7 Powerful Tools for Hotel Marketing - Part I

― Vishen Lakhiani

Hotel marketing is like no other. It’s a jumble of different elements of marketing rolled into one. We can never really be an expert in one arena, we need to know and be all in terms of marketing. Good if you are in a hotel with a robust marketing team – but most marketers I know in the industry juggle various hats to deliver. From drafting concepts to allocating budgets, from graphic designs to email marketing, and from writing copies to managing a marketing event. Whatever the current economy is (especially in a recession), it is always good for marketing to curb their spending only on the essentials. Using these 7 powerful tools for hotel marketing can make you efficient, save time and help you reach your marketing goals.

1. For Graphic Design: Canva.com

If you don’t have an in-house graphic designer – Canva is your go-to graphic design helper. Canva is an online platform that allows you to create designs in a jiffy. Whether it is a social media post, a campaign artwork, a banner leaflet, or even as complicated as a few-page food menu – Canva can help you.

Features that would help you most:

• Upload your brand colors and brand fonts

• Create templates and just edit those for future use

• Access to thousands of copyright-free photos, icons, and videos to use

• Remove the image background

• Save in printable hires pdf if needed

• Can add people to a team to share and edit creatives to save time

When we introduced Canva in my previous workplace, it simply caught fire. It was so easy to use that our team would even use it to create presentations instead of Powerpoint. It also saved us marketing dollars in sending a specific image to the agency for resizing as it can easily be resized there.

How to start:

1. Sign up on Canva.com.

2. If you need a template - type your required template from the search box

3. If you want to create from scratch, click create a design

4. Then voila, design at your heart’s content

2. For Copywriting: Copy.ai

Not all marketers are great writers. Sometimes, we need the help of a copywriting agency to draft exciting copies. Furthermore, even if you are a great writer - writing needs a lot of time, space and quiet. These last three might be challenging in the hurly burly world of everyday life in hotel world. What you need is a tool that can support you on this. Copy.AI is a great copywriting assistant. A tool that can kickstart your copywriting needs that you can review its output and edit at your heart's content.

Features that would help you most:

• Add key information that you can re-use

• Different tones available such as friendly, business, luxury, and more.

• Several ready prompts whether for social media, website, blog, or general business copywriting requirement

• Several ready prompts based on intent – whether for a contest, holiday promotion, about your company, etc.

• A Chat box that can help you create random copies

How to Start:

1. Sign up at Copy.ai

2. Add some key information at the Infobase for reuse

3. Choose templates, tone preferences, intent and more

3. For Proofreading: Grammarly

One of the most tedious jobs in marketing is proofreading. Whether this is a press release that needs to be issued or the final design of a spa menu for printing – proofreading is a must. It needs detailed concentration and time – both are in short supply when working as a hotel marketer. Here comes Grammarly to the rescue.

Grammarly is exactly what it says it is. It proofreads one’s grammar. And the best part is – it can do in a fraction of the time that you would normally spend perusing that copy. Goodbye tedious, hello efficient.

Features that would help you most:

• Identifies the tone your copy is going for

• Corrects your copy by providing the right grammar and spelling

• Grades your content performance based on Word Count, Readibility, Vocabulary

How to Start:

1. Sign up at Grammarly.com

2. Click the New

3. Copy and paste your content

4. Then voila! Let Grammarly do its magic of proofreading

4. For Creating Forms: Jotform

Creating forms has always been helpful in marketing. Initially, we used Google Forms however it was quite challenging if the recipient refuses to log in to their google account. Hence, Jotform to the rescue. I’ve done thousands of forms on this. From event registrations to RSVPs, Questionnaires to Voting – you got it all here.

Features that would help you most:

• Ready to use templates for different types of purposes

• Easy drag and drop

• Collaborators can be added for team efficiency

• Real-time preview of your form on different types of devices

• Can easily be integrated into other applications whether CRM, payment, or more.

• Allows uploading of files

I once handled a roadshow for more than 100 hotels – Jotform basically managed my attendees. Just ensure to include the information you require.

How to Start:

1. Join Jotform

2. Go to the Menu for templates and choose form Templates

3. Choose your template and voila! Jotform will manage your data for you!

5. For Email Marketing: Mailchimp

For independent hotels, having your own email marketing tool is a must. A newsletter promoting the various promotions and events in the hotel must be part of your weekly routine. For hotels part of a group – this needs to be clarified with your marketing lead as normally there is a brand solution provided. If there is no such – the easiest and most efficient email marketing tool that you can use to push your newsletters and email campaigns is by using Mailchimp. Remember our goal is to accomplish more by doing less – hence these tools.

Features that would help you most:

• Built-in email templates that will allow you to create in minutes

• If needed, allow you to build landing pages for your campaign

• Have an AI option that helps you boost engagement

• Provides analytics for post-campaign report

• A creative assistant that can create and resize designs

How to Start:

1. Join Mailchimp

2. Click Create

3. Choose Regular Mail / Landing Page

4. Choose your template then start filling it up

6. For Project Management: Trello

Marketing is a series of projects. May that be a one-off rooms campaign or an F&B related press event – most of what we do are project related. To keep myself organized before, I used to do task lists. However, creating a subtask list of the original task list can make one go crazy. Hence, enter Trello.

What I like about Trello the most is I can label their cards and categorize it in colors. It makes things so simple. There are different options but I always use the Simple Project Board. Again, the point of using all these tools – is to make our marketing life a bit simpler. It includes four columns: Brainstorm, To Do, Doing, and Done. Each task can be written on cards that can be dragged and dropped in various columns. I am telling you, being able to drop a certain project to the “Done” Column gives you a major kick that can rival any tequila shot.

Features that would help you most:

• Different types of boards depending on your work style (whether you like it simple or detailed)

• Shareable with a team

• For those who love their visuals, can be categorized by colors

• Option to “Watch” on a specific card for updates or notifications

How to start:

1. Join Trello

2. Choose a template that works for you

3. Edit and let yourself be organized by Trello

7. For Videos: Magisto (integrated now with Vimeo)

Need a short promo video for your new upgraded spa room but don’t have the resources or the budget? Check out Magisto – which was recently purchased by Vimeo. It creates beautiful short videos. It has three parts – intro, body, and end. A premium subscription will allow you access to hundreds of assets in images and videos. I have used this several times and you can create a promo video in minutes.

Features that would help you most:

• Access to copyright-free images and videos

• Ability to upload your brand colors and logo

• Preset filters and templates

• Access thousands of background music

How to start:

1. Join Vimeo

2. Click New Video

3. Either create your own or choose templates

4. Edit away for a beautiful short promo video!

Hopefully these marketing tools can help you on your daily hotel marketing grind. Watch out for the second part of this "tools for hotel marketing" series!