What Hotel Impossible Taught Me about SMS Marketing

Have you ever watched the Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible? It’s a show where the host, Anthony Melchiorri, tries to help save hotels that are failing. Much of the time, he finds that they’re not clean, poorly maintained or there’s ineffective management. But he also finds that many hotels spend way too much time and money on marketing in the wrong place: social media. Here’s how it usually plays out:
Melchiorri asks about marketing and where their time and effort is going.
The hotel owner answers “social media” – Facebook primarily.
He shakes his head in frustration and the owner will defend themselves saying they have “thousands” of followers.
That’s when he hits them with the big question:
“How many bookings did you get from Facebook last year?”
Most don’t know the answer, some will guess they a get few.
He goes on to make the point that social media has its place, but it isn’t where you make money.
Episode after episode I see it: Struggling hotels paying a ton of money for social media marketing – and getting next to nothing from it. For the hotel, and many other industries, social media is more about brand awareness, lead generation and, at some level, relationships.
But there’s a channel that lets you build relationships, loyalty and make money – and that’s SMS marketing.
The Trouble with Social Media
A recent OFCOM report showed 77% of UK SMEs use social media as their primary digital marketing tactic. After watching Melchiorri, I started to wonder if there is a better way to invest some of that marketing money?
To answer that we need to change his question just a little bit to: “How much money did you make from social media last year?”
Perhaps you can answer that for your business. If you’re getting a high return on investment (ROI) then social is certainly working for you – just be sure you’re measuring ROI and not engagement, reach, or “likes”. Those are important, but don’t translate easily into an assessment of ROI.
A recent study by the Direct Marketing Association found that only 48% of marketers felt they received any return on investment. Another third basically said they weren’t sure. It’s possible to measure how effective your social media strategy is, but it can be complicated, especially for an SME that may or may not have the resources.
SMS Marketing Benefits
Now, contrast that with SMS marketing.
Mobile marketing, including SMS, has consistently been growing. One study showed 77% of marketers claim to have good ROI with SMS. That’s up 147% over the year before, and certainly higher than the 48% for social media.
In that same study, 50% said mobile marketing (including SMS) was directly linked to their primary revenue. And that would make Melchiorri very happy. That’s because another thing he does is remind the hotel owners that their objective is to make money. Isn’t that true for any SME?
So, if you’re not seeing great ROI from social media (or don’t know if you are), and you want to grow your revenue, consider using SMS marketing. While nothing in life is guaranteed, SMS is a better bet for completing sales than social media.
Even if your social media is doing fabulous, you might also want to start experimenting with SMS. Just think what could happen if you turned those thousands of Facebook fans or Twitter followers into buyers on your SMS list. That sounds like a win-win situation Melchiorri would love.
To learn more download our free “Hotel Marketer’s Guide to SMS Marketing“.
Related Articles
How to Turn SMS Messages Into Better Reviews for Your Hotel
Hotel guests use review site ratings like TripAdvisor to make decisions about where they’ll stay. If your hotel doesn’t rate well, you’re in trouble. Find out how you can get more positive reviews when you use SMS messaging to communicate with guests.
5 Ways Guest Houses Can Benefit from SMS Marketing
Building an SMS Inbound Marketing Campaign for Your Hotel Business
SMS flies under many marketers radars when it comes to building an inbound marketing strategy. But if Buzzfeed's news app is to be believed, there are days when SMS generates the greatest percentage of shares on that channel, beating out Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and email. SMS share buttons are reported to have been used 4 times more than Twitter buttons. When you consider Twitter has 317 million active users, then SMS marketing has huge potential for a hotel business.
5 Ways the Travel Industry can Make Use of SMS Marketing
In order to appeal to new customers and interact with existing ones, businesses are always looking for new marketing methods. Whilst many companies are using traditional and online marketing techniques, these aren’t always effective. Email filtering, for example, means that many recipients may not even be aware that they’ve received contact from your company. As many email hosts provide in-built spam filters, it’s easy for email marketing content to be overlooked or ignored completely. SMS marketing, however, overcomes many of the obstacles associated with online and email marketing. Whilst potential customers may not see your company emails, SMS messages aren’t filtered in the same way. The delivery rate is, therefore, far higher for SMS messages in comparison to marketing emails.
Drive Up Attendance During Festival Season with SMS Messaging Part 2
Festival season is upon us! Experienced festival organisers predict that to be successful you need more than just music. You’ll need to offer an experience to your attendees. In the last blog I covered some of the reasons for that, and ideas on how to start building your SMS marketing list before your festival begins. In part 2, we’ll take a look at how to use SMS to create engaging experiences for attendees while they are at your festival, and even after they leave.
Hotels Use Text Messaging to Help Improve Customer Experiences
Hotels constantly strive to improve customer experiences, but sometimes things go awry. Many problems could be fixed if the customer complains while at the hotel rather than later when they return home. By having a 'textline' you can give guests the opportunity to share their views directly with management without a direct confrontation.
Don’t Believe The Myth of The “Cashless Shopper”
Sometimes bloggers or journalists get a bit carried away. They see some data or fact, and run off to declare there’s a trend you need to know about. The latest one I’ve seen is all about how to reach the generation of “cashless shoppers”. The argument goes that you need to use SMS messaging to reach customers because they are all shopping online – where you obviously can’t pay in cash.
Travel Agents Should use SMS Messaging During the Off Season
Now that the peak travel season is over, how can travel agents stay top of mind in their customers? If you look around, you’ll notice everyone seems to have a mobile. That means SMS is the perfect way to reach them and make sure you’re not forgotten.
Two Companies Using SMS in Surprising Ways
In many ways, SMS messaging is so commonplace people don’t think about it. They just do it. For example, using SMS for mobile marketing in retail is a fairly standard use case whether you’re a company or the consumer. But there are always exceptions – those who innovate when it seems there’s nothing new to be had. Here are two examples of companies from the US using SMS in ways no one else is – yet.
Drive Up Attendance During Festival Season with SMS Messaging – Part 1
People love live music. Ticket sales worldwide are expected to reach $20.5 Billion (~£14.2B). The UK alone has around 900 festivals each year. There just aren’t enough headliners to go around. What else can you do to draw people to your event (whether you have a headliner or not)? The answer: Make your event an experience rather than just a destination.