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Whitepaper: Best practices for independent hotel website optimization

January 28, 2013 | Hotel Marketing

Today’s mobile dependent, on-the-go travel shopper is inundated with real-time information, 24/7. Carving out enough mindshare to lead these travelers to choose your property in the midst of this “noise” can be a daunting task.Your website’s importance as the centerpiece of a cost-effective inbound marketing strategy cannot be overstated.

Hoteliers face more marketing challenges than ever. Today’s mobile dependent, on-the-go travel shopper is inundated with real-time information, 24/7. Carving out enough mindshare to lead these travelers to choose your property in the midst of this “noise” can be a daunting task. Today’s hotel marketing professionals need to constantly integrate new social, local and mobile marketing distribution channels (SoLoMo ), while minimizing excessive revenue leakage to discounted channels, such as online travel agencies (OTAs). As marketing budgets tighten and added focus is placed on ROI, results must be measurable and cost-effective.

Your website’s importance as the centerpiece of a cost- effective inbound marketing strategy can’t be overstated. Without an effective website, you can’t successfully leverage your blogs, videos, social media, or natural and paid search marketing programs to their full potential. Your hotel’s independent, or vanity, website is ground zero for driving traffic, leads, and bookings online.

While the majority of bookings for non-branded hotels come from the Internet, far less come from hotel websites; the majority of online bookings come from OTAs. Optimizing your hotel’s site so that it is a stronger direct channel for reserva- tions minimizes revenue lost to high commission discounted channels like OTAs. A well designed website also saves valu- able staff time and essentially acts as a 24/7/365 engagement and selling tool.

Download the whitepaper at Vizergy (free registration)

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