In this deep dive, we talk to Daniel Stewart from influencer marketing agency Tailify to better understand this oft maligned marketing channel. He explains what an influencer is (and that they prefer to be called creators); why you would work with one (or several) to leverage this valuable marketing vertical; and how hotels can use the content influencers create for multiple organic and paid social media campaigns and measure the return on investment.

Welcome to 2023. Although economic uncertainty is swirling around us, the consensus is that this year will be a rewarding one for the hospitality industry. Direct bookings are rising and people are looking for an escape from a long winter of bad news. As a luxury hotelier, how you shape your digital strategy will define your performance in 2023. Digital is here to stay and will always be a crucial component for the luxury hotel industry. Listen to our quick update on the most important things you need to master in the first quarter of 2023 to be top of the shop for generating budgeted revenue and profit for the rest of the year.

Although picking the right agency to work with you on your book direct strategy is key, as we have mentioned in previous podcasts this works better as a partnership and that is certainly how we work with our clients. In this episode we talk about how we also partner with Google to keep increasing hotels’ online revenue. The worlds biggest search engine and advertising agency provides many tools which help hospitality businesses - some generic and some more specific. We talk about three in this podcast Google Analytics, Google hotel ads and brand PPC. Although we provide five star by every measure direct book strategies we can’t do it all our own. By partnering with you and appropriate 3rd parties such as Google we can boost our brilliant offering and turbocharge your hotel’s revenue and profit.

What is a brand? A logo or a name? Although those are indeed an integral part, it’s so much more. It is everything that touches or gets in front of your target audience. It is an absolute reflection of what your customers should expect from you. Getting your branding right and delivering on its promise will drive differentiation, advocacy & loyalty, salience, and trust. In turn these help to promote direct bookings. Lucidpress article https://info.marq.com/resources/report/brand-consistency Hospitality Net article https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4091173.html Edelman report https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2019-06/2019_edelman_trust_barometer_special_report_in_brands_we_trust.pdf

At Aró in order to be five star by every measure and maximise online revenue for our luxury hotel clients, we follow the science and collect as much data as possible in order to make evidence based decisions about any changes we make to a hotel's book direct strategy. No strategy can exist in isolation – it has to reflect an up to date narrative and the values of the target audience. A recent Google survey identified four trends which brands should tap into as consumer confidence returns. In this episode we discuss these trends and how they apply to luxury hotels. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwP5vRWNu-kPuCOrDmHFdIg

One of the key pillars of a revenue strategy is understanding your target markets. A great way to do this is to create different audience types for your ideal guests. Once you have identified your preferred audiences, you will find it easier to influence them in terms of moving them to direct booking, increasing your room rate and cross-selling/upselling. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us Hotels mentioned in the podcast: https://www.rockhotelgibraltar.com/ https://www.parkhousehotel.ie/ https://www.grantleyhall.co.uk/ https://www.chubcay.com/

The top 3 trends in online retail are #1 omnichannel strategies, #2 personalisation and #3 immediacy. A hotel Internet booking engine (IBE) is essentially a highly specialised version of a general ecommerce platform and these top three trends apply equally to hotel direct bookings as shopping for clothes. In this podcast I outline areas of synergy between our booking engine benefits and these top 3 trends Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us

At Aró Digital we are focused on our customers' needs, data driven and dedicated to planning strategies for book direct success. That is why our clients survived and thrived during lockdown and are now reaping the benefits of the upswing in tourist numbers. In this episode, you can learn how we do it; and understand what we can offer luxury, independent hotels looking for outstanding online performance. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us Google articles: https://lp.thinkwithgoogle.com/index.php/email/emailWebview?md_id=79709 https://lp.thinkwithgoogle.com/index.php/email/emailWebview?md_id=79351

Aró Digital's vision is to be the future of luxury by being a global leader & trusted disrupter for independent luxury hotels and resorts. This involves us taking a 360˚ degree view of a hotel's book direct performance. Over the next few podcasts we will look at the practical ways we help our clients and in this episode we look at you can manage the different booking channels to maximise revenue from direct bookings. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us

Aró Digital's vision is to be the future of luxury by being a global leader & trusted disrupter for independent luxury hotels and resorts. This involves us taking a 360˚ degree view of a hotel's book direct performance. Over the next few podcasts we will look at the practical ways we help our clients and in this episode we start with the hotel website. Contact us here: https://www.arodigitalstrategy.com/contact-us