SoLoMo marketing is the latest buzzword to hit the hospitality industry and it is one that has garnered much interest. For good reason: with smartphones increasingly used for online searches and travel planning, a pertinent question for hoteliers is how to capitalise on these channels themselves.
While smartphone technology has made reaching consumers anywhere anytime a reality and many in the industry are successfully linking social and mobile channels, how to combine this with the right offer for the moment is more challenging. SoLoMo marketing, the combination of social, local, and mobile marketing, could provide the answer, linking the buzz-creating power of social media, the Big-Data-fed ability to provide real-time personalisation based on a consumer’s previous behaviour and current locality, and the digital reach and precision of mobile technology.
It certainly presents a valuable opportunity, but a recent GI Insight report, Harnessing the Power of SoLoMo, shows that success hinges on marketers understanding some key rules of engagement.
The right track
The research shows that despite the popularity of social media and location-based apps with consumers, there are strict rules of engagement for any business that wants to use them as a marketing tool. While up to 90% of consumers are open to receiving location-based marketing messages, 70% are only willing to do so if they have given the sender explicit permission to do so. 59% would also only accept and consider acting on SoLoMo marketing if they had an existing relationship with the sender, such as active membership of its loyalty scheme.
Businesses that send out unsolicited location-based marketing messages risk losing customers, with the vast majority of people – 70% – ready to unsubscribe from a mobile mailing list immediately if a company they were not familiar with sent them such messages.
This is not all however: consumers also expect a high degree of personalisation with 59% saying they would not act on location-based mobile messages unless they were individualised to reflect their personal needs and preferences.
In fact, this is where loyalty schemes and SoLoMo marketing work together: the very individual customer information gained through a loyalty scheme is extremely valuable to create the precise targeting needed for SoLoMo offers. And, the more relevant an offer, the more likely a customer is to respond, and to recommend that company to others: a win-win situation.
Successful SoLoMo
So far few in the industry have embraced true SoLoMo, but there are some early adopters, predominately among the larger hotel groups. They tend to be using SoLoMo in linking with social networking apps such as Foursquare, and encouraging people to check in when they arrive at a hotel via their mobiles, to receive offers from participating local businesses.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts is one example. It uses Foursquare in its loyalty programme Starwood Preferred Guests, enabling members to earn bonus loyalty points when they check in with Foursquare, as well as offers from nearby establishments.
Similarly, Four Seasons Hotels in California was an early adopter of this type of SoLoMo, using a location-based social networking app to give guests recommendations of local places and experiences to try when they checked in during their stay, as well as the chance to earn credits to use in the hotel itself.
The opportunity is there too for hoteliers to go a step further and use SoLoMo to target guests with their own offers: a meal deal in its restaurant perhaps, a discount in the spa, or timely discount deals on stays when a customer checks in at an airport for example. These kinds of offers are certainly a good way of building loyalty and driving repeat customers.
Such offers might also be better received if sent directly from the brand – via SMS, email or special app – rather than by a social network, as just 22% of those surveyed say that sending messages via a social media website would increase the likelihood of them taking up an offer.
It is clear that location-based mobile marketing has tremendous potential but only when marketers tick all of these boxes: choosing the right audience, building relationships first, gaining explicit permission, and individualising offers. Marketers that abide by these rules will find that its ability to build strong customer bonds and provide highly tailored messages can add a valuable layer to the marketing mix.
Download the full Harnessing the Power of SoLoMo report here.
About the author
Andy Wood is Managing Director of GI Insight, a company that provides a complete database marketing approach covering database building, loyalty programmes, strategy & analysis, campaign execution and fulfillment.
He has spent over 21 years in the field of database marketing and has vast experience in the creation and management of retail loyalty programmes. His particular skills lie in the analysis of data and its application to improving customer communication, turnover and ultimately profit.
