Enduring Trends In Hospitality Marketing

The basic premise of Hospitality Marketing is simple; to increase footfall, enquiries, or bookings. Yet there are many varied ways that pubs, restaurants, bars, cafes and hotels etc can reach and connect with their potential customers.

The arrival of the internet and the rise of social media have resulted in even more marketing options – so much so that the array of choices can be dizzying and confusing for many hospitality business owners.

So, what’s the best way to choose where to focus your time and marketing budget, with so many potential strategies available? One way is to look beyond the latest hot trends in marketing and consider which strategies have stood the test of time.

Here are three Hospitality Marketing trends that have shown endurance and staying power in the last few decades, and show no sign of disappearing any time soon.

Social Media Marketing

In terms of the age-old, classic marketing strategies, social media marketing is a relatively new phenomenon. However, this powerful strategy has shown outstanding growth and undoubted endurance over the last few decades that it’s a strong contender for reliability and reach.

When it comes to marketing your hospitality business, there is a whole world of possibilities open to you in terms of connecting with your customers through the various social media channels. The sheer variety of options, and the subtle differences between them, allow you to tailor your efforts and investments to the ones most likely to work for your particular business.

For example, if your service offering is all about a stunning aesthetic, you could find great success on the more visual platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. If you prefer to film short videos to give a sense of place of behind-the-scenes peeks for potential customers, YouTube may be the best channel for you to invest your time and energy. And of course, Facebook is the classic social platform for sharing your latest news and connecting with past and future customers.

Being clear on your marketing objectives, understanding your ideal customers and committing to a social channel that suits your business can be a recipe for success in marketing your venue effectively.

Local SEO

Optimising your business website and online details for Local SEO is a classic way to use the power of the internet to market a brick-and-mortar business. This type of local search traffic is ideal for many hospitality venues, which are limited to customers in the vicinity or those planning to travel to the local area.

Not only is Local SEO an enduring trend in terms of modern online marketing, it is also one of the fastest-growing areas of search engine optimisation.

The experts at SideDish marketing agency share that “Google is more effective than any type of marketing (physical or digital) at catching people who are ready to book there and then.” The key is being visible at the moment when people are searching for what you have to offer.

Local SEO is one way to ensure your business ranks high among the options when hungry customers are searching for somewhere nearby to eat and drink, or when travellers are seeking hotels in your locality.

Loyalty Schemes

Something that has always been true in any kind of business is that customers love a great deal. Loyalty schemes emerged as a way to tap into that keen desire to get good value for money, and they have endured as a successful strategy because they work.

In the hospitality sector in particular, cultivating loyalty can make a world of difference to your business’s bottom line. So, incorporating some kind of Loyalty Scheme can be a winning way for you to market your venue so that your ideal customers keep coming back for more.

You can even combine this strategy with some of the other marketing trends, such as Social Media Marketing or Online Advertising. Customers love to share and tell others about good deals, especially online. So if you can win over your clientele with a Loyalty Scheme they love, you may find they tell all their friends about it. This kind of word-of-mouth marketing is the ultimate success strategy, and devising a scheme that works for your business and your customers can be a highly effective way to boost your profitability.

With all the options available in the modern marketplace, it can pay to keep things simple. These enduring marketing trends are three ways you can tap into the potential of the latest technology and connect with your customers in proven ways that will continue to remain effective, even after the latest fads have faded away.