HeBS Digital's Smart Hoteliers Guide to Budgeting for 2014

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Webinar: The Smart Hotelier’s Guide to 2014 DIGITAL MARKETING BUDGETING

Your Presenters:

Mariana Mechoso Safer, SVP MarketingMargaret Mastrogiacomo, Director Creative StrategySara O’Brien, Marketing Manager

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Today’s Agenda

1. Lingering Concerns from 20132. Game Changing Trends Affecting Budgets3. The Three Main Components of the Budget4. Wrap Up & Questions

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SVP, Marketing

Margaret Mastrogiacomo

Director, Creative Strategy

Mariana Safer

Marketing Manager

Your Presenters

Sara O’Brien

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What’s the good news?

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Hospitality is Gaining Momentum

Demand: 3.3%Supply: 1.0%Occupancy: 2.2%ADR: 5.4%RevPAR: 7.7% (4.4% in New York City)

Heading into 2014

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LINGERING CONCERN #1: Underspending

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Percentage of marketing dollars hoteliers projected to spend this year on digital.

42% Percentage of Roomnights booked that come from the Internet.

28%

7.1% Percentage of total room revenue independentsspending on marketing.

Concern #1: Hoteliers Underspending on Digital Marketing

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Calculate total revenue.

4-7% of room revenueis spent on sales & marketing

50% of the marketing budgetshould be spent on digital.

How much should hoteliers be spending?HeBS Digital takes into account hotel size, ADR and average occupancy rate.

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LINGERING CONCERN #2: OTA & Brand Dependence

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True cost of OTA distribution: $2.5 billion in merchant

commissions (STR)

Hotel Website

24%

OTAs76%

Independent Hotel Internet Bookings

Independent Hotels:Overly Dependent on OTAs

Competitor Name: XX Pages

38.7% of room nights for the major hotel brands came from

the Internet in 2012(TC Feb 2013)

• Brand.com: 68%• OTAs: 32%

Competitor Name: XX of Incoming Links

42% of room nights for independent hotels came from

the Internet

• Hotel websites: 24%• OTAs: 76%

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• National/global level• Corporate travel• Fortune 500 corporate meetings

• Local and state level• Leisure travel• Mid-size/smaller corporate meetings• Social and special events• SMERFs

Brands – Good Job Brands – Need Help

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GAME-CHANGING TREND:The Three Screens

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The Three Screens are a RealityConsumers use each device differently to research and book travel.

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Hotel searches: +24% in 2013

By device category:

The Three Screens: Distinctive Devices

Desktop: -4%

Mobile: +68%

Tablets: +180%

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Fact:Tablets generate 360% more room nights and 670% more revenue than “pure” mobile devices

HeBS DigitalPortfolio

Mobile2%

Tablet 9%

Desktop88%

BookingsMo-bile18%

Tablet13%

Desk-top

69%

Visits

Devices: Traffic And Bookings

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Shift To Mobile & Tablet: Implications

38%

32%

12%

Of website visitors17% in 2012

Of page views14% in 2012

Of trackable bookings6% in 2012

In Q1 & Q2 of 2013, mobile + tablet generated:

Competitor Name: XX PagesImmediate Implications

• Hoteliers must boost presence in all three screens (desktop, mobile, tablet)• Year-over-year web analytics are meaningless

• Must install call analytics: majority of mobile bookings come via the voice channel

www.hebsdigital.com(ResearchNow, April 2013)

Here’s Why There Aren’t Many Mobile Bookings7 out of 10 mobile bookings happen via the voice channel.

36%

60%

30%

35% Of users are less likely to book if mobile site offers non-optimized experience..

Mobile travel sites slow to load.

Complicated search and selection.

Have poor navigation.

Smartphone owners think:

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Cross-Device User Behavior

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Key Takeaways

Treat desktop, mobile and tablet as three separate channels

Use analytics to determine channel contribution

Integrate all three channels in your multi-channel marketing strategy

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GAME-CHANGING TREND:Meta Search Marketing

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Meta Search Marketing

Real-time hotel inventory availability + pricing

Marketing campaign, budget and bid management by property

Requires:

Convergence of hotel online distribution + online advertising

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Meta Search MarketingWhy is Meta Search a must-have for hoteliers?

Part of efforts to shift bookings to the direct online channel

Online media business model, not an OTA

Levels the playing field with the OTAs

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4Tremendous value proposition to travel consumers providing 360-degree hotel research, planning and booking

Meta search marketing is not a distribution channel and is

not a “set and forget” marketing initiative.

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Meta Search Marketing: Key Players

Wego.com (Asia Pacific)

Trivago.com (Europe)

Kayak.com

TripAdvisor Meta Search

Google Hotel Finder (HPA)

Bing.com

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STRUCTURING THE 2014 BUDGET

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Keeping your digital marketing assets up to date (Website, CMS, Technology, Consulting, Analytics, Hosting).

Budget line items proven to work. Don’t skimp here: SEO, SEM, Meta Search, and email marketing.

What are those key parts of the year that you need business? Slow summers? Long winters? Do you need weeknights when all you are getting is weekend? Plan ahead for those times with business need-driven campaigns.

2014: The Plan

Digital Assets, Consulting & Operations

Core Digital Marketing Campaigns

Business-Need Driven Multichannel Marketing

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Breaking Down the Budget

Here is a quick snapshot on how to allocate the budget.

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Digital Assets, Consulting & Operations

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Improve your Presence on the Three Screens

15-25%

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CMS that Functions as the

Nucleus of your digital marketing.

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Allow you to manage desktop, mobile and tablet content in one place?

Push to social media profiles on Facebook/Twitter, G+

Push visual content to OTAs, GDS, IDS, Etc.

Give you full control over your website (at no additional cost?)

Does your CMS:

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Account Management, Strategy & Consulting

How can you drive more direct bookings? It is important that the account manager understands the hotel’s business and customer segment needs, and how to use digital marketing tools to execute and produce results

This partner should be able to: Strategize, create and propose the budget

Launch, manage and coordinate campaigns

Consult on customer acquisition & retention

Optimize campaigns & make recommendations

Share latest articles & industry trends.

Every hotelier needs a partner in their digital marketing efforts.

9-11%

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy.

pop-under for those who close out of the reservation process

a reservation reminder for those not ready to book

Reservation Conversion Boosting AppsRESERVATION RECOVERY

RESERVATION ABANDONMENT PROGRAM

WELCOME BACK

upon returning to the site, a welcome message and link can bring the visitor back to the point of abandonment

5-7%

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Capture customer and booking details, send emails with details, and recapture that booking.

Only 5% of initiated bookings are completed.

Reservation Conversion Boosting Apps

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25/52

6,232 $20,806

Click-throughs

Bookings/Nights

Revenue

In a mobile case study conducted over 2 weeks, we saw:

6,302% ROAS

Reservation Boosting App: Smart Rate Promos

Display real-time rates and boost bookings.

Display rates in real time and in tune with the typical booking window on a desktop website. Prominently displaying “Tonight’s Rate” increases mobile and same-day bookings.

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Cloud Hostingboost site conversions and improve search engine rankings that are increasingly dependent on fast download speeds.

1

Unlimited disk space to host images/videos. Flexible bandwidth accommodates spikes in web traffic.

2

Faster download speeds by 2.5x3 times. No interference from

other sites – dedicated

virtual server and IP

address.

3

2-3%

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Analytics & Campaign TrackingBEWARE OF FREE TOOLS!

Tracking every dollar spent, as well as visitor behavior on your website, will allow you to

make quick tweaks to your online presence that result in higher revenues and a better user

experience.

2-3%

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Up to a third…of additional hotel revenue from phone calls each month was a the direct result of online marketing.

Call Analytics

Measure Offline Conversions

Start with one unique 1-800 number.Then create as many additional numbers as you need for campaigns.

Analyze: Total number of phone calls

Total time spent on calls

Missed calls with recorded message

Geographic location of callers

Source of the marketing lead

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Core Digital Marketing Campaigns: Proven ROI

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Core Marketing: SEO

Maintain high SERP placement.Search engine optimization is critical for maintaining high placement in search engines.

Drive bookings and revenue. When properly executed, SEO brings in a high amount of qualified traffic that drives bookings and revenue.

32%Of all booking

revenue8-10%

Bring relevant traffic to site. Target long-tail, geographically-relevant keywords to bring relevant traffic to the site. These users are more likely to make a reservation.

Keep content fresh and work in tandem with SEM to produce high quality scores.

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Create new content.content is crucial for good SEO performance. Search engines look for high-quality, relevant content that is useful to visitors.

Content ideas: On-property happenings

Popular nearby events (for instance, sporting events)

Blog – chef’s blog, spa blog, golf blog, etc.

Itinerary ideas – family day, romantic escape, etc..

Constant content generation.The process never ends. Continuously create constant content that will please both users and search engines alike.

SEO: Create Quality, Engaging Content

Comply with Google Panda guidelines, increase total number of indexed pages, highlight upcoming events, provide fresh editorial content.

Hotel with Wedding Venue

Manhattan

“New York wedding reception”

Rose 80 positionsIn 12 weeks

“New York wedding locations”

Rose 40 positionsIn 4 weeks

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Claim listings on Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.Requires on-property verification.

Standardize information on main data providers.Search engines often pull information from data providers.

Establish listings on local business directories.Develops a presence in prominent local business listings. Keep these updated!

Optimize for Local Search

As local listings take a more prominent position on search engine results pages – such as Google Carousel – it is important to fully optimize local listing profiles.

Local search continues to grow across the three screens, making it indispensable.

Claim and optimize local listing profiles, standardize property information across the Internet, and cover more SERP real estate.

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Perform an SEO Health Check

Download SpeedsDoes your website download quickly? This factors into your SEO.

Meta Data Update once a year

Optimize website’s top pages

Select new keywords based on existing analytics,

current market data and keyword research

XML Site Map & Canonical TagsDo they adhere to the latest best practices?

Bring SEO practices up to date and ensure content complies with Panda updates.

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Inbound Linking: Penguin

Evaluate your link profile.As Google and other search engines are increasingly stringent with standards for inbound links, it is important to evaluate your link profile.

Do the following: Audit your full link profile

Review existing links based on Page Rank and context

Disavow bad links through Google Webmaster Tools

Remove harmful links.Removing harmful links can help avoid penalties for having links on link farms, spam sites, or other sites that are no longer reputable.

Evaluate your link profile, remove harmful links, and avoid algorithm penalties.

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1 2 3Audit existing linksDisavow in compliance with Google Penguin updates

Devise action plan for main data providers and reputable directoriesFeed information to local listing profiles

Reach out to local bloggers, colleges, CVBs, etc.Long-term plan to acquire more local links

Quality Inbound Linking & Citation Strategy

Off-page factors such as the quality of inbound links to the website are nearly as important as on-page optimizations.

Increase page rank, avoid algorithm penalties, and remove potentially harmful links.

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SEO: Case StudyGain deep competitive insight, real-time performance monitoring, historic data to identify trends, and track SERP performance, inbound links, and other pages.

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All screenshots should have a

dark gray 3 point border.

Core Marketing: SEM

There’s a reason such a big portion of the budget goes to SEM…SEM is a great way to increase market share within the SERP and allows us to deliver a concise marketing message to a highly relevant marketing segment with measurable results.

Optimize and measure campaigns.Measure how users interact with the site based on the keywords that brought them. Optimize in real time based on actual results.

2300%ROAS

Boutique HotelOregon Wine Country

Increase bookings and revenue from the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

25-30%

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International SEM

Tap into a new market.Reach customers in different countries based on business needs and goals for your SEM campaigns.

Don’t forget to: Translate landing pages

Booking engine must also be translated

3600%ROAS

New York Luxury Hotel

Portuguese campaigns targeting Brazil

Reach an international audience & bring users to a landing page in their native language.

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SEM: Case Study

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Display real-time ratesUser will choose dates and rates/availability will update automatically

User chooses hotel websiteUser clicks on the property’s logo and is directed to the property’s booking engine

Increase direct booking opportunitiesOption to include direct links to website with ‘Hotel Amenities’ and ‘Professional Photos’ links

Meta Search Marketing: TripAdvisor

Level the playing field with the OTAs by providing TripAdvisor users with a direct booking option to the hotel.

From October 2012 – May 2013, a Boston hotel saw a 1554% ROAS from this initiative.

Steal share away from OTAs, drive highly qualified traffic to site, encourage direct bookings, and display real-time rates.

8-10%

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TripAdvisor Meta Search Case Study

8-10%

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Meta Search: Google Hotel Finder (HPA)Appears within:

1Google Maps

2 Google Hotel Finder Beta

Google Search Results Pages3

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Google Hotel Finder Meta Search Case Study

8-10%

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Customized templates mirror website brandingSeamless user experience from browsing to booking to receiving updates. Remember we are living in multi-device world.

Blast promotions, news, updates, and moreCommunicate directly with guests

Review email campaigns and make necessary adjustmentsTracking codes make it simple to review the effectiveness of emails

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most effective marketing channels. Delivering deals and information directly to guests’ inboxes, email promos and newsletters are a useful tool in any hotelier’s toolbox.

Send deals, promotions, and specials, build a brand identity, cultivate brand loyalty, and improve user experience.

2-4%

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Idea: Thank You Emailers

Offer special offer with “Thank You” email.Begin marketing to your email database the moment they subscribe. Offer an exclusive package, deal, discount, room upgrade, or add-on with a well-designed branded “Thank You for your Subscription” email.

Increase conversions.Leverage this opportunity to increase conversions by targeting potential guests with exclusive added value.

Engage email subscribers, capture potential guests, increase direct bookings, and increase ancillary revenue.

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Case Study on Email Marketing

New York Palace Renovations

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Move users through the conversion funnel.Reach qualified users at the right time, at the right place with smart online media buys.

Targeting Options: Contextual

Audience

Placement

Geographic

Retargeting (reach users who have already

visited the property’s website)

1500-2500%ROAS

Average ROASAcross HeBS Digital client portfolio

Online Media & RetargetingReach millions of websites and retarget to users who visited your website.

6-8%

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Online Media: TripAdvisor Business Listing

Increase direct bookings.Drive traffic to your property’s website and increase direct bookings from the TripAdvisor Business Listing.

Includes: Links to hotel website

Special offer & announcement

Slideshow

Mobile upgrade

Client PortfolioHeBS Digital

700%-900%Average ROAS

Connect with the world’s largest travel community, direct users to site, promote campaigns and special packages, and reach mobile users.

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Social Media & Reputation Management

Manage your online reputation.ReviewPro and Revinate are user-friendly, web-based online reputation and social media management tools, designed to meet the needs of single-property and multi-property hotel brands.

Social media is not a distribution channel. It is an engagement channel and a way to de-commoditize your hotel product.

Manage online reputation, analyze data, increase guest satisfaction, monitor performance.

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Business-Needs Driven Multichannel Campaigns

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Multi-channel Campaigns

Multichannel marketing campaigns promote one consistent marketing message and strategy

across multiple channels: • Mini Website• SEO• SEM• Online Media• Social Media• Email Marketing• And More!

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WHO?Who is the target customer segment?

WHAT?What campaign message will resound with the target segment and what channels will effectively reach this audience?

WHEN?When is the best time to reach this target segment for the greatest impact and ROI.

Multi-Channel Campaigns

Building robust multi-channel campaigns that reach travel consumers at multiple touch points with one cohesive message across the web, is the most effective way to build stickiness and traction across channels and dramatically increase revenue.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

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96% of leisure travelers start their hotel planning with search.

52 % of travelers ‘like’ a page specific to their upcoming vacation.

(New Media Trend Watch)

Who.First we determine the target customer segment and deep dive into their online behavior. We also develop a comprehensive profile of who the customer is, and their lifestyle traits so we can ensure campaigns tap into their passion points.

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Local Chicago feeder markets.During the early months of the year, Thompson Chicago will attract those residing in the suburbs of Chicago.

25-45, Generation X & Y.This age group ranges from 25-45 and is considered the Generation Y and Millennial age demographic. This campaign will focus more on the Millennial generation (gen X).

Income

$100k HHI.This campaign will target those with household incomes over $100k+. These consumers tend to purchase items and experiences at a higher cost.

Age

LifestyleLocation

Affluent leisure travelers.This consumer lifestyle is based on affluent leisure travel. This segment has completed graduate school, shops at Bloomingdales, and reads the New Yorker.

Target Customer Segment

This hotel in Chicago will target local affluent leisure travelers who are looking for a unique experience in a convenient location.

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Functional benefit: I like that I can get a lot of work done with the complimentary Wi-Fi and smaller breakout rooms.

Emotional benefit: I feel comfortable at the property and enjoy the tech atmosphere to the overall design and space. I also love the communal areas that are perfect for networking.

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At our hotel, there’s two sides to every meeting. Wake up to an inspirational meeting by day and watch the excitement unravel at night. Sound like just the right mix of meet and mingle? Enter our exclusive giveaway for a chance to win a $50 cash card daily and submit an RFP to win the ultimate getaway filled with a 2-night stay and complimentary dining. Remember, at our hotel there’s no such thing as all work and no play.

MEET BY DAY. PLAY BY NIGHT.

CAMPAIGN THEME

What.Next we have a collaborative brainstorm to determine campaign messaging and themes that will resound with the target segment and the best initiatives and channels to reach this audience.

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When.Finally, based on hotel seasonality and website insights, we determine the best time to launch the campaign to accomplish the campaign goal and answer the hotel’s business need.

Determine

Campaign

Flight.

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Campaign Plan

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Case Study Examples

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Multichannel CampaignsCase Study: Daylight Savings

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Multichannel CampaignsCase Study: The Black Friday Travel Sale

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Breaking Down the Budget

Here is a quick snapshot on how to allocate the budget.

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Questions?