Post covid-19 marketing in the hospitality

Despite Covid-19 pandemic, the tourism season is approaching so hospitality businesses need to start getting ready to open again in the next few months, to welcome tourists from all over the world. Now is the time for the hospitality industry to plan and set in motion their reopening marketing strategies.

We have put together a mini-guide that your hotel business can employ to enhance its digital marketing strategy following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The mini-guide of re-engaging your hotel’s prospect customers following Covid-19

Present your safety measures

With Covid-19 been still around your hotel has surely changed its routine to ensure staff and visitor’s safety. You should communicate these changes and safety measures to your customers.

Mention every important detail, such as using masks, limiting the number of guests in your facilities, cleaning the rooms multiple times, and anything you do to make their stay safe. That way you show them that you do put their safety first and you care about them and also you prepare them about what to expect when they finally visit your hotel.

It is really important to not include any promotional messages in this email. It should be as simple as possible, explaining to customers what they should expect from your hotel. Also giving just the safety facts will help your hotel and your email stand out in your visitor’s inboxes.

Inform visitors about changes to your services

After you tell your customers what measures you have taken to keep them safe, then you need to explain what’s different to your hotel and the changes you had to make due to Covid-19. Changes may concern in-house services (no buffet available, no swimming to the pool, no spa services, etc.), methods of payment or rules visitors themselves must comply by (i.e., maintaining a distance of 3 meters from anyone). Feel free to include some promotional content in this communication, but remember to keep it subtle.

Relate to your customers

Everyone’s lives have drastically changed during the coronavirus pandemic and that includes your hotel. That is something your customers and your hotel have in common and being transparent about it can bring you closer.
Creating a “we are all in this together” feeling can prove powerful. Using your communication content to connect in that way with your customers can make it stand out from being just another bulk Covid-19 marketing campaign. This communication will help you humanize your brand.

Manage budget wisely

As Covid-19 has had a big financial impact on hospitality, your hotel is most probably not the exception. You may indeed have lost revenue but think twice before you cut back on your marketing budget. Think of cost-effective ways -such as email marketing- that have a good performance and keep a lively communication with your customers. You can invest in a multichannel and cost-efficient marketing platform that can help your marketing plan grow with your hotel.

Use more than one channels

Using more than one marketing channel to boost the reopening of your hotel can benefit you and your business. For example, you can use SMS to support your email campaign and have direct communication with your customers. Also, it is a great idea to integrate chatbot technology in your communication, on your website, or messaging apps, to effectively and simultaneously handle all the routine questions that customers and prospects may have.

Get your hospitality business ready!

Even though we are experiencing a challenging period, that is why establishing and re-activating communication with your audience is now more important than ever. Keep in mind that there are cost-efficient, useful, and user-friendly tools out there to help you easily design, schedule, send and monitor your entire communication, such as WayMore and Routee. Those intelligent omnichannel communication tools can help you adjust your post-Covid-19 marketing strategy and get ready for the new tourism season.

Remember, lots of the above apply to other businesses in the hospitality industry too, such as booking websites, ride apps and services, F&B, etc. Stay tuned for more specific tips in our next blog articles! Until then you can also check out some great ideas that will help you foster customer engagement with email marketing.