Unit 31: Hospitality Digital Marketing Assignment Sample

Introduction: Hospitality Digital Marketing Assignment Sample

In the era of advanced digitalization, the concept of digital marketing has emerged which deals with the promotion of brands or products at online platforms (Kumar, 2021). The demand for digital marketing within hospitality sector has rapidly increasing with the use of social media marketing (SMM) techniques and content marketing. Digital marketing works with the search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and sites of social networking, which enhances the brand visibility and competitiveness. The primary aim of the report is to analyse the digital marketing role within the sector. This report includes the creation of integrated and comprehensive marketing plan for the Crown group of hotels. Furthermore, the digital landscape within the hospitality sector is analysed with an aim to promote brand awareness and engagement of customers.

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MAIN BODY

1. Key drivers of digital marketing used within hospitality industry

Hospitality digital environment refers to the inclusion of advanced technology within the organization to manage the operations and customers in effective manner (Visser et.al 2021). It helps the hotel to maintain the bookings, customer base and inventory to increase the profitability and experience of customers. The digital landscape enables the hospitality sector to equip with the emerging trends of the digitalization within the functions of marketing. The integration of the advanced technologies improves the sector to navigate with the dynamic landscape of digital marketing. This results in improving brand image, enhances the customer’s base and increase the website traffic. Moreover, the digital marketing within the hospitality raises the awareness of the brand and leads to better positioning of the organization.

Crown group of hotels operates its business in London, engages in delivering finest amenities and services in the hospitality (Crown Group of Hotels, 2024). With the leverage of advanced technologies in marketing, crown group of hotels can increase its visibility on the digital platforms and increase its brand awareness. The online channels of search engines, social media and platforms for content generation can leads to reach at large audience which will amplify the visibility and reputation of brand (Aydin, 2020). Crown group of hotels could be consistent towards the maintenance of online presence which will increase the profitability and competitiveness of the brand.

There are multiple drivers of the digital marketing which are comprises as the content marketing, social media marketing (SMM), Email marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). Social media marketing (SMM) is emerged as one of the most effective driver of the digital marketing which uses the platforms of social media and websites for the marketing and promotion of the brand (Deb et al, 2024). The SMM technique of the digital marketing provides the opportunity to engage with the user generated content by sharing the videos and images of the hotel by guests. This results in increasing the brand awareness and promotion, results in attracting diverse range of customers. Crown group of hotels can implement the SMM technique in its digital marketing to attract and engage high number of customers which will enhance brand competitiveness (Khalayleh and Al-Hawary, 2022). Moreover, the SMM technique can be used to enhance the customers engagement as it facilities the personalized interaction with customers, which could improve the understanding of their expectations, needs and preferences.

Furthermore, the digital marketing technique of SMM enables the hospitality sector to engage its customers through the increasing use of websites and digital platforms (Alrawadieh et al, 2021). This results in the personalized interaction with the customers, which leads to improve their trust and loyalties towards the organization.

On the other hand, SEO is the combination of methods and tactics of the marketing which tends to improve the visibility of the brand on the digital platforms. It involves the website optimization which can be used by the hospitality sector to attract and maximize the target audience (Kerdpitak, 2022). The SEO strategy of digital marketing enables the brand to tailor its online presence in the digital world to attract the diverse range of customers. This will result in increasing the high quality traffic towards the brand which enhances the engagement of customers.

The digital driver of SEO enables the high visibility of the brand on the digital platforms results in promotion of efficiency and profitability of the hotel. Increase visibility will result in higher bookings and facilitates personalized interaction between the customers and brand, which promotes customer engagement (Mishra, 2020). The SEO technique of digital marketing is considered a cost effective tool as compare to the other marketing strategies. Crown group of hotel could implement the SEO technique in its digital marketing campaign in order to improve its search ranking which will result in increasing the competitive advantage of brand.

Digital marketing also facilitates the content marketing with the creation of high quality content, which is creative and relevant to attract the target audience. Content marketing results in establishment of powerful brand identity, which leads to improve the competitive advantage of the hotel (Kushwaha et al, 2020). Incorporation of the visual content such as videos, info graphics and images makes the engaging content for the target audience which tends to drive interest and positively influence them. The website of the brand required to create the high quality, valuable and reliable content which includes the blog posts.

It not only improves the search ranking, it also improves the customer’s engagement. Content marketing is an effective tool which increases the credibility of the brand with the publication of well-researched and informative content (Shankar et al, 2022). Crown group of hotel can implement the strategy of content marketing in its digital marketing plan by posting high quality user-generated content. Apart from that, the brand could also adopt the digital marketing strategy of storytelling, which will result in increasing customer engagement.

2. Digital marketing opportunities

In today’s rapid paced environment of digitalisation, Digital marketing provides numerous opportunities for the hospitality industry which includes the increase in the power of online consumers. It also assists in the formulation of effective strategies for increasing the engagement of customers towards the organization (Anser et al, 2020). Digital marketing influences the behaviour of the consumers by providing relevant information excess, personalised experience and reviews which results in significant rise in the power of consumers. It provides the power to differentiate among the services and amenities provided by various hotels and have the right to pick the best one.

Furthermore, the digital marketing shapes the preferences, attitudes, purchase decisions and expectations of the consumers which enhance their power in terms of affecting the efficiency and profitability of the hospitality sector. A survey report founds that the digital marketing has an estimated spend of $271.2 billion in the year 2023 with an aim to enhance the efficiency of digital marketing channels to engage and reach customers (IIDM, 2024). It encompasses the interaction of the customers with the online content which enables them to formulate the strategic decisions related to purchase. In addition, it also engages the consumers with brand by facilitating the personalized interaction which is crucial for the maintaining the competitiveness within the hospitality sector. Crown group of hotel can leverage the digital marketing to grab the opportunity to enhance the power of consumers by making personalized recommendations and through the posting of attractive content on the digital platforms.

In the advanced digitalised era, the concept of digital marketing offers the hospitality sector to positively influence the insights of the consumers through targeted ads, personalized recommendations and interactive content. This result in promoting of consumers towards the formulation of strategic decisions and choices, helped the brand to increase the consumer engagement (Aydin, 2020). The diverse platforms of the social media and online channels could be used by the Crown group of hotel in its digital marketing strategy as it reaches the wide number of customer in short time. It enables the organisation to interact with the customers in real-time which offers them to gain personalised experience and high satisfaction. This will result in positive influence on the consumer’s insights which will help the brand to enhance the brand awareness, competitiveness and customer engagement.

Moreover, digital marketing offers the vital opportunity to develop effective strategies for the digital marketing for the organisation within hospitality sector. It provides the opportunity to formulate strategies related to the increasing the online ratings and reviews by encouraging the consumers to provide feedback (Kumar, 2021). To achieve this, the hospitality organization engages in delivering best amenities and services to the consumers to enhance their satisfaction and experience which positively influence them to provide high ratings and feedback/reviews on the official site of the brand. Apart from that, it also provides the opportunity to address the negative reviews and feedback in prompt manner with the formulation of strategies in regard to provide best experience to the consumers.

The survey report by the hospitality technology revealed that estimated 53% consumers or guests uses the digital platforms to discover accommodation hotels and destinations. Furthermore, there is a growing trend of online booking which has been increased by estimated 87% which results in increasing the revenue turnover of the hospitality sector (Goswami, 2024).

In the realm of hospitality, the emerging trend of digital marketing facilitates the sector to formulate strategies with an aim to attract new customers and to increase the online bookings. It assist the hospitality organisation to formulate the strategy related to targeted marketing with the utilisation of advanced data analytic to analyse the preferences, demographics, needs and behaviour of the consumers (Visser et al, 2021). It targets the specific segment of the consumers in more precise manner through the organising of online quiz, games, rewards and by offering attractive promotional discounts and coupons. Crown group of hotel can implement the digital marketing strategies to gain the advantage related to enhance the consumer’s power, for the formulation of effective strategies and to positively influence the insights of the consumers.

3. Challenges and impacts of digital marketing on accommodation sector

Digital marketing is considered as an integral part of marketing strategies used by the brands to increase their online presence and brand image. It provides the advantages related to the better targeting of consumers, cost-effectiveness and high customer’s engagement (Aydin, 2020). However, it is associated with the multiple challenges related to the negative publicity on the digital platforms and failure in meeting expectations of consumers.

In the advanced digital world, the hospitality industry faces the challenge related to the negative publicity which has an adverse impact on the reputation and image of the organisation. The negative review or publicity can overshadow the brand image and positive feedback. Furthermore, it undo the whole hard work of the organizational staff which has an negative impact on the efficiency and profitability of the hospitality sector (Deb et.al 2024). The negative publicity leads to reduce the online web traffic, hampers the reputation of the brand and decrees the domestic and international tourism. The loyalties and trust of the consumers towards the hospitality organisation has been decreased due to negative publicity which has an adverse impact on consumer engagement, profitability and efficiency of the sector.

In reference to the accommodation sector within hospitality, failure in meeting the expectations of guest emerges as vital challenges which have a negative impact on the brad image. However, with the increasing use of the tools and strategies of digital marketing, the accommodation sector can effectively mitigate this challenge with the use of ad based technique and attractive user generated content on social media and other digital platforms (Khalayleh and Al-Hawary, 2022). Digital marketing has a positive impact on the accommodation sector in respect to mitigate the challenge as it facilities the customer’s data to the accommodation sector. This will help the sector to gain useful insights about the preferences and expectations of the digital age consumers. Furthermore, it also assists the sector in effective meeting the needs of consumers which has a positive impact on the brand reputation and further increases the competitive edge.

In the rapid paced world of digital technologies, micro moments offer the quick solutions and immediate answers to the queries and questions of the consumers. These are described as the vital short term moments, with an intention to meet the needs of the consumers to enhance the satisfaction and positive experience of the consumers (Alrawadieh et.al 2021). These micro moments are considered as effective in the digital landscape which tends to offer the personalised interaction with the consumers with the hospitality brand, which leads to positive influence them to make decisions. However, the accommodation sector faces the technical error in the use of micro-moments which emerges as challenges and has a negative impact on trust and satisfaction of the consumers. Due to the technical issues, brand’s micro moments are unable to solve the queries and fail to provide the answer to the consumer’s questions (Kerdpitak, 2022). This leads to put a negative impact on the reputation and profitability of the accommodation sector as it negative shapes the consumer’s decision to use the brand’s accommodation facility.

Digital marketing facilitates the micro-moments function which aims to assist the sector to positive shape the purchase decisions of the consumers in context to use the amenities of accommodation.

It streamlines the decisions of the consumers, further leads to increase the engagement of the target consumers. Digital marketing offers the vital opportunities to the accommodation sector through which the accommodation sector can mitigate the challenges related to the failure in meeting the needs and expectations of guests and negative publicity (Mishra, 2020). This leads to positive impact on the engagement of customers and reduces their retention which increases the revenue and competitiveness of the accommodation sector. For example: Crown group of hotel can use the online avenues which include Hotels.com, Expedia, Booking.com and Trip Advisor to capture and promote its incremental revenues with the use of digital platforms in its marketing strategy.

4. Digital marketing communication’s role and types of digital hardware and tools

In the advanced digitalized world, there is a crucial role of communication within the context of digital marketing, leads to identify the target audience, helps in the creation of attractive content and for the effective advertisement of brand (Kushwaha et al, 2020). As per the relation with 7Ps of digital marketing, Crown Group of hotel can effectively communicate with the help of digital marketing tools which leads to better reach to the customers at global and domestic level. The first P of the 7Ps of the digital marketing mix is Product, which includes the services and products offered by the sector for meeting the needs and expectations of the customers (Shankar et.al 2022). The digital marketing provides the information about the services and products of the hospitality brand on the digital platforms.

The second P is defined as price, defines the monetary value of the services related to hospitality. The third P of 7Ps is place, refers to the physical location of the brand. The digital marketing tools provide the directions with the use of advanced location and map technologies which provide the smooth experience and convenience to the customers (Anser et.al 2020). The fourth P is promotion, includes the use of strategies and tools for the advertisement and marketing of the organization to gain high competitiveness and profitability along with increase in brand image. It includes the SEO, display ads on digital platforms, use of social media marketing techniques and digital mouths in the form of influencers, forums, and business listings.

In the digital marketing mix, fifth P is people, which represents the services and products, includes employees, service teams, customers, etc (Aydin, 2020). Sixth P is termed as Process, is explained as core operations and tasks used to offer effective services and products to the customers. Communication through digital marketing mix enables the brand to address the feedbacks and opinions of the customers to maintain their satisfaction and trust towards the brand. Last seventh P is associated with the Physical evidence which includes the digital footprint of the brand such as website, email and social media platforms.

The 7Ps of the digital marketing mix are considered as the building blocks in the planning and strategic implementation of the digital marketing campaign (Kumar, 2021). It also improves the inter-personal connection between the hospitality brand and customers through the digital marketing communication which increases the brand image and competitiveness. There is numerous digital hardware and tools which are identifies as email marketing, SEO, SMM and official lead pages. The digital hardware tools facilitate an increased support to the hospitality marketing which results in the significant growth in e-commerce and online bookings (Visser et.al 2021). The digital tool of SMM provides the support to the hospitality sector to enhance the brand traffic and customer reach by offering digital platforms of Facebook, Instagram, twitter and YouTube which results in increased engagement of consumers towards sector.

Another digital hardware is SEO, which support the hospitality organization by facilitating the appropriate information and personalized recommendations, leads to positively influence the consumer behavior. These digital tools and hardware provides the advantage of increase in E-commerce and online booking by offering recommendation and suggestions to the customers on the basis of ratings and reviews (Deb et.al 2024). The creation of engaging content on digital hardware and tools facilitates the restaurants and hotels to connect with the global customers facilitate an increase in e-commerce. There is vital increase in the brand value and reputation of the hospitality organizations with the adoption of digital tools which enables effective digital marketing and facilitates growth in the online bookings.

CONCLUSION

From the above report, it has been concluded that digital marketing plays a remarkable role in the promotion of awareness, reputation and brand image of the hospitality sector. It had a positive impact on the profitability and revenue turnover of the brand which leads to promote competitiveness. This report analyses the integrated digital marketing plan for the Crown group of Hotel with a detailed analyse of the digital landscape of the hospitality sector. Content marketing, social media marketing and SEO emerge as the key drivers. These digital strategies and tools provide the significant opportunity related to the increase in power of consumers, in the formulation of effective strategies and to gain valuable insights about the target customers. However, there are certain challenges related to the negative publicity and failure in meeting the demands of the consumers was concluded in this report.

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

• Alrawadieh, Z., Alrawadieh, Z. and Cetin, G., (2021). Digital transformation and revenue management: Evidence from the hotel industry. Tourism Economics, 27(2), pp.328-345.
• Anser, M.K., Yousaf, Z., Usman, M. and Yousaf, S., (2020). Towards strategic business performance of the hospitality sector: Nexus of ICT, E-marketing and organizational readiness. Sustainability, 12(4), p.1346.
• Aydin, G., (2020). Social media engagement and organic post effectiveness: A roadmap for increasing the effectiveness of social media use in hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(1), pp.1-21.
• Deb, S.K., Nafi, S.M. and Valeri, M., (2024). Promoting tourism business through digital marketing in the new normal era: a sustainable approach. European Journal of Innovation Management, 27(3), pp.775-799.
• Kerdpitak, C., (2022). The effects of innovative management, digital marketing, service quality and supply chain management on performance in cultural tourism business. Uncertain Supply Chain Management, 10(3), pp.771-778.
• Khalayleh, M. and Al-Hawary, S., (2022). The impact of digital content of marketing mix on marketing performance: An experimental study at five-star hotels in Jordan. International Journal of Data and Network Science, 6(4), pp.1023-1032.
• Kumar, P., (2021). Digital marketing in hospitality and tourism. University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing, 17(9781732127593), p.3.
• Kushwaha, B.P., Singh, R.K., Varghese, N. and Singh, V.N., (2020). Integrating social media and digital media as new elements of integrated marketing communication for creating brand equity. Journal of Content, Community & Communication, 11(6), pp.52-64.
• Mishra, C.K., (2020). Digital marketing: Scope opportunities and challenges. Promotion and marketing communications, 115.
• Shankar, V., Grewal, D., Sunder, S., Fossen, B., Peters, K. and Agarwal, A., (2022). Digital marketing communication in global marketplaces: A review of extant research, future directions, and potential approaches. International Journal of research in Marketing, 39(2), pp.541-565.
• Visser, M., Sikkenga, B. and Berry, M., (2021). Digital marketing fundamentals: From strategy to ROI. Taylor & Francis.

Online

• Crown Group of Hotels, 2024). About Us. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.crowngroupofhotels.com/>. [Accessed on: 3^rd August, 2024].
• Goswami, M., (2024). The Essential Role of Digital Marketing in Hospitality: Strategies and Impact for Success in 2024. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/essential-role-digital-marketing-hospitality-impact-success-goswami-8bkfc>. [Accessed on: 3^rd August, 2024].
• IIDM, (2024). Stats and Trends: The Booming Landscape of Digital Marketing in 2023. [Online]. Available through: <https://medium.com/@support_93697/stats-and-trends-the-booming-landscape-of-digital-marketing-in-2023-47e36ff65c6f#:~:text=Digital%20advertising%20spend%20hit%20a,SEO%20and%20paid%20search%20campaigns>. [Accessed on: 3^rd August, 2024].

Author Bio

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