Challenges confronting travel and hospitality marketers intensify with the ongoing economic softness, and marketing budgets are under pressure. ROI is top of mind as marketers try to stretch their dollars for greater impact. Organizations make the mistake of segregating inbound marketing efforts (usually online marketing such as search engine marketing or search engine optimization) from outbound marketing (better known as database marketing). They lose a significant amount of synergy and opportunity that comes with integration. Learn more about integrating direct and online marketing to derive insights that can better steer digital advertising and search marketing as well as gather information for effective, personalized direct marketing efforts. READ MORE

The industry is just starting to wake up after a long, cold winter! And the good news is that industry experts are predicting better results for the remainder of 2010 and for 2011 than previously forecasted. Now that business is slowly coming back, why wait to ensure that your property is ready to compete for market share? To ensure that your property is poised for success when business demand returns, now is the time to address some key areas that will distinguish your product and services from the competitors. This article will provide a few reminders to make sure that your property is poised for success when business is back. READ MORE

Are Rewards Clubs for kids a good idea? The answer is a resounding YES. But how elaborate does a “rewards club” have to be, and at what age do such programs really become effective. There are many examples in the hospitality industry of marketing programs designed for kids, the Camp Hyatt, Loews Loves Kids, and Omni Sensational Kids programs come to mind. Yet most of the marketing of these programs speaks to the parents not the kids. Creating a “rewards program” for kids is essential to attracting your share of the lucrative family travel business. READ MORE

Corporate or business travelers, though fewer in numbers are a very lucrative segment of the accommodation sector. It is estimated that 34 to 35% of the hotel revenue is generated by corporate travelers. The accommodation managers must be able to understand this properly and use necessary sales and marketing tactics to attract this segment to the maximum extent possible, to achieve good yield per room occupied. This article has identified five (5) top tactics to attract this segment. READ MORE

Collaboration. It's a word that's getting a lot of play lately. And when it comes to marketing, it hits the nail on the head in terms of how hospitality companies should be approaching their customer loyalty initiatives. Developing collaborative loyalty programs give hotels the opportunity to garner the depth and breadth of meaningful data about their guests that they could not mine on their own. Being armed with this more comprehensive view of consumer's likes, dislikes, spending habits, etc. helps hotel marketers better understand their guests, communicate with them more effectively, and ultimately market to them in a way that more efficiently drives the desired behavior. READ MORE