Chances are, you didn’t want to risk something unfamiliar. Going with the chain provided a consistent level of service and product you could expect.

The business did that by building and following systems. Every single time. Around the world. Procedures that specified down to the last detail how your experience was created.

Predictability is crucial for building loyalty. Nothing turns people off faster than experiencing great service the first time, only to be disappointed the second time.

Let me ask you: How do you provide predictable excellence?

(I’m looking to explore this subject a little deeper in the future. Do you know any great hotel operations experts I could talk with?)

We are a 15-room boutique hotel, that is a bit off of the main travel area – especially during the winter months. A 103-room resort recently opened close by, which has been extremely hard on us, not to say the least about the economy problems.  Now, we are on a no-budget marketing expense lockdown, heading into the off season, and trying to attract business. Any advice?

How can you run a marketing campaign with no budget?

I covered a little bit of this in my free hotel marketing article, and you need to be very creative and resourceful.

Zero Budget Marketing Strategy

* If you’re going to promote successfully with no budget, you’re going to need to use word of mouth: people talking about you.

* Get a strategy together for guest review sites like TripAdvisor. Reviews by your past guests gives you extra online exposure, and can encourage people to stay at your hotel. Read the marketing guidelines from TripAdvisor (and Qype) before getting started.

* Build a referral system that lets your guests spread the word for you

* Partner with other businesses to refer guests. Look for ‘piggyback’ marketing opportunities.

* Get involved with your community through volunteering. (Here’s how David McConnell does it)

* Avoid mass promotion. Instead, focus on a very small market and practice mass personalization. “The smaller the target, the bigger the bulls eye.”

Zero Budget Marketing Tactics

* Start blogging (Seriously, this works) Have your own employees write the blog – readers find that much more credible.

* Repurpose your existing content in ways that help you attract new guests

* Social media may be the answer. (And it may not be.) Understand that it often takes a lot of time to promote effectively on these ‘free’ websites. Track results and see if it’s worth your while.

* Plan an email marketing system for travel agents and corporate travel planners – people who could send you lots of business

* Look into pay-for-performance tools such as MeetingsBooker

I’ll bet you have more ideas – how do you create something with nothing?

Download Blogging for Guests

In this 20 page guide, you’ll learn why blogs are essential for marketing today, and how they can increase your profits.

This week, I’m going to be blogging from blogforguests.com: sharing exclusive interviews and tips on how you can use blog marketing effectively. And then on Friday, we’re releasing another free resource that is getting some finishing touches right now.

So, I invite you to visit blogforguests.com during this week as I blog over there. Regular posting will resume again here shortly.

But today, you should think of your sales and marketing efforts differently. It’s more like an hourglass. Yes, only a few people may ultimately buy from you, but the big difference is that your marketing efforts should never end once you have made the sale. Instead, that’s when your service strategies should kick in to deliver an excellent experience leading to word-of-mouth buzz.

Here’s my little illustration…

Of course, the solution isn’t to avoid all forms of online interaction. Social media can serve as a powerful channel for your staff to serve guests.

The Internet marketing managers at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City have developed a web presence that shows what’s possible when social media is done right. Through a dedicated website, blog, Facebook fan page, YouTube channel, Flickr photo stream, and a Twitter account with over 3,000 followers, the hotel is able to build loyalty and attract attention using social media.

And then there’s the vast majority of hotels that have either a nonexistent or a mediocre social media presence. The problem there is that their social media campaign is so boring it doesn’t attract any attention: negative or positive. They’re simply not on the radar.

This is why a social media policy is so important

A good social media policy serves as a roadmap for encouraging your staff to take part in promoting your hotel online…but also serves as a safeguard against tarnishing your brand’s reputation. It recognizes that social media is by definition a personality-powered platform. It encourages your staff to actively participate in spreading the word about your organization online.

It’s not so much a set of rules as it is a written philosophy to clarify your engagement strategy.

The two parts of a good social media policy

In my mind, a social media policy should serve two functions:

1. Explain how to interact with others in social media
2. Provide guidelines on producing content for distribution

First, explain how to interact with others

Be a good listener. Take time to understand other’s point of view and handle criticism well. Accept that people will inevitably post negative comments at some point. Understand how to manage it, rather than avoiding or being defensive.

When replying to others, be honest and straightforward. Be conversational and avoid corporate jargon and rehearsed marketing pitches.

Before posting responses to challenging issues it may be helpful to get a second opinion from another employee. Make sure the response is appropriate before you post it — because once something is posted to the web, it’s usually on there for good. Where appropriate, have a system for including management in this process.

If you do not know enough about a situation, say so. But make it clear you will do your best to promptly investigate and take appropriate action.

Try to stay away from arguments that could damage your brand. At times, it can be best to take a complaint offline and settle things directly with the person who made the comment. You might assign a customer service or public relations specialist to bring a quick resolution.

Second, provide guidelines for producing social media content

Be careful that you do not disclose any private or confidential information.

Never smear your organization’s reputation. Social media requires you be honest, candid, and transparent. But as you do that, it’s important to avoid spreading unnecessary information that can lead to a bad reputation. Some things are better resolved within the organization… and don’t need to be shared with the world.

Consider putting together best practices documents for each of your major social media initiatives. For example…

• Blog — update biweekly, write about behind-the-scenes insight information that guests would find interesting
• Twitter — update three times daily, search queries to proactively reach out.
• Flickr — add new photos weekly, moderate comments and submit to appropriate groups.
• YouTube — add new videos bimonthly, cross post to hotel blog
• Facebook — update weekly, add photos and videos from other sites as appropriate, interact with fans

Use your good judgment in creating content.

Terry Moran, the ABC anchor who leaked Barack Obama’s “off the record” remark about Kanye West being a “jackass” certainly attracted a lot of attention, but may not have used good judgement in sharing that private conversation on Twitter. Apparently that’s what ABC News thought, and they had to issue a formal apology.

Avoid unnecessary rules in your social media policy

Don’t tie your people up in red tape. Unnecessary bureaucracy stifles the kind of creative environment needed for your organization to flourish in social media.

In most cases, less is more. Simple is best.

A few more things to remember

Protect yourself, but be careful of going too far.

Collaborate and involve your staff in writing your social media policy. Getting their input and feedback will help them take ownership and responsibility for it.

Training your staff in general guest service principles carries over to online and social media participation. It’s one of the best investments that you can make — from a management and marketing perspective.

More resources

If you’re in the process of planning your social media strategy, here are some cornerstone articles I’ve written about social media marketing fundamentals:

• Lessons in building your hotel’s internet fanbase
• 5 tips for turning social media traffic into sales
• Beating Negative Hotel Reviews: An Action Plan for Proactive Reputation Management
• Creating a hotel social media management routine

[Photo credit: earcos]

That’s a shame. E-mail remains a very powerful marketing tool when used correctly. It can serve as the cornerstone of permission-based relationship marketing — the concept Seth Godin explained in his 1999 book Permission Marketing.

E-mail usually has a higher psychological value than other social media communication. If you are consistently delivering value in your messages people will listen to what you have to say. They may even take action.

This may sound like just theory, but in this article I will show you concrete examples of how hotels are using e-mail marketing to make money. We will look at ways your hotel can use email, how to build your list and create a campaign, benchmarks for testing, and finally some case studies of other hotels.

Part 1: Ways your hotel could use email

Use it as a direct response tool. When done correctly, e-mail allows you to communicate with laser-like focus to specific groups of people. This is one of the best ways your hotel can drive direct bookings.

Use it as an automated sales force. More than any other marketing tactic, email lends itself well to automation. You can create a powerful sales system, and then sit back and let it do the work for you. (At the end of this article, there is a case study of how the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado used this tactic to generate $245,000 in revenue from a $15,000 investment.)

Use it as a feedback and research tool. Many hotels send an automatic survey link to gather guest feedback. That’s a good start. But I think there are also other ways you can use e-mail to get feedback… not only on the guests stay, but also for new ideas and other market research. This depends on the type of list that you have developed, but the potential is there. Be creative about it.

Use it as a relationship building tool. You can send loyal guests special offers. You can notify them of new amenities or features. You can provide insider information. You can use email to give your organization some personality. The opportunities are endless for building top of mind awareness.

Use it to provide superior guest service. There is so much potential for hotels to use e-mail to improve their guests’ experience. A series of e-mails could be triggered whenever someone makes a reservation: leading up to the stay, and then following up after they leave. Putting everything on autopilot insures every guest has an excellent experience interacting with your hotel. It reduces staff busywork and the potential for errors.

Use email to communicate with other important stakeholders. Email communications don’t always have to be sent to guests. There are other groups you should focus an equal amount of time on.

Fairmont Hotels understands this. Nearly half of their email newsletters are written for and sent to other businesses. One newsletter goes to administrative assistants that handle corporate bookings. Another goes to travel agents. Reaching and working with these people plays a large role in generating revenue.

Thought: What business partners should you be communicating with?

Part 2: Plan your list building strategy

Even aside from the ethical considerations, getting the best results from your email promotional efforts requires you create a list organically and with the explicit permission of your prospects.

• You can include a signup form on your website. Just keep it short: email & first name is best.
• Your front desk staff can ask for addresses during check-in or check out
• You can leave a letter of invitation in their room

However you plan to collect email addresses, make sure there is a strong benefit for the person signing up.

The prospect of receiving generic updates from your hotel may or may not be enough. Exclusive discounts or preferred service is more compelling.

Part 3: How to create an e-mail marketing campaign for your hotel

Tips for putting together good emails for your hotel

• Make sure you get through the spam filters. Mail that isn’t delivered isn’t read.
• Write effective subject lines. Tell what’s inside, but don’t over do it. Sometimes boring is best. Don’t use too much hype.
• Always send a text version of each message. If you’re using HTML, you want to provide an option for people who don’t – or can’t – read that format.
• Use a table of contents for longer emails
• Make the email content scannable
• Include descriptive links with a call to action
• Link to a web version (if the email does not display properly)
• Include a “forward to a friend” link on all messages

Choose a publishing frequency

Whether you plan to publish a monthly newsletter or special offers as they’re available, it’s best to create a schedule and stick to it.

Publishing too often can lead to people unsubscribing. If you don’t publish enough, people may forget about you. Find a frequency that works well with your audience. Better yet, give them the option to choose.

The Deer Valley Ski Resort in Utah publishes a “daily conditions” email. Daily emails may normally be too much, but it works when you’re providing information people want. It certainly made Chip House happy.

Part 4: Test, Test, Test

As with most online marketing, success is achieved through continual testing…and making changes based on what you learn.

Tests usually take the form of split-testing: where you send two variations of an email at the same time to the same list. Most email services make this very easy.

Ideas for testing

• Days of the week (Tuesday…or Saturday?)
• Time of day (morning, afternoon, etc)
• Frequency
• Personalization
• Subjects & Topics
• Content
  • Copy
  • Graphics
  • Colors
  • HTML vs. plain text
  • Length
  • Number of links
• Prices
• Call to action

3 most important email marketing metrics to watch

• Open rates
• Click through rate
• Conversion rate – how many people take the next step…whatever you want that to be

Email marketing benchmarks for hotels

MailChimp, a great little company that I use for most of my email promotions, released a benchmarks report with these figures for the hotel industry:

• Open rate: 27.5%
• Click rate: 7.17%
• Abuse complaints: 0.08%
• Unsubscription rate: 0.49%

As they said, this is slightly biased towards smaller hotels -  but it’s close to the averages I’ve seen.

Of course, stats like these only serve as a point of reference — your individual situation may be very different. E-mail campaigns that I’ve run typically perform at least 50-75% better than the numbers above. List quality has a huge impact on your metrics. Keep testing, and you can reach above average levels of performance.

Part 5: A few examples of how hotels are using email

Kimpton Hotels uses affinity-based email to boost revenue

As this case study from MarketingProfs (membership required) shows, creating your email program around individual preferences can dramatically increase profits.

Kimpton had a loyalty program that recognized and accommodated individual perferences of guests: all the way down to the type of pillow they preferred. Steve Pinetti, VP of Sales and Marketing, decided that if their email campaign matched the customer care as well as their loyalty program, they could increase revenue.

To do this, the company created seven affinity groups: wine, pets, dining, eco issues, LGBT, “hot dates and great rates,” and “packages and promotions.” By integrating their databases, guest information was updated in real time. Once this system was set up, Kimpton could send very customized emails based on individual preferences.

The end result? Average revenue generated by a customer email campaign increased from $70,000-80,000 to $350,000-750,000.

Lesson: Identify affinity groups, and plan ways to serve them

The Broadmoor Hotel gathers trade show leads with a savvy followup system

As Karen explains in a ClickZ article, The Broadmoor Hotel was trying to obtain sales leads at a trade show a few years ago. People visiting the Hotel’s booth had their badges swiped, which populated a database. Then, a series of 3 email messages was sent to each prospect:

1. Instant followup with an incentive. The recipient was notified of an upcoming drawing for a digital camera. At the same time, the Broadmoor’s benefits to meeting planners were reviewed.
2. Are you a winner? A week later, an email was sent asking the person to click through and see if they won the drawing.
3. Another contest. Three weeks after the show, prospects received another invitation to enter a contest for a 4-day vacation at the Broadmoor.

The end result? The campaign cost $15,000 and generated $245,000 in revenue.

Lesson: Automate emails to create a powerful sales followup system

The Monmouth Plantation uses “sensory overload” to avoid price cutting & increase response

Recently, I shared the story of Monmouth Plantation, a historic luxury Mississippi inn. Because of the recent economic crisis, the hotel had been using special (low) room rates in their email newsletters to generate business.

Recently, however, they decided to focus on selling their lavish experience – and less on the price. They began sending email promoting sensory-overloading experiences.

For example, read the description of their $1,900 Gourmet Package offer that included two nights of accommodations, a tour of three historic mansions, a carriage ride through the quaint downtown area, and in-room massages:

“Upon arrival, guests will be greeted and escorted to their rooms where chilled champagne, chocolates and flowers await their arrival. That evening guests gather in the dining room for hors d’oeuvres and wine; a host/hostess will give a history of the antebellum home. Dining under 17th century chandeliers on the Empire table with beautiful china, silver and first-class service is the highlight of this package. The chef will greet each guest and invite culinary conversation. After-dinner drinks featuring the Southern signature drink, mint julep, will be served in the study nightly. A private hot air balloon ride over Natchez is the featured activity in this package.”

The result? The email open rate increased 15% and their promotions enjoyed a 30-40% click-through increase.

Lesson: Use “sensory overload” to sell your hotel’s experience in your email promotions

Without a doubt, email is one of the most powerful marketing tools we have at our disposal today.

Please, Please, Please (my closing plea)

Speaking as both a marketing professional and a frequent hotel guest, I just ask you to remember what most of us are thinking:

I’m busy. I don’t have much time. My inbox is my sacred space. I use it to interact with friends, family, and business associates…and I’m not particularly anxious to hear from an organization I barely know that wants to sell me something.

• What’s in it for me? I don’t really care about your business operations. I do want to know about stuff that will help me.
• Ask my permission, and have me confirm before you add me to any list.
• Don’t e-mail me constantly. I probably don’t want to hear from you every single day.
• If you send me something I don’t want, I’ll consider it spam… even if I opted in to your list a long time ago.
• Make it easy for me to leave. If I like your content, I’ll stay.
  

David Meerman Scott recently wrote an excellent post on fear. I also have seen many hotel executives scared of trying new marketing that could benefit their hotel and their guests — simply because there are afraid.

Afraid that they’ve never done this before.

Afraid that it might make them look bad.

Afraid that they cannot track everything.

Progress and innovation are impossible unless we take calculated risks. Educate and prepare yourself, then go out and make things happen.

Stop letting fear prevent you and your organization from achieving success.

What’s holding you back? What are you afraid of?

[Photo credit: flikr]

The difference between Google and Twitter

After last week’s experiment, several months of testing various Twitter integration tactics, and reaching 100,000+ people in 36 hours, I’ve learned some interesting things.

Twitter is the best social media marketing tool for bloggers

I started blogging in 2002, and have tested many different tools since then. Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon all have the potential of reaching large numbers of people. But for the typical blogger, nothing matches the viral marketing potential of Twitter.

How you use Twitter makes a huge difference

Like nearly every other aspect of business, you can achieve success quicker by using the right tactics. Some bloggers on Twitter get tens of thousands of new readers each day by using the tool; others tweet frantically and never really get anywhere.

Here are some lessons I’m learning from the best bloggers on Twitter…

Only promote your best posts

Instead of automatically syndicating your blog on Twitter, focus on a few articles you know could be winners.

Personally, I aim to publish 3-5 posts to this blog weekly; and tweet 50-75% of them.

Depending on your publishing frequency, you may want to adjust this.

Promote your best posts well

It’s fine to re-tweet your posts several times throughout the day. Several experts suggest every 2-3 hours is best.

With many of us having hundreds, if not thousands, of followers on Twitter it’s easy to miss what your friends are saying. I try to check into Twitter several times each day, but since my whole friend feed in TweetDeck is updated every 10 minutes or so, you can see how easy it can be to miss updates.

When you’re communicating with a worldwide audience, the difference in time zones makes this even more important.

Tweet formula 1: Insight + Link

Depending on how good your titles are, you may be fine just using them in tweets. But I get a little bored with those sometimes.

Instead, try tweeting a little excerpt from your post along with the link for more info.

That way, you add real value and arouse curiosity at the same time.

Tweet formula 2: Question + Link

Questions encourage conversations. Some people believe it’s effective than just giving out information.

Try it for yourself and see.

Tweet formula 3: Retweet someone else

If someone else tweets about your article, try retweeting them:

Highlight reader discussions

One of my favorite parts of blogging is learning from your comments. If one post draws a lively discussion, let people know about it on Twitter.

Use some type of ‘Tweet this’ link

I’ve tested multiple formats, and Tweetmeme was the hands-down winner for me.Perhaps displaying the number of retweets adds an element of social proof, but I think it’s just a very elegant solution to content sharing.

As of today, it will become the only social media sharing tool on this blog.

Know why you’re on Twitter

Is it to build your overall number of followers…or reach a select audience of very targeted people? Is it to drive page views, or share your ideas as far as possible? Selling something, or part of your branding efforts?

You may be able to achieve multiple goals at the same time, but knowing why you’re using a tool helps you focus.

Action step: Spend 5 minutes brainstorming how Twitter could help you build your blog’s audience.

Let me ask you this: How do YOU use Twitter to promote your blog?

This post is by Hotel Marketing Strategies contributor Allan Simpson.

Potential leisure customers don’t need to buy a stay in a hotel to make them feel good.  There are lots of other things people can do.

Hotels find themselves in a straight fight with everyone else who has in interest in the “disposable income” people have.  As we all know – there isn’t so much income that’s disposable these days, but there’s still some out there.

It may be a straight fight, but it’s not a battle of equals.  This is true David and Goliath combat.  Your problem, as you sit there in your hotel wondering where the next booking is going to come from, is not just that Goliath is a lot bigger than you.  You are also faced with the fact that Goliath is a lot better informed about your target market.  He knows how to influence buying decisions in such a way that even the buyer is completely unaware of what’s going on.

You see, the buying decision is not just which hotel or which location?  There are competing products out there – everything from new cars to boxes of chocolates and they are considerably better at marketing then 99.9% of hotels.

They can say to your potential customers “buy me instead”…and they will obey.

If you want proof, go and invest in the new UK edition of Wired magazine.

There’s an article on page 98 which talks about the following marketing tactics:

• Brain-scan research
• Phone location mapping
• Eye tracking
• Store location mapping
• Face reading ads
• Personality profiling
• Sensory marketing
• Loyalty card linked TV ads

…and many more.

The businesses competing with you for “disposable income” are using techniques like these.  They are very sophisticated.  They invest in their marketing and they use clever people to make sales happen.  Contrast this with the attitude in the hotel industry.  What’s one of the first things hotels cut when things get tight?  Marketing.  In smaller hotels, the person responsible for marketing is just as likely to be found polishing cutlery as planning the next campaign.

There are things you, as a hotelier, can do to improve your online sales.  Outside of this article in Wired magazine, there are things like Persuasion Architecture for websites (I bet your webmaster hasn’t mentioned that one to you recently – or am I wrong?).  It takes effort and costs money to develop, but in exchange you get a good chance of significantly improved “look to book” ratios.

I recently came across a hotel with an astonishing look to book ratio of 76%.  In a world where hotels regard the “average” as around 2%, this is a wonderful example of taking marketing by the scruff of the neck and making it work.  This particular hotel manages its marketing, it has invested heavily over several years and it maintains good people to do the marketing and selling work.  On busy days sales people don’t polish teaspoons.  Instead sales people are given the scope to make sure every day is a busy day.  Just like your competitors from other industries do.

Some hotels will update the copy on their website every year whether they need to or not. Other hotels still think that a one-off advert with the business name as the headline and a picture of a restaurant chair will have people flocking to the door…  Of course, it doesn’t.

If you’re laughing at that thought because you know better and you’d never be caught publishing an advert with your hotel name as a headline (or even worse – a price), take a look at the travel section in any Sunday newspaper to see how many of your industry colleagues are making a dreadful mess of this.  Then laugh a bit more.

If you’re not prepared to make the effort with your marketing, if you’re not prepared to change the way you do things, you won’t get the results you need.

The real competitors you’re up against as an industry are those who sell what are called “substitute” products and services:  As I suggested above, anything from cars to chocolate bars.

These competitors are very, very good – and they’re making marketing work for them by treating it as seriously as they can afford to.  An important point here, is that they can’t afford not to – there is so much investment goes into developing cars and chocolate bars that to skimp on marketing doesn’t even cross their mind.  Reaching out to attract customers with an effective sales message is an essential part of the business process.  Marketing is another stage in their investment, necessary to stand a chance of a good return.

Come to think of it, somebody invested in your hotel.  It might have been you?

How good do you want to be?  How hard are you making your marketing investment work for you?

Your competitors are constantly enticing and encouraging people to buy.  What are you doing?

In a world where people selling competing products are looking right inside customers heads in order to get them to buy, it looks like the hotel industry has a little catching up to do.

Allan Simpson is a hotel copywriter with UK-based HotelSphere.