Personalization is all around us. You can completely print your cat’s face on M&M’s and customize name-brand sneakers. Your smart speaker recognizes your voice, and your streaming services offer recommendations based on the genres and artists you love.  In this article, you’ll learn how to deepen your engagement, increase conversion rates, grow loyalty, and drive more sales and revenue with personalization.

The Need for Personalized Marketing

Personalized interactions with brands are becoming so common that most consumers now demand them. According to a recent Forrester survey commissioned by Adobe, about 73% of consumers and 87% of B2B customers expect personalized experiences, both before and after purchase. Further, three-quarters of consumers (76%) express frustration when this doesn’t happen.

The expectation of personalized brand experiences extends to travel.

Users researching their next hotel stay long for relevant, customized content. Family travelers are uninterested in your hotel’s romance packages, and couples don’t care about your kids’ club.

Virtually every major hospitality brand is investing in personalized marketing. However, crafting unique customer experiences across their entire journey can be an intricate task for hotel teams to master. Personalization in hotel marketing asks a lot from your data, content, and tech stack. The payoff, however, is an opportunity to stand out in today’s crowded marketplace.

By understanding and catering to your customer’s unique needs and preferences, hotel teams can create a more personalized and engaging experience that leads to increased bookings and customer loyalty.

What is Personalization in Marketing?

Personalization in marketing is tailoring marketing messages and communications to individual customers or groups of customers based on their interests, preferences, behavior, and/or demographics. Personalization can take many forms, including personalized emails, product recommendations, content, promotions, and ads delivered across various channels and touchpoints.

Marketing personalization is generally achieved through data and analytics, personalization software, and location-based marketing techniques. This type of personalization is increasingly important as customers expect a more customized and tailored experience from the brands they interact with.

Ultimately, personalized marketing aims to help brands deepen engagement, increase conversion rates, grow loyalty, and drive sales and revenue.

Why Is Personalization Important for Marketing Hotels?

Personalization in hotel marketing is essential because it’s a key component in helping your hotel differentiate itself in a crowded marketplace by creating a more personalized and memorable brand experience. In turn, by understanding and catering to travelers’ unique needs and preferences, they feel valued and appreciated.

Personalization has increased guest loyalty and driven repeat business, as guests are more likely to return to a hotel that has provided them with a personalized experience.

Personalized marketing can also help enhance your hotel’s reputation by showcasing your unique offerings and exceptional guest experiences. This can help attract new customers and increase positive reviews.

Additionally, by using data and analytics, hotels can better understand their guests, allowing them to create targeted marketing campaigns that will be more likely to drive bookings. Hotel teams that personalize their digital marketing consistently enjoy overperformance in KPIs, including a dramatic increase in conversion rates.

10 Ways to Personalize Your Hotel’s Digital Brand Experience

Below are ten tips for personalizing your hotel’s digital brand experience.

  1. Use personalization software to deliver custom website content and propose relevant offers based on a user’s browsing and booking history.
  2. Integrate a chatbot or virtual assistant that can answer guests’ questions and provide personalized recommendations in real-time.
  3. Offer personalized welcome messages and greetings to guests who have previously stayed at the hotel.
  4. Allow guests to customize their stay by offering multiple room options, amenities, and services.
  5. Provide personalized recommendations for things to do and see in the area based on a guest’s interests and preferences.
  6. Use targeted banners and pop-ups to offer special deals and discounts to guests visiting for specific occasions, such as honeymoons or anniversaries.
  7. Allow guests to save their preferences and preferences in their accounts so they can easily access them on their next visit.
  8. Use data and analytics to segment guests and create targeted campaigns that will appeal to specific segments of your guest base.
  9. Offer personalized perks and rewards to guests, such as upgrades and complimentary amenities.
  10. Allow guests to share their travel plans and preferences with the hotel team so that they can further personalize that guest’s stay.

Do I Need to Hire Someone to Personalize My Hotel’s Digital Touchpoints?

Most hotel teams seek outside consultation to ensure their personalized marketing strategy is sound, comprehensive and utilizes the right data to maximize their return on investment.

Hiring a digital marketing agency such as Screen Pilot is the most efficient way to personalize your hotel’s digital touchpoints. They can help analyze the data on your guests’ preferences and behaviors and use this information to create a personalized website experience, guide content management, and orchestrate targeted marketing campaigns and personalized offers.

Additionally, such marketing agencies, especially those specializing in hospitality, can assist you in implementing personalization software and integrating it with your website, and fine-tuning to ensure it’s all functioning optimally. They can also assist in creating a consistent, personalized experience across all your digital touchpoints beyond your primary website, including vanity sites, social media channels, email marketing, and on-site experiences.

Personalization, done right, asks a lot from your data, hotel teams, and tools. The benefits, however, are well worth the effort. If you can print your cat’s face on M&M’s, your hotel can harness personalization’s power.

Free Hotel Case Study: How Marketing Personalization Motivates Travelers and Drives Bookings for Hotels

In this compact case study, you’ll find data showing the importance of marketing personalization to the average traveler. Download the case study to learn how any hotel with a digital footprint can use marketing personalization to increase conversions.

Click here to download the case study “How Marketing Personalization Motivates Travelers and Drives Bookings for Hotels”.

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Revfine.com is a knowledge platform for the hospitality & travel industry. Professionals use our insights, strategies and actionable tips to get inspired, optimise revenue, innovate processes and improve customer experience. You can find all hotel & hospitality tips in the categories Revenue Management, Marketing & Distribution, Hotel Operations, Staffing & Career, Technology and Software.

This article is written by our Expert Partner Screen Pilot

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