Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 29 – Travel Digital Marketing Summit Recap

Some of your Fueligan friends attended the first ever Travel Digital Marketing Summit hosted by Leonardo this week.

We thought it would be fun to discuss some of the best takeaways from the summit and give our listeners the TL;DW version.

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON BELOW TO START LISTENING.

If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.

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In The News

Kayak testing new short term rentals feature
http://qz.com/816755/pricelines-pcln-kayak-is-quietly-offering-a-new-feature-for-short-term-apartment-and-home-rentals-as-it-tries-to-compete-with-airbnb/

Expedia Adding Home Away Inventory
http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Travel-Technology/Expedia-on-cusp-of-integrating-HomeAway-rentals-into-hotel-searches

Airbnb suing NY over new short term rental regulations
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/technology/new-york-passes-law-airbnb.html?_r=1

New Google Hotel Ads Format Live
https://www.tnooz.com/article/google-tests-single-hotel-deal-search/

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Show Notes:

The presenters were:

Leonardo – Joey Egan
Sojern – (Meisha forgot his name. Sorry)
Flip.to – Edward St. Onge
Triptease – Charlie Osmond
SiteMinder – David Chestler
TrustYou – Ellis Connolly

7 Phases of the Travel Shopping Journey → Inspiration, Research, Planning, Validation, Booking, Travel, & Sharing

Flip.to – Bring True Hospitality Back To The Forefront of Your Marketing Strategy

1. Look at your website, email, social media, etc. with fresh eyes – are you infusing content that tells a story?
2. Coupons are not content – Instead, collect and use photos, videos, and real guest quotes (Story based ads versus generic ads)
3. Use appropriate CTAs in the inspiration phase – Nurture travelers into becoming future guests
4. Adapt a mobile first strategy – Most of the inspiration phase is done on mobile

TrustYou – Using Social Proof

1. Reviews
2. User Generated Content
3. Awards
4. Third-Party Certification
5. Evidence Others Are Booking

Triptease – Driving Your Direct Conversion Opportunity

1. Experience the journey first hand (never make any assumptions – on & off the website)
2. Present clear benefits
3. Prove your rate is the best
4. Don’t be undercut
5. Reduce abandonment
6. Be human

SiteMinder – 8 Keys to Optimizing Your Checkout

1. Only ask for the information you need (you lost 10% of your bookings per every unnecessary field)
2. Explain why you need the information you are collecting
3. Ensure travel shoppers can book with minimal clicks
4. Have clear CTA – don’t make them guess where to click
5. Don’t add CTA that distract from check-out (like newsletter popup – that can be completed after check out)
6. Assure customers that their check-out is secure
7. Assure customers that they’re getting the best deal possible
8. Add a sense of urgency to ensure they book now

Sojern – Programmatic Advertising

Old Advertising = Find websites that you think your target market visits, work to advertise directly on that website

New Advertising = Find the right person at the right time and serve them the right ad

Two facets of programmatic – Prospecting & Retargeting

My issues with this = This is already a thing and you don’t need a special company to do this. This seems like glorified display advertising which has been proven to NOT be an effective tool for hotels when it comes to generating ROI.

AdWords display advertising provides an array of targeting options:

• Demographic (age, gender, etc.)
• Geographic
• Placement (certain websites)
• Interest
• Retargeting

Targeting is tricky… How do they really know they are hitting the right person at the right time?

• Booking window / impression cap / cookie length

Companies that “guarantee” booking by only charging a % of revenue generated… How much are they taking?

• Traditional display is a CPC or CPM model – very cost effective
• Wouldn’t a % of revenue make it just like an OTA?

Sojern – “People aren’t going to download an app for your individual hotel”

FALSE. Stuart goes off on a rant.

Stats from our own Hotel Mobile App

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Question of the week:

Shoutouts!

Rick(y?) from Flip.to

@FuelTravel binge listening to podcast today. Ep 13’s social media discussion was on point #justonehashtag

Badi Jones in Charleston

@FuelTravel hello from #chs. just wanted to say, I’m loving the podcast! You guys do a great job  #hotel #marketing All around great stuff!

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Download the Fuel Leisure Travel Study at www.fueltravel.com/study

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@_travelboom
@stuartbutler
@pdimaio
@marketingmeisha

Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to @_travelboom. Download our leisure travel study at www.fueltravel.com/study/.