Consumers are attracted to visuals. In fact, a study done by eyeviewdigital.com shows that using video on website landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%.  But it’s not just about posting videos on your landing pages. There are many other opportunities to share your hotel’s story with the world.

Hotels can take advantage of social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to showcase their story and see what guests are sharing about their hotel. To learn more tips on how to reach the largest audience with your hotel’s story, download our tool-kit for hotel marketers:  Amplifying Your Hotel’s Story

As we mentioned in our guide, 2013 Hotel Marketing Trends: From standout social media to marvelous mobile marketing, social, mobile and visual storytelling across the web would be important for hotel marketers to focus on this year.  Let’s revisit them now and explore how you can continue to push these initiatives forward.

It Starts with Visual Storytelling

The key to attracting travel shoppers and increasing your bookings is to connect with them emotionally.  The best way to do this is to share a visual story that will appeal to each target market that your hotel is catering to.

The first step in creating your visual story is to develop and source great visual content – photos, videos, virtual tours, etc.  Take a look at the photos you currently have for your hotel and ask yourself the following questions:

- Do they accurately showcase the hotel, guest rooms and amenities?

- Do they accurately convey the hotel’s story?

- Do the photos help the hotel stand out from the competition?

Remember you don’t need a thousand dollar photo shoot.  Technology has made it easy to take good photos and make them look great.  You can also curate photos that your guests share on sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.  Don’t forget to look into sourcing images from the local attractions and tourism boards.

Consistency is Crucial

When researching hotels, consumers use more than one website.  In fact, the research process usually involves going to 20+ websites (Google, The Five Stages of Travel).  This means that travel shoppers are viewing your hotel on your own dedicated hotel website, across multiple OTAs, review sites, and social media sites.   They are also looking through multiple devices – laptop, smartphone and tablet.

Because of this behavior, consistency is crucial when sharing your visual story. Make sure your visual media is sending the same message across the different channels by using current media and updating it regularly. Remember that creating a consistent visual story is an important factor in creating an emotional connection with your guests.

Get Social

Once you have gathered all of your content and created your hotel’s story, it’s time to share it with the world!  A great way to amplify your story is through social media as 52% of travelers use social networks for travel ideas (tnooz.com). Social media is a critical channel to inform and create important conversations and showcase your hotel’s personality.

- 3.5 billion pieces of content are shared each week on Facebook (blog.kissmetrics.com)

- Based on a study by Facebook, users add more stories about travel to their Facebook Timelines than they do any other type of life event (tnooz.com)

- Travel is ranked number 9 in the top ten categories on Pinterest (rjmetrics.com)

Become part of the conversation!  By creating a community online, you can open clear lines of communication.  Don’t forget, being active on social media doesn’t mean you have to be on all channels. Instead, keep things tidy by  choosing 2-3 that make the most sense for your hotel and start posting and interacting on daily basis.

Monitor Your Online Reputation

Sites that enable guests to post reviews of your hotel (like TripAdvisor) give other travelers insights into guest stories and what guests really think of your hotel. Monitoring and responding to these guest stories is vital for hotel marketers. They are great way to get insights that can help you when crafting your own story.

- Travelers like to read and write reviews. The average number of reviews per hotel on OTA sites is 238 and 81 percent of travelers find review important (statisticbrain.com)

The Jupiter Hotel is great at responding to every review on TripAdvisor. They take the time to thank guests for positive reviews and address issues and concerns.  It’s never too late to start becoming active on review sites!

Optimize for Mobile

Now is the time to make sure your website is mobile optimized.  Mobile usage in travel is growing rapidly. 57 % of US business travelers and 38% of leisure travelers reported using mobile devices to access travel information in 2012 (Google and Ipsos Media CT’s).

- 61% of customers who visit a mobile unfriendly site are likely to leave and go to a competitor’s site (googlemobileads.blogspot.ca)

- Mobile search has grown 400% in the last year (Adworkshop.com)

Guests are using mobile devices during all stages of the shopping journey. If you haven’t gone mobile (meaning optimized your hotel website for smartphone and tablet visitors) our best advice is to make this a top priority. Don’t sweep this task under the rug.

Spring is the season for taking inventory and reorganizing.  Take this opportunity to evaluate ways that you can clean up your marketing strategy by sharing your story consistently, staying social, managing your online reputation and moving to mobile. For more tips and best practices, download the guide: 2013 Hotel Marketing Trends: From standout social media to marvelous mobile marketing.

Being in a competitive market with five hotels on the same street, Kim knows how critical it is to stand out. That is what drove her to ensure she has a solid digital visual storytelling strategy in place. In addition to telling a compelling visual story on online travel agencies (which is a necessity today due to their popularity for hotel research) she also focuses on Facebook and TripAdvisor.

Show and Tell on Facebook

 Kim believes that “Facebook is a good way to disseminate information, a fast way to connect with customers vs. using traditional email.” It’s also the perfect place to really show off the hotel using visuals by posting photo updates on the timeline as well as using multi-media driven Apps.

“I like the visual appeal of Facebook.  It’s so easy to share pictures of our staff and special events, awards and posters promoting local events in the area. These are the primary things I do with our pages to give each hotel a personality,” shares Kim.

Her visual storytelling efforts on Facebook are paying off. The Best Western Evans has a growing number of fans and Kim states that she has “booked business as a result of Facebook.”

Be Active and Engaging on TripAdvisor

Being on TripAdvisor is critical for hotels, but getting real value out of it requires more than being listed and having reviews. Kim is a great example of how to be active on TripAdvisor. “We strongly believe in TripAdvisor and we respond to every review for our properties.”Like online travel agencies and Facebook, TripAdvisor is also a great           opportunity to engage travelers with the hotel’s visual story.

When you visit the Best Western Evans’ page, you see plenty of traveler photos. But what sets this hotel apart is that Kim also has professional photos as well as video available on the site.

This experience gives travelers the opportunity to get the hotel’s story from the guest’s perspective as well as the hotel’s perspective.

Kim’s Secret to Success

Her secret to success is visual storytelling. Kim maximizes the value of the Best Western Evans’ presence on social media and review sites by ensuring that there is a well-told and engaging visual story available to travelers. She accomplishes this by enlisting the help of VFM Leonardo and the Best Western VBrochure Media Suite.

Become a Merchandising Hero like Kim Gibbons today!

In addition, 89% of leisure travelers watch video online as well. Because of this behavior, it is more important now than ever before to ensure your property tells a visually compelling story across all online channels.

I’m hosting a webinar on Attracting more Guests Through the Power of Visual Storytelling on Thursday May 23^rd to explore this topic in more detail. I’ll be joined by two very knowledgeable guest speakers, Greg Oates and Melissa Bruckler.

Greg is a veteran travel editor and blogger. His website, 200rooms.com profiles innovative small hotels and their role in local tourism development. Greg also works closely with hotel professionals to help them reach guests through content marketing strategies, visual storytelling, social media and media relations.

Melissa is an E-commerce Consultant for the strategic hotel investment and management company, Granite Hospitality. Melissa has been with the company since its inception in 2006 and has a very respectable 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry under her belt. She is responsible for driving maximum results for Granite’s properties including the Radisson Fresno, Holiday Inn Denver Lakewood (among others) through strategic online marketing.

Both Melissa and Greg will be sharing lots of great knowledge and insights on the webinar – two speakers you won’t want to miss! Our webinars are always informative and interactive with opportunities to ask the speakers your burning hotel marketing questions.

By attending, you will learn:

- How to use visual storytelling techniques to attract travel shoppers

- Why hotel’s need to shift their digital marketing focus to visual storytelling

- How visual storytelling impacts the traveler’s hotel booking decision

- Where to share your visual story to reach your target audience

- How to incorporate visual storytelling in your hotel website, mobile website, web marketing and social media

I hope to see you on the webinar next Thursday! You can register here.

One of the most significant trends in web design this year has been a shift toward more visually-oriented layouts. Until recently overall design strategy combined thumbnail photos and long editorial, with a large photo or photo slideshow up top. But take a look at major recent redesigns at USA TODAY, The New York Times and Glamour, they’re now driven by visuals, with shorter and less prominent headlines.

Not surprisingly, the edgier boutique hotel groups have jumped in front of this trend, such as Ace Hotels, The Standard and Morgan’s, etc. Those three specifically have adopted a visual-first mindset across all of their consumer-facing media, including standalone lifestyle blogs with individual URLs and a fashion magazine’s zest for compelling imagery.

Last month I participated in a media panel with a mid-size hotel group that operates hotels throughout the Americas. During the panel, the head of hotel development bristled a little bit at the discussion about the above boutique brands. He asked why are these, and newcomers like NYLO Hotels and 21c Hotels, garnering so much buzz when they only have a small handful of hotels each?

First, I said these hotels are establishing the next generation of hotel trends with their product design and programming. Equally important, they’re proving it through visual storytelling on their websites and social media platforms. I’ve sat in on hotel marketing strategy sessions where hotels execs try to define their hotels’ unique selling points (USPs) with catchy phrases to describe their brand pillars. The hotel groups above show—experientially—those USPs with constantly updated photos and videos across their digital channels.

Many hotel marketers, of course, are not comfortable with splitting their customer audience across two websites. Although, if done well, they can complement each other. In effect, a dedicated URL blog is just another social media space.

The best example of a single hotel website embracing a visual-first web experience is Four Seasons Hotels’ new $18 million portal, rebuilt from the ground up last year. The immediacy and impact of the hotel/destination photography site-wide sells you on the brand starting from hello.

Sometimes the easiest way to improve something is by copying from the best. While the boutique brands I mentioned and Four Seasons cater exclusively to design-conscious and luxury customers, any hotel marketer with any hotel can take something away for their property by studying the most forward-thinking companies in hospitality.

I was at a meeting planner conference last year, and the VP of Americas for a major global hotel chain said, “You know, when it comes to trends in tourism, we in the large hotel industry are always the last to catch up.” Today, if you look at many branded hotel sites, they don’t look much different in overall architecture and navigation than they did five years ago. That’s dinosaur years in the digital realm.

Many others, however, are morphing slowly into a more modern visual experience, with varying degrees of success.

So what does your hotel site look like? Without undergoing major investment, the very least any web designer can do is pump up the visual size and volume on the home, amenity and room pages. There should be a big bold image or link somewhere shouting “PHOTOS” and “VIDEOS.” As an editor in the travel trade industry, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to search around to find photos. And that’s overwhelmingly where consumers want to go first. So help them get there.

But that’s only half the battle. When was the last time your hotel photos were updated? Within the last month? Or week? Because that’s how often the most robust hotel sites are updating their visuals. Not with expensive professional photography. There are a variety of ways to use social media and partner photos to create a dynamic web experience that compels potential customers to return again and again to your website.

In my next few posts, I’ll highlight some of those methods.

Four Seasons video unveiling new site

About Greg Oates and 200rooms.com

Greg Oates is a travel editor and publisher of 200rooms.com, profiling innovative small hotels and their role in local tourism development. Greg also works closely with hotel professionals to help them reach guests through content marketing strategies, visual storytelling and media relations.

Connect with Greg  -  Twitter  |  LinkedIn

‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ You’ve heard this cliché many, many times before. However, with the growth of visual communication in digital marketing; this cliché takes on a greater significance than ever before. This growth, along with hotel shopping becoming dispersed across more online channels make it crucial for hotel marketers to shift their content to focus on more visual forms of merchandising on all of the web sites consumers use to shop for travel.

Visual content creates a virtual hotel experience and connection with the consumer

Your visual content acts as a signpost to bridge the gap between your hotel online and the actual guest experience on-site. Research at 3M Corporation along with Zabisco show that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. Using attractive, engaging photos and rich media of your hotel and its surrounding area creates stronger, more impressionable connections with the travel shopper.

Once a shopper has been intrigued by your visual presentation, it is important to keep them engaged by offering more. For example,  The Broadmoor, 5 Star Colorado Springs Resort, does a great job with their visual story as reflected in the multi-media viewer that is displayed when a consumer  clicks on the “Video & More Photos” link on their Travelocity listing.

This visual story provides the travel shopper with “The Broadmoor experience” and further detail in an easy-to-navigate and interactive manner. The tabs like Accommodations, Dining, Spa, Meetings allow the user to further explore the hotel features that interest them. Each tab is full of relevant photos and videos. This proves to be very beneficial because the shopper is captivated longer and therefore makes a stronger connection to that hotel than they would by clicking through random images with no context found on a typical hotel listing.

Multiple forms of media make an even more compelling experience

As a marketer, you want to show all that your hotel has to offer along with the benefits of staying at your hotel. There are three common types of visual media that hotels often use to tell their stories:

Photo images are particularly useful during the initial stages of hotel research. Travel shoppers look for images to get an idea of what the hotel looks like, if they’d like to stay there, and to see if it generally meets their needs as a traveler (whether the trip be for leisure or business purposes). Images are useful to  communicate your hotel’s experience but, there’s more to the experience than what is within the walls of your hotel. It is effective to also display images of the destination and surrounding area along with the features and activities being offered there (i.e. spas, the beach, restaurants, shopping, attractions). This allows the traveler to plan their entire trip, while visualizing the great experience they’re hoping for.

Some hotels use virtual tours to allow potential guests the ability to get a more immersive experience and the full effect of staying at the hotel before they book. The role of virtual tours is to build confidence and visually excite the travel shopper so that they book with you over your competitor. It is ideal to showcase different room types, common areas as well as amenities to show the traveler how they align with their needs.

Videos have a great impact and resonate exceptionally well with people. This is where your hotel can really excite and inspire the travel shopper  with a visual story that differentiates your property from your competitors. According to Ooyala and Ipsos, viewers are 85% more likely to purchase a product after watching a product video. If the video shows the value of your hotel and the features guests love about it in an intriguing way, you’ll leave a lasting impression and stand out in the travel shopper’s mind when it comes time for them to book.

The best, most compelling experience for the online hotel shopper is one that is truly immersive and inclusive… this will often times mean the use of all media types  – photos, videos, virtual tours – along with short snippets or “snackable” pieces of text to add the necessary detail.

Amplify your visual story

As a hotel marketer, it is important to remember that travel shoppers are looking beyond your hotel’s own website. Quite often, these shoppers search online travel agencies, social media sites, review sites and destination sites as well. Because of this shopping behavior, it is imperative your visual story be available and well-presented across the web. The more carefully selected, impactful visuals you include, the more successful you will be at attracting more guests online.

How are you using visuals to tell your hotel’s story?

To learn how to craft effective hotel videos in order to attract more online travel shoppers, download this guide: How to Tell Your Hotel’s Story with Video

A great way to do this is by telling your hotel’s story though video. As you know, video is a powerful way to tell a story. If it weren’t powerful, film wouldn’t be the 11 billion dollar industry[i] it is today and YouTube wouldn’t have over 1 billion unique user visits each month.[ii]

We have been educating hoteliers on the benefits of displaying visuals on all online channels (including OTAs) for years. Expedia’s research confirms the value of having more visuals available online. In fact, they found that “Doubling a hotel’s online pictures can result in 4.5% take-up and $3.50 higher ADR.”

This isn’t the first time an OTA or major travel site has revealed findings like these.  TripAdvisor published a report last year that stated that properties with more than 20 photos get 150% more engagement[i].

However, getting maximum value from your hotel listings is not just about increasing the number of images you have available.  It involves using these images to tell a compelling story that shows the consumer how staying at your hotel will help make their trip a success.

Knowing that a well-thought out visual story on OTAs can increase engagement, bookings and ADR, why are some hoteliers shying away from OTAs?

It’s important to understand the travel shopping journey and that OTAs are not exclusively used for booking. Travel shoppers do their hotel research on a number of websites (including OTAs) before they’re even ready to book.  Therefore, the way your hotel is presented on these sites impacts whether or not you make the travel shopper’s shortlist.  If you don’t make their shortlist, they definitely won’t be visiting your hotel’s website, brand website or calling you to book directly. They won’t be booking your hotel at all. Not booking at all is worse than if booking through an OTA, isn’t it?

Maryam Wehe from Applied Predictive Technologies says it best in this article, “In a world where online travel agencies make comparison shopping easy for discerning travelers, hotels are pushed to forge new frontiers to set themselves apart from the pack.” Ramping up your visual storytelling efforts on OTAs is one way to do that.

Visual stories give the consumer a better perspective of what your hotel offers overall, thus adding to your value proposition, justifying your price point and reducing the need to discount your rooms.

As mentioned earlier, it’s not just about having photos, the order you place those photos in also matters.  They should be placed in an order that allows the viewer to flow through your visual story seamlessly, take them through a journey of what it’s like to stay at your hotel.

And don’t forget about videos. Adding a short video adds another dimension to your story, helps further highlight your hotel and move it up on the travel shopper’s list.

To learn more about the travel shopping journey and the important roles that OTAs and visual storytelling play, download the guide: From Inspiration to Great Vacation Understanding the Travel Shopping Journey.

[i] Consumer engagement is the resulting impact of a brand interacting with consumers through of a variety of marketing initiatives. The goal of consumer engagement is to create meaningful consumer impact and generate either a behavioral result (such as driving a sale or inquiry) or an attitudinal result (such as making an emotional impression or changing attitudes (fusemarketing).

In this video, Gonzalo sheds light on the travel distribution dilemma and “how to manage the various channels and managing the yield and return you have for your inventory.”  Watch now!

Mobile is a critical channel in today’s hotel marketing mix. 48% of people surveyed said that when sites don’t work well on their smartphones, it makes them feel like companies don’t care about their business (Get Elastic Moving Forward infographic 2013).

Why does this matter to hoteliers?  Because it applies to hotel shoppers as well, in fact, 57% of US business travelers and 38% of leisure travelers reported using mobile devices to access travel information in 2012 (Google and Ipsos Media).

On Wednesday (April 24^th, 2013) I hosted a webinar entitled How Mobile Devices are Changing the Way we Market to Today’s Travel Shopper and addressing how hoteliers can take advantage of the opportunities that this rapidly growing platform has created.

The webinar featured two industry experts:  Mobile authority, Jed Schneiderman, President of Tapped Networks shared plenty of research and insights surrounding:

- Where and how travelers are using smartphones and tablets
- How consumers are using multiple screens sequentially and concurrently
- Differences in how consumers use mobile apps and mobile browser websites

Jed said it best, “A bad mobile experience is a bad experience with your brand.”  Then Shannon Pratuch, Owner and CEO of Scene Marketing Group representing the Jupiter Hotel in Portland, shared specific examples of her strategy and implementation:

- Elements required for smartphone and tablet optimized hotel websites
- How hotels are successfully optimizing their stories for smartphones and tablets

Due to their mobile efforts, Jupiter Hotel mobile views have gone up 33.57% in one year.

Watch the full presentation on demand here:

We had a very active audience that asked some great questions throughout the presentation and on twitter.  Thank you to everyone who participated!  Here are some of the highlights from the Q&A:

Ricardo asked:  “Should our mobile strategy be quite different between tablet and phone? Logistically how can we implement these strategies?” 

Yes, your strategies for a smartphone should be different than a tablet because consumers are using these devices differently.  Consumers use a smartphone on the go. What I mean by “on the go” is that they use it during their downtime; e.g. waiting for a meeting to begin or in their daily commute. The tablet is much more like a desktop in its usage. We know this because approximately 80% of tablet use is coming off of a WI-FI connection (Mobile Insights for Hotel Marketers). People tend to use their tablets while at home, and largely for research because of the expanded screen size.

For further information, download this guide about how to implement smartphone and tablet optimized websites: Make a Move in Mobile Marketing: A Total Optimization Checklist.

Sabrina asked: “Is there any data or examples that cover Asia and the Middle East?”

Travelers using mobile is an international movement including Asia and Middle Eastern countries.  According to Prashanth Kumar, digital strategy director at Tonic International:  “The MENA region has always been of interest to mobile marketers. We’ve found that clients with a presence in more mature markets like the US, UK and South East Asia are well aware of the potential” (hotelmiddleeast.com), Furthermore, Herve Humler, President & COO, Ritz Carlton explains: “When you look at the statistics of the Middle East, you see that it’s the region that is trailing, although still increasing year-after-year” (hotelmiddleeast.com).  These emerging markets have a very large potential for hotels especially in the business travel sector. In order to stay ahead of the curve hotels should implement best practices for mobile optimization.

Karen asked: Can you show some examples of mobile sites that display best practices in terms of layout/design/functionality?

Karen, one great example of a mobile optimized site is the Georgian Terrace Hotel.  In terms of functionality, your smart phone optimized website should be easy to use.  Have big, easy- to- see tabs that highlight exactly what the mobile user is looking for, along with special offers that endear your guest to your property.  Check out the The Georgian Terrace’s “Millionaire Monday’s” promotion, a dining offer available only to mobile users.  To access The Georgian Terrace’s optimized website go to www.thegeorgianterrace.com from any smartphone or tablet to see the real experience.

Importantly, make sure your videos and images load quickly because speed is of the essence on these devices.   Case in point, the average iPhone user spends 2:31 minutes on a site compared to 4 minutes on a regular desktop (webperformacetoday.com).

To learn more on this hot topic, download our whitepaper:  Six critical Mobile Optimization Tactics Every Hotelier Should Know.