Ms. Fields

Sales & Marketing

Hotel Advertising: How to Create Award Winning Ads (Yes, Even on a Budget)

By Brenda Fields, Founder, Fields & Company

We know the challenge for independent hotels is to evaluate the best use of its marketing budget, ensuring the greatest return on the investment. Therefore, for owners and operators to ensure that money is spent wisely and that any advertising ensures the greatest ROI, a few basic pointers are in order.

Define your position in the marketplace:

The very first step, whether a new build or a repositioning, is to decide what you want to be. Are you a modern, boutique hotel; a traditional or historic hotel; a convention hotel; or a small, budget hotel? Once you've decided what you want to be, look in the market place to determine what the standard service, amenities, and overall product are in your category. Then, decide where you want to be relative to your competition. In the budget category, do you want to offer the greatest value, such as offering complimentary breakfast, when your competitors do not? Do you want to be the rate leader in the market place or the best price? Try to come up with something that sets you apart from the pack.

And be true to your position. How many times do we see ads for budget hotels with limousines sitting outside or a couple in formal wear sipping champagne? That image was selected to create an upscale image. Buy why? A guest who wants a luxury experience is not going to stay in a budget hotel. So decide who you are, determine your market differentiation, and communicate that.

Defining your position and understating all the elements important to communicate will lead you to designing effective ads and determining the best placements.

Establish your target market(s):

The next step is to identify your customer. Segmenting your target customers will lead to a better understanding of their specific needs and how to effectively reach them. The weekend package guests have different needs than the mid-week business traveler. So, by having a thorough understanding of who the potential customers are and what they require, will help you in shaping your marketing message or advertisements to reach them. Many times, hoteliers try to be all things to all people, with the idea that they will get more "bang" for the marketing "buck". But in actuality, if the message is not specific to one audience and the placement of an ad is not conducive to reach that market, then valuable resources are wasted.

Lastly, not all segments respond to advertisements. By understanding who you are, who your customers are, and how to reach them, will assure you of spending your advertising dollars wisely. "Image" advertising is a strategy to position a property to create awareness in the marketplace and does not target a specific market. This type of advertising is costly and difficult to track as it does not typically have an immediate impact on business. Therefore, with limited funds, it may be wiser to choose a specific market to target to ensure the greatest ROI.

Commit to "Image Integrity":

How many times have you been contacted by a local community member selling ad space in an awards dinner booklet, a special event, or any one time event? So in order to be a good citizen, you buy the space and have your printer set up an ad with the appropriate message. You have done a good deed for the community or helped out a good cause. But, does the ad, even if it only says "Congratulations" maintain the same look, feel, and tone of all your other printed messages/advertisements or is it totally different? If your style is modern and contemporary, then keep that style in all your market communications whether it's a printed ad, web design or wedding menus. The font type immediately conveys an image as much as a full scale ad campaign. So it is important to use these image-makers to your advantage.

It is a subtle, but powerful way to create awareness in the market place, by committing to consistency. By maintaining consistency in the look, feel, and tone of the message and reinforcing one image, you are communicating credibility and creating greater awareness.

Hire an Advertising Agency?

The natural and most logical place to go to create effective ads is to an experienced advertising agency. But many agencies only work on a monthly retainer. The monthly fees combined with production costs can be too costly for an individual property. The high costs usually drive many operators or managers look to other venues to have the ads created, as it is more affordable. It is tempting to hire the local printer to design ads, but be aware of the downside.

It is important to keep in mind that advertising design and placement are skills and expertise not generally seen out of the advertising arena. Many times, a small creative shop will agree to project work vs. a monthly retainer.

One way to find an experienced and well-qualified agency to handle project or ad hoc work is through referrals or by tracking down an agency that designed an ad that caught your eye. Even if the agency doesn't work on this basis, they can refer to an agency that does.

This works well if you, the client, have a good idea of which markets to target and which media is the most effective for placement. This also allows you to place the ads directly at a discounted, net price compared to a gross price charged by an agency.

Also, keep in mind that the best, most effective ads come from collaboration. The agency needs all the critical information on positioning, market differentiation, and target markets. Many times, an agency is very skilled and qualified, but not that experienced with the nuances of hotels. Therefore, make sure the agency is very well indoctrinated to the industry and to your property. Then, let them come back to you with fresh ideas. Find the right balance between "over-directing" and a "hands off" approach.

Think about Barter:

Barter provides the opportunity to trade goods for services, with no cash outlay. There are barter companies that specialize in placing ads for hotels for a commitment of rooms at an agreed-upon ratio. Many aspects of this arrangement can be negotiated, so it can be important to ensure that rooms used for barter do not displace revenue rooms. A barter company has relationships with various media i.e. newspapers, magazines, and TV, so make sure that they can use the media that you need, before entering into agreements.

By understanding some key components of marketing and how to work with advertising and barter companies, will place owners and managers in a great position to ensure that their valuable marketing dollars are well spent. And who knows, you may even win an award or two!

Brenda Fields is a strategist and sales and marketing expert honed from a successful track record in the hospitality industry. Brenda is a member of the prestigious ISHC, recently served on the Americas Board of Directors for HSMAI, and is Immediate Past President of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International. Brenda was honored as one of "The Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing" by HSMAI as well as the "Leadership Development" award. She is an industry leader and spokesperson; a member of the Editorial Board of HotelExecutive.com; contributes regularly to international publications Hotel News Now; Hotels Online, Hotel Resource Weekly Network News, eHoteliers, and many others. For more information visit www.fieldsandcompany.net Ms. Fields can be contacted at 518-789-0117 or brenda@fieldsandcompany.net Extended Bio...

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