Market your hotel on the World wide web
Promoting your hotel on the World wide web might be one of the wisest moves you’ve ever made. There are scores of prospective clients out there - and you don’t need to wait passively in the hope that they stumble across you. There’s plenty you can do to be found more easily when they’re searching on the internet for a hotel in your neighbourhood.
If you don’t have a web site for your hotel then that’s the top priority on your To Do list. It is possible to advertise yourself online without a website - but why make things harder than necessary? You could hire a local company to develop a site for you - (be sure to contact other businesses they’ve done work for, to check they are happy), or even create it yourself from the start (all the knowledge you will need is readily available on the web). Alternatively, you could put up a task on an freelancing website like Rent-a-Coder - that can be a inexpensive way to get a website designed.
Ensure that you set up a web stats program like Google Analytics or something equivalent on your website. It’s amazing how few people do this, and that’s a big mistake. Without analytics, you don’t know how many prospects your website’s getting - you also have no idea where they originated from. Without knowing that you also can’t be sure which of your internet marketing activities are effective. Most of these programs are free of charge - so don’t bypass this step!
The initial step for many people is to send their website to the relevant category on the Yahoo Directory. Regrettably this now costs $299 per year, and since it sends very little traffic nowadays (try locating the Yahoo directory on their website) it may not be great value for money for most organisations. Fortunately there are also free standard directories out there, and it’s generally worth submitting your site to those. DMOZ is one of the best known, but because it’s operated by volunteers it normally takes forever to get in. Make sure you submit your web site to the correct category for the greatest chance of getting accepted.
Websites specialising in hotel are few and far between - which is unfortunate, as that type of vertical market website is invariably a highly valuable place to publicize your site. There is one website that focuses on hotel and will allow you to list your details without charge - and that’s http://www.ClickUKHotels.co.uk/ - well worth checking out.
One of the quickest methods to get traffic to your site is utilizing Pay Per Click advertising systems like Google Adwords. These can be set up in a couple of minutes, and begin sending customers today! Of course you have to take care and ensure you’re not paying too much - but because you only pay out for individuals who click through to your site - not for people who see your ad but don’t click, it could be an excellent way to drive traffic. It’s essential to monitor your Pay Per Click campaigns meticulously to ensure that they’re profitable for you - so it’s great that you installed Analytics software already!
One of the most important tasks to tackle next, is to develop an email list, by persuading your customers to provide you with their email and permission to email them. Use a service like GetResponse - which for a small monthly fee will enable you to store email addresses of lots of prospects and email them whenever you want.
You’ve already taken the initial step to gaining more prospects from the Web - but the most essential step is still to come - putting all this into practice. Just work away at it, bit by bit - but do get started. The earlier you start, the sooner you’ll have your first new customer from the Internet.
