Reeling-in Regional Travelers Who are Reeling to Get Away
With restrictions slowly lifting, travelers are looking for easy ways to get a break from their "new normal". The focus now is staycations – where can locals go to take a break from everyday life? Industry experts are seeing that more people are driving to their destinations instead of flying. So how can you capitalize on this movement? You need to wave your arms up and let them know you’re here. Target your local drive market.
Vizergy can help you get local-drive-market heads in beds with our Top Trending Cities Report tool. It’s right at your fingertips in the Vizergy Marketing System (VMS). This report gives you an accurate reading of where your potential guests are searching from online. You’ll notice now that more people within your drive market are interested in staying at your hotel. So why not use this information to your advantage?
Ways to Target
Once you know where your potential guests are, you can accurately target them with customized advertising. Data-driven marketing uses existing data to produce tailored content that’s more relevant and interesting to your drive market. This means more reservations and retention.
Here are a few specific strategies you can use to start the process:
- Create personalized landing pages for those cities with specific directions to your property and fun places for your guests to stop on their way to your hotel.
-
Use geotargeting efforts through social media and other paid advertisements to make sure your ads are getting in front of potential guests in the area.
-
Promote specials and packages to locals to highlight your hotel offerings and entice them to visit.
Standing Out
Everyone is learning to navigate a saturated market when it comes to digital marketing. Thinking outside the box when developing your drive market strategies is more likely to result in success than to keep doing what you always have done. Remember, everything is different now.
One Hotel’s Creative Approach
Phoenix Park Hotel has taken an innovative approach in marketing to their local drive audiences. Drive DC is an initiative created to showcase just how much there is to do in and around the DC area. While mentioning the typical DC attractions, like the Washington Monument and Museum of Natural History, Phoenix Park Hotel is also shedding light on the beautiful parks and outdoor activities in the area. Showing that you can still enjoy all that DC has to offer while keeping a safe social distance. This encourages potential guests in the area to spend a night or two at Phoenix Park and experience DC in a new way.
The initiative is featured prominently on their website and is being promoted across social media and through email marketing efforts. A consistent message with clear action items helps drive relevant traffic and can result in more direct bookings. See how they’ve executed this initiative by visiting their website at www.phoenixparkhotel.com.
Getting the attention of your guests is the most important and perhaps the most challenging task. Why should they want to stay with you? Because you can offer them an individualized experience that your competitors cannot.
Your Vizergy team can help you tell this story and tell it to the right audience. Reach out to your Account Manager now and get some ideas to help you put heads back in beds.
About Vizergy® Digital Marketing
For more than 20 years, Vizergy has served the hospitality industry with leading marketing technologies, knowledgeable talent and exceptional service for clients worldwide. The company deploys complete travel life-cycle marketing solutions from conversion-optimized website design to award-winning digital marketing programs, reservation solutions, media planning and execution. Vizergy's platform is touted as the #1 digital marketing system – easy to use, turnkey and SMART, and continually enhanced with tools to help hotels compete and maximize revenue.
At Vizergy, hospitality marketing is not only our mission, it's our sole focus. For more information, please visit Vizergy.com.
Contact: Ryan Ridge | Vizergy | +1.904.389.1130 | Ryan.R@vizergy.com
