We can`t stress this enough: it`s important to research the needs and interests of your hotel guests.
When you know more about them, you`ll be able to deliver the tailor-made services they need. Plus, this will help you craft effective content and social media strategies to establish your hotel brand in a highly competitive sector.
Let`s review three simple analytics tools and tricks on how to use them for your hotel marketing:
1. Google Analytics
Start by setting up a Google Analytics account for your hotel website. Google explains how to do it here. Go to the dashboard and look into “Audience”, “Acquisition”, and “Behavior” reports, among others.
For instance, the audience report informs you of users` characteristics like:
- Age
- Gender
- Geolocation
- Interests
As far as acquisition is concerned, it can help you learn from which channels is your audience coming from. For example, they might have come to your website thanks to one of the following channels:
- Organic search (finding you through search engines like Google)
- Cost per click (paid advertising)
- Referral (referred from another website)
- Social media
- Other
The behavior report can help you learn:
- How people engaged on your website?
- Which pages did they view?
- What is the bounce rate (refers to the percentage of visitors to your site who navigate away after viewing only one page)?
You might be wondering: why are these metrics important? Because you can use them to make your content, campaigns, and strategies more effective. Let`s say most of your website`s users (and respectively hotel guests) are Norwegian. You might start producing content in Norwegian. Or consider the cultural specifics and interests of your audience when brainstorming new topics for your articles and campaigns.
For more insights into using Google Analytics, check out Google`s free beginner`s course.
2. Facebook Audience & Page Insights
To be able to deliver valuable messages on Facebook, you need to gain detailed customer insights first.
Let`s say you want to raise awareness for your hotel brand and attract more loyal customers. Page Insights gives you information about the interactions with your Page (i.e., likes, comments, and shares). Supplement it with Facebook Audience Insights – a tool that allows you to get anonymous information about your customers. Here`re some of the insights you can receive:
- Demographics – Age and gender, lifestyle, education, relationship status, household size, etc.
- Page likes – The pages people like in different categories like travel.
- Location and language – Where do people live and what languages do they speak.
- Facebook usage — How frequently are people in your target audience logging onto Facebook and what device(s) they are using when they log on.
Read more about it on Facebook Business.
Instagram Audience Insights
The Instagram Audience Insights tool helps you learn more about your followers and your content`s performace. More specifically, you can understand which stories work and which don`t. Here`re some tips of things you can check in the Insights tab on your Instagram profile:
- Activity – This section lets you view important Insights on your profile, including Interactions (such as profile visits and website clicks) and Discovery (how many people see your content and where they find it).
- Content – This section lets you view Insights on your Posts, Stories, and Promotions.
- Audience – This section tells you more about your followers and audience.
Over to you
Use the power of analytics to establish a strong brand both online and offline. Combine analytics results with interviews and surveys to define your buyer`s personas, needs, and specific interests.
That way you can offer your hotel guests more than a service. You can offer them a unique experience that`s specially made for them. And this will make your hotel unique too.
