The Importance of Managing Your Hotel’s Digital Footprint

April 2nd, 2012

In today’s evolving world of hospitality digital marketing, it’s important that all properties take inventory of their online presence, assess strengths and weaknesses across multiple channels and effectively take action to enhance visibility and bookings with integrated marketing.

From independent websites, to mobile websites, to PPC, to TripAdvisor reviews, there is a litany of online channels, including emerging channels like Pinterest, where your property most likely has a presence.  When you consider the average online travel shopper visits 22 sites across at least nine different sessions before booking (Google) and that over 50% of bookings come from digital channels, you see why a consistent and constant presence is key.  Savvy travelers are conducting more research and reaching bookings engines via more online channels than ever before, which means your hotel needs to devote more time and dollars.

But how do you keep track of so many channels?  Do your staff and hotel Internet marketing vendor know the effectiveness of your presence in each channel?  How do you form future plans of action when you may not be 100% clear on your paid, earned and owned media efforts?  To get started, you need to understand the different types of channels.

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Friday Five: Hospitality Articles of Interest

March 30th, 2012

We’ve had an exciting week in the office, especially as we recently received notice from the Web Marketing Association that three of our websites were named winners (one even earned the honor of “Best Hotel & Lodging Website”) in the Internet Advertising Competition. Beyond that, the VIZERGY team has been hard at work developing a couple of upcoming white papers we’ll be releasing over the course of the next week.

As always, we still managed to keep our eyes peeled for the latest and greatest in news from the hospitality and digital marketing sectors. Here’s our list of intriguing articles from the week:

Did we miss anything you felt was particularly interesting? Leave us a comment and let us know if there were any other articles you felt should be included in our round-up.

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VIZERGY® Wins Best Hotel and Lodging Website in Internet Advertising Competition

March 29th, 2012

Company Receives Other Honors for Independent Resort and Full-Service Brand Websites

VIZERGY, a leading hospitality digital marketing company, recently won three awards, including one of the highest possible honors, in the Web Marketing Association’s (WMA) Internet Advertising Competition (IAC), which helps establish a standard for Internet marketing and corporate web development.

VIZERGY won awards in the “Website” format in the “Hotel and Lodging” category for the following properties:

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Webinar – Driving Hotel Reservations with Integrated Marketing

March 27th, 2012

For a full size recording of the video, please click here or download the presentation slides here.

Friday Five: Hospitality Articles of Interest

March 23rd, 2012

We’ve had a particularly busy week in our office as we spent a lot of time prepping and presenting our special webinar on integrated marketing for hotels on Wednesday (download the presentation slides here if you weren’t able to attend). Though even with all the excitement of the webinar and other happenings here at VIZERGY, we managed to collect a few notable news articles we thought you might enjoy.

Take a look at some of the week’s recent posts we found particularly interesting:

Did you happen to read any other great articles this week? Leave us a comment to let us know if we missed something.

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Free Webinar – “Driving Hotel Reservations with Integrated Marketing”

March 19th, 2012

How Your Hotel Can Capitalize on the Complex Online Travel Shopping Process

VIZERGY®, a hospitality digital marketing leader, presents the webinar “Driving Hotel Reservations with Integrated Marketing.”  The webinar will detail how properties of all types can increase online visibility, traffic and revenue and improve guest communication with integrated marketing strategies.

Register here for the live presentation, which is on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT.

The presentation will discuss the complexity of hotel Internet marketing from both the hotelier point-of-view and travel shopper point-of-view, define integrated marketing, explain the benefits and provide examples.  It will also cover best practices on budgeting, establishing goals and measuring return, among other items.  The webinar follows the popular HSMAI and VIZERGY produced whitepaper “Engaging Online Travel Shoppers through Integrated Marketing,” which was authored by industry expert Tim Peter.

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Pinterest for Hotels in 10 Easy Steps

March 19th, 2012
By Sarah Atkins, Copywriter

What is Pinterest?

The world is abuzz with talk of a new social media site that’s taking the Internet by storm. Pinterest, an image-based bookmarking tool, allows users to find and keep track of things they like from around the web and organize them on virtual pinboards, which other people can see and “pin” from as well. Users can “follow” other boards, and a main feed shows every image, photo, or video being pinned in real-time. There are also categories for pins, like “Food & Drink”, “Travel & Places”, and “Weddings & Events” that users can peruse, as well as a search function for when they’re looking for something specific.

Still not sure you quite understand? Check out our Digital IQ on Pinterest for a quick rundown on the web’s newest social-sharing site.

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Pinterest: Why Your Hotel Should Take Interest

March 19th, 2012

Big Picture

The social media landscape is always shifting, so it’s no shock to know there is yet another influential player on the scene. But, while some hoteliers are familiar with Pinterest—the newest outlet for social sharing on the web—there are plenty more who aren’t quite sure how to tackle it as a marketing opportunity. With over 4 million people currently registered and about 1.5 million visits to the site each day, Pinterest is quickly and steadily gaining popularity over other social networking sites. Consider tuning into this channel to start leveraging the very attributes and characteristics that make your property and your customer experience unique and unforgettable—not to mention boost traffic to your website while doing so.

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Webinar – Timeline for Hotels

March 16th, 2012
For a full size recording of the video, please click here or download the presentation slides here.
 
 

Friday Five: Hospitality Articles of Interest

March 16th, 2012

This week was a particularly busy one what with the start of the Spring Break travel season, as well as a rush of articles covering several conferences and events concerning hospitality digital marketing (SMX West and ITB Berlin, to name a few).

But, amidst all of the chaos we found a few moments to round up some interesting articles from the past week that may be of interest to your property:

What were your favorite articles of the week? Comment below to let us know what we missed.

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