| When marketing your hotel you may desperately seek | | | | devoted to reporter calls for experts testimony and |
| inexpensive and unusual tactics to help you stand out | | | | stories. |
| and keep to a tight budget, but chances are that | | | | Internet Marketing |
| significant funds will have to be devoted to spreading | | | | To outspend competitors and hotel booking websites |
| the word. Don't ignore some of these basic, proven | | | | like and on Google ad keywords for hotels in your city |
| tactics which have served the launches of many | | | | will be difficult. Start by making sure those sites include |
| hotels. | | | | your hotel, even if you must pay fees or commissions |
| Tourism Office | | | | for rooms rented through them. Work your way up |
| Find out how the local tourism office can help to | | | | the "organic" Google listings (the list of links on the |
| advertise the hotel options in your city or county. They | | | | left-hand side of the page) by making sure your original |
| may offer listing on their website with the purchase | | | | web designer has search engine optimization (SEO) in |
| membership at the very least. If you go further and | | | | mind and that you retain the services of an SEO firm |
| advertise in tourism materials, make sure you are | | | | to continue to improve your rankings. Look at all of the |
| prominently placed in materials tourists look at before | | | | non-competitor sites that come up for the keywords |
| arriving to the city. Being in a pamphlet they receive | | | | you want to rank on and attempt to receive from |
| only upon arrival to the local tourism office will be of no | | | | them (or let the SEO firm work on this). |
| help. Look for advance materials, such as website or | | | | Events |
| promotional packets the tourism office sends to those | | | | Pre-opening and launch events can create buzz about |
| who express interest and to travel agents. | | | | your hotel in the community, building community |
| Public Relations | | | | member understanding of the services you will offer to |
| A public relations strategy is key to crafting the story | | | | your customer target market. The local businesses, |
| of why your hotel is newsworthy. From a local | | | | residents, and government won't refer visitors to your |
| perspective, this may be an easy sell. More work must | | | | hotel unless they know about it and they think it would |
| go in to the greater travel press and business press (if | | | | be a good place for their clients, friends, and visitors to |
| you will cater to business travelers). You or your | | | | stay, so events should focus on building awareness |
| carefully chosen public relations agent or firm should | | | | and brand image. If events can be designed with an |
| craft press releases which explain the story of interest | | | | unusual twist all the better - they make a bigger splash |
| to the paper, taking the guesswork and legwork out of | | | | by becoming newsworthy and tying in to your PR |
| the equation for them. A good PR firm should be | | | | campaign. |
| keeping abreast of helpareporter.com, a website | | | | |