Hotel Marketing Blog
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Posted on Apr 15th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Ever wonder who's really accessing your website? Google Analytics gives you access to a wealth of demographic data that can give you some valuable insights on the guests behind all those anonymous clicks. In today's blog, you'll discover how to tap into t...
Posted on Apr 13th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Although much of the focus has shifted to social media marketing in recent years, when it comes to reaching out to your guests with highly targeted messaging, email is pretty hard to beat. Used effectively, it's a powerful way to drive guest loyalty, impr...
Posted on Apr 8th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Your website is your hotel's biggest and best selling tool, or at least it should be. If you want to beat the OTA's, showcase your property and drive more direct bookings than ever before, it's important not to lose your guests just when you get them wher...
Posted on Apr 6th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Everyone has a bad habit (or two) that they just can't quite break, whether it's biting our fingernails, checking Facebook every 5 minutes or hitting the snooze button too often in the morning. The same is true when it comes to social media marketing. Exc...
Posted on Apr 1st 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Running a Facebook contest can be a great way to promote your brand, learn about your guests and increase your reach on social media. If you're thinking of holding a contest for your resort's Facebook audience, this easy to follow checklist of 10 tips is...
Posted on Mar 14th 2016 by eTourism Support Team
Gain more control on when you want your Corporation Coupons be available through a new feature included in eTourism's latest update. There may be instances when you would like to block certain dates from using coupons and instead of manually disabling the...
Posted on Mar 2nd 2016 by Bryan Marsh
If you've been following travel industry blogs for awhile, there's a good chance you've heard of the so-called 'billboard effect.' In case you haven't, the idea is that OTAs such as Expedia can be used as a kind of marketing billboard for hotels that rath...
Posted on Mar 1st 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Email marketing allows you to deliver targeted messaging to countless guests all over the world at a low cost, and at a time that suits both you and them. But if you want to compete against some of the biggest companies in the world for attention in your...
Posted on Feb 29th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Almost 90% of businesses say that video is now part of their social media mix, but succeeding at this relatively new form of online marketing comes with its own set of challenges. Paying attention to these 3 key areas will help you create videos that enga...
Posted on Feb 25th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Online Travel Agencies can get your property's name in front of a huge market of travellers, drive last minute bookings and fill rooms that might otherwise go empty. But this increased exposure comes at a cost, and most independent hoteliers are strugglin...
Posted on Feb 18th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Blogging is one of the most reliable ways to drive a steady flow of organic traffic to your hotel's website. If you regularly publish relevant, high quality blog articles, it will increase your rankings in the SERPs, especially if you take time to optimis...
Posted on Feb 17th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
With the number of social media users now at 1.82 billion worldwide, it goes without saying that maintaining an active presence on the most popular networks is an essential component of your hotel's marketing plan. But how can you communicate your message...
Posted on Feb 10th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
As you're probably aware, SEO is far from dead. In fact, it's still absolutely crucial if you want to get your property discovered by your guests and drive lots of bookings online. But SEO has changed, and the tricks and cheats once touted as the quick wa...
Posted on Feb 3rd 2016 by Bryan Marsh
If you regularly check in on your Google Analytics data to see how your resort's website is performing (as you should), you're probably keeping an eye on your Bounce Rate. This much talked about quality metric represents the percentage of visitors who lan...
Posted on Jan 27th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Whatever other marketing tactics come and go in the coming 12 months, SEO is here to stay. Recent stats show that an average of 12 billion online searches are made every month, and that's just in the US. With so many people using Google and other search e...
Posted on Jan 21st 2016 by Bryan Marsh
We could all use a little motivation at the beginning of the year, and especially, perhaps, when it comes to your hotel's content marketing campaign. That's because maybe above every other kind of online marketing tactic, content production could never be...
Posted on Jan 13th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
So, the tinsel is down, your cards have been recycled and the tree has been packed away for another year. Christmas is well and truly over. In fact, it's almost two weeks into 2016 already. But that doesn't mean it's too late to start thinking about your...
Posted on Dec 15th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Are your hotel's videos falling flat on YouTube? Optimising your content to take advantage of the site's algorithm will ensure your videos get seen by more of your guests. In today's blog, we'll look at 5 ways you can rank higher in YouTube search. 1. Dis...
Posted on Dec 10th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Most hotels have accepted by now that creating glowing reviews of their own business is not a wise idea. But what if your property is one of the many businesses unlucky enough to fall victim to malicious fake reviews? Whether they are posted by your compe...
Posted on Dec 3rd 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Email is an essential component of any hotel's online marketing campaign, but crafting great email content takes time, effort and money. With a little bit of planning and creativity, however, driving results with your email output needn't eat into your re...
Posted on Nov 25th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Like it or not, Christmas is approaching fast and if you want to maximise festive bookings, you need to start preparing right now. Tempted to put it off a bit longer? Don't be! Take a look at our quick guide below and make the busiest time of year work...
Posted on Nov 20th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
If you want to increase Likes and shares and get noticed in your guests' social newsfeeds, you need to create plenty of fresh and engaging content on a regular basis. But running powerfully effective social content campaigns needn't take a huge toll on yo...
Posted on Nov 16th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Online Travel Agents have become the first port of call for guests searching for a great deal on their next night away. Sites like Expedia and booking.com allow consumers to compare and book the best deals on hotel rooms within a few clicks, which means f...
Posted on Nov 4th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
With more than 74 million installs worldwide, Wordpress is the most popular CMS and blogging system available on the web. It's not surprising it has become so popular. After all, the tool is freely available, easily customisable and simple for almost anyo...
Posted on Oct 29th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
When it's time to build or redesign a website, price is top-of-mind for most hotels. Your resources are limited, and you want to get your new website up and running as quickly as possible without completely blowing your marketing budget....
Posted on Oct 23rd 2015 by Bryan Marsh
In a bid to climb the search rankings and attract more customers to their websites, businesses are creating more content than ever before. But although publishing lots of new content to your resort's website and social media pages is important, quantity a...
Posted on Oct 14th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Travel shoppers visit your hotel's website to learn about your property and get a feel for the holiday experience you offer. In today's digital age, it's the virtual 'front door' your guests use to take a look around your resort before they book. Your web...
Posted on Sep 21st 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Search engines, and particularly Google, remain one of your guests' favourite tools for researching and planning their breaks online. This means creating and maintaining an effective SEO campaign is a huge component of building a successful internet prese...
Posted on Sep 10th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Image-based posts are some of the best performing types of content when it comes to driving Likes, comments, shares and click-throughs on Facebook. Are your resort's image posts performing as well as you'd like? Maximising engagement for the pictures you...
Posted on Sep 2nd 2015 by Admin
Search engines have come a long way since the early days of the internet, which means search marketers have had to change their game plans quite drastically in their attempts to master them. Keywords remain important, but you'll need to do far more than...
Posted on Aug 25th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Are you trying to boost your hotel's Facebook engagement rates? If so, you'll need to get familiar with Facebook Audience Insights. The tool offers a treasure trove of demographic information and other data which will help you tailor your content for your...
Posted on Aug 19th 2015 by eTourism Support
eTourism has released a new update to our market leading reservations software eTourism Online. We have built a "Closed to Arrival" (CTA) and a "Closed to Departure" (CTD) functionality to enable managers to administer their inventory and maximise their o...
Posted on Aug 17th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Last month Facebook made some adjustments to the way they calculate cost-per-click (CPC) on their ad platform. Following the changes, the social media company will no longer include all click actions such as likes, comments and shares in its CPC calculati...
Posted on Jul 20th 2015 by eTourism Support
Due to popular demand - eTourism is pleased to announce that we have now created 2 new pieces of functionality to assist in selling your rooms online: ADVANCED PURCHASE & NON-REFUNDABLE RATES!...
Posted on Apr 9th 2015 by Lee Tester
The internet is becoming more mobile by the day, and unsurprisingly, it's Google that is leading the way. In just two weeks, the search company will launch its biggest shake-up of mobile search to date, as it begins using mobile friendliness as a signal w...
Posted on Apr 8th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
With a world of opinions and information right at their fingertips, it's now a given that your guests will check out a fair number of reviews before making a booking. So how can you make sure that you're using these reviews to your best advantage? Of cour...
Posted on Apr 2nd 2015 by Bryan Marsh
You know what's even more important than creating great content to engage and inform your guests? Making sure they can actually find it! A successful content creation campaign is all about publishing high quality content regularly, and putting the extra w...
Posted on Apr 1st 2015 by Bryan Marsh
2014 saw an upsurge in travellers using their handheld devices not only to browse and plan their breaks, but also to book. Although it does not yet rival desktop when it comes to booking volume, mobile has become a major distribution channel which hotels...
Posted on Mar 25th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Today's travellers are researching, planning and booking their breaks online, and more than ever before their using their Smartphones to help them do it. It's a trend that is only set to escalate according to data specialists Euromonitor, who predict that...
Posted on Mar 24th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
With masses of businesses and brands vying for your audience's attention on Facebook, how can you make sure your content breaks through the noise? Visual storytelling might be the answer. By creating posts with an emotional pull and eye-catching visual ap...
Posted on Mar 18th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Content creation is one of the most effective ways you can connect to your guests on a deeper level, without eating too much into your marketing budget. A successful content marketing campaign will help you stay visible in search results, drawing guests t...
Posted on Mar 17th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Your email contact list has a pretty short shelf life. It degrades over time as your contacts decide to opt-out of email communication, forget their passwords, or simply abandon that old email account they only set up to fill in website forms. That's why...
Posted on Mar 12th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Partnering with OTAs can be pretty addictive. After all, they get your property seen by a wide online audience and can generally be relied on to generate a steady stream of bookings with minimal input on your part. But as all hotel marketers know only too...
Posted on Mar 11th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
As you've probably heard, Google recently made an announcement stating its intention to use mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal from April this year. In case you still needed it, this news should be the final push you've been waiting for to make a mob...
Posted on Mar 4th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Want to reach a wider audience with your resort's website content? All it takes is a few simple steps to maximise the appeal of your site's content and facilitate quick and easy sharing on the most popular social media channels. Here are three tried and t...
Posted on Mar 3rd 2015 by Bryan Marsh
SEO has come a long way. Following the Hummingbird algorithm update of 2013, Google has been placing less value on keyword matching, focusing instead on context, uniqueness and quality in an attempt to serve up the most relevant results for its users. So...
Posted on Feb 24th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
However many marketing goals you've made for 2015, chances are increasing the number of bookings made directly through your website, growing your online audience and increasing guest engagement are pretty near the top of the list. Let's take a look at som...
Posted on Feb 24th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
More and more of your guests are taking to social media to make enquiries, leave glowing reviews and also, inevitably, to make their views known when their holidays failed to live up to expectations. How well are you fielding their questions, comments and...
Posted on Feb 17th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Content marketing is one of the most important ways to catch your guests' attention and drive more bookings online. It's also one of the most difficult skills to master. If you know you need to up your content game, but you're not sure where to start, her...
Posted on Feb 17th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
A high bounce rate is bad news for any email marketing campaign. Not only does it mean a high percentage of your messaging is not reaching the people it's meant to, it can also tarnish your sender reputation and damage the deliverability of future campaig...
Posted on Feb 10th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
In the past couple of years, Google has put a big emphasis on the link between "quality content" and ranking highly in the search results. But what exactly does quality content look like? Put together using Google's guidelines and our own experience, here...
Posted on Feb 10th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Valentine's Day happens this weekend, and according to some experts, the emotionally-charged occasion is second only to Christmas when it comes to consumer spending. If you haven't yet started planning how to capitalise on this year's event, it's not too...
Posted on Feb 3rd 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your guests, drive traffic to your website and generate bookings. It also offers the best ROI of all the digital channels, making a creative, ongoing email campaign a necessity for any business that...
Posted on Feb 3rd 2015 by Bryan Marsh
While likes and comments on your Facebook page are good for your engagement rates and visibility, if you really want to increase your reach on the world's most used social network, its shares you need to chase. The platform's algorithm gives more weightin...
Posted on Jan 27th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
In the last week, Google has been sending out emails to sites which are not currently mobile-friendly, warning webmasters that their content will not rank highly for smartphone users. The email notifications, which have been sent out on a mass scale via W...
Posted on Jan 27th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Google has changed search dramatically in the last couple of years, transforming it from a system that could be 'tricked' with poor quality, keyword-stuffed content, into a personalized search engine that draws on semantics to deliver the most relevant re...
Posted on Jan 20th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
If you're anything like us, you've probably grown pretty bored of all the promotional emails that ended up in your inbox over the recent Christmas break. It's highly likely that some of your guests feel the same, which is why this is a great time to bring...
Posted on Jan 20th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Marketers, much like almost everyone else, are under pressure to do more. Sign up to more social media platforms, publish more blog posts, create more email campaigns, drive more results. Often, doing more works. Emailing your guests on a more regular bas...
Posted on Jan 16th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Creating an effective SEO campaign is an ongoing commitment " you should be continuingly revisiting your strategies to ensure your site ranks highly in the SERPs and gets clicked-on by your guests. Now that the New Year celebrations are over, why not take...
Posted on Jan 13th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Now that we're nearly two weeks into 2015, take a moment to think about the marketing goals you hope to achieve in the year ahead. Have you identified what's already working for you and the areas you need to adjust to make this year's campaigns just as su...
Posted on Oct 29th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
It has happened to all of us. You've created the perfect email message for your guests. You've polished each sentence to address their needs and engage their interests. You've taken time to pick the most compelling subject line you can think of....
Posted on Oct 29th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Do your guests review your property on Facebook? The social platform's star rating system encourages users to share their positive and negative brand experiences with others by leaving a short review and a rating out of 5. If you choose to display them,...
Posted on Oct 22nd 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Is your content campaign generating the results you need, or does it seem to be falling flat? Creating content has become a central component of every business's online campaign. It's one of the most important ways to reach your guests, build authority wi...
Posted on Oct 22nd 2014 by Bryan Marsh
In a recent blog post we took a look at some of the most important on-page SEO elements and how often they need to be updated to keep your website ranking highly and bringing in lots of organic search traffic. It's now time to turn our attention to the of...
Posted on Oct 16th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Perfecting your SEO strategy is not a one-off task; it's an ongoing commitment. After all, Google is reported to make more than 500 algorithm tweaks annually, many of which have the potential to impact your website's ranking, the amount of organic traffic...
Posted on Oct 16th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Your guests might be stocking up on sweets for trick-or-treaters, but it's time for you to think slightly further ahead and start strategising your resort's Christmas email campaigns. Email continues to be one of the most effective ways to reach your audi...
Posted on Oct 8th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Do you track your resort's website metrics consistently? Perhaps you're unsure how to best put the data to use to maximise your marketing efforts? To understand which aspects of your content strategy are working, and which are falling flat, you need to lo...
Posted on Oct 7th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Running tests on your blog is essential if you want to discover the best strategies for driving more blog visits, and turn more of those visits into subscribers and bookings. Fortunately, you can run tests on practically every aspect of your blogging camp...
Posted on Sep 24th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
There's no denying it: you need a mobile-optimised site. With global mobile internet usage expected to hit 90% by 2017, failing to make your content easily accessible across all devices won't just cause a headache for your guests, it'll lose you masses of...
Posted on Sep 24th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Images and video have appeared in search results for some time now, but often, rich media of this type is very much an afterthought when it comes to search engine optimisation. Although optimising text content is integral to any successful SEO strategy, p...
Posted on Sep 22nd 2014 by Bryan Marsh
The Apple Watch was unveiled in a live event in California last week, alongside a preview of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Set to go on sale early next year, the highly anticipated product is Apple's first all-new design since the original iPad in 2010....
Posted on Sep 15th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Responding to your guests on social media is now an essential component of customer service and your online reputation hinges on getting it right. Are you delivering the best customer service possible for your guests on Facebook and other social platforms...
Posted on Sep 11th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Google Analytics is one of the best tools out there for getting to grips with your website metrics, but if you haven't set it up correctly, all you'll achieve is inaccurate data and incorrect conclusions about how your organic traffic converts. Here are 5...
Posted on Sep 10th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
In life, old habits die hard. And in blogging, they can be just as difficult to break. If your current campaign isn't generating the traffic and bookings you'd like it to, it's time to identify bad habits so you can break free of your blogging rut and sta...
Posted on Aug 12th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
At the end of July, Google introduced a major change to its local search algorithm, informally nicknamed 'Pigeon.' The update is designed to improve local search results by integrating them more closely with traditional search features and ranking signals...
Posted on Aug 6th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Successful SEO is about much more than keyword rankings. If you want your resort's website to survive algorithm changes, avoid Google penalties, and get noticed on a web saturated with content, here are 5 critical SEO mistakes you need to avoid....
Posted on Aug 5th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Who needs Google? Well, we all do. Ranking for important keywords is an undeniably powerful way to get your resort's name in front of your guests and drive streams of relevant traffic back to your website ready to make a booking. But with Google constantl...
Posted on Jun 25th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Email opens on mobile devices have soared from just 11% in 2011, to a steady 45% of all email opens in 2014. As email opens on mobile grow and grow, desktop and webmail opens are rapidly falling, leaving email marketers who want to reach their audience no...
Posted on Jun 24th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Are you doing everything you can to maximise your social media marketing efforts or merely covering the basics? By taking just 3 simple steps, you can build on your current social media routine, make your accounts work harder for you and bring in greater...
Posted on Jun 24th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Do you know which page gets viewed the most on the average website? Yep, you guessed it " it's the homepage. That's not surprising when you consider: It's probably the oldest page on your site (and has therefore gathered the most inbound links) and its UR...
Posted on Jun 18th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
From social media to blogging and email marketing, there are so many strategies available to improve your resort's online visibility that it's easy to overlook one of the oldest, yet most effective. After all, link building is dead, isn't it? The answer t...
Posted on Jun 18th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
There's no doubt about it: if you want to climb the search results, capture valuable relevant traffic and send it to your resort's website, you have a lot of work to put in. You need to design a strong SEO strategy, implement it successfully into your sit...
Posted on Jun 17th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
The abundance of analytics tools available online have made it easier than ever to measure the impact of content campaigns. But away from valuable metrics like click-through rates, bounce rates and traffic volume, there are other, less tangible benefits o...
Posted on Jun 11th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Email remains one of the very best ways to reach your guests online. But that's only if you're reaching people that actually want to hear from you. Low quality, outdated contact lists will seriously hamper your online marketing campaign, so if you can't r...
Posted on Jun 11th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Up until now you've probably been investing most of your resort's social media energy and resources into building your fan base on Facebook. Now, with Google+ getting bigger and more important by the day, it's time to do the same on Google's own social ne...
Posted on Jun 10th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Google+ does not yet command the colossal membership numbers enjoyed by Facebook and Twitter, but thanks to its close integration into many other Google products, the platform is perhaps more crucial to your SEO success than any of the other social networ...
Posted on Jun 4th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Optimal content length is something which has always been hotly debated among online marketers. Although there are no concrete rules regarding length, there are general guidelines you can use to inform your content creation efforts and ensure you strike t...
Posted on Jun 4th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Polling is a powerful but often overlooked tool than can help you gather feedback for your resort, build a community, create fresh content and even increase your website traffic. Best of all, it can easily be worked into your social media strategy simply...
Posted on Jun 3rd 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Running a successful online marketing campaign is pretty demanding. Most of us are juggling multiple social media accounts, scheduling new content, creating email campaigns, optimising for Google, constantly analysing datathe list goes on. With so much to...
Posted on May 29th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
With most people receiving around 81 emails a day, the average inbox is a pretty crowded place. Sending out highly targeted, carefully crafted messages that offer real value to your guests is essential if you want to compete against this clutter and hold...
Posted on May 29th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
The power social media and blogs have to raise brand awareness is no longer disputed, but what about their power to inspire action? What is the value of all those impressions if your guests aren't following through and making a booking? Working a compelli...
Posted on May 27th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Reviews have an immense impact on your online reputation and a knock-on effect on booking rates. According to recent research from TripAdvisor, as many as 93% of travellers around the world say their holiday decisions are impacted by the reviews they read...
Posted on May 21st 2014 by Bryan Marsh
As we discussed in a recent blog, Google+ looks certain to grow and grow as Google seeks to incorporate the social platform into all its most popular products. Now that Google+ is still relatively 'young', it's a good time to make sure you've mastered its...
Posted on May 20th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Some rules are made to be broken, and social media rules are no exception. That's not to say you should let chaos reign on your account, but if you're sticking to the following code of conduct too rigidly, you could actually be limiting your campaign's po...
Posted on May 19th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
With 29 million unique visitors on desktop every month, and 41 million on Smartphones, Google+ has doubled in size year over year. Despite these figures, it's still a relatively small social network in terms of membership, not least when compared with Fac...
Posted on May 14th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Even now that most of us have had a few years practice, keeping on top of Facebook marketing can be a challenge. Sometimes it helps to go back to basics and remind yourself of a few of the best practices that can be relied on to drive Likes, comments an...
Posted on May 14th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Engaging with your audience is all about knowing your audience. By using data drawn from Google Analytics, you can find out the key information you need to create strong guest personas for your social media audience, helping you formulate content that is...
Posted on May 13th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Nothing is more important to a successful email marketing campaign than a high open rate. After all, what good is crafting a powerful and personalised message you think your guests will really love, if it simply sits there, unopened once it drops into the...
Posted on May 7th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Your page stats show that people are viewing your blogs, but why aren't they clicking your calls to action? Why aren't they commenting? Most importantly, why aren't they booking? If your guests are failing to engage with your blogs, it's time to identify...
Posted on May 7th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Thanks to its integration with other Google products like YouTube and search results, Google+ provides more opportunities to interact with your audience and drive web traffic than any other social platform. But to drive this traffic, you must first get yo...