12-step hotel advertisement strategy that works

One of the industries that suffered the biggest hits during the COVID-19 pandemic was definitely the hospitality industry. As the world went into lockdown, suddenly, all hospitality services became redundant – including hotels.

Luckily, two years later, the world started to re-open, and it was time to get back to traveling. And the hospitality industry was ready. Now, the global hospitality market is expected to reach  $1,063 billion by 2028, growing at an annual growth rate of 10.24% from 2022 to 2028.

Here’s how you can adapt your hotel advertising strategy to make sure your business keeps growing!

1. Define your target audience

Everything begins with the audience. And for hotels, those are obviously guests. If you’re new to the hotel business, it’s crucial to decide who you want to attract. And if you’ve already been in the business for a while, make sure to get to know your guests as well as possible. 

Is your accommodation primarily for business travelers, families, couples, solo travelers, or a luxury hotel? 

Try to understand their demographics, preferences, booking behavior, and traveling issues to adjust your offer to them. Plus, try avoiding the common mistake of wanting to attract all types of travelers. That just never works. 

For example, if your hotel is designed for business travelers, it’ll have more restaurants, cocktail bars, and even conference rooms to meet the needs of people on a business trip. On the other hand, a family hotel needs play rooms for kids, lounge areas for the parents, and large buffets that both kids and their parents will love.

Here are a few ways you can find out more about your audience: 

• Explore social media insights
• Set up social media surveys 
• Host focus group interviews
• Collect guest feedback to fine-tune your audience profiles

2. Develop a unique selling proposition (USP)

You probably saw that some hotels position themselves as “boutiques ” and others as “lavish resorts.” This is no coincidence. Each hotel should develop a unique selling proposition that clearly communicates what its guests can expect when staying there.

You should highlight what sets your hotel apart from your competition. This includes location, amenities, design, personalized services, or special offers. Whatever that is for your hotel, make sure your future guests know about it! 

Plus, always have your target audience in mind and make sure your USP addresses their needs or desires.

3. Create compelling visual and written content

Creating visually appealing images and videos of your accommodation, paired with well-written content, is an absolute must if you want to make your hotel stand out from the rest. When going to an unknown place, people want to get the best possible feel of what they can expect. And if your competitor does that better, be sure that your potential guests are going to their place. 

Here are some ways in which you can make your content stand out:

• Invest in high-quality photography and video that show your hotel’s best features, including rooms, cocktails, dining, spa, and views
• Use storytelling in your content to evoke emotions and connect with potential guests
• Highlight guest testimonials, success stories, or behind-the-scenes content to build trust

Here’s a great example of a creative slogan from one of the world’s most famous hotel chains, Hilton:

4. Optimize your hotel website for conversions

Almost 60% of all hotel bookings are now made online. On top of that, mobile bookings make up nearly a quarter of all hotel bookings. This brings us to only one conclusion – you must optimize your hotel website for conversions and invest in digital marketing. 

A website with nice visuals but a hard to find “book now” button can bring you a lot of missed opportunities and cost you a lot of money.  That’s why you need a user-friendly, mobile-responsive  website with fast loading times.

Clear calls to action (CTAs), easy navigation, and visible contact details can simplify the booking process. You can also work on search engine optimization (SEO) to increase organic search visibility for keywords related to your hotel.

5. Use social media platforms for promotion

When scrolling our social media feed we mostly get inspiration on how to cook our meals better, how to dress better, or where to spend our next vacation. And this is precisely what makes social media a great tool in hotel marketing strategies as well.

Social media platforms allow you to visually tell a story of how it is to stay in your hotel, what amenities people can enjoy, and help them picture themselves spending their holiday in your accommodation. 

But before you jump on the bandwagon, you must figure out which social media platforms are best for your audience. If you’re trying to attract an older demographic, focus more on Facebook or Instagram instead of TikTok. And if you’re trying to attract business travelers, consider LinkedIn advertising. 

Whatever social media platform you decide to use, you’ll have to adjust your content to the audience and the specifics of that platform. You can share images, reels, stories, behind-the-scenes, and user-generated content. 

6. Invest in paid advertising

Paid advertising is a great way to get your hotel in front of as many interested eyes as possible. With extensive targeting possibilities you can make sure only your target audience sees your travel ads. 

Paid ads on various advertising channels also allow you to test multiple messages and see what content resonates the most with your audience. This helps you gain valuable knowledge about your audience over time.

Here are some examples of how you can invest in paid advertising:

• Run Google Ads for keywords related to your hotel, location, and services, or highlight choice hotel features (for example, “beachfront hotel in Miami”)
• Use hotel display ads and retargeting ads to retarget website visitors or people who have engaged with your content before
• Experiment with meta-search advertising (Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor) to capture high-intent travelers
• Create an irresistible video ad showcasing your hotel to your target audience

7. Localize your SEO efforts

Besides paid ads, you can also invest in SEO efforts to make sure your organic content performs well on search engines. And, if your hotel chain covers non-English speaking markets, you can also spend time localizing your content. 

Offering your potential guests content in their own language will help you stand out from the competition and improve customer experience. And, with better customer experience, comes a more loyal customer base. 

So, instead of thinking: “Why would we localize our content when everyone speaks English?”, try thinking: “How can I make the experience our web visitors have as smooth and pleasant as possible?”

8. Email marketing campaigns

Another important aspect of your hotel advertisement strategy is email marketing. While we often think that most emails end up in spam or unread, when planned and executed properly, email marketing can be extremely effective. 

You can start by building an email list of past guests, inquiries, and website visitors. To keep your audience engaged, you can send them personalized offers, seasonal promotions, or loyalty program updates.

On top of that, you can also use email automation for welcome sequences, abandoned cart reminders, and post-stay follow-ups. This way you’ll have a completely separate communication channel with your potential guests where you can build long lasting relationships.

9. Collaborate with influencers and travel bloggers

One thing is sure, collaborating with influencers will help you strengthen your social media game.  They have an established relationship with their audience, making their advertising feel much more natural. 

Plus, engaging in this type of travel marketing helps you get exposure to a well-tested audience for which this influencer already probably knows what works and what doesn’t. You can give them a free stay at your hotel in return for their social media exposure, or even just invite them to your hotel for a dinner to help advertise your restaurant.

When researching which influencers or travel bloggers to partner with, make sure to find people that align with your brand. This will help you gain even more credibility and make sure the content resonates with your target audience.

10. Offer special packages and promotions

Creating special packages and promotions for your guests is an excellent way to personalize your offering. It allows you to attract specific groups of guests and helps you make sure all their needs are being met. 

Here are just a few examples of special packages you can offer to your guests:

• Seasonal packages – create a travel brochure that offers free access to the sauna and other wellness facilities during winter
• Weekend getaways – create a package with special dinners and wellness for couples to help them relax from their busy everyday lives
• Holiday packages – offer special packages for New Years Eve, Valentines Day, or during a summer school break

You can highlight these deals in your advertising campaigns and on your website’s homepage and give limited-time offers to create urgency and drive more bookings.

If you’re looking for more ideas, check out our selection of the best travel brochure examples and get your creative juices flowing!

11. Get your content reviewed by relevant stakeholders before publishing

Getting your hotel ad ready for the rest of the world to see it requires an important step – content reviews. Whether you’re sending direct mail, designing newspaper ads, or experimenting with video advertising, you need (at least) a second pair of eyes before this content gets published.

To make sure all relevant stakeholders are happy with the final version of your hotel ad, you can implement a dedicated hotel advertising review and approval solution like Filestage.

Here’s how Filestage simplifies the review process of your hotel ads:

• Invite as many stakeholders as needed to a centralized platform for all feedback
• Divide different types of stakeholders into separate review groups and keep all feedback discussions focused
• Once your reviewers are done reviewing the file, they can easily approve, reject, or request changes and send it to the next stage

12. Monitor performance and optimize

Whatever activities you choose for your marketing strategy, remember one thing: You must track their performance and optimize them accordingly. 

This means that you need to set up measurable outcomes for all your marketing activities and regularly check how they perform against those parameters. No more fluffy marketing activities that bring no value to your hotel.

This not only allows you to track the success of your campaigns but also helps you adjust your tactics to maximize success.

Here’s how you can track and optimize your hotel marketing activities:

• Track the effectiveness of your ads with tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or dedicated ad dashboards
• Measure key performance indicators like click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend
• Continuously test different ad creatives, targeting options, and messaging to improve results

What makes hotel industry advertising unique?

Though most industries with direct-to-customer marketing have a bunch of similarities, there are still quite a few things that make hotel marketing unique.

Let’s see what they are!

The importance of the experience

If there’s one thing that makes tourism marketing unique, it’s that it’s not just about the product – it’s much more about the experience! 

So, instead of highlighting the features, your hotel ads need to sell the feeling of staying at the property, the comfort of the rooms, or even the excitement of local attractions.

You can achieve this with high-quality visuals like well-produced photos, videos, or virtual tours. This way, your potential guests will be able to imagine themselves at the property and get a good feel for the ambience, luxury, and unique experiences of the hotel.

Location-specific targeting

One of the biggest hotel marketing trends is location-specific targeting.

Here are the three main ways in which location plays a big role in hotel marketing:

• Advertising local gems – Hotel ads often emphasize the location’s unique attractions, like its proximity to landmarks, business centers, beaches, interesting local businesses, or cultural hotspots. This highlights convenience and increases the appeal of your property.
• Personalized offers based on location – Ads can be tailored to specific regions, promoting staycations to locals or special offers for guests traveling from particular areas.
• Geo-targeted advertising – Digital advertising platforms allow you to target specific locations (cities, airports, or countries) to make sure your hotel ads reach relevant travelers who are more likely to book.

Seasonal and event-based campaigns

People tend to plan their holidays around specific events or seasons. Whether we’re going for an Adele concert in Munich or planning our next summer holiday, hotels have a fantastic opportunity to use this for advertising.

Being so tied to seasons, hotels need to adjust their messaging and promotions based on the time of year. This calls for good planning and a more flexible approach to marketing activities to make sure you address all relevant seasons and events.

Direct bookings 

Hotels strongly focus on driving direct bookings through their websites to avoid high commission fees from Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). 

This sales tactic requires specific advertising strategies that include special perks for booking directly, like free upgrades or exclusive discounts. It also motivates hotels to optimize their websites for conversion instead of just offering helpful information about their accommodation.

Three best hotel advertising examples

Some of the best hotel advertisements have the ability to entertain people, position their accommodation as a unique place to stay, and motivate them to book their next adventure.

Here are the three fantastic hotel advertisement examples to spark your creativity.

1. Marriott Bonvoy – “Where Can We Take You?”

Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott International’s loyalty program, launched the “Where Can We Take You?” campaign in 2019 to promote this luxury hotel’s new loyalty program. 

The campaign featured stunning visuals of Marriott properties worldwide, focusing on diverse experiences – from luxury beach stays to urban escapes. The sense of excitement that the commercial exudes around new cultural experiences is what makes it stand out.

The campaign was rolled out across multiple platforms, including TV, digital, and social media, and at Marriott properties worldwide. To build authenticity and trust, Marriott also integrated user-generated content and released customer stories and photos.

2. Hilton – “Expect Better, Expect Hilton” 

In 2018, Hilton launched its “Expect Better, Expect Hilton” campaign, with a goal to educate travelers about the benefits of booking directly through Hilton’s own website rather than third-party platforms. 

The campaign featured commercials with humor and a bit of sarcasm, focusing on the frustrations travelers often face when booking through third-party sites. This approach made the campaign particularly effective because it addressed a common pain point for travelers.

Hilton used a mix of TV spots, digital ads, and social media to reach a broad audience. Plus, they reinforced the campaign’s messaging on Hilton’s website and through email marketing to existing Hilton Honors loyalty program members.

3. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas – “Just the Right Amount of Wrong” 

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas launched its “Just the Right Amount of Wrong” campaign shortly after the hotel opened in 2010. This edgy, highly-stylized campaign used provocative ads featuring unconventional characters and scenarios suggesting mischief and adventure.

This ad helped differentiate The Cosmopolitan from other hotels on the Las Vegas Strip by targeting a younger, more trend-conscious audience.

The campaign was heavily promoted through digital media, social platforms, and billboards. The hotel also used experiential marketing events and social media influencers to create buzz and engagement around the brand.

Final thoughts

Hotel advertising is a challenging but exciting area of marketing. You get to sell dreams and excite travelers from across the globe about their upcoming adventures. But this comes with a share of challenges.To make sure all your hotel advertising materials get approved and published without errors, you can implement a specialized review and approval platform like Filestage. Get your seven-day free Filestage trial →