Making Social Calls: How to Leverage Digital Outreach for Your Hospitality Business (Hotel, Restaurant or Bar)

How do your customers find you? The hospitality industry is a huge market with a wealth of competition so regardless of your specialty you need to be doing something that makes your business attractive enough to get people through the door.

Where are your customers?
Some of your customers will physically see your business, others will be referred via their networks and if you are lucky you may engage people via good media coverage. However it is, when you create an exciting digital presence you open up huge opportunities to grow your business.

Why? Because:
• 81% of consumers have searched for a restaurant on a mobile device and 75% say they often choose a restaurant to dine at based on those search results
• 65.4% of hotel bookings are made on home website and 65% of same day hotel reservations are made from a smartphone

If you are not easily found online customers will simply bypass your business – it is important to not just have a presence but one that stands out.

What makes up an exciting online presence?
The good news is that with a bit of creative thinking you can use both paid and free options to build an engaging online presence. Let’s have a look at some of the things you can do:

1. Digital front of house – your website
All digital avenues should lead back to your website so this is where you start. Make sure that it:
• Is easy to navigate to the essential sections like how to make a booking – obvious calls to actions are key;
• Has lots of gorgeous images that show people interacting and loving your services/products/venue – you want people to want to be your customer;
• Includes videos so that users can feel that they are virtually there;
• Has friendly and welcoming content – less is better. Use enticing language rather than great slabs of text that most will give up on after the first couple of sentences;
• Optimize for all devices so the person on the move can easily access critical information.

Examples: http://bit.ly/1z4dfig | http://bel50.com/

2. Social Media aficionado
Don’t make the mistake of getting onto any one of the popular social media sites and simply pushing sales. You do need to create awareness of your brands goods and services BUT make sure you create a network of loyal followers, otherwise anyone that does land on you page can easily drift away.

Try:
• Uploading interesting content that suits the platform – encourage interaction and make sure that you acknowledge comments and use them to start a longer conversation;
• Understanding your demographic and solve their problems BEFORE they mention them in relation to your particular niche;
• Creating giveaways and competitions - they are always popular and perfect for expanding your fan base.

Examples: http://on.fb.me/1CPDkYE | http://bit.ly/16Ot6tx

3. Customers are going to talk
They say that any exposure is good exposure – not true especially in the digital world where news travels fast and your business can be damaged before a customer has even left the premises.
There are two parts to the way people talk about your business:
a. They love you – people have had a great experience at your restaurant, hotel, casino and are raving online in all of the right places. Enough said this is great for business;
b. They hate you – we all make mistakes and sometimes customers don’t have the greatest time, the key thing for you is how you deal with it. They will talk online and potential customers will see negative feedback and make a decision about using your services. Answer quickly and positively and always apologize – even if you don’t think it was your fault. Remember people are watching and this can be crucial to your ongoing business success.

Example: http://bit.ly/1zGsJwv

4. Third party buy in
There is a broad range of third party sites that you can use to list your hospitality business. One of the most popular is Trip Advisor.
Listings are free for accommodation and restaurants and this is seen as the go to site for travelers when they want to find out how good you are – you may already have been reviewed there, always check in case it is bad.

Example: http://bit.ly/179jDha

Final Thoughts

What we have included here is a small selection of options available to you. Create a digital marketing strategy before you get started. If you don’t have the skills, time or personnel a specialist agency can help guide you in the right direction.
A successful digital marketing strategy must communicate your business’s brand, features and overall experience to customers using a combination of tools or an all-in-one digital marketing management platform. More importantly, regardless of which tools you choose, they must be flexible and prepare your business for the constantly change demand of digital marketing.

ChangeU: For your independent study….

Customer Preferences for Online, Social Media, and Mobile Innovations in the Hospitality Industry - http://bit.ly/1FtHJ1o
Hotel Online Reputation Research, Statistics, and Quotes - http://bit.ly/1DezJBZ
Mobile & Online Hotel Spending Soars – Is Your Digital Presence Ready? - http://bit.ly/1FtHN16
The Website Rules That Will Drive Hungry Customers To Your Restaurant - http://onforb.es/1EVdF1j