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W E B S I T E S T R A T E G Y
http://marke tin g h o tels to u ris mon lin e.co m
WEBSITE STRATEGY PROCESS
BOOK 1 IN THE SERIES
MarketingHotelsTourismOnline.com
The website strategy process is introduced in the first book in my series, “Marketing Hotels
& Tourism Online”. Strategy will appear in each book but it really is a subject on its own. The
first book, WEBSITE, is just an overview. I have added the Website Strategy Checklist as a
bonus to offer a bit more detail for those who are interested.
The checklist was part of my Power Marketing Consultants study. It too is general and what I
think would be helpful is a an explanation. Strategy is a vital subject and I may well do a
book on it alone as it is widely misunderstood. In this short report, I am going to outline a
strategy that has been influenced by power marketing and includes elements from our own
experience and observation. The result is a unique formula that will truly differentiate your
hotel and tourism business and influence travellers.
Hotel Website Strategy

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It’s All About Messaging!
There are many misunderstandings about strategy. If you ask a web
designer, an internet marketer and a branding professional what hotel
website strategy is, you will get 3 different answers!
• A Web Designer will tell you that website strategy is about colour,
photography, graphics and layout.
• An Internet Marketer will say it is about keywords and SEO.
• A Branding consultant will tell it is about quality image and consistency.
The Website Strategic Process is first and foremost about messaging! Getting the
message right starts with a detailed analysis of your business, mission, competition
and guests.
You need to have a deep understanding of guests and be able to answer all the
objections they may have in selecting your product. In Hospitality, small hotels are
often at a disadvantage compared with the large Online Travel Agents (OTAs). They
are well known, trusted and can outperform on many services points.
OTAs outperform small independent hotels by offering loyalty points, great
alternatives (your competition) and guarantees. With the contract they have with
hotels they also call for RATE Parity which means you can’t compete with them and
they can offer the Best Rate Guarantee. That’s a power incentive. Rate parity we
will discuss later; it’s a sort of lie and you can get around it as we shall see.
To overcome the perceived OTA benefits, small hotels need to build
authority, trust and incentivise guests to book direct.
Comparison Shopping
Few hotels offer comparison shopping but that is one of the main reasons
why travellers go to OTAs. Your guests will check out your rates and
compare them with others. Why not help them by doing it for them? That is
a messaging strategy that could work for you. But it is a lot of work and as
rates change all over the net constantly, most hotels skip this. But you can
create a page about alternatives. Show other places and point out how you
compare in value, space, size, comfort, design and all the intangible things
that travellers care about. That’s excellent messaging.
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Rates Compare
Technology can also help you keep on top of rates. TripTease will check OTAs’
rates and show your advantage. It builds trust to show what else is available
and give practical examples of your own advantage.
Reviews & Trust
To build trust, you need excellent and consistent reviews as well as a
strategy to get and strategically use them. There are solutions and strategies
that will influence your score and tactics to share and market them
effectively.
We have our own solutions that animate reviews with video and distribute
the video to clients’ sites and social networks. They can be syndicated to the
internet.
Other solutions, like TrustYou guest reviews, assist in the process of getting
reviews from guests. There are systems that will capture reviews on your
site and automatically forward the guest to your preferred review site only if
the reviews are 4 or 5 star.
Book Direct Strategy
To get guests to book direct, you have to offer what they get at OTAs (price,
service and value) and offer more. You are the owner and you know your
property and its benefits better that anyone. You also know your destination
better that any OTA and letting your guests and prospects see you as a
destination expert will go a long way to convincing them to book with you.
Tip - add this sentence to your booking engine - “We live in this wonderful
place and would love to help you create an unforgettable vacation - We look
forward to helping you discover its many secrets”
Strategic Thinking vs. Platitude
The strategy that comes from this sort of thinking can be profoundly
different from what you will get with a web designer, internet marketer and
brand consultant.
Look at what hotels around you are staying about themselves. It’s all pretty
much the same: they are great for families, ideal for couples and fantastic
for everyone in some form or other. These, sad to say, are platitudes and
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they don’t help you one bit. Avoiding platitudes and replacing them with real
differentiators is one of the key points in the Website Strategies checklist.
Building Your Strategy
Building a strategy requires deep understanding of all of these variables.
With skilful analysis the messaging system for your website will create a
distinct personal advantage and a strategic message that will permeate
throughout the website and offsite into your advertising and content
marketing. It requires understanding your clients’ needs and your
competition’s strengths and weaknesses as well as knowing your strengths
and your reason why.
The ‘why’ you are doing what you do is your mission and your passion. Most
of us who are in hospitality are passionate about it and, for the most part, it
has far more to do with caring and excelling at making guests feel wonderful
than it is about making piles of money. Having a good return on your
investment is essential for every business, of course, but in many cases it
can be the only rational. That is hardly ever the case with hospitality; it is a
very personal and passion-driven calling.
Hospitality is a cultural experience. To most vacationers it is very personal
and who you are, who they are and where they are going to stay is often as
important as the beach, view, amenities and location. These are
commodities and, like all commodities, they tend to be very similar from one
place to the next. What is always unique is personality.
Psychology
Psychology plays a huge part in how people shop and buy and travel is no
exception. Hoteliers are beginning to understand just how important this is.
These systems try to match guests up with holiday experiences that fit their
personality and mood. Personality branding is the new way that brands are
looking to differentiate themselves. The leading personality branding expert
is Sally Hogshead, an award-winning Brand Marketer and author who has
founded a company based on building fascinating personality brands.
Travel is personal and travellers like to know who their host is. Marriott and
AccorHotels have recently started using personality assessment in their
accommodation search. This idea was pioneered by our own RealHolidays
matchmaker technology and is now in use at PersonaHolidays in Barbados.
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Fascinating Travelers With Personality Branding
I believe that personality matching is going to be a huge disrupter in Travel.
I see it augmenting and replacing conventional search by amenities.
Amenities don't match moods or personality and you cannot define a unique
holiday experience with amenities and hotel features. Today’s travellers what
something more.
Personality matching is the new frontier in Travel Search and trip planning.
Travellers want experiences so personality matching is key. You can start by
doing the Personality Test by Sally Hogshead. Our team has a partnership
with her company, HowtoFasciate, to bring branding and travel planning
capability to travel and to bring personality branding to tourism. Find out
more at info.Personaholidays.com.
Hot Buttons Navigation
Personality-driven messaging is a very strategic imperative in Travel. Every
piece of content on your website should be geared towards inspiring and
engaging with your ideal guests. Once you have gone through the exercise
of defining your hotel personality brand and understand who your ideal
guests are, you can craft messages that will grab attention and inspire.
In going through that process, you will develop your hot buttons, which are
described in the first book, WEBSITE. You can think of them as buttons that
shout out what visitors what to hear and see and where you want them to
go next. They are you message activators.
Message Layering
Messaging takes the form of banners, headers, images, video and content
using hot buttons and a call to action. You main message can be crafted into
enticing hot buttons that acknowledge objections, show the emotional,
physical and psychological benefits and some comparisons. These are the
3 most important criteria for the majority of vacationers.
Objections, Benefits and Comparisons should be hot buttons on every
page driving people to action - to get more information, save it for later, get
a quote and book now.
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In “WEBSITE”, the example hotel’s Hot Buttons are:
1. A Caribbean Holiday Away from Crowds (takes care of the ideal guest
who objects to crowds)
2. The benefit: Your Own Spacious, Private (3 hot words) Resort Villa
(hits another objection for those who don't want to be remotely tucked
away)
3. Comparisons and Guarantees (one of the most popular pages)
All of these are echoing the message in the video above. The video is short
and its message is: “Your Own Unforgettable Caribbean Resort Villa Holiday”.
Your Own Unforgettable Caribbean Resort Villa Holiday
Away from Crowds with all the Comforts of Home
Affordable, Private, Safe, Spacious Resort Living
Strategic messaging embraces and builds on core concepts. The front banner
video is echoed in the 3 buttons. Each button is then linked to a page that
echoes the button’s message. The page header also echoes and enhances
the message. If there are hot buttons on this page, they will follow the same
strategy. This is strategic messaging.
On the ‘Compare’ hot button page, we don't actually compare to other hotels
but that page leads to holiday accommodation pages that do make
comparisons. This is helpful to those in the early stage of shopping who need
advice on what’s available in the destination. For example, there is a St.
Lucia Villa Holidays page that reviews the pros and cons of different types of
villa accommodation and shows examples of the alternatives. It also says
what Poinsettia Villa is not. Stating ‘what we are not’ is a good way to avoid
disappointing guests and build trust.
Every page can have a strategic message and hot buttons that lead to more
strategic pages with hot buttons. That way you start to build a set of content
that is geared towards specific messages and attracts and inspires the right
traveller.
Journey to Discover
Understanding all of this leads us to create very specific messages and
strategies to influence.
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It’s all possible and it’s a journey well worth taking. My book and its bonuses
are a first step. Technology is changing everything and it’s an exciting time
to be in hospitality. My book and these bonuses are the start of a great
discovery that will open doors and change the way you see things. As we
move through the three books, you will gain access to all sorts of resources
to help you. Be sure to join at http://marketinghotelstourismonline.com
Get Ready to Change
The other thing we need to know about strategy is that it is not the same as it was
before. The internet has ushered in the digital age of exponential innovation and
technology. It has only just begun. We are on the threshold of technology that does
more that we ever imagined. Things change and the pace of change is accelerating.
In the not too distant future, online and offline will all be digital, innovative and
dynamic. To win one must be able to integrate old and new to create sustainable
competitive advantages, personalisation and the values that go with it.
MORE >> Get the Book and Bonus at
http://MarketingHotelsTourismOnline.com
Marketing Hotels & Tourism Online! WEBSITE
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