53 Proven Hotel Marketing Ideas & Examples to Win More Events & Group Business

Posted by drmonga clinic on December 8th, 2021

Because the digital marketing landscape shifts so rapidly, it’s important that your hotel is using the best marketing ideas to drive new business.

Online marketing through content, social media, chatbots, and personalization could have a big influence on your hotel business this year. Your website’s user experience has also never been more important.

To help you take your marketing to the next level, we’ve broken the ideas up into a few different types and we share some examples of successful hotel marketing.

1. Content Marketing Ideas
2. Website Marketing Ideas
3. Social Media Marketing Ideas
4. Local Marketing Ideas
5. Communications Ideas
6. Even More Creative Ideas
7. Great Hotel Marketing Examples

With these ideas and some inspiration, you’ll drive more leads and land more bookings — for both guests and groups.

1. Create a podcast for event planners.

In 2017, an estimated 67 million people listened to podcasts. That’s roughly 25% of the U.S. population over age 12.

Think of how podcasting could benefit your hotel’s marketing strategy. Consider creating a podcast about events you’ve hosted, planners you’ve met, challenges meeting planners face, event planning trends, how a specific event was brought to life, or amazing attractions in your area. You could even interview a different employee about their experience at your venue each week.

2. Write a search-optimized travel guide for your hotel’s area.

When meeting planners pick a hotel, they don’t just think about your space — they think about the entire city and area. Highlight how planners can use the area around your hotel to bring added value to their attendees.

Use your website to post content about the restaurants, bars, and outdoor spaces available in your area. Your proximity to major tourist sites or downtown business areas, and accessibility from major transport depots can give you a boost in the eyes of event planners.

For example, courtyard spaces or waterfront access are a big bonus. Guests can take their lunches onto the grassy areas during break, or take a walk by the pier. If there are trendy restaurants or food-truck hotspots in the area, let event planners know that they’ll be blocks away from your city’s food culture.

For example, Hotel Indigo shares their employees’ tips on neighborhood attractions and eateries on in-hotel touch screens. Hotel Palomar in D.C. posts employees’ pictures and favorite spots for retail therapy and wellness options on their website. You could even launch a monthly email newsletter featuring what’s new about your areas hotspots.

Why is it good marketing?

As a hospitality company, it’s imperative to show a little, well… hospitality. IHG took that to heart in their role as host. Better yet, they did it by devising a cohesive hotel marketing strategy across their portfolio, staying true to the individual brand identities and consumer segments of each in the process.

Still, it wasn’t just the hospitality that makes this a great marketing campaign. IHG executed a multi-prong campaign to perfection, executing a symphony of influencer marketing, in-person event marketing, and social media to perfection.

When it comes to marketing in the modern age, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Brands can’t achieve success with an exclusively digital strategy anymore, and that’s true for hotels as much as anyone.