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What do i need in my Online Marketing Budget?
At a recent seminar we conducted an impromptu survey amongst hotels. We asked hotel Owner/Managers where they thought the majority of the bookings came from, and more than 70% believed that 'online' delivered the majority of bookings.
We then asked which hotels had some form of a Sales and Marketing Budget? just 50% said they did, possibly reflecting the current economic climate.
We then asked how many had a ONLINE Sales and Marketing Budget, and just 5% said they did.
The only possible conclusion from this is that hotels are not allocating Sales and Marketing Budgets to areas where their bookings are coming from; Online. So where, if anywhere, should money be spent with Online Marketing.
The first point to consider is that commissions charged by the hotels own technology supplier (ie Booking Engines/Website Supplier etc) or Online Travel Agents (ie Expedia/Booking.com) should be considered as an Online Marketing Cost.
Online Marketing Costs
Google Adwords PPC - Are you having trouble ranking well on a Google Search? in broad terms you can fight your way to the top by paying Google to list you at the top for particular keywords. The budget will depend greatly on the type and location of hotel, 10€ per day would be a good average.
FaceBook Adwords PPC - Same as Google Adwords but can be much more focussed and are consequently more expensive. For example a hotel close to a Rugby Stadium could target their ads to people who have 'rugby' set up as a 'interest' in their FaceBook Account. Again a budget of 10€ is probably a realistic minimum. Useful for hotels whp have 'key featrues' ie A Spa or Popular Wedding Facilities etc.
TripAdvisor Listing - TripAdvisor have been pushing their 'Business Listing' for over a year now, but recently we have started to see some concrete evidence that it is indeed worth the cost. The concept is that consumers are using TripAdvisor to check hotels before booking, and because the hotel contact details are not listed they are using the booking routes proposed by TripAdvisor ie Expedia or Booking.com. Listing your Website Address, Phone Number and E Mail details encourages cosumers to contact the hotel directly to make the booking. The cost of a TripAdvisor Listing varies according to the size of the hotel, 150€ per month being a good estimate for average sized properties.
Link Building - In internet terms this is an old chestnut, but is still as important as ever for your Google Search Engine Ranking to have good quality inbound links. Some of the the more forward thinking hotels engage in swapping links with other websites, but in our view it is hard to avoid having QUALITY inbound links from popular websites, and its quite likely that they will have to be paid for. An average hotel can count 500 to 1000€ per annum to buy quality inbound links.
Those are the key 'hardcosts', but the largest investment is likely to be in 'softcosts' ie 'people'. Its very hard for hotels to avoid that they need to have resources, internal or external, carrying out continuous Online Marketing ie
- Updating Website Content (ie News, Events and Promotions)
- Creating and Distributing E Zines.
- Creating and Distributing SMS messages.
- Maintain a FaceBook or Google Adwords Campaign.
- Building Inbound Links.
- Answering TripAdvisor Reviews.
- Updating Google Places Listing.
etc etc.
Mnay hotels believe that they simply cannot justify this cost, but before they make a judgement, they should what they are spending in offline sales and make sure their budget is being apportioned correctly.
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AccuBook are launching a new purpose-built solution for the Independent Hotel, Guesthouse and B&B Owner called PocketBook in November. MORE