A reader recently wrote me with this common dilemma:
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?
Related posts:
- A Practical Guide to Hotel Marketing Budget Planning
- 9 Ways to Reduce Your Marketing Budget in 2009 (Without Losing Revenue)
- 120 Marketing Ideas for Hotels in 2009
- Email Marketing for Hotels: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Hotel Marketing Lessons from Free by Chris Anderson
Need More Hotel Marketing Ideas?
Our new Savvy Hoteliers Guide to Hotel Marketing Ideas contains hundreds of tested tactics that work.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
You can’t create something with nothing!
Ok, you have no budget or no money, but you need in all marketing cases:
time
courage
know-how
Working hard
etc
Results don’t come from the sky for FREE.
Have a good day
Claude
great article, marketing is a big part of hotel organisation
I never thought we can do something without nothing. Still, all of that things need something, like time, hard-working, networking, and when you said about employees, so we need to paid them too, so we need money. That’s something, not nothing. So, agree with previous comment, I think that’s impossible. Since, we still to have something to do something.
Another good way is to read your local newspaper for wedding engagement notices, job promotions, etc.
Also some very good points made in the blog.
I have to agree with Claude, without nothing something cannot be created. Tight budget marketing maybe, but I doubt it. Social Media is heavy time consuming if done right -of course depending on scope, strategy and objectives-. Time = Money.
Building a referral system and not promoting it, referring to it etc, is just half of the process.
Prioritize, for a 15 room hotel, PPC advertising might not make sense, move that budget to other tactics which might be better suitable for them.
Best regards,
Gianluigi Cuccureddu