Top 10 Challenging Questions to Ask Your Internet Marketing Vendor
The Internet has become the main distribution channel in hospitality—over 2/3 of all hotel bookings in the US will be directly influenced by the Internet this year. Understandably, Internet marketing has become a priority for many hoteliers who are shifting advertising dollars to the online world from traditional media and GDS advertising. This rush forward may have come at a cost to hoteliers who rely on professional marketers to sort out this dynamic and highly complicated landscape of Internet marketing. This article is not about avoiding snake oil salesmen and Internet hucksters – those should be self evident – it’s about asking the tough questions when evaluating Internet marketers who will be in charge of managing your most important revenue channel.
Background
Online advertising set a new record of $4.9 billion for the first quarter of 2007, an increase above the record breaking $4.8 billion for the final quarter of 2006, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Travel is repeatedly cited as one of the fastest growing revenue generating categories online. According to PhoCusWright, 60% of all travel in North America will be sold over the Internet in 2008. With such a growth in online revenues, how prepared is your online marketing vendor in managing the online budget and growing your direct online distribution strategy?
Everyone Wants a Slice of the Pie
Old-fashioned advertising agencies, interactive agencies, website designers, booking engine vendors, SEO firms, website hosting and maintenance companies, even PR firms have all proclaimed themselves to be Internet marketing gurus in hospitality. Web design shops that are facing stiff competition have moved toward Internet marketing. Online booking engine vendors have expanded their repertoire into Internet marketing. Web masters, computer programmers, and outsourced firms from overseas are drawn toward the world of online marketing in hospitality.
The mix of new comers and old companies who now do “all things Internet” has resulted in a lot of over-promising, under-delivering, burnt hotel budgets, and increasingly frustrated hotel owners and operators. This is not an issue of competition. It is about core competencies, quality and credibility which affect the hospitality industry as a whole.
Too often HeBS inherits damaged clients whose budgets and online efforts were destroyed by self-proclaimed experts, or by firms who have no business playing in the online hotel marketing arena.
So, the next time your PR agency, booking engine vendor or in-room Internet access provider offers to manage your search marketing, be cautious and do your research.
How Can Hoteliers Make an Intelligent Choice?
Internet marketing in hospitality requires a fundamental understanding of three very distinct areas of expertise:
Hospitality Industry Experience
Internet Marketing Experience
Website Design and Optimization Experience
As you should, have high expectations with the firm you select to partner with. Several important considerations must be made to determine a firm’s capability, maturity, and credibility in distinct areas of expertise.
Here are the Top Ten Challenging Questions to ask your Internet marketing vendor:
1. Hospitality Experience
Questions to ask:
- What percentage of your business comes from hotel clients?
- How many years and what kind of hospitality experience does your company have?
- What is your experience with independent vs. franchised properties?
- Have you dealt with a property from my hotel category/sector (e.g. midscale, luxury, etc)
- What is your experience with a budget of X size and my type of property?
2. Internet Marketing Experience
Questions to ask:
- What percentage of my property’s overall marketing budget do you recommend to be allocated to Internet marketing?
- Describe your experience with online branding, eCRM, email marketing, strategic linking, display advertising and online/email sponsorships?
- What is you company’s experience with Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) initiatives?
- How long have you been marketing online in hospitality? Describe your specific capabilities of online marketing as it relates to hospitality?
3. Audit the Auditor Experience
Questions to ask:
- Have you been paid to audit other Internet marketing vendors in hospitality?
- Have you been paid to develop the overall Internet marketing strategy for a hotel company?
- Are you capable of reviewing the works of others and returning with constructive recommendations?
4. Industry Recognitions and Awards
Questions to ask:
- Have experts from your company ever been invited to serve as panelists and guest speakers at internet and hospitality marketing conferences?
- Has your company won any awards or recognitions?
- What were these awards for? Website design, internet marketing, creative, etc?
- When were the awards earned?
5. Client Portfolio
Questions to ask:
- How many and what types of hospitality clients does your company currently manage?
- How many hotels from my property’s category/sector do you have?
- Please provide a case study for a client similar to my property, how long have you been managing this client, and how has the marketing plan changed since taking on the engagement?
- What are some similarities and differences with my hotel compared to other types of clients?
6. Best Practices
Questions to ask:
- Does your company identify and adopt best practices in hospitality?
- What Internet market research and analysis in hospitality does your company perform? How do you keep up with all the changes in the industry?
- Does your company test its recommendations?
- How are your recommendations for my hotel different, when compared with a major hotel brand, hotel management company, franchisee, or independent?
7. Academic Background
Questions to ask:
- What academic and industry backgrounds do management and the principals of your company have?
- Do you have Internet marketing experts with Master’s degrees in hospitality or marketing on staff?
- Do you have experts that are teaching/lecturing at hospitality schools?
- Does your company conduct university and industry studies or perform professional or graduate level training in hospitality or Internet marketing?
8. Search Engine Marketing
Questions to ask:
- Since when has your company been involved in search marketing? (PPC dates back to 1997, organic search to 1995)
- What percentage of my property’s overall Internet marketing budget do you recommend to be allocated to search marketing?
- How are you going to allocate the search marketing portion of my budget into the following line items: organic search, keyword buys (PPC), local search, and meta search?
- Describe how you are going to help my property website’s natural/organic search rankings?
- What type of analytical tools do you plan to use, or recommend, for tracking ROIs and effectiveness of search marketing campaigns?
9. Website Design and Website Optimization Experience
Questions to ask:
- Are you going to perform an audit of my current website to identify if there are any weaknesses and to come up with recommendations?
- Has your company won website design awards and when?
- Describe how you plan to optimize the website for the search engines and make it more search engine-friendly?
- Describe how you plan to make my website more user-friendly? More booker-friendly? More interactive relationship-friendly?
- How do you propose to handle Consumer Generated Media (CGM)/Web 2.0 initiatives and features on the site?
10. Accountability and Fee Transparency
Questions to ask:
- What exactly are all my fees being used for? What percentage of my fees is going to your services and what percentage is going to the actual marketing spend?
- How can I trust that your company will provide recommendations that are unbiased and based on best industry practices?
- What kind of reports will I see on a monthly basis?
- What kind of website and campaign analytical tools will you use to track effectiveness and ROIs of Internet marketing campaigns and conversions from my website?
- What kind of professional development am I to expect as part of your services?
Conclusion
Hoteliers must be rigorous in selecting their online marketers. The fastest growing revenue channel and source for highest ADRs—the hotel website—cannot be handled by companies whose core competencies lie someplace else or are unsubstantiated self-proclaimed experts. As discussed above, Internet marketing in hospitality requires a very well defined and focused skill set. Selling an experience online is a tough business, whether you are a budget hotel or a luxury resort. The combination of selling a property, a destination, and an experience to a highly segmented and focused group of online travel consumers, and selling at a price point that yields the highest ADR possible is not an easily transferable skill.
When you are looking for the Internet marketing vendor who will manage one of your most important revenue channels, make sure to ask these challenging questions so you can find an experienced, transparent, and accountable firm.
Note: Mariana Mechoso, Manager eMarketing Services at HeBS, also contributed to this article.
Max Starkov is Chief eBusiness Strategist and Jason Price is EVP at Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS), the industry’s leading Internet marketing strategy consulting firm for the hospitality vertical, based in New York City (). HeBS has pioneered many of the "best practices" in hotel Internet marketing and direct online distribution. The firm specializes in helping hoteliers build their direct Internet marketing and distribution strategy, boost the hotel Internet marketing presence, establish interactive relationships with their customers, and significantly increase direct online bookings and ADRs. A diverse client portfolio of over 400 top tier major hotel brands, multinational hospitality corporations, hotel management and representation companies, franchisees and independents, resorts, casinos and CVB’s and has sought and successfully taken advantage of the firm hospitality Internet marketing expertise. Contact HeBS consultants at (212)752-8186 or [email protected].
ABOUT NEXTGUEST
NextGuest provides hoteliers with everything they need to thrive in the digital world, with bespoke technology solutions developed to meet the needs of luxury hotel clients coupled with elegant design capabilities that bring brands to life. We marry the power of data with brand discovery to uncover unique strategies that apply to everything from website design, content marketing, CRM, and more, helping the world's top hotel brands maximize ROI as they acquire, convert, and retain guests throughout the travel planning journey. While each of our services is available on its own, the integrated technologies, marketing, and consulting offerings work together to increase digital engagement and generate revenue for hoteliers, allowing them to focus on what matters most — serving their guests. www.nextguest.com | [email protected]
Max Starkov
212-752-8186
NextGuest merged with Cendyn