Hospitality is a difficult industry, but mobile marketing has enabled a slew of options not available in previous years. Understandably, hotel operators want to please their customers. While good, old-fashioned room-to-room service, deals and promotions are still viable in 2016, providers are shifting to mobile to promote a finer class of service.
Among the many approaches mobile marketers are using, Facebook advertisement remains one of the strongest. Mobile advertising revenue, alone, is expected to reach $46 billion by 2019. Smartphones have jump-started the way marketers promote via social media, and hotel chain operators are engaging consumers in new ways.
Package-centric advertisements
Because today’s consumers browse the Internet incessantly for deals and promotions, Facebook has become a primary platform for hotel industry pros intent upon package promotions. Today, 86 percent of consumers use smartphones to plan shopping trips. Similarly, 54 percent of service shoppers use smartphones to research and purchase different options. It’s important for hotel providers to promote package options via social media. Social media, itself, is a highly effective audience segmentation tool. If you can utilize it to separate newcomer wants and needs, you can develop customer-specific service packages.
Aligning revenue management and general management
Facebook additionally succeeds from a fiscal management approach. Hotels experiencing seasonal, weekend-based or even daily demand shifts can manage occupancy via Facebook’s targeted mobile ads. Rather than accepting two visitor nights up-front at a location’s predetermined occupancy, a general manager can request cohesion with a revenue manager. They can do this by pulling different consumer groups via targeted ads.
Mobile Facebook ads draw in data. When data is used effectively, high-occupancy periods can be better managed. Both revenue and general management benefit from this, as expenses, when managed at the same level as occupancy management, are decreased to serve the location as a whole. It might seem like a long line of processes, but it’s entirely conducive to Facebook ads. Customer attendance, in the hotel industry, begins with social media advertisement.
Promotion of branded app downloads
The effectiveness of mobile ads in controlling hotel bookings might be mixed, but it’s incredibly telling. Many Facebook advertisements succeed in driving app downloads, both for OTAs and hotel brands. As a hotel provider, you should be running “Install now” app ad campaigns via Facebook. In doing so, you can promote mobile-specific deals, free Wi-Fi, early check-in options and even weekend packages. A mobile app will be needed for this strategy, but your hotel should already be running one. A mobile app, when promoted through a Facebook advertisement, can link upcoming visitors to short code texting campaigns, too. Your hotel’s services should never end, and neither should your deals.
Automatic call support
The hotel industry, above many, relies on automatic call support. Fortunately, smartphones have linked with Facebook’s social advertising opportunities. Mobile Facebook advertising is expected to generate 12 billion calls next year, alone. Automatic call support converts potential visitors into lifetime brand users. By hooking a call attribution software platform into your mobile marketing strategy, you can track every caller from your Facebook ad campaign. Similarly, you can examine consumer behavior across Internet searches, other advertising sources and mobile apps.
Facebook advertisement closes the promotion loop. Really, a hotel provider without a prominent Facebook strategy stands to lose quite a bit of support. It’s important to keep a solid social media strategy up your sleeve, and it’s even more important to give back to the consumers your hotel thrives on.
What’s Next?
How do you ensure that your customer is getting the best mobile experience possible when interacting with your brand? Make sure to share them with us in the comments below. I would love to read them.
About the author
Sophorn Chhay is the marketing guy at Trumpia, the most complete SMS software with mass text messaging, smart targeting and automation. Follow Sophorn on Twitter (@Trumpia), LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+.
