Making the most of this summer

Photo by Josiah Mackenzie

Every summer I come back to Northern Michigan to spend a few months at my summer home here. The nature is beautiful, the Great Lakes are gorgeous, and there’s no place on earth I’d rather be for those few months.

However, when summer ends, the towns around the lake nearly close up. It’s amazing what happens in just a few weeks.

Maybe your town experiences the same thing. For those of you in other parts of the world, your busy season may not be right now, but it’s coming shortly. So this is why I wanted to write this post: to help you make the most of the next few months from a marketing perspective.

In my mind, this happens in two ways:

1) Getting as many guests as possible during the next few months

2) Making the best use of the guests you do get

First, get as many guests as possible. Since the summer season has unofficially started (with Memorial Day yesterday in the US), you need tactics that provide immediate results. When many marketers think “immediate results,” advertising is the first thing that comes to mind. That’s fine, as long as you use insightful metrics to stop wasting money. For flexibility and return on investment, it’s hard to beat pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

But effective free hotel marketing tactics exist that you may want to try. I recommend:

• Making sure you are easy to find in search engines
• Revising your website to focus less on you, and more on potential guests (Using personas may help here)
• Optimizing your site for higher booking conversion rates
• Figuring out your Twitter strategy to sell last-minute rooms

Second, make use of the guests you do get. Hopefully, you’re booked close to capacity in the weeks ahead. You need to enlist the help of these visitors in promoting your hotel.

• Set up systems to collect online guest reviews
• Understand there are multiple ways to profit from positive reviews
• Use increased interest in your hotel to build your internet fanbase
• Encourage bloggers to write about you (Maybe even create a special blogger’s deal)
• Facilitate content co-creation you can use in promotional material
• Enable ways for guests to share their stories
• Listen carefully to feedback that helps you improve

The next few months are your chance to surge ahead in the rankings on sites like TripAdvisor. Make the most of it!

Remember, as we see start to signs of economic recovery, now is more than just another start of summer. It’s a chance to own the future with bold innovation right now.