9 Ways To Promote Your Hotel Before It Opens And Drive Demand

Congratulations on your new hotel or resort adventure! Though inevitably a bit stressful, opening a new property is undoubtedly an exciting task.

Of course, you wouldn’t ever build and open your new property and just hope people show up. Rather, you will want to have a marketing plan in place to effectively promote your property in advance to generate interest and demand. Your brand is likely new and unheard of – so why should people care about yet another hotel? It is your job to convince them why.

Before any type of promotion or lead generation campaigns can begin, be sure you have developed the essential elements of your brand; this should include everything from your logo and color scheme for marketing materials to your brand concept and unique selling points. Without this, you cannot effectively communicate your message to your audience – you won’t have a message to communicate or an audience to target!

Once you have your branding completed and your target audience defined, you can move forward with promoting your property! Below are 9 essential ways to begin driving demand and reservations prior to opening your door.

  1. Have a Website or Landing Page

What good would promoting your fantastic new property be if you don’t have anywhere to drive traffic? If you have no way to collect information for future communications?

Setting up a website or, at minimum, a well thought out landing page is the very first step in promoting your new property. You might not have every single detail ironed out with room layouts or amenity offerings – and that’s fine. But, as soon as you have enough information related to your hotel’s concept, go ahead and secure your domain and set up your website.

The first iteration of your hotel or resort website should be designed with consistent branding and messaging that will be featured throughout your other marketing collateral. This can evolve over time, but consistency is key when using multiple channels to generate awareness and drive interest.

Key information pieces your website/landing page will need:

  • High-quality images — showcase your destination/location, concept, lifestyle shots, and images of the property (if possible)
  • General information related to the concept, opening date, etc.
  • Contact page and information (phone number, email)
  • Email collection pop-up
  • Direct booking functionality

The email collection pop-up is perhaps the most important element of your website or landing page. Generating awareness and driving traffic to your new site ultimately serves one goal – to generate leads. Collecting email addresses will allow you to continue to communicate with potential guests in the future and nurture those leads into paying guests.

Also, it should go without saying that your website or landing page should be mobile-friendly. Having a responsive website is typically the route we recommend as it massively cuts down on maintenance and upkeep in the long run and ensures a consistent user experience across all devices.

Read rest of the article at Fuel Marketing