Compiling names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails has always been an important part of maximizing customer relationship management. This information allows hotels to send transient offers and newsletters, as well as use automated email triggers based on what customers have purchased in the past. However, while gathering customer intel is great, with today’s technologies it’s time to have a plan for using this data beyond just targeted email campaigns.

Living in a Social World

Not utilizing the world of Social Media means you have been missing out on a worthwhile investment for years now. As the Google of the social world, Facebook provides an avenue to customers with more flexibility than traditional marketing and at a far lower price point. With micro-targeting and retargeting capabilities, Facebook can turn an email list into guaranteed reach to previous guests with accounts and new guests who have never even heard of you. According to the Pew Center for Research Updated Social Media Penetration Study, over 72% of the U.S. adult population uses Facebook monthly, with 51% using it more than once a day!

Over 72% of the U.S. adult population uses Facebook monthly, with 51% using it more than once a day!

That means you are almost guaranteed to hit the vast majority of your adult audience on a proactive basis.  You don’t have to wait for them to do a search engine query, or shop an OTA.  You can reach them first and spur them to action. Not only can you reach them, but you can then target by likes, geography, and habits, as well as specific actions, such as who clicked, shopped rates, or made reservations. This method also applies to Instagram, used by about 35% of Americans.

Why does this matter to you? By micro-targeting a specific group with an incentive, a special offer, or just showing the value of your property to new prospects, Facebook and Instagram offer a solid and true path to successful campaigns.

Yes, you can use guest data to find past guests on social media, but you can also find people who “look like” your past guests. With lookalike targeting, prospecting new customers is based on how closely their behavior and online habits match those of your existing guest base. This gives you a premier lead generation tactic.

Other Ways to Use Guest Data

Paid Search

This is where having those email addresses from past guests comes in handy. All you need is an email list to target those people when they do a search. And just like social media, you can create a “lookalike” lists through Google’s similar audience targeting feature to find new guests. This can help you narrow your search, targeting and bidding to those with more chance of clicking through rather than simply anyone and everyone doing a search.

Display Ads

Whether using the Google Display Network or video advertising through YouTube, display ads offer another important avenue to get in front of past guests as well as lookalike audiences. In addition to providing the same targeting benefits as social and paid, video is often topically placed. For example, you could get photos or a video of your hotel in front of people watching videos about Florida travel, and you never know who you might get checking out your website.

And since you don’t pay unless someone watches your entire ad, the final cost for prospecting new guests can quite often be below just $0.10/guest.

The Future Of Hotel Marketing

While the present is already highly personalized when it comes to targeting, the future is only going to get more wonderfully complex. Technology will allow us to track what is being done by customers on property, and  target them even better based on their actions. That’s why it’s imperative to get familiar with targeting now and learn to interpret the results. You will set yourself up for a successful future. If you’re still simply sending out a newsletter using your guest data, talk to our team at Wpromote and allow us to create online campaigns that will keep your hotel on the map.

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