Small Business Marketing: Reaching Your Audience on a Budget

 

In today’s business landscape, effective marketing strategies play a crucial role in driving the success of your business. Contrary to popular belief, marketing doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor. With a bit of creativity and well-thought-out strategies, you can effectively promote your business and connect with your target audience, even without a large budget. These 4 tips are sure to help effectively spread the word about your small business!

Know Your Message:

Before diving into marketing, you must clearly understand what you want your customers to know about your business. Start by identifying your target audience, then consider their needs and potential pain points with your product. This will allow you to craft a compelling brand story that resonates with your customers. Knowing your message will help guide your marketing efforts and ensure consistency across all of the following channels!

Optimize Your Public Awareness:

In today’s digital age, a well-designed and user-friendly website is a must-have for any business. Fortunately, creating a website is more accessible than ever, even for those with limited technical skills. Platforms like Wix and GoDaddy offer user-friendly website builders with pre-made templates that streamline the process. If you’re selling products, it might be worth seeking professional help to create an e-commerce website that showcases your products effectively. A well-optimized website acts as your digital storefront, providing valuable information, building credibility and enabling online transactions.

Connect with Your Audience:

Social media platforms have revolutionized the way businesses connect with their target audience. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok offer powerful marketing opportunities. Research your target audience to determine which platforms they frequent the most, then focus your energy on those platforms. Establish a consistent presence by regularly posting engaging content. You can also leverage the power of visual content, such as images and videos, to capture attention and generate interest in your products or services!

Get on the Map (Literally!):

One of the most effective ways to increase your business’s visibility is to claim your online presence on platforms like Google Maps and Apple Maps. Setting up accounts on these platforms is relatively simple and can significantly improve your local visibility. By claiming your business, you ensure that potential customers can easily find your location and contact information, also ensuring a sense of credibility in the customer.

 

If you need help with your marketing efforts, contact us at 330-286-0487 to get started. Also, don’t forget to follow us on all of our social platforms. Stay up to date on our monthly newsletters, full of more helpful tips and tricks!

Unlocking the Benefits: The Importance of Hotel Loyalty Programs for Hoteliers

 

In the present day, hotels around the world are actively adopting Loyalty Programs. These programs aim to maintain customer satisfaction and foster loyalty towards a particular hotel chain by offering rewards in exchange for this loyalty. With a range of loyalty programs available, hotels are experiencing growing advantages from their implementation.

Redefining the Guest Experience:

Loyalty programs offered by hotel chains are crafting an extraordinary experience that surpasses travelers’ expectations. These exceptional services not only strengthen the trust between the brand and its hotel guests but also cultivate a deep sense of significance, empowering them to act as brand ambassadors.

When travelers encounter exceptional service, they are compelled to recommend the loyalty program to their friends who are seeking their own perfect loyalty experience. The power of personal endorsement cannot be understated in today’s interconnected world. When someone receives a heartfelt recommendation from a trusted source, they are more inclined to explore and engage with the recommended loyalty program.

Surging Financial Success:

After enrolling in loyalty programs, the retention of guests has observed a notable increase. This elevated retention rate has proven to be a catalyst for surging revenue in numerous hotel chains. Loyal guests, demonstrating their trust, exhibit tendencies to book longer stays at hotels within the chain and explore diverse locations within the network. As a result, revenue experiences an uplift across multiple locations over time.

Moreover, investing in loyalty programs proves to be a more cost-effective strategy for hotels compared to targeting entirely new customer audiences. By nurturing relationships with existing loyal patrons, hotels can maintain consistent revenue streams, optimizing their efforts and expenditure.

Sustained Patronage

In 2022, a significant 44% of travelers acknowledged the substantial influence of loyalty programs on their choice of accommodations during travel. However, an array of feedback revealed that many customers expressed dissatisfaction with the current perks offered, as they failed to align with their preferences. While member recognition holds value, it alone does not suffice to maintain guest loyalty.

A survey conducted by SevenRooms shed light on the key motivators for rebooking within loyalty programs. Among these were receiving additional loyalty points for indulging in on-property dining experiences, unlocking enhanced credit card rewards, and earning dining credits upon reaching a new loyalty tier. These incentives emerged as the most compelling factors for guests, which is very important for hotel chains that may be creating loyalty programs in the future.

 

When it comes to marketing your hotel’s newest loyalty program, McConnell Marketing is here to help! Contact us today or call us at 330-286-0487 to get started. Also, don’t forget to follow us on all of our social platforms. Stay up to date on our monthly newsletters, full of more helpful tips and tricks!

Tech-nifying the Hospitality Experience: Unleashing the Future of Guest Services

 

Technology is continuously evolving, and we are starting to see its ever-changing effects on the hospitality industry. Many hotels are starting to implement these game-changing innovations in order to make customer service and behind-the-scenes processes much more efficient. Many leading hotel chains have seen incredible benefits from these innovations, so here are a few of the ones being implemented.

Smart Hotels:

With a rise in artificial intelligence and augmented reality, hotels are increasing their digital connectivity. Smart Hotels allow guests to easily move through the check-in and check-out processes, while also bringing an increased sense of comfort to their stay.

Features can include facial recognition and voice control for guests to enter their rooms and turn the lights on. They may also use their mobile devices to lock and unlock their room. All of these features are helping make the guests’ journey simpler and more efficient, making it all the more enjoyable!

DocMX:

DocMX, a process automation technology, is being used across the globe to shorten the time spent on lengthy processes usually found within human resources, finance and sales departments. These behind-the-scenes positions are starting to use DocMX due to the labor shortage hotels are facing.

With fewer people, time-consuming, data-driven tasks should be the least of the staff’s worries. By using DocMX, the staff can focus on more personable, thoughtful tasks. The implementation of DocMX is also helping to reduce hotels’ operational costs. This way more time, energy and money can be used to better the guest’s journey.

Sustainability Efforts:

It’s no secret that waste produced by hotels greatly affects our carbon footprint, and many companies are deciding to provide their data on how they’re impacting the environment. Companies are also moving towards implementing more sustainable efforts into their daily tasks and reports. They are specifically focusing on energy consumption, water consumption and waste per individual room in order to accurately capture their effects.

Travelers have started to see the effects their visits are having on the environment and many are advocating for hotels to start taking sustainability seriously.  According to Booking.com, 81% of global travelers have stated that traveling sustainably is very important to them. Hotels need to start moving towards ways to be environmentally conscious in their operations, as even their guests see this as the future of hospitality.

Let McConnell Marketing help you reach your guests and let them know the steps you’re taking to implement these suggestions, contact us today or call us at 330-286-0487 to get started. Also, don’t forget to follow us on all of our social platforms. Stay up to date on our monthly newsletters, full of more helpful tips and tricks!

Essential Email Marketing Tips for Hotels

 

Email marketing is a powerful tool that hotels can use to expand their audience, maintain communication with guests, advertise hotel promotions and nurture guest relationships. With the right strategies in place, hotels can create engaging email campaigns that resonate with their target audience and yield measurable results 40 times greater than those using Facebook or Twitter. Here are some key tips for effective email marketing for hotels:

Focus on existing guests:

Instead of putting all marketing resources into reaching new guests, focus on enhancing the experience for those who have already booked their stay. This includes confirmation emails, upselling or offering your guests upgrades and pre-arrival welcome emails with important information.

Build a targeted email list:

Instead of buying a list of email addresses, put your focus on growing an organic list of subscribers who have a genuine interest in everything your hotel has to offer. This means embedding sign-up forms on your website, promoting sign-ups on social media and in person.

Segment your audience:

Your customer base most likely has a wide range of reasons for frequenting your hotel, so be sure to target guests based off their interests and needs. This means you can send specials out to families, couples or business travelers that are catered to their interests, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Use eye-catching subject lines:

Your subject line is the first impression to your recipients and will decide whether someone wants to click, so make it short, sweet and to the point!

Provide value:

Offering exclusive promotions, discounts, helpful travel tips or destination guides will help your subscribers feel they are getting value from the content your property shares.

Use high-quality visuals:

Visuals are a powerful way to engage your audience and showcase the beauty of your hotel. Use high-quality visuals in your emails to give your subscribers a sense of what it’s like to stay at your property.

Make it easy to book:

Above all else, make sure the call-to-action is clear in your email. Having a booking link in your email will make the process seamless for your subscribers.

 

Let McConnell Marketing help you unlock the full potential of your email campaigns, contact us today or call us at 330-286-0487 to get started. Also, don’t forget to follow us on all of our social platforms. Stay up to date on our monthly newsletters, full of more helpful tips and tricks!

How to Identify Phishing and Prevent Falling for It

 

Phishing attacks are becoming increasingly common in the marketing world, with over 255 million phishing attempts occurring over a six-month period in 2022 alone. If you fall victim to a phishing attack, it can harm your brand’s reputation and potentially interfere with your SEO ranking or conversion rates. Therefore, it’s crucial to know how to identify phishing messages and how to handle the consequences of responding unknowingly.

What is Phishing?

According to Imperva, phishing is a cybercrime in which an individual or group pretends to be a legitimate organization through email, telephone, or text messages to deceive people into revealing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords. While it may seem like solely an IT issue, phishing attacks can have a severe impact on marketers as well. A successful phishing attack on your company could harm your brand reputation and even interfere with your SEO ranking or conversion rates.

How to Spot Phishing

Phishing emails and text messages often tell a plausible story to get you to click on a link or open an attachment. The message might appear to be from a company you know or trust, such as a bank, credit card or utility company, online payment website or app.
The message could be a variety of these examples:

  • suspicious activity or log-in attempts
  • there’s a problem with your account or your payment information
  • confirm some personal or financial information
  • share an invoice you don’t recognize
  • click on a link to make a payment
  • eligible to register for a government refund
  • offer a coupon for free stuff
  • be from your boss without using their work email

How to Protect Yourself (and Company) from Attacks

To protect yourself, it’s essential to keep your phone and computer up-to-date security-wise, and ensure that they have the latest program updates. Google offers a free authentication app that adds extra security to all your accounts, requiring two or more credentials to log in. It’s also essential to regularly back up your accounts and data on an external hard drive or on the cloud to make sure you can restore them in emergencies.

What Do You Do if You Responded to a Phishing Email?

If you think you’ve responded to a phishing email, take immediate action. If you believe a scammer has your information, such as your Social Security, credit card, or bank account number, go to IdentityTheft.gov for specific steps to take based on the information you lost. If you clicked on a link or opened an attachment that downloaded harmful software, update your computer’s security software and run a scan to remove anything it identifies as a problem. Also, be sure to report any encounters you have with potential scammers to the Federal Trade Commission’s Fraud Department.

 

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