5 Hospitality Marketing Trends to Look Out for In 2020
Chad Faith
Director of Content
In the hospitality business, the one thing that will result in increased sales is making sure that a customer or potential customer is satisfied with the product they are interacting with. To increase sales in a hospitality business, this usually means taking the time to figure out what the current hospitality trends are, and then coming up with marketing strategies that are based on this. In this manner one will be sure that they service the needs of their customers. A customer who feels appreciated by the business is likely to provide more return business, and also refer other customers to the enterprise as well. Some of the hospitality marketing trends to look out for in 2020 include:
Personalization of Service
This is by far one of the most effective ways to entice customers to buy a product in the hospitality industry. Creating a marketing strategy in a one-size-fits-all manner is something consigned to the past. Moving forward, more and more companies are looking to first profile potential and current customers, and then create marketing material that is directed to them individually. This has a much higher chance of converting potential customers to paying customers, and also increases the chances of repeat business and referrals.
Customer Experience
Marketing in the hospitality industry is also about understanding the needs of your customers, and this can only be done by mastering the art of customer experience. You can get a lot of information regarding this from surveys, reviews of your business by past customers and even by word of mouth.
The feedback gotten from your customers will give you an idea of their preferences, and you can use this to modify the way you run the business and the way you market it to other similar individuals. This basically means that you always need to look out for what people are saying about your business. With an online presence, simply having a social media account or a website with a reviews section is an easy way to do this.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a relatively new form of marketing that has taken the marketing world by storm, and is a major part of hospitality marketing trends in 2020. One of the benefits of influencer marketing is that you can use it to target a specific audience, such as young adults whose earnings are in a particular price range. Using influencer marketing opens up your business to a much wider audience than other traditional forms of marketing.
VR
Virtual Reality has been around for a while, and is simply getting better with time. Today, you can incorporate it into a website for several purposes such as showing the types of rooms in a hotel or a rental house. Fortunately, the cost of using virtual reality is reducing, and the modalities of using it are becoming more varied.
Content from Users
The hospitality marketing industry is also using customers more and more as a marketing tool. User content such as testimonials on your (and other) sites is a great form of word of mouth marketing. The increased use of social media is also one way this will be propagated. Positive content is a potent way to encourage other people to try out your services, particularly if the number of such comments is high.