The ways of the World are very strange, we should always be ready for something unprecedented. Take for instance the Coronavirus crisis, the complete economy has come to a standstill. Most of the people are spending the bulk of their time at homes as part of social distancing to stop the spread of the virus.
In this article let us take a look at how the hoteliers can utilize this dark period in time to prepare their business post COVID-19
No matter what your role is, whether a general manager of a luxury hotel, director of sales and marketing for a conventional hotel or owner of a smaller boutique property, you can always take wise steps and utilize this time period to tackle the business once the curve is flattened.
Marketing is closely related to budgeting and if you have an option to maintain your marketing budget in this crucial time then you should definitely do so. It is a proven fact that companies that do not pause and cut more than 50% of their marketing budget during a crisis are bound to make more profits than companies that completely cut out their marketing budget. So don’t hesitate to spend on marketing as it is just an investment for better times.
Let us take a look at the different things that you can do during this crisis time which will benefit your business in the future
Keenly observe your marketing assets
The resource that you have in plenty at this testing period is time. Therefore you can utilize time to audit your marketing assets like photos, videos, blogs, whitepapers, e-books, infographics, etc and scrutinize which piece of content received most shares and backlinks and produced more traffic for your website. These contents you can utilize again in the future to bring more audience to your business.
Great time to record videos for social media channels
We all know that videos are great marketing tools. Now you have ample time to make videos and educate your customers and also to optimize your website, as videos are great at search engine optimization. You can also include the video in your blog post, take their screenshots, and use them as images in your different social media handles.
Know more about your employees and customers
Try to conduct interviews using video conferencing with your employees and customers. This can prove resourceful as the information that they share about your product, services, and culture can be used in your blog posts, social content, media releases, etc.
Webinars and FAQ
Webinars and FAQ are very effective marketing techniques as 91 percent of professionals agree to the fact that webinars are their favorite way to learn new things. Create an FAQ video and spread it around on your social media handles thereby educating people about your hotel, facilities, advantages, new products, and services. You can also add this FAQ section onto your website
Respond to online reviews
It might not be a possible task to respond to each and every review online. You can definitely respond to the latest reviews and also train a candidate to manage your online reviews. By doing this you can easily handle the negative reviews and also address customer service issues. If possible provide them with the tools to manage and monitor reviews.
Monitor your digital marketing activities
Digital marketing is much cheaper and effective than traditional marketing and now is the time to get deep into it. Plan email or social media campaigns to connect precisely with your customer base. Think outside the box to utilize your digital marketing skills to reach more customers
Update your new operational timings
Let customers know about your new timings with regard to operations. Share Google posts with the new timings. Always make sure that your contact information is spot on so that people can reach you easily.
Photoshoot and video of your brand
You must be putting this off for a long time now thinking that it might interrupt your business or customers. Now is the best time to do it as you will get a good deal from videographers and photographers and also you can help them out by offering them work in a crisis like this.
Rework on your website
Get ready for the next stage of business by working on your homestay website. You can utilize this time to update or fix the issues of your website or totally revamp the existing site to a new one.
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An effective outreach strategy
It is not always inappropriate to reach out to your customers in a time of crisis but make sure to avoid pandemic related promotions. Instead, you can reassure customers, connect with them and provide assistance in any way possible
You can build trust with your customers through online marketing and by hosting an online video space for customers to have discussions
It is not the time to ponder but to act
You can deep dive into your analytics data and reclaim the misses of the past. It might be a potential lead that didn’t pick you up. Use this time to upgrade your offline/online marketing trends.
Taking a proactive approach is the need of the hour rather than becoming pessimistic and waiting for things to turn out good on their own. This two-month crisis is sure to pass but what you do now will reflect in your future outcomes so now is the time to invest your time and ideas for the best outcomes post-pandemic
