be a priority.
Email Marketing
This is a great time to create an email marketing campaign targeting previous guests. Add some past-guest offers and promotions, and those guests are likely to do some marketing legwork for you by spreading the word about your resort.
Support Charity
Supporting charity is a fail-proof way to spread that Christmas feel-good factor, while generating lots of valuable publicity for your resort.
There are loads of opportunities to get involved with charitable causes this time of year. You might choose to chronicle your staffs’ involvement with a local fundraising event on social media, or show your support for a wider world issue by donating a percentage of your booking profits to an international charity.
Whatever you choose, support a good cause and your guests will support you, like you and book with you.
Be Social
As always, social media is a vital tool for building personal engagement with your guests and showcasing the more human face of your business. In addition to your usual Facebook and Twitter strategies, you should take advantage of visual platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram to boost engagement in the countdown to Christmas.
Encourage guests to use these tools to share their Christmas holiday ideas, recipes and more, perhaps offering small discounts or prizes for the best photos.
You can also add a personal touch to your video marketing campaign by creating festive message videos to post on your social networks.
Have fun
Take advantage of the season to demonstrate your less marketing driven, more fun and light-hearted side. You might want to incorporate Christmas related jokes and trivia into your social media and blog content, update your Facebook and Twitter avatars with antlers or a Santa beard, or even create a countdown calendar to build up excitement for the big day.
Do you have any marketing tips for the Christmas season? Let us know in the comments below.
