If your hotel – or government agency – is considering using online behavioral advertising, you might want to test drive it yourself first to see what your guests will experience.
At its best, behavioral advertising makes you feel like royalty; at its worst it’s like a pesky mosquito that will not go away. The key is: relevance.
I recently was the target of this growing online strategy by accident when shopping for leather luggage. The three pieces I clicked on now pop up each time I check my weather or news sites. I sort of like that because it edges me closer to something I want, new luggage.
A colleague, however, sees a similar banner ad pop-up attached to her online profile that is no longer relevant to her interests. It’s a nuisance she cannot get rid of.
So, if you are considering targeting your guests and constituents with online behavioral advertising, be sure you have a “game over” mechanism in place.
Click here for a viewpoint: “Hotels, Guests Shift to Behavioral eAdvertising” by our client Cendyn.
Click here for more info on the online ad shift to local and behavioral marketing.
What about you? What is your experience with audience-targeted advertising in your online travels? I would like to know.
[Updated September 1st. More content; thanks to our client Cendyn.
I recently set up a client interview with Josiah Mackenzie of Hotel Marketing Strategies. It was pure pleasure mainly because Josiah gave me online access to his real-time calendar via Tungle.me. This is the kind of little energy saving application that keeps you fresh.
Try it out.
Speaking of wellness, New York Times technology journalist Matt Richtel gives us proof positive that you officially need a vacation, without your smartphone. Click here for the “Digital Overload: Your Brain on Gadgets” podcast.
So to help you plan your vacation, try Gliider, a PhoCusWright innovation award finalist and cool tool. Take your brain on a daily mini-vacation as you “gather and save travel info from across the web.”
It’s fun. Watch the Gliider demo above.
At Softscribe Inc., we are committed to using technology to take care of ourselves, so we can take care of our clients and industries.
What about you? What are your favorite productivity tools?
Quick question for hotel operators: Who would you rather cater to — clientele that stay one night? OR clientele that stay for four nights?
The answer is easy and obvious, except when you look at the clientele.
According to the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management at New York University, the average length of stay for business travelers is 1.2 nights; the average length of stay for vacationing families is 4.3 nights.
And families with teenagers are an even more lucrative niche for hotels to target because they spend more and allow their children more say in where to stay.
Increasingly, hotels are taking advantage of this trend and are catering to teens with a host of activities and amenities.
What’s PopularWhat’s Not Internet loungesScavenger hunts Mocktails (virgin drinks) Ice-breaker games Video arcades Camp activities 18 and younger dance clubs Teen-oriented spa treatments
The U.S. Census Bureau says there are 42.1 million people ages 10 to 19, representing 14 percent of the total American population.
More teen data from Packaged Facts, a market research firm:
The overall value of the teen market is predicted to be worth $208.7 billion in 2011.
Parents spend more than $110 billion on their teenagers.
Forty percent of teens live in households with incomes of $75,000 or more.
At Softscribe, many of our story ideas for clients are rooted in research like this. Let us know if we can help.
What about you? What amenities does your property offer for teens?
BONUS Quote of the Day: “I bet deep down you still wish your mom would take you clothes shopping every August for the new school year.” — Bridget Willard
Advances in email marketing are made for guest-centric hoteliers.
You remember email; that cost effective communications tool which Forrester Research says will “balloon to $2 billion by 2014 — a nearly 11 percent compound annual growth rate.”
Chances are you already send targeted eNewsletters to your hotel guest database. But if you do not yet market with eNewsletters, cheer up. There is no need to walk, run, fly. With the social advances in email marketing, you can go right from walk to fly, provided you have three basic disciplines in place.
1. Set your goals.
Typical goals for hotel eNewsletters are to
Increase guest loyalty, referrals, and on-property spend.
Influence or improve perceptions of your property.
Engage guests in current events and promotions.
Find out which social networks your guests are on.
2. Develop your content schedule.
At Softscribe, each of our eNewsletters has three simple buckets of content. We create a yearly content calendar month-by-month. This planning gives us plenty of time to shoot video, interview customers, and research statistics that add value.
3. Measure your success.
Typical metrics hoteliers want to measure are:
open rate
click-through rate
number of mobile users
unsubscribe rate
How social are your email subscribers? Our email provider, MailChimp, added Social Pro to give hoteliers and other people that information. Social Pro also tells you which networks your guests are on, so you can engage them in the right tone; lets you geo-target, measure engagement and generate reports on age, gender and influence.
Way to fly.
For more resources on how to succeed with your hotel eNewsletters, please click here.
What about you? Are you using eNewsletters at your hotel? If so, is there a social element?
Rainmaker Launches TribalRev to Provide Revenue Optimization Services to Native American Casino Hotels
Small and Medium-Sized Properties on Indian Tribal Lands Will Benefit from Rainmaker’s Software and Revenue Management Services via New Subscription-Based Offering
ATLANTA, GA – August 31, 2010 – The Rainmaker Group, a world leader in automated profit optimization software and services for the hospitality industry, announced today it will provide its world-class revenue optimization services to small and midsized casino hotel operators on Indian tribal lands. The new TribalRev services will level the revenue playing field for Native American operators that compete with larger companies. Rainmaker will launch its TribalRev revenue management service in Q4 2010.
If your hotel – or government agency – is considering using online behavioral advertising, you might want to test drive it yourself first to see what your guests will experience.
