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Why market my Bed & Breakfast online?
The answer quite simply is – because your customers are online! Eighty percent of reservations are researched online and in the US over half of all reservations are made online. This year in the UK over 17 million people are expected to book part or all of their holidays online. And these already impressive numbers are only going to keep rising. The bottom line is that you need to have an online presence that stands out AND you need to do a really good job of marketing your bed and breakfast online.
The solution does not lie in delegating the task to someone or some company who says they know the internet. In fact, that path is frequently fraught with danger. You need to understand and take control of your online marketing so that you are in a position to understand what services you need, what they should cost and to judge the quality of the results. Only when you understand the power, potential and nature of business on the internet, the online customer (who is a demanding, sophisticated and empowered consumer) and online marketing, can you ask the right questions and wisely invest your budgets for maximum return.
Marketing your B&B online consists of many things all of which are defined in an online marketing strategy. Creating a website is a starting point. But creating a website is not like creating a brochure. There are good websites and (many more) bad ones. Your website needs to differentiate your B&B from others and the customer will judge your hotel by the quality of the experience they have on your website. Going to your website is like walking into your foyer. They sample your hotel online BEFORE they decide to book. The online customer will leave if they don’t like your service, have a poor experience or dislike what they have sampled. And they will leave with a simple click of the mouse and visit your competitors. This happens time and time again.
Once you have a well designed, content-rich and customer-centric website, you need to be sure that it can be found by people online. There’s no point in a website that has no visitors. Attracting visitors to come to your site, to return to your site over and over again is the second part of your online marketing strategy. There are a number of strategies that can be employed to do this and they include search engine marketing, online advertising campaigns, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, employing online PR and publications, and signing up with travel portals.
The ultimate objective of your marketing efforts is to get people to make a booking. After you have worked so hard to get people to visit your site, then it follows that the final action (or ‘conversion’) of their visit would be to make a booking. Indeed when a customer decides that they will stay with you they expect to be able to book right there and then. The online consumer does not want to make (sometimes expensive long distance) calls (in working hours) to a reservation desk or B&B front desk.
You will find that doing a great e-marketing job does not require big- company budgets nor is it rocket science and this ebook is design specifically for B&B’s and small hotels to provide exactly the right amount of information to inform and educate you so that you get there quickly and effectively, and without breaking the bank!
Learn How To
- Build an understanding of all the potential of the Internet and of online business
- Fully appreciate the available online resources
- Use online marketing tools and techniques to increase global awareness of your Bed and Breakfast property
- Bring more customers to your B&B business
- Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing investments
- Define and execute the internet strategy that best fits your hotel
