With hotel marketers around the world ready for a reset, now is the time to finalise your 2021
marketing plan and ensure your strategy is ahead of the curve.
From search to social media and design, here are the top 5 things you need to know in hotel digital marketing trends for 2021.
1. Search: Google launches “travel insights with Google” to help hoteliers measure travel demand.
Recently Google debuted new tools to help destinations and hotels use such data to identify and analyze travel demand.
The launch is currently geared towards APAC countries where travel recovery is showing some promise but will roll out to other regions as the pandemic subsides.
2. CRM: Segment guest profiles based on vaccination rollout.
For your 2021 campaigns consider segmenting guest lists based on past guests who are most likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccination first.
For instance, senior citizens will have priority access to the vaccine as well as front-line workers.
Consider launching a ‘you deserve it’ campaign prompting potential guests to travel again, always with safety precautions in mind.
Highlight ways they can indulge themselves in your property with spa, dining, things to explore in the destination and offer exclusive perks and discounts.
3. Social media: Instagram expands new guides feature to all users.
In 2020, Instagram launched a new feature called “
guides” which allowed creators to share tips, resources, and other content in a dedicated tab on their user profiles.
Instagram limited guides to a select group of creators who were publishing content focused on mental health and well-being.
However they are now rolling out the format to all users and
expanding guides to include other types of content including products, places and posts.
One major content focus for the new guides feature is
travel guides which can include longer form content with images and videos that look like a blog post within the guides tab.
Visitors to guides can share the guides across their own stories and in direct messages expanding their reach even further.
4. Display: Brand lift studies help gauge brand awareness.
With hotel portfolios continuing to expand, despite the pandemic, measuring the brand awareness of new hotel properties can be difficult.
However, a brand lift study is a way to measure the direct impact your YouTube ads are having on perceptions and behaviors throughout the consumer journey.
Brand lift is available for in-stream and bumper ads on YouTube.
5. Design: Retro fonts are back in style.
Giving bold modern fonts a retro spin is gaining popularity as we move through 2021.
What’s old is new again with fonts taking on the funky aesthetic of the 60s and 70s.
Think retro album art!
While this
new design trend is not right for every brand, it could breathe new life into email and marketing campaign designs.
Consider taking brand fonts and experimenting with some retro design touches.
While any of these could be implemented on their own, integrating technologies and marketing trends is to amplify the effect.